Ranked from (relatively) good to bad. Not going to list Push attacks unless they're of the exemplary kind. If you want to go into detail then feel free to have a conversation about it, because even this list, rough drafted as it was, doesn't take into account nearly as much as it can with Vermintide 2's multiple bad design decisions.

Victor Saltzpyre posted:
Rapier
The only weapon outside of Kerillian's arsenal that comes close to being an elf weapon. Probably Saltzpyre's best weapon for WHC and BH. Haven't played Zealot in detail, but the best Zealots I've seen always rock the Flail. WHC has a headshot kill passive. BH just pokes enemies and gets his infinite ammo crit hits back. WHC just supports with the mobility and strength of this weapon on headshots. Good combo, can call up whatever attack you want. It's fast and lets you stay mobile, all there is to it. Maybe the pistol will get unnerfed someday. The footnotes aside, you have a weapon that doesn't get stuck and lets him dodge well and engage decent sized amounts of enemies with really fast attacks. It has low damage that falters on Legend, particularly against Chaos, which is something to consider, and you end up wanting to poke heads more (which puts BH above the WHC) so you lose some autonomy at the highest difficulty. But it's an amazing Champ and lower weapon, and the charge attack does more damage the longer you charge it.

Flail
Combo that needs to be adapted to but you get a weapon that ignores shields which is a big deal (and that's kind of sad), good stagger, crowd control, plays into the Zealot active. There are a lot of weapons that fit better on some classes than others and this is just a simple case of that. Zealot makes it work everywhere, and maybe the others can, but like I said, there are weapons that certain classes 'prefer' over others. Though, you do need a higher power level to make this one work, I've heard on the grapevine.

Falchion
All around decent weapon with AP on every swing (got nerfed on light swings IIRC), letting you stumble Stormvermin. Bit slow, needs attack speed, but if you're not feeling the Rapier this is the other choice for WHC and BH. It's middle of the road as far as Saltz' weapons go, mixing a lot of the others into its package.

1-handed Axe
An 'aggressively ok' weapon that only cleaves 2 slave/fanatic enemies and only hits 1 of everything else, making up for it by doing a lot of damage. Requires stacking a lot of attack speed and praying for crits to get the boon of Swift Slaying so you can contribute even better. It's pretty good at dealing with armor, since like the 1-handed maces, has only two charge attacks and they're the big chops that matter. But with the sheer size of Legend hordes, it really starts to falter. Same as Bardin's 1-handed Axe

2-handed Sword
In light of Robin's neanderthal comments about how you can't swing a 2-handed weapon further than a 1-handed weapon, this is Saltzpyre's (and almost Kruber's) worst melee weapon. It has lower range than everything else because someone at Fatshark is an out of shape nerd with T-Rex arms they can't extend for a swing, is garbage against Armor (which kills it for Legend) and even for being specialized in horde sweeping, you have the other 3 options.  Same as Kruber's 2-handed sword. Weapons shared between heroes are the exact same.

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Recurve Crossbow
Saltzpyre's best overall ranged weapon, especially on the BH. A fuckin' amazing horde clearer when they column up, a special & elite sniper, this weapon is just insane. Kills 5 rats in 1 shot, hits 3 marauders in 1 shot. Kinda crap against bosses but that's alright. BH players dominate with this thing, and will get every single elite & special kill thanks to the infinite ammo crits. Usable on everyone with good marks. Reload is ultra fast too, even better on BH. One of the few things in the game excels in spite of Fatshark's inane balance decisions.

Volley Crossbow
Saltzpyre's boss killer. Got nerfed though, doesn't do nearly as much as it could, and it penetrates far less than the Recurve, hitting only 2 chaff mobs (fantatic/slave) which is ridiculous. The alt fire is to actually be helpful when killing bosses, though. Best on Bounty Hunter due to reload speed and infinite ammo perks, but the Zealot can get extra power through this too. Up to your playstyle.

Brace of Pistols
There was a Vermintide Reddit campaign to get the Brace of Pistols neutered and nerfed to the planet's core during the CBT of this game. People were genuinely posting stupid bullshit about how Saltz can't carry that many pistols and that being more effective than they actually are now was unfair. They're a pretty lame weapon. Barely any penetration (2 rats, that's it), and the super low ammo capacity (mixed with the ranged classes getting more, ranged attacks critting less than melee) make it a weapon that, ostensibly, is about killing Armor in a panic (only SV, not CWs FYI), getting specials, etc. Too bad they also added ranged damage falloff. Only good when you get an ammo box near a boss, otherwise it's trash compared to the other options. Don't mistake what I said, COMPARED TO OTHER WEAPONS, it is not outright bad, but it's a weaker option and not good outside of BH, and he is WAY better off with others.

Repeater Pistol
As much a hipster option as it was in V1, it's a really crappy weapon. Meant to be some point-and-pepper """sniper""" weapon, or some blaster for bosses and stormvermin. Except it fails at those. Does 'ok' against Armor, and you'll have to use all your ammo cap up to do meaningful damage to bosses. Volleybow outdoes the Repeater in that regard. Definitely a trash option for WHC and Zealot, and bounty hunter is using everything else far better. At least the recoil isn't a problem. Spread still is.

Saltzpyre's weapons, generally, such as the Rapier, Flail, and maybe Falchion, let him stay mobile and can get him out of a corner. Half his ranged arsenal is subpar compared to the other half but the good ones do real damage and keep things moving. Compared to the elf, who is the best designed, he is closest to her because his feet don't just stop working because he swings once, but he has problems that could easily be ironed out but probably won't due to this nonsense with ranged focused careers.

Markus Kruber posted:
Halberd
Despite being a bugged weapon, it's Kruber's overall best option to even contribute meaningfully at a higher difficulty. Meaningful contribution is measured in how fast you can kill something, and that is what the Halberd does for him. Huge cleaves, AP, and overhead bonks for killing armor like CWs, it's what you've got. The bugged attack is the second light swing, the thrust with the spike on the tip. Number one, the hitbox for that attack is attached to the axe-head on he Halberd, and number two, it has no AP. The Halberd isn't going to get Kruber out of a corner, though, but that's where FK's dash or Merc Yell comes up. It really does bear mentioning that even though this is his 'best' weapon, in the grand scheme it's among the worst for ruining his mobility utterly, being super slow, and having a bugged attack. Block canceling is a requirement to use it, and you can't often call up the exact attacks you want at a moment's notice.

2-handed Hammer
Good crowd-control weapon, but still really slow to swing. The light swing is only for smashing Armor, and the charge attacks are the horde sweeping, requiring you to move in, swing, then dodge back and play keep away. Only cleaves chaff - Slaves/Clans/Fanatics. The light swing, like a couple weapons in V2, got a worthless third hit added to the combo which is a useless horizontal swing that doesn't cleave and doesn't even aim for the head, forcing more block canceling. In a horde this is what makes you a beast but the Halberd is still faster. At least it's not the 2-handed sword. Same as Bardin's 2-handed hammer, but Kruber is taller so get owned, stunty

Executioner Sword
People swear by this on Mercenary because he has the greatest cleave potential in the game. And they're not wrong, you become a monster in hordes, and if you share Paced Strikes with your team, you've got a seriously badass setup. The charge attack is a bit slow, though, but can kill armor effectively on headshots. This is a matter of playstyle, as it's not a bad weapon, but it can be outshined by the Halberd which has AP on its crowd sweeper to deal with SV when they charge in.

1-handed Mace
Really good weapon, damn good, because Fatshark forgot to ruin it. So in Vermintide 2, they added a bunch of extra hits to the combos of some old weapons And they are ALL fucking terrible. They forgot to do it to the Mace (and Bardin's 1-handed hammer by proxy) but the Kruber Mace was spared this fate. You can call up any attack you want right when you want it. Mace light swings are fantastic crowd control and the charge attack pounds armor really fuckin' good. It's a hidden gem, almost, but I don't see people using it very often in favor of the Halberd for a lot of reasons, some of which I'm sure aren't good. Same as Bardin's 1-handed hammer.

1-handed Sword
Kruber's Arming Sword is a crowd control weapon and it's not terrible... against hordes. Against armor, and bosses, and everything else it's trash. The charge attacks are sweeps with bad range that are only meant to take on hordes of chaff. Incidentally, the only AP on this weapon is the Third Light Swing, which is an overhead chop, which actually kills SV on Legend in 2 hits with headshots. Makes no sense, and because of it being an unreliable and barely tuned weapon, it's staying in the dust bin.

2-handed Sword
See Saltzpyre's issues. Same deal. Also goes up against the Halberd and other better options. (ry

Shields
I'm not even going to separate these into their respective categories. Fatshark fucking ruined shields in Vermintide 2, and what I just NOW discovered writing this up, they did it with the same amount of hostility that all of their anti-modding patches possessed. First off, Bardin & Kruber have the same shields, but Bardin has the axe, it doesn't matter. They are not anywhere as good as they are in V1, and let me explain why. The light swings do no damage and they hit less enemies for less damage. There's no AP on them. Ok, now that that is out of the way, let's talk about why they are garbage. Fatshark, in their infinite wisdom, decided that a lot of the old weapons they copy pasted (badly) from V1 needed extra attacks.

The Shields all had their charge attacks destroyed by this. In Vermintide 1, all you had was the endless shield bashing with charges, but in V2, they decided the charges needed random - Weak, no AP - attacks added into the mix to keep people from shield bashing at all (even if you block cancel it's far too unreliable to be used like that) and by using a shield you're basically telling your team that you're going to be useless for the game, particularly at the endgame. Even worse (this is what I JUST found out), the Hammer/Mace & Shield Charge Attack doesn't even start with the shield bash, it starts with a slow swing THENshield bashes. Don't ever consider using them on Kruber. Bardin's Shield & Axe is workable, but Hammer/Mace/Sword & Shield are so far down the barrel they've dug a hole to bury themselves because of how bad they are.

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Handgun
The only, obvious choice for Kruber at the end of the day, almost like Vermintide 1. At least Vermintide 1's Repeater Handgun was insanely good. Kruber fulfills the role of special sniper and Shieldvermin sniper, because as a way of bandaging their bad design by implementing Shield enemies and how unfair and cheap the Stormvermin w/ Shield is, they had to add the effect that Handguns don't care about shields. Lets him snipe elites & specials, and that's it. He doesn't really need to do anything else with it. Huntsman gets good use out of this because of super fast reloads letting him dominate fields of SV, so long as he can aim. But Ranged focus, less ammo, etc, just fucks Kruber up.

Empire Bow
Pretty damn good weapon, though exclusive to the Huntsman. Kills 4 slave/clan/fanatic in one charged shot, good sniping potential, makes him slower but that's fine. You'll do as good as a BH with crossbow and if you land the headshots you'll get your ammo back. A really good boss killer, but you need to charge it for longer to get more damage out of it and land those good hits. Pretty sure there's a setup where you can bodyshot SV on Legend, too, without crits, and of course you'll be sniping everything. Mixed with some decent melee options, Huntsman is powerful. Unfortunately, now we know why the reticule spread gets worse the longer you charge this weapon, because Robin and co were a bunch of idiots who implemented a very skewed outlook on realism into the game.

Blunderbuss
Actually good in V2, but only as horde clearers really. It's hilarious watching an entire swarm of enemies vanish from the game because they all die at once and the game has to delete their corpses so it doesn't crash when Bardin or Kruber land a perfect shotgun shot. Shotguns royally ruin Berserkers too, so there's always a good reason to bring them, but Bardin's Grudge-raker is way better than the Blunder and probably his best weapon which he'll always be bringing, so Kruber doesn't need to worry if you're coordinating and can focus on being tall and being a sniper. Has an elbow bash alt fire, which is important.

Repeater Handgun
Trash. It may penetrate up to 3 slave/clan/fanatic and 2 marauders, but the outrageously low ammo capacity makes using it outside Huntsman bad, and he already has two GOOD options (Handgun, Bow) so why would anyone ever use this? The lower ammo on non-Huntsman is made up by not needing the Shotgun or Handgun all that often. Also, the recoil on this is bad. This should just be completely ignored.

All in all, Kruber is really hobbled by most of his melee and he has to get stationary to do a lot of his work. When you play him and see the Elf actually being able to pull off what they want when they want, or Saltzpyre, it tends to get upsetting, as I've seen in certain people.

Bardin Goreksson posted:
Shield and Axe
After what I just said about Shields, you're going to wonder why this is here, well, it's an axe. It actually has AP, and if you rock Swift Slaying you're going to be doing decently. It makes him survivable, but having to remember that you have to go through a bunch of complicated steps just to use the shield bash. Like V1, Bardin has the best Shield & Weapon in the game, and it's still 'good' in spite of Fatshark's design, especially for Ranger & Ironbreaker

Dual Axes
Exclusive to the Slayer, this weapon is ridiculously good. The best armor killer in the game, and when he gets his attack speed going, he just wrecks faces everywhere. You have to be really good at Slayer in the first place, and using these next to a crowd control weapon just falls into place. Really low stamina, sort of like daggers but dwarf.

Great Axe
Owns bones, but you have to be careful of the extra third attack on the light swings, which doesn't even hit 90% of the time. Light attacks are, strangely, generally worse than charge attacks on this weapon. Charge attacks are for everything, they do more damage than light, for some reason, but you should still use Lights for headshotting SV. Great-axe does good damage to everything except bosses (which is the ultimate problem with melee in general). Way better than the 2-handed sword, that's a fact, and curiously just like V1, has the same issue with having half a third shield, base. Good for all but Slayer, who has his unique dual axes and benefits more from a CC option.

1-handed Hammer
See Kruber's mace

Warpick
Not terrible, but too slow. Got buffed a lot in old patches but nobody uses it anyway outside of the Slayer. Mixes the power of the hammer & axe for really good crowd control and a charge-able power attack that can one-shot armored targets, except CW, but that is definitely something that doesn't translate to V2 at all. The Pick was a weapon that fit good for V1 because all we had was Skaven and Stormvermin, but because of all the Chaos bullshit, it's more liable to get you killed.

2-handed Hammer
See Kruber's

1-handed Axe
See Saltzpyre's axe

Hammer & Shield
See Kruber's

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The Slayer class can't use ranged weapons.

Grudge-raker
Badass weapon. Annihilates hordes, can kill armor with point blank shots, murks berserkers, and it has 2 shots before reloading unlike Kruber's blunderbuss, making it the objectively better shotgun. Elbow bashing, etc. The ideal weapon the Dwarf Ranger, who makes specials drop ammo and other items so he can always be dominating on the go, he really doesn't need anything else.

Handgun
Worse for the Dwarf because he's smaller than Kruber and he just doesn't need it when the Grudge-raker is so much better. You can make a case about using it on the Ranger Veteran all you want, but the Grudge-raker's huge ammo cap, fast reload, and massive ammo efficiency completely dwarfs whatever effectiveness the Handgun or Crossbow will have. Still, it's alright for Ironbreaker, just like the Crossbow, giving him sniping options. The RV has a reduced spread perk which makes the Grudge-raker into a sniper, too.

Drakefire Pistols
Exclusive to Ironbreaker, all around decent weapons. Packing a punch, having an AoE blast, it's a jack of all trades weapon with infinite ammo using the Heat mechanics. Firing on the go, hitting specials and armor, etc. It's a good pick.

Drakegun
Exclusive to Ironbreaker, a horde melter that needs to be charged up. It is useless against everything except chaff, and it pollutes teammate's screens with fire, so it's just adding an insult on top of doing what everything else is doing already. I have a personal disdain for this weapon because a lot of people think carrying this makes them top tier and it doesn't, it's not a good weapon overall because the Drakefire pistols exist. Also, contrary to popular belief, not a boss killer. Same as Sienna's Flamestorm staff.

Crossbow
Same as Saltzpyre's, yes, but unlike Saltzpyre Bardin doesn't get infinite ammo crits all the time and he has the Grudge-raker. It's outshined and outclassed, but not bad.

Bardin's ranged affords him a lot of mobility, and his melee is roughly the same as Kruber's with some distinct advantages. Bardin comes off as a lot more mobile and his ranged arsenal is pretty fantastic, but like all non-elves he has weapons that can hobble him and you see a lot of Robin's "people should just be stationary" philosophy in the two of them.

Sienna Fuegonasus posted:
Poor Sienna.

Dagger
Cleaves really well, even Marauders, but has an awkward range. Makes her move faster while swinging it around like a lunatic too. Charge attack sets stuff on fire, hits everything, and the 2nd charge attack, if you can land a Headshot, is its only AP. Sienna's melee is overall lackluster but this, next to the regular sword, stand out as at least functioning correctly.

1-handed Sword
See Kruber's

1-handed Mace
This isn't the same as Kruber's. I mean, it sort of is, but they inverted the light swing combo, so you start off with the worst attacks rather than the crowd control, making this weapon, like it was in V1 because it was lazily copy pasted, trash. Nobody uses it, period, and the only person who even attempted, I saw, only used it when SV showed up at his door and he played whack-a-mole keepaway with Stormvermin, it's only realistic use, because it's faster doing light swings than charge attacks.

Flame Sword
Worse than V1, funnily enough, because the AP damage on it is non-existent because ???. Useless against armor, and the Dagger is a better horde attacker. Why would you even use this? The dagger light swings even cleave Marauders effectively!

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Fireball Staff
Probably her best staff, currently, in light of the others needing a hard, hard look. Messes up armor, has a bolt for specials and whatnot, it's all around a good choice for clearing or weakening the hordes.

Beam Staff
Fatshark put this staff through the ringer by messing up its usability for no reason, like changing the left click to the beam and the right click to an AoE blast charge. That aside, its nerfs are probably the reason people don't use it nearly as much, but it's her 'sniper' weapon and boss kill with a side of Crowd blasting.

Conflagration
Only for the Battle Wizard due to tranquility's charging, it's a consistent and reliable weapon that staggers things. Mostly focused on hordes, it loses out on the AP of the Beam and Fireball

Bolt Staff
Was originally happy when the auto aim got taken off of this weapon but it might as well get it back due to how useless the staff is even as a sniper. It has to be fully charged to get a headshot kill, burning you up like mad, and it doesn't even pierce through armored targets to hit more of them. At its best, this staff is a column killer like the Crossbow is, and at its worst it's just use something else. At full charge, this weapon does insanely high headshot damage, but good luck making it matter frequently.

Flamestorm Staff
See Bardin's Drakegun. Has no reason to exist, and using it makes you outright a bad teammate as the Wizard.

Sienna's melee blows, and the only worthwhile strategy on her is playing Pyro and setting up to spam the homing fireball that kills everything. I used to regard her as the 'backbone support' of the team in Vermintide 1, which she was, but in Vermintide 2 with all the class spread and all the extra crap going on, she's fallen by the wayside. She's garbage, especially on Legend. I don't put any stock in these builds that people set up to block forever, because that isn't helpful and it doesn't move the game forward. On lower difficulties you don't care about blocking overall, and on Legend blocking isn't killing the 100 enemies in your face. Anything that fails to help the players progress even an inch in an adequate time frame is something that needs to be strengthened.

Kerillian posted:
Sword & Dagger
Best elf weapon overall, because it mixes the best of every 'focused' weapon in her categories. The swings don't get "stuck", the charge attacks mix horde killing and armor killing in equal measure, and it's super fast with amazing cleave. The cadence to follow is Light > Light > Charge > Light > Charge etc. The S&D embodies the height of gameplay in Vermintide, in a way, because (like with every Elf weapon) you can call up any attack you want or need and it just goes and works. If you fail with elf weapons, then you only have yourself to blame, 99% of the time. It's good on the Handmaiden & especially Shade, adept at cleaning up literally everything through skillful play.

Dual Daggers
The best melee weapon for killing bosses and armor, even outside of Shade. The charge attack is the strongest in the game, and can kill multiple enemies if you're lucky (i.e 2 Stormvermin), and they're fast. Kinda crap against hordes but the Hagbane makes up for that. No real downsides, even with lower stamina, and smart play and positioning takes care of everything else.

Glaive
Kerillian's other real AP option. Staggers on every hit, AP on every swing, powerful charge combo, and an insanely good push attack combo. Kruber's Halberd wishes it was as good as this weapon. The Glaive is fast, fluid, and strong. The push attack is the regular light swing combo but just faster, making it an amazing option on the Handmaiden. It's good on all classes, nothing much to say because it's not hobbled by any boneheaded decisions.

Spear
Its placement in the list shouldn't persuade you of anything. The Spear is a horde cleaver much like the 2-handed hammer. The vaunted push attack is actually worse than you might think, it hits fewer enemies and is prone to just missing outright. As I've already said, it's a crowd control weapon that pretends to turn the most mobile & lethal killer in the game into a formal dodge tank. It's terrible against armor, and that's what matters most.

Dual Swords
An ostensible crowd control option, but they have terrible range and they just suck. They get stuck on things all the time, and they have zero AP potential, so you become useless when it matters most. They made the swords get stuck on hitting too many enemies during CBT and they've refused to change it since. Hint: they didn't get stuck in V1, it was a random, antagonistic change.

Wardancer Blade
A really, REALLY lazy weapon, and tied for worst with the next item. The elf 2-handed sword only swings upward-diagonally, so it doesn't get easy headshots, and it, again, has no armor piercing. The charge attack is a limp thrust that leads into another horde sweeping cleave. A cleave, I might add, is an actual attack unlike the stupid upward slashes. It is useless against armor and anything past hordes. Think about all the other crowd control options she has while you dwell on this. Don't use this weapon for those reasons, but also because it's unbelievably slow.

1-handed Sword (elf)
Her worst weapon, and what you have to suffer when you first play her assuming you didn't level up someone else first to get around this. The 1-handed sword is incredibly slow to make up for the fact it hits 1 or 2 more enemies I guess (for not a whole lot, its A.spd is hobbling as hell), and it just makes her slower in general. Remember what I said about Fatshark adding unnecessary attacks to charge attacks? This sword has the worst of it. You have two overhead chops, and a random upward-diagonal swing that does LESS damage than everything else in it. The moment you stop using this weapon is the moment you're a happier elf player. Anybody who says they're "doing just fine" with it when faced with criticism is a flat out liar.

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Hagbane
Despite it being smashed up for no reason like the Dual Swords & 1-handed sword (having its Rate of Fire killed and made worse than the regular swiftbow because?????) it's still the Elf's best ranged option by miles, just like V1 again too. With a strength potion you can delete patrols and bosses (Halescourge killed in 10 seconds myself) and, by being smart in the first place, you melt down hordes with well placed shots and clean up with melee. It does everything you need it to, full stop. Its only weakness is armor & specials, particularly with how the latter are so much more durable. Still, if you have to use it against them, it lets you clean up faster or close in to get the melee kill. The ammo count sucks, but every class makes up for it just fine.

Longbow
The elf's sniping option, and worse than the Handgun & Crossbow by malus of being slower to aim, fire, and 'reload'. Kills only 2 chaff enemies with an uncharged shot (a nerf) and 3 on charged, so you can't really mix it up anymore. Especially not after they nerfed its ammo capacity for no reason. Take it from me, anybody playing Kruber is bringing the Handgun and you'll be better off having something else to make up for boss damage.

Elf Volleybow
Exclusive to the Shade, a bugged weapon since CBT that Fatshark has refused to fix or even buff, both things which it direly needs. A lot of the illusions have no sound, the fire rate and hipfire accuracy need to be brought up to Saltzpyre's level, and the damage it does is too low for only having 30 shots. It kills only 2 chaff enemies per shot, doesn't pen Marauders, and is really just garbage overall for hordes compared to the Swiftbow and Hagbane. Can't even reliably snipe armor due to the broken spread. As for Bosses, it's 'decent', but I had to learn eventually that it wasn't winning the stuffed bear. It's lackluster as hell, just ignore it.

Swiftbow
As was the case with the Brace of Pistols, the reddit crew (who all tag themselves as Team Sweden on the reddit board in case you want to know who's behind the lowest quality feedback) also made sure to get this weapon in the limelight. I asked why this weapon was even still in the game, and I was told because "No other weapon lets you kill enemies while moving at 100% moved speed". Yeah, thanks for that, thanks for completely ignoring the fact that this weapon is worthless against bosses and armor and only penetrates 2 chaff. I was told "I use this to kill enemies out in the distance as we move". Oh so you used it to waste ammo killing things the team wasn't engaging nor would have if you hadn't of shot them?

Diatribe aside, this weapon's garbage. It's a columned-horde killer, and that's it. Utterly useless in every other regard.

Kerillian's weapons all let her stay very mobile and very lethal. They all focus on doing a lot of damage across the spectrum then cleaning up. Hagbane weakening giant groups for the S&D to clear up, it's pretty much the strongest way to play Shade. All of her classes possess a modicum of thought in their designs and strengths. She always has a fallback etc