It was the Best of Weapons, It was the Worst of Weapons Part 2

Holy War



Best Weapons: Swords & Wind Magic
Worst Weapons: Axes & Fire Magic

I’m sure this ranking comes as a surprise to nobody, but let’s analyze this anyway. First, let’s compare and contrast the various weapons by starting with the anima tomes.

Wind Tome

Mt: 8
Weight: 2
Hit: 90

Thunder Tome
Mt: 8
Weight: 7
Hit: 90

Fire Tome
Mt: 8
Weight: 12
Hit: 90

Between these three tomes the only difference is in their weight. The wind tome has the lightest weight which means that the wielder will experience the least attack speed reduction. The Fire Tome has the highest weight which means that your attack speed is going to drop like an anchor, which means that you’ll easily get double attacked by enemies.

This pattern applies to the higher ranked anima tomes as well (which you can see for yourself here: https://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/inventory/fire-thunder-wind/).

They all have the exact same might, usually they’ll have the same accuracy, but the wind tomes will ALWAYS have lower weight. This means that the wind tome user can deal just as much damage as their lightning or fire wielding counterparts, but they also get the added bonus of having higher avoid and being able to double attack (assuming that they have the Pursuit skill).



Assuming that you have the same weapon ranks in anima magic, there is zero reason to ever use thunder and fire magic over wind. Wind magic is also the only anima magic type whose Regalia can be used by the player, and if you pair Lewyn and Tiltyu together you can use the Holsety tome from the end of Chapter 4 until the last chapter of Holy War, which is the longest period of time you can ever have a Regalia for.

Swords and Axes operate under a similar line of logic. The main difference here is that axes have significantly higher might than swords, but their weight is also absurdly high. For example, compare and contrast an Iron Sword with an Iron Axe:

Iron Sword
Mt: 6
Wt: 3
Hit: 80

Iron Axe
Mt: 14
Wt: 18
Hit: 70

An Iron Axe has more weight than might, which is pretty awful. Sure it has more than twice as much might, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you’re basically going to have non-existent attack speed. Even if the axe-user doesn’t have the Pursuit skill they’re still going to have terrible avoid.

Once again, this pattern is applicable to swords, axes and lances. Axes will have high might, but their weight is absurdly high and their accuracy will generally be either average, or it will be bad. There are also only 6 different kinds of axes: Iron, Steel, Silver, Brave and the Hand Axe plus the Helswath. By contrast, there are over 4 times that many swords. Also, all 3 sword regalia will come under the player’s possession at one point in the game or another. The Axe Regalia doesn’t.

Something else I almost forgot to bring up is that magic swords are actually considered to be good 1 - 2 range in this game. For example, give Sigurd Ethlin’s Light Brand and stick him in the forest at the beginning of Chapter 4. It’s pretty hilarious how low the accuracy of the Wind Mages will be. Even Mekkah suggested that Alec and Noish with magic swords are actually pretty good units:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQOTKuXYwz8&index=6&list=PLA69XE9lKaI64aDqHYvng0U9jpYF1dslC

To Sum it up: Swords and wind magic are super light weight, which grant their users more avoid and will guarantee that characters with the Pursuit skill will be able to double attack. Axe and Fire Magic are really heavy and will have sub-par accuracy.

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Thracia 776
Best Weapon Types: Wind Magic & Swords
Worst Weapon Types: Dark Magic & Bows

Well would you look at that? Wind tomes and Swords are once again the best weapon types. It feels like deja vu all over again. The reason why wind tomes are the best weapon type here is less obvious than in Holy War. Wind tomes still have the lightest weight on average (although Thunder tomes do a better job of giving them competition) while maintaining great damage output. Plus Wind tomes give the player not one, but two OP Prf rank weapons: Grafcalibur and Holsety. Blizzard is also the best of the three ballistic siege tomes due to its ability to inflict the Sleep status on enemies. In Thracia, statuses can last forever unless you use a Restore staff. So inflicting a status is a much bigger deal here.

Swords once again have the greatest variety in their arsenal compared to axes or lances. Swords also have better accuracy too. Most lances on average have between 65 - 70 accuracy while most axes have between 50 - 65 accuracy. Some swords have between 55 - 65 accuracy, but the difference here is that there are also a significant number that have 70 accuracy or higher, which is something that the other two can’t say. Once again swords have favorably low weights as well, meaning that sword users as a whole will suffer less attack speed penalties.

Unlike Holy War Thracia 776 tends to give the stink eye to different weapon types. Let’s start with Dark Magic. There are only two Dark Magic tomes that can be used by the player: Yotsmungand and Fenrir. Everything else either turns into Fenrir when taken upon capture or can’t be used by the player at all. As if that weren’t bad enough Dark Magic is ridiculously heavy. You know you’re doing something wrong when the lightest weapon of your type is at 12. Be prepared to watch that attack speed flush down the toilet. The Fenrir tome also only has 5 uses. Yikes. 

Bows lack 1 range, which hurts them a lot in this game because it means that bow users cannot capture at all. Bows also have a terrible might to weight ratio in Thracia 776. All of the lower ranked bows have weight that are either greater than or equal to their might, which is awful! Their accuracy is also on par with lances too on average.

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Binding Blade

Best Weapon Types: Swords and Dark Magic
Worst Weapon Types: Axes and Light Magic

Once again swords reign supreme. Swords in Binding Blade tend to have fantastic accuracy in a game where accuracy is actually an issue. There are plenty of axe wielding enemies as well so sword users get a nifty weapon triangle bonus whose usefulness is bolstered by the fact that axes can’t hit the broad side of a barn in this game. Once again swords have low weight which is very favorable for them especially in comparison to lances and axes who do not have favorable might to weight ratios.

You might be wondering why Dark Magic is considered to be one of the best weapon types. Well for starters Dark Magic gives you Flux and Nosferatu, which have reasonable accuracies and favorable might - weight ratios. Nosferatu is also a godsend in Hard Mode where enemies can hit like a truck. Apocalypse has great firepower too for a Regalia in FE 6. 18 might and a + 5 Magic boost are pretty sweet. 

Now to the worst weapon types. Axes are notorious (and rightfully so) for having craptastic accuracy. Armads is the only axe in the game that has higher than 65 accuracy. That’s really sad. Most axes have a weight that’s greater than or equal to their might which means that you’ll also get weighed down extremely fast.

Light Magic is considered one of the worst weapon types in the game mainly because it doesn’t really have anything good going for it. Anima has Aircalibur (and anima magic as a whole is more accurate in this game) while Dark Magic has Nosferatu and a better Regalia to boot. Light Magic just doesn’t contribute anything meaningful or substantive so it gets left behind.