Final Fantasy XI weapons

This is a list of weapons in the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI.
 * Bold denotes a Relic Weapon.
 * Italics denote a Mythic Weapon.

Axes
Axes are one-handed weapons that typically deal slashing damage. They are used primarily by Warriors and Beastmasters, who possess the highest Axe skill proficiency. Of the two jobs, Beastmasters are able to equip a greater variety of axes, including most Tabar-type axes, the Orcish Axe, and both axe Relic and Empyrean weapons.

Axes are well known for their multi-hit weapon skills, and are the preferred weapon choice of Beastmasters, who often dual-wield axes that grant pet enhancing stats and melee alongside their pets.

Clubs
Clubs are one-handed weapons that typically deal blunt damage. Almost all jobs possess Club skill proficiency, but clubs are most often used by White Mages, who have the second highest skill levels, behind Paladin. Interestingly, all legendary club weapons can only be used by White Mage.

There are many types of club weapons, namely wands, clubs, cudgels, maces, hammers and rods. Most types are generally weak melee weapons that are equipped primarily for stats that increase magic effectiveness. Many event items, including the novelty bell weapons, are clubs that are able to bestow enchantments such as costume effects. The Warp Cudgel is a popular club used by players to warp to their Home Point.

Club has the most number of weapon skills that do not deal damage but instead restore MP. One of the most damaging club weapon skills is the infamous Hexa Strike, a six-hit attack which can only be used by White Mages.

Daggers
Daggers are one-handed weapons that typically deal piercing damage. They are known for being low damage, low delay weapons that are useable by the majority of jobs in the game, most notably Thief, Corsair, Dancer, and Bard. A large number of daggers include some sort of bonus to the player stats, and many include Additional Effect bonuses, especially poison.

Daggers are typically only used by Thief and Dancer as their main source of damage. Many Corsairs utilize daggers as a quick source of TP gain and couple its use with Marksmanship weapon skills. Daggers are also occasionally used by Red Mages who take advantage of its low delay to increase damage from en-spells.

Most dagger weapon skills are multi-hit and utilize the Dexterity stat to increase damage.

Great Axes
Great Axes are two-handed weapons that typically deal slashing damage. Although most great axes can be wielded by Dark Knights, they are used almost exclusively by Warriors, who possess an A+ rating for the weapon. Great Axes are relatively slow but strong weapons whose damage output benefit greatly from effects that increase both the power and frequency of attacks.

Many Great Axe weapon skills, such as Armor Break and Full Break, are designed to lower enemy parameters like attack and evasion, although this is not frequently used by players. Instead, most players prefer to use hard-hitting weapon skills like Ukko's Fury to deal large spikes of damage in one go.

Great Katanas
Great Katanas are two-handed weapons that typically deal slashing damage. They are moderate delay and damage weapons that are primarily used by Samurai. Great Katanas are the most strategically useful weapons in battle as their weapon skills allow users to participate in every single skillchain in the game.

Most Great Katana weapon skills are single or dual-hit, making them more reliable as compared to multi-hit ones. Great Katanas can also inflict a variety of status effects through weapon skills, namely Stun, Silence, Blind and Paralyze.

Great Swords
Great Swords are two-handed weapons that typically deal slashing damage. They can be used effectively by Dark Knights, Paladins, Warriors as well as the upcoming Rune Fencer job. They are moderate delay weapons with strong damage output, but are generally less popular because none of the jobs that currently use them possess the highest skill ranking (A+) for it. Nonetheless, they are a common alternative to the Scythe for Dark Knights.

Great Swords have powerful weapon skills, a majority of which are single-hit. They are frequently favored by Dark Knights who may prefer its skillchain options as compared with those of the Scythe.

Hand-to-Hand
Hand-to-hand is a unique class of weapons that typically deal blunt damage. Although hand-to-hand is the default attack dealt by all jobs without a weapon, they are most proficiently used by Monks and Puppetmasters. Unlike other weapon classes, hand-to-hand weapon delay and damage is not calculated by itself but is instead added on to the player's natural hand-to-hand delay and damage parameters. Jobs proficient in Hand-to-hand swing with two hits instead of one per attack round, and the delay of these attacks can be lessened by the Martial Arts job trait.

There are several types of hand-to-hand weapons, some of which have unique traits. For example, Adargas-type weapons typically increase Guarding skill and Saintis can only be wielded by Puppetmasters.

Katanas
Katanas are one-handed weapons that typically deal slashing damage. Unlike all the other weapon classes, Katanas can only be effectively used by one job - Ninja. Katanas are low delay weapons with average damage that excel when being dual-wielded. They also come with a wide variety of stats that can be used for various situations.

A majority of katana weapon skills are aligned to Darkness elements. As such, there are weapon skills that deal water, ice, earth and darkness elemental damage respectively.

Archery
Archery is a class of ranged weapons that typically deal piercing damage. It is used primarily by Rangers as a source of damage, but also by other job classes simply as a means of attacking from afar.

There are two major types of archery weapons. Shortbows come with shorter delay and deal less damage, whereas longbows have longer delay but are able to deal more damage. As longer delay weapons gain more TP per hit, long bows are favored by Rangers for being stronger and more arrow-efficient.

Archery weapon skills are well known for dealing large amounts of damage. This is due mostly to the reputation of Sidewinder, an inaccurate attack that deals quintuple damage if it lands.

Polearms
Polearms are two-handed weapons that typically deal piercing damage. They are the signature weapon of the Dragoons and in rare cases also used by Samurai and Warriors. Polearms are divided into two general types - spears and lances. Spears are moderate delay and damage weapons that are more common at lower levels. Lances are much slower in comparison but deal far greater damage per hit. With a few exceptions, all lances can only be used by Dragoons.

Polearm weapon skills are primarily physical, and a majority of these weapon skills are multi-hit attacks, making accuracy vital for polearm users.

Scythes
Scythes are two-handed weapons that typically deal slashing damage. They are known for being very slow but high damage weapons and are primarily used by Dark Knights. Warriors and Beastmasters have decent proficiency in the use of Scythes but rarely ever use them.

As Scythe weapon skills are generally darkness based, its users will usually find difficulty participating in skillchains especially at lower levels. A good number of Scythe weapon skills deal darkness elemental damage, and many others, such as the popular Guillotine, are multi-hit.

Staves
Staves are two-handed weapons that typically deal blunt damage. Unlike most weapon classes, staves are primarily equipped for their stat bonuses and are a popular choice with magic using jobs such as Black Mage, Summoner and Scholar.

Staves are generally weak weapons with a variety of stats, with the exception of pole-type staves which are designed as damage weapons and can typically only be used by melee jobs. The stat bonuses from staves can be very substantial, as evidenced by the ever popular elemental staves which are considered a vital part of any Black Mage's equipment set.

Many event and utility weapons take the form of staves. For example, the Treat Staff II from the Harvest Festival seasonal event and Signet staves from the three nations bestow enchantments for the convenience of players.

Swords
Swords are one-handed weapons that typically deal slashing damage. A number of swords, such as Rapier and Epee-types deal piercing damage instead. Although most jobs are able to wield swords with decent proficiency, only Paladins, Blue Mages and less frequently Red Mages prefer to use swords in battle.

Swords are average damage, average delay weapons that come in the most number of varieties, and have the most varied mix of weapon skills. Of these skills, a number of them have unique properties, such as Spirits Within, which deals non-elemental damage based on the amount of HP the wielder has, as well as Atonement, whose damage is related to the amount of Enmity the player has accumulated on the monster.