Weapon

"Off-hand" redirects here. For the Assassin attack skills, see Off-hand attack.

A weapon is a piece of equipment that can be equipped in a character's primary weapon or off-hand inventory slots. Weapons are visible in your character's hands when the player is outside of a town or outpost (for example in an explorable area or mission).

In Guild Wars, shields and focus items are considered weapons, although they are technically not armaments.

Types

See also: Martial weapon, Caster weapon

Weapon type	One-handed	Two-handed
Martial weapons
Melee	Axe Sword	Daggers Hammer Scythe
Ranged	Spear	Bow
Spellcasting weapons
Ranged	Wand	Staff
Off-hand items
Off-hand	Focus item Shield

Melee weapon comparison

Profession	Weapon	Hands	Damage range	Attack speed (seconds)	Standard damage type	Other properties
Warrior	Axe	One	6-28	1.33	Slashing1
	Hammer	Two	19-35	1.75	Blunt1
	Sword	One	15-22	1.33	Slashing2
Assassin	Daggers	Two	7-17	1.333	Piercing or Slashing4	2% double strike chance per rank of Dagger Mastery
Dervish	Scythe	Two	9-41	1.50	Slashing	Hits up to 2 additional foes adjacent to target

¹ Some axes and hammers do piercing damage.

² The Jitte deals blunt damage.

³ Excluding double strikes.

⁴ Daggers of Purity deal blunt damage.

Ranged weapon comparison

Profession	Weapon	Hands	Damage range1	Attack speed (seconds)	Range2	Flight time3 (seconds)	Arc size	Standard damage type	Other properties
Martial weapons
Ranger	Flatbow	Two	15-28	2.0	1.35	0.88	High	Piercing
	Hornbow	Two	15-28	2.7	1.20	0.59	Medium	Piercing	10% armor penetration
	Longbow	Two	15-28	2.4	1.35	0.59	Medium	Piercing
	Recurve Bow	Two	15-28	2.4	1.20	0.40	Low	Piercing
	Shortbow	Two	15-28	2.0	1.00	0.59	Medium	Piercing
Paragon	Spear	One	14-27	1.5	1.00	0.60	Medium4	Piercing
Spellcasting weapons
Monk Necromancer Mesmer Elementalist Ritualist	Staff	Two	11-22	1.75	1.20	0.56	Medium4	by attribute	+5...10 energy, 10...20% HSR, Extremely low critical hit rate
	Wand	One	11-22	1.75	1.20	0.56	Medium4	by attribute	Extremely low critical hit rate

¹Projectile weapons inflict more damage when fired at lower foes and less damage when fired at higher foes.

²Range is approximate, and is measured in aggro circle / Danger Zone radii.

³Flight time is at shortbow range.

⁴Is slightly higher than the other medium arcs.

DPS comparison

See also: Damage per second

All values assume a level 20 attacker with an uncustomized white weapon, regular attack speed, no damage buffs, an armor rating 60 target, and that axe, sword and dagger attack speeds are exactly 1 1/3 seconds. All values are rounded to the nearest hundredth, .5 is rounded up.

Weapon type	Non-critical DPS Mean @Rank 12	Non-critical DPS Mean @Rank 16	Critical DPS Mean @Rank 12	Critical DPS Mean @Rank 16
Axe	12.75	14.66	29.70	34.15
Bow, Flat or Short	10.75	12.36	19.80	22.77
Bow, Horn 1	8.84	10.16	16.27	18.71
Bow, Long or Recurve	8.96	10.30	16.50	18.97
Daggers	11.34	13.87	22.72	27.79
Hammer	15.43	17.74	28.28	32.53
Scythe 2 [verification requested]	14.29	16.43	33.13	38.10
Spear	13.67	15.72	25.46	29.27
Staff / Wand 3	9.43	9.43	17.78	17.78
Sword	13.88	15.96	23.33	26.83

1. Armor penetration produces better relative damage against heavily armored targets, see Hornbow for a more in-depth analysis.
2. Per target.
3. Staves and wands have an extremely low base critical hit rate; their damage scales with attacker level, not weapon attribute.

Notes

• Xun Rao's Quill is the only off-hand classified as Parrying dagger, but functions identically to a shield.
• Gwen's Broken Flute and Broken Flute can be equipped as an off-hand, but they have no stats of their own so it is impossible to tell whether they are considered as shield or focus.
• ↑  Players commonly refer to any equipable item as "weapon". The official in-game terminology excludes offhand items when using the term "weapon", whereas "equipable item" is used to also refer to focus items and shields. As reference for this classification, see Inscription types.

See also

• Category:Weapons
• Category:Unreplicable unique items
• Category:Unreplicable promotional items
• Category:Weapons with irregular skins
• Inherent modifier
• Inscription
• List of weapon upgrades
• Perfect (maxed weapons)
• PvP reward (weapon skins for PvP characters)
• Requirement
• Upgrade component
• Weaponsmith

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