Pointless Weapons

[PuffPuff]

Why they have to even exist at all...

Nosferatu

-Can't crit

-Can't double attack

-Cannot activate Attacking skills with them.

-They're limited in supply at the stores to put max forging them to a screeching halt.

So...this means that it should be ignored completely and just get Aether, Lifetaker and Sol for your recoveries!

Xandar's Guiding Lance

Even Fire Emblem Wiki finds it pointless...

Xander's Guiding-lance is a lance that debuted in Fire Emblem Fates. Named for the Nohrian prince Xander, the Xander's Guiding-lance is, despite its respectable might and accuracy along with slight stat boosts in Skill and Resistance, difficult to justify using: it cannot land a critical hit or trigger offensive trigger skills, use takes its toll on the wielder, and it also boosts the Strength of surrounding enemies with each use.

All that said there is why it is pointless...

Boost Thunder

-The Speed Boost does not pass over to your allies. Only enemies. Even though it has the best Spell animation in the game!

-Unlike the Pipa Yumi(Gives Res+4 one turn) and Violin Bow(Gives Skill+4 one turn)Saizou's Explosive Dart(Gives +4 Str one turn) Kaze's Gale Dart (Gives Speed+4)which gives it's respective boosts to your characters and not the enemies.

I would say Takumi's Bamboo Blade which leaves enemies with 1 HP like Elincia's Mercy skill in FE10, but it's useful when you want to capture as you have to be careful not to kill the character/generic that you want to capture and recruit. So...it's validation has it's usefulness, but Boost Thunder, Nosferatu and Xandar's Guiding Lance however doesn't.

Cupid Bow

-It gives HP to your enemies and not you. I suppose it's useful when you want to capture, but being more careful and using weapons that you cannot double attack or crit with doesn't warrent this to be in the game at all.

[NinjaMonkey]

Yeah, I really don't know what they were thinking when they were designing this game.

[Tooru]

Xander’s Guiding-lance higher mt than steel and the same hit rate as bronze.

It can be used for dual attack, or to ensure a ORKO on a single enemy.

Boost Thunder has high Mt. But I sill think it is garbage XD.

Cupid Bow is used for grinding EXP.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Tooru

[Topazd]

I'd have been fine if they just toned down Nos' availability to a single tome per file and left its other properties unaltered or something to that effect, but this is still a much better alternative than what FE13 had.

[Azz]

Nosferatu, despite its nerfs, still has its uses. Withe the right set-up, a Nosefertank can be dangerous.

[Shadow Mir]

Yeah, I really don't know what they were thinking when they were designing this game.

Because no other Fire Emblem game has had pointless weapons, right?

That said, while most of the weapons OP stated look bad at first, they still have their uses.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Levant Colthearts

[Ebony]

Boost Thunder

-The Speed Boost does not pass over to your allies. Only enemies. Even though it has the best Spell animation in the game!

I can see Ophelia with Defensive Formation not caring and using this.

[Melissa]

Because no other Fire Emblem game has had pointless weapons, right?

That said, while most of the weapons OP stated look bad at first, they still have their uses.

I mean, there are the joke weapons, but...

[sirmola]

I mean, there are the joke weapons, but...

Lots of those actualy give avooid and crit evade buffs, so you could equip them in purely defensive situations. Also, they can be useful in situations where you want to kill an annoying enemy, but not a potential recruit. I just used the laundry pole for that in fe12, so that i could kill some fortify bishops without abel suiciding on me. (also, they are useful for grinding weapon exp if you are into that. Just pick a boss who can't really damage you and vice versa, and then plink away. I assume the cupid bow is ideal for this purpose, because it helps others grind if they are not quite doing zero damage). Even the small stone (which otherwise has no redeming quantities,) actualy gives an better debuff then anything else that does not debuff or injure the user.

[Topazd]

Yeah, probably the only weapons that could be deemed truly pointless would be the Silver Axes in FE3B2, but even that's somewhat debatable since they all sell for a decent sum. All of the weapons outlined here are situational moreso than outright pointless.

[MCProductions]

Situational more than outright pointless, that's honestly why I love this game's method of handling weapons.

No worries about that weapon durability garbage, just make sure your weapon is the best one for the given situation.

[Ryo]

Some of the random weapons that you get from MC tend to be weak or highly situational, so I usually leave them at the convoy unless the units have nothing else to bring to battle.

[nocturnal YL]

These otherwise useless weapons are good for micro-adjusting enemy stats and HP, although I don't use then for this purpose often. (So yeah, still useless.)

And other than Nosferatu, those are meant to be joke weapons anyway. I've seen Japanese sites actually recommending Nosferatu-tanking in this game, but I think it won't work. Sorcerors can't survive a single General's hit.

[Roflolxp54]

Perhaps the dev team's been hitting the Candy Staff or the Dango Skewer a little too hard...

[NekoKnight]

Add Elise's Staff and Leon's Chilling Sword to the list. A one use Psychic and magical sword that has only one range...yay?

Some of the joke weapons can be pretty decent however. I gave a Broom to Elfie because she was strong enough to murder everything but greatly appreciated the extra hit.

[PuffPuff]

Yeah, probably the only weapons that could be deemed truly pointless would be the Silver Axes in FE3B2, but even that's somewhat debatable since they all sell for a decent sum. All of the weapons outlined here are situational moreso than outright pointless.

That is top pointless of the entire series since you get no Axe users and putting them in 12 separates what Book II should really be. SNES all the way, plus allowing the enemy phase music to play longer since Insurrection is a really good enemy phase track.

These otherwise useless weapons are good for micro-adjusting enemy stats and HP, although I don't use then for this purpose often. (So yeah, still useless.)

And other than Nosferatu, those are meant to be joke weapons anyway. I've seen Japanese sites actually recommending Nosferatu-tanking in this game, but I think it won't work. Sorcerors can't survive a single General's hit.

More, or less you cannot activate battle skills or get beyond +1 without the Weapons DLC episode and that you lose 20 avoid upon equipping it and that Mag is no good on those annoying Ninjas when they should be sniped to death.

[Technoweirdo]

On Xander's Guiding Lance:
Hm, would need to do a little testing, but​ it comes off to me that you're meant to use it as a support weapon. Much like how the Silver effect doesn't apply if strictly used for support, the Rally Enemy effect might not apply either. Might not apply on enemy phase too, making it a good defensive weapon but again, needs testing. Alternatively, used as a high-powered, accurate last hit weapon with no enemies nearby, but if it ever comes to that, I think you've got the situation under control regardless of weapon.

Think I'll do that testing right now, actually. Boost Thunder should be a similar case...

Edit one distraction later: It's horrible. D: Rally Enemy works on the enemy phase and player phase alike, regardless of whether it was the main unit or supporting unit using the weapon. i.e. It's a lot more trouble than its worth in an overwhelming number of situations. Much better off just using Silver.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Technoweirdo

[arvilino]

Nosferatu isn't useless, I had Leon tanking the room with Sorcerors in Conquest's chapter 26 with it on Lunatic mode. 100% chance to restore 50% HP dealt has its uses in its reliability. [skill%] and/or 0.5x[skill%] to restore 50% of damage dealt is not a good exchange if you definitely need to steal HP to survive especially during the campaign itself where the skill stat would be lower.

Edited November 23, 2015 by arvilino

[Hatsuoki]

Huh. I find Marx's lance says a really sweet detail about his character though. Maybe these joke weapons just seem like they're meant to tell us something about the characters? Marx certainly never seems like he really wants to fight (Kamui) so the lance sort of also gives that feel? Idk really because I haven't seen many of these weapons.

[Duke of Dozel]

The Xander Lance is great when you need to kill the mages ASAP. Weapon triangle advatage, and the STR boost gets wasted on them. It's meant to be a high might potential one shot, having great accuracy to make sure it lands. For anything else, it's purely situational.

While the cupid bow is weak, it's the game's best means of increasing a users bow rank. I managed to get Mozume and Eponine to A just by using it at a boss. Healing enemies lets you hit them again and again.