Disclaimer: All information is provided assuming that you know how Dark Gaming’s PvP differs from other servers. If you do not know about the differences, please check out these posts:
As well as checking out the PvP Manager and Armor Spreadsheet for weapon and armor differences.
Introduction
It’s been a very long time since I made a tier list update, but I’ve finally made one now. The reason I’ve been holding off for so long is because TierMaker sucks and doesn’t let me remove weapons from the template, and one day everything just reset, so I decided to make a tier list from scratch, putting it in a spreadsheet instead.
A lot has changed since my last tier list update, the most notable ones being the re-introduction of Blanc as a PvP Manager and Legolas stepping down as a manager.
I won’t go in depth on specific weapon changes in this guide, except for the changes to the top tiers, I’ll just list out some of the most significant changes as well as notable weapon additions and removals.
Here is the tier list spreadsheet:
Notable Changes: Lower Tiers
A lot of the most recently added weapons are in these lower tiers, with Yelets, Flower of Fire, Pew-Matic Horn and Quad-Barrel Shotgun being in D.
I think the most notable change in the lower tier was the addition of a new F tier weapon, being Cursed Flames. Cursed Flames does pitiful damage, has very poor range, and is incredibly slow and easy to dodge. The only upside is that it’s spammable. Cursed Flames finds itself as the new fourth worst weapon in the game.
Not every new addition are stuck in the lower tiers, there are a couple good new weapons, but a majority of them are in the lower tiers.
You may notice looking in the E tier that there is a certain shield weapon. I’ll explain the story behind that once we get to the higher tiers.
Notable Changes: Middle Tiers
Among the aforementioned new weapons that are in the higher tiers are two new spears, Adamantite Glaive and Titanium Trident. They serve as replacements for the removed Orichalcum and Mythril spears, but they’re a tad better overall, because while they have less range, they do a bit more damage, with Titanium Trident in particular having a respectable 102 base damage with a very high 160 damage cap.
B Tier is also slightly bigger than before, having 24 weapons instead of 22. This is a result of a few weapons like Toxikarp and Sky Fracture rising from C tier.
An aspect of this version of the tier list i should mention is that none of the tiers from B to E are not ordered. This is because since I had to recreate the tier list from scratch, I haven’t had much time to evaluate B and C tier.
Notable Changes: A- and A Tier
The most notable thing that I should mention is that A+ tier no longer exists, and has been replaced by A tier while the old A tier has been replaced with A- tier. This was just a personal decision, as i felt most of the weapons in the old A+ tier didn’t deserve the moniker of “A+”.
The second most notable thing about this tier is that it contains the two best “new” weapons, Flamelash and Thorn Chakram. The reason i put “new” in quotes is because they serve as replacements for old weapons. After a certain Randy abused Rainbow Rod and Sergeant United Shield, they were replaced with Flamelash and Thorn Chakram respectively.
Thorn Chakram isn’t as good as the old Sergeant United Shield, since it does less damage and has a much longer recovery time, but it’s still good enough to be in low A tier. Flamelash was also made to be not as strong as the old Rainbow Rod, but I still think it provides great value in a kit and thus deserves to be in the middle of A tier.
Two more weapons I want to mention are Gungnir and Nettle Burst.
I have a lot of history with Gungnir. Back when 1.4.4 just came out, this weapon was overpowered since it had a significant range boost and the damage wasn’t nerfed to compensate. After abusing it to get a high killstreak, it was nerfed heavily, and I dropped it.
A few months later, I picked it up again since as an alternative to Ghastly Glaive since the range seemed appealing. However, the weapon has a huge blindspot while Ghastly Glaive doesn’t, so trying to use it like a replacement to Gungnir lead to this video, followed shortly by dropping the weapon again:
Cut to the present, and now it’s my go-to choice for a spear. There’s a few reasons for this. First, it got buffed while Ghastly Glaive got its range nerfed, and second, since Ghastly Glaive was nerfed, I’m able to appreciate the range Gungnir has and thus, its downside became less notable.
Lastly, there’s Nettle Burst, which is the most notable and strongest weapon that’s actually a new addition. It serves as a very unique anti-rush weapon, since it lasts forever and it covers a very specific range.
Although it’s a tricky weapon to use, the reward it can net you if you use it properly is very high, so I think it deserves to be at the bottom of A tier, and its status as the best mage anti-rush weapon and second best anti-rush overall.
Notable Changes: S and S+ Tier
While Sniper is still the only S+ tier and still the obvious best weapon in the game, S Tier has been shifted around quite a bit. There have been a few notable nerfs and two notable additions.
Firstly, there’s Heat Ray and Paladin’s Hammer. In my opinion, these two weapons alongside Sniper Rifle served as the “Big 3” of DG PvP, as they were clearly the three best weapons. But after Paladin’s Hammer was nerfed slightly and Heat Ray was nerfed significantly, there’s no longer a “Big 3”. However, I still think there’s couple weapons that could potentially form a new Big 3.
Betsy’s Wrath and Solar Eruption are ridiculous. Solar Eruption is free burst damage, and Betsy’s Wrath in particular is so incredibly strong, valuable, and most notably, high reward with little risk.
It’s a common strategy to just spam Betsy’s at someone below or in mid-range with you, since it’s so fast, has a big hitbox, and multi-hits criminally often. While I don’t think it and Solar Eruption are quite as good as the old members of the Big 3, they’re very close, Betsy’s Wrath especially.
Starlight is the other biggest loser of the S tier, and it’s because it was a victim of circumstance. Several months ago, DG had a phase where it was extremely laggy. This lag made PvP more volatile, and the one weapon that was the most problematic in this era was Starlight.
Starlight received several nerfs with the “promise” that said nerfs would be reverted once the lag subsided, but it’s been quite a while since the lag subsided and Starlight has not been re-buffed.
I still think Starlight is great, as shown by its place in the middle of A tier, but it’s not nearly as dominant as it was before and during the lag era.
The last few weapons i want to go over are the new additions to S tier: Razorpine and Stake Launcher. I think I underrated both of these weapons in the past, especially Razorpine.
I did not see how volatile Razorpine was mostly because of how volatile Betsy’s Wrath is. But its combination of great range (higher than Betsy’s) and area coverage means its quite strong and a solid sidegrade.
I think Stake Launcher might be the msot underrated meta weapon of all of them. Everyone is constantly freaking out over Clockwork Assault Rifle, as that weapon has received several adjustments recently. Meanwhile, I’ve just been sitting over here using a weapon with greater consistency.
It’s basically a ranger version of Laser Rifle, boasting very similar damage, velocity and fire rate, and even bigger projectiles. Again, I think it’s quite underrated.
Conclusion
I don’t really have a conclusion for this guide, other than that from now on I wont be updating the TierMaker tier list and I will be using exclusively the spreadsheet from now on.