I started playing Dragon Quest 9 recently, and i did some research on forums and other websites about what people say for weapon types in this game. There are some people who say that swords are the strongest and best weapons in the game followed by axe and spear and that other weapon types aren't even worth using in late and post-game.
Now that got me a bit worried. Even if swords, axes and spears are far better then other types in late and post-game are other weapon types still viable or would i have really hard time with them? From what Iv'e read some swords (falcon) are overpowered and so are some axe and spear skills, but i don't really care about being overpowered, I'd be fine with other weapon types as long as they don't get so weak in late and post-game that it would be very hard to play the game.
I'd appreciate as much information about this as possible as I'd really like to play with other weapon types then swords, spears and axes but not if they're utterly weak late/post game.
Best Answer
I think the reason swords, spears, and axes are so widely-used in the post-game is because that's when you really need high levels to complete grottos and such; level-grinding pretty much translates to "farming metal slime variants", and each of those three weapon types have abilities on their mastery tree that are basically essential to metal slime farming. (Swords have Metal Slash for extra damage and Falcon Slash for multiple hits, spears have Pressure Point for the rare insta-kill and Thunder Thrust for hit-or-miss critical attacks, and axes have Hatchet Man, basically the axe variation of Thunder Thrust.)
It's difficult to gauge which weapon type is best, however, because each type has various traits that make it stand out from all the others. Giving wands to your magic-users can boost their max MP and allow them to use some nifty crowd-control abilities; claws and spears both have abilities that hit multiple times, some striking random targets each time; whips and boomerangs hit multiple foes with every strike; and hammers and axes give warriors the raw attack power to dish out serious damage, highly useful for piercing enemy defenses. In other words, there's no weapon class that trumps all the others; figure out what kind of team you need for a particular task (surviving a grotto to loot treasures, take down a legacy boss, etc.) and then pick out equipment that'll cater to your team's strengths.