But all still excel in the areas where they’re specialized. This list aims to rank each of the best relic weapons in accordance to current job strength, as well as their opportunities for use in content, as well as how much they shake up each job using them. Let’s see how they stack up!
10. Bravura
The Bravura is a situationally-used great axe that’ll be mostly used by warriors as a defensive tool, and not much else. It’s capable of dealing decent damage and has a respectable accuracy +60. But it’s let down by its weak weapon skill and inconsistent debuffs from the weapon itself, as well as Metatron Torment. However, its aftermath is fantastic. The Damage Taken -20% and Regen +15 effects mean that the Bravura is best used in situations where warriors will be expected to sustain large amounts of damage, such as when cleaving a ton of enemies at once. Bravura is nice to have on hand as a rainy day tool, and is unmatched as far as its defensive capabilities go. But warriors are better off building a Ragnarok if they’re going to make a relic weapon instead.
9. Excalibur
While this shouldn’t really be a paladin’s first choice of weapon, the Excalibur’s regen +30 and refresh +3 effects are handy to have for sustainability. Other effects also help this weapon see some regular use, like the attack +60 and additional effect which deals slashing damage equal to 25% of the wielder’s remaining HP. And ‘Knights of The Round’ is a nice attack for skillchaining, giving a paladin some damage dealing options. At rank 15, this weapon interestingly offers an additional shield block rate +10%, making it a nice situational option when near-constant blocking becomes a very important thing to consider. But the Excalibur suffers from being one of many in the massive pool of swords available to all the jobs that can use it. It’s almost exclusively going to be used by paladins because its stats, mechanics, and aftermath effects are all tailored in that direction. Red mages may consider Excalibur, but often favor using Almace if they’re focused on physical damage.
8. Yoichinoyume
This relic is uniquely one of the few ultimate weapons in the game that’s able to be used alongside another one – a privilege belonging to Samurai builds. This opens up an entirely new way to play Samurai by giving your character access to ranged attacks, as well as melee attacks. While this is not always going to be useful, it certainly helps to have the potential to do so! And with the Yoichinoyume being a relic weapon, it enables samurais to do relevant ranged damage that would otherwise suffer. Its aftermath of ranged accuracy +30 and snapshot +5 ensure that they’ll rarely ever miss, too. Namas Arrow also has the Light and Distortion skillchain properties, making it a great skillchain damage tool. Yoichinoyume isn’t used by rangers much, as they’ll be using other weapons like Annihilator or Gastraphetes. So it’s mostly used only by the most devoted samurais, and it’s better for them to build an ultimate great katana first. But having one of these definitely makes them stand out.
7. Kikoku
Kikoku is also a situationally-used main-hand weapon for Ninjas, when the need arises. It’s definitely one of the easiest ways for a ninja to remain at capped attacks, as the weapon just oozes plenty of attack stat to go around. Not only does it bear a massive +60 attack on its own, but its aftermath grants an additional +10% attack, alongside subtle blow +10! Blade Metsu is a pretty strong weapon skill too, so it’ll often be used to skillchain and magic burst for high amounts of damage. Unfortunately, the rarely-procc’ing paralysis effect (which was once a welcome way to passively debuff enemies) is more reliably and potently applied by ninja’s Jubaku: Ichi ninjutsu, or any other form of spell that applies the status ailment.
6. Spharai
While the Spharai is not the strongest ultimate weapon available in a monk’s arsenal, it is deceptively powerful when utilized properly. With a very high +14% counter chance, it’s best used when counter tanking. It also has a very potent attack +60 stat, making it easy for monks to remain at capped attack. Final Heaven is a rather slow burn until this weapon is fully upgraded at augmented rank 15, but it’ll really shine once you get it there. Its aftermath—Kick Attacks +15 and Subtle Blow +10—is a nice aid too. Especially because Final Heaven has wonderful skillchain properties, possessing Light and Fusion. The Spharai unfortunately has fairly high delay, urging players to consider martial arts (which can hamper TP gain), or find ways to use haste to make up for the slowdown.
5. Annihilator
Now this is arguably one of the best ranged weapons that a Ranger can use. Thanks to the Coronach weapon skill, it allows rangers to deal incredibly high amounts of damage without any concern for generating enmity – a problem often plaguing high damage-dealing jobs. To back up the capabilities of this gun even further, it also sports ranged attack +45, and ranged accuracy +60. And Coronach itself offers fantastic skillchain properties, Darkness and Fragmentation, plus it grants around -25 enmity when this weapon skill is used. Its resulting aftermath also grants ranged attack +10%, a more than welcome addition to this beast of a weapon. Even when it isn’t used, it dispenses the very valuable eradicating bullets that rangers will be using quite often, second only to the Fomalhaut’s bullets.
4. Ragnarok
The Ragnarok is a very powerful great sword that truly shines in the hands of warriors – especially when paired with their Mighty Strikes ability. This also gives dark knights a very high damage output too, and sees healthy usage alongside the Apocalypse and Caladbolg. The Ragnarok’s incredible critical hit rate and accuracy stats make it a flexible weapon for all types of content in FFXI. And Ragnarok also works very well with Resolution due to the accuracy boost, allowing it to remain consistent against enemies with higher evasion. Unfortunately, Scourge won’t really be used, as its damage is pretty low. That TP is better spent on Resolution and Torcleaver instead – any great sword’s best weapon skills. There’s some potential use for Scourge’s aftermath, though, since it offers a respectable critical hit and accuracy boost.
3. Apocalypse
Ah yes, Apocalypse. A big fan-favorite amongst dark knights. While it isn’t the strongest ultimate scythe around, it certainly is the most resourceful. Its claim to fame is this weapon’s extremely efficient ability to keep dark knights alive, especially when solo. And the weapon skill Calamity is also capable of restoring up to 70% of its damage dealt as HP, often fully restoring the user’s HP in one attack. This allows dark knights to tank or solo content that they wouldn’t have ever dreamt of otherwise! To top it all off, this synergizes perfectly with Drain II and Drain III’s max HP boost effect, since there’s next-to-no maintenance in keeping HP topped up. Talk about easy survivability. Plus its aftermath effect, a massive Haste +10% and Accuracy +15, allows for some flexible equipment options in relation to gear haste. This means players could potentially equip more damage-focused equipment instead of worrying about sticking with a 25% haste set. Note: the Apocalypse harshly loses its sheen against undead, since they’re immune to HP draining effects.
2. Aegis
Anyone would be hard-pressed to find a paladin that doesn’t want to have (or already has) an Aegis. It’s such an integral part of their kit. Paladins in FFXI just doesn’t work the same without it. Back in the day, this was one of the most created relics besides Mandau, and rightfully so! It offers a massive Magic Damage Taken II -50%. And since it’s part of the second tier of damage taken reduction, it bypasses the natural magic damage taken cap of -50%. This allows paladins to gain up to 87.5% reduction in magic damage taken. Incredible! And that’s not all. Despite being categorized as a Size 5 shield, the Aegis behaves more like a Size 3 shield. It has an insane block rate of 50%, and when it does block, it reduces that damage by up to 75%. It’s little wonder why this shield is virtually always strapped onto any paladin, considering the game’s current abundance of magic damage-dealing enemies.
1. Gjallarhorn
Many will agree that this is the best and most important relic that any single job can use. Interestingly enough, it’s not even a weapon, but an instrument! The Gjallarhorn saves bards from lugging around many different instruments, because this is a one-stop shop to all songs. It’s the All Songs +4 that allows Gjallarhorn to sail to stardom. This effect greatly enhances the potency of every single song a bard can use, and it’s one of the only instruments available that gives such a potent boost across the board. As if that wasn’t enough, it also grants an additional enhancement tier for songs that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. This makes the Gjallarhorn an integral tool for bards, whose enhancements are really their specialty. Further backing up the Gjallarhorn’s usefulness is its more-than-welcome +25 Wind and Singing instrument skill. With all this in mind, a bard just isn’t a bard without one of these. And that’s why it sits at the top of our list.
