Frostner. Can already be built in Mountains and lasts until the end of the content.. for now. I even killed the Queen with it, no need for a Mistland weapon.

The Demolisher with Protection magic is just 🤌.

Bronze Atgeir spin attack is king.

Anything high damage ranged is going to be best if you can keep your range and not close to melee which means so the fire staff is a safe bet.

If in melee...probably the lightning atgir, its name escapes me at the moment. Mostly because of aoe stagger and high stagger in general along with high damage and fairly quick attacks.

As everyone has said though the situation can change what the "best" weapon is.

The best weapon is your fists. What do you use to hold all those fancy weapons? Exactly.

Krom is a fun weapon, stuns when you special stab them, especially soldier bugs in their butts. or after a parry. the main swings are good as well. almost useless against gjalls is my complaint... should be able to attach some chains to it, throw at a gjall kratos style and button mash to hack up gjalls for 15 minutes.
last part was a bit of sarcasm.

Depends on the play style....I like them all.

It's pretty difficult to go wrong with blunt and fire, so yeah, staff of embers is the king... It's ranged, large AoE, can stagger enemies, has very high damage per action length, and doesn't require ammunition. Elemental staves in general are perfectly usable with just one meal of eitr, and don't require stamina for casting. There's nothing in the game that staff of embers is ineffective against. Its only weakness is low durability.

Staff of embers is pretty good because of the blunt damage, but needs etier food. destroyer is good for same reason plus stun can be done in 1-2 hits. I would also say knives in all tiers are really good and versatile. Those are my top 3 in no particular order

Atgeir

A nice shield and axe carries you trough most of the game, parries are overpowered, you can parry a troll and just destroy it with counters.

depends entirely on which your highest weapon skill level is. there is no overall best due to this.

I would agree that it gives the most boom for the buck, but by the time you get the flame staff the game is pretty much over, so I'll stick with the trusty atgeir.

I would have to say it totally depends on the situation. Sometimes a mace is better than an atgeir.

Skoll & Hati or Mistwalker
one does more frost, spirit, slash has a greater range adder & wielded together with a shield whilst the other does more pierce and higher attack speed
situational options