Avowed Equipment Guide — Weapons, Armor & Enchanting

How Equipment Works

You equip two weapon sets and can swap between them freely mid-combat. This is the entire foundation of hybrid builds — one set for melee, one for range or spell focus. The game never tells you to exploit this swap, but experienced players use it constantly. Swap weapon sets, not just weapons.

Quality tiers are Common → Fine → Exceptional → Superb → Legendary. Higher quality means better base stats and more enchantment slots. Don't enchant Common or Fine gear — you'll replace it soon. Start enchanting at Exceptional.

Two-weapon-set rule: Your second weapon set costs an action to swap to, but no other cost. Build around the swap — a Wizard who opens with a staff combo before drawing a Grimoire, or a Fighter who switches to a crossbow when enemies are stunned, gets significantly more from their loadout.

Weapon Types

⚔️ One-Handed Melee

Swords, axes, maces, flails. One-handers pair with a shield or off-hand weapon. The fastest attack speed in the game. Swords have the best crit scaling; maces deal bonus damage to armored enemies; flails push through Deflection better than any other weapon type.

Weapon	Strength	Best For
Sword	High crit multiplier, fast swing	Fighter, Spirit Blade, Battle Mage
Axe	Bleed on hit (damage over time)	Iron Bastion sustained damage
Mace	+20% damage vs Armored enemies	Any build vs heavy-armor enemies
Flail	Bypasses Deflection bonus from shields	Counter to tanky/shielded enemies
Dagger	Fastest attack speed, high crit chance	Ghost Ranger melee fallback, Spirit Blade offhand

🗡️ Two-Handed Melee

Greatswords, greataxes, war hammers, pikes. Two-handers deal the highest raw melee damage in the game. No shield, no off-hand — pure offensive output. The Iron Bastion build uses these exclusively. War hammers stagger enemies on hit (knocks them off their attack animation), which is an underrated CC effect.

Weapon	Strength	Best For
Greatsword	Best DPS of all two-handers, wide swing arc	Iron Bastion, Battle Mage backup
Greataxe	Highest single-hit damage, slow swing	Iron Bastion, burst damage builds
War Hammer	Stagger on hit, bonus vs large/armored enemies	Iron Bastion vs bosses
Pike	Extended reach — hits enemies at medium range	Keeping range vs fast enemies

🏹 Ranged

Bows, crossbows, pistols, arquebus. Ranged weapons are the Ghost Ranger's primary and appear in weapon set two for most other builds. Bows have fastest fire rate; crossbows fire slower but hit much harder per bolt; pistols deal moderate damage but have the highest crit base of any ranged weapon; arquebuses reload slowly but stagger every enemy hit.

Weapon	Strength	Best For
Hunting Bow	Fastest fire rate, works well in movement	Ghost Ranger sustained DPS
War Bow	Harder hit per arrow, better armor pen	Ghost Ranger vs heavy targets
Crossbow	Slower but high burst damage, accurate	Spirit Blade weapon set two
Pistol	Highest crit chance of any ranged weapon	Ghost Ranger crit build, Marius companion
Arquebus	Stagger on every hit, highest single-shot damage	Anti-elite/boss tool

🔮 Spell Implements

Wands, rods, staves, Grimoires. Implements are the Wizard's primary weapons — wands fire fast and apply status effects; rods have slow fire but high spell damage; staves function as melee weapons with a spell damage bonus. Grimoires are equipped to your off-hand and determine which spells you can cast — the Grimoire Swap mechanic lets you maintain two sets of spells simultaneously.

Item	Function	Best For
Wand	Fast projectile, applies elemental debuffs	Arcane Scholar at range, Battle Mage set up
Rod	Slow but highest implement damage	Arcane Scholar high-damage cast rotation
Staff	Melee + spell bonus; good for mobile casters	Battle Mage primary melee
Grimoire	Off-hand — determines available spell list	All Wizard builds; swap for second spell set

Grimoire Swap: You can equip two Grimoires across your two weapon sets. Your available spell list changes when you swap sets. This doubles the variety of spells you have available without investing in additional skill trees.

Armor

Three armor classes — Light, Medium, Heavy — each with a different trade-off between mobility and protection. The game shows you an Armor Rating number, but the more important stats are Recovery Penalty (how much armor slows your recovery between actions) and special bonuses on named pieces.

Armor Class	Protection	Recovery Penalty	Best For
Light	Low damage reduction	None	Arcane Scholar, Ghost Ranger, Yatzli (companion)
Medium	Moderate damage reduction	Low	Battle Mage, Spirit Blade — balance of protection and mobility
Heavy	High damage reduction	High (mitigated by Fighter skills)	Iron Bastion — also Kai (companion)

Recovery Penalty matters more than Armor Rating for action-economy builds. A Battle Mage in Medium armor who casts on schedule is more effective than the same build in Heavy armor stutter-casting because of recovery delays.

Notable Armor Subtypes

Plate Armor

Heavy. Highest protection. Best for Iron Bastion. Buy it, upgrade it, don't switch.

Robes

Light. Minimal protection, maximum spell performance. Arcane Scholar, Wizard, Yatzli.

Leather / Scout Armor

Light. Best balance for Ghost Ranger — keeps Stealth and movement speed high.

Battle Vestments

Medium. Built for caster-melee hybrids — bonus spell damage on hit. Battle Mage default.

Enchanting

Enchanting modifies weapons and armor at an Enchanting Workbench (found in settlements). You need Copper and specific materials depending on the enchantment. Each item has a limited number of enchantment slots that expand with quality tier — another reason to upgrade to Exceptional before you invest in enchantments.

Weapon Enchantments

Enchantment	Effect	Best Applied To
Burning	Adds Fire damage over time on hit	Fast weapons — swords, daggers, wands
Chilling	Applies Chilled; stacks to Frozen	Ranged weapons + Yatzli's Ray of Frost setup
Shocking	Chance to Stagger on hit	Two-handers, arquebuses (already stagger)
Wounding	Applies Bleed (stacking damage over time)	Axes and high-speed weapons
Keen	+15% crit chance	Daggers, pistols — any crit-scaling build
Spell-Touched	+10% spell damage on melee hit (weapons) or +10% to all magic (staves)	Battle Mage, Spirit Blade, Arcane Scholar secondary
Corrosive	Reduces enemy Armor Rating; stacks 3×	Two-handers vs elites and bosses

Armor Enchantments

Enchantment	Effect	Best Applied To
Fortified	+10% max Health	Melee builds — Iron Bastion, Battle Mage
Warding	+8 Deflection vs melee attacks	Any build that gets hit in melee range
Fleet	-5% Recovery Penalty	Heavy armor builds to recover speed penalty
Arcane Warding	+10% resistance to spell damage	Any build in Acts 2–3 (enemy spellcasters become common)
Steadfast	Immunity to Prone and Knockback	Iron Bastion — removes the only reliable way to stagger a tank

Enchanting priority: Weapon enchantments return more value than armor enchantments for most builds. Prioritize your main weapon first. For armor, Steadfast (Iron Bastion) and Fleet (Heavy builds) are the highest-impact single enchantments in the game.

Equipment by Build

Build	Primary Weapon	Secondary Set	Armor	Key Enchant
Arcane Scholar	Rod or Wand	Grimoire #2	Robes	Spell-Touched on wand
Battle Mage	Staff	Grimoire #2	Battle Vestments (Medium)	Spell-Touched on staff
Spirit Blade	Sword (one-handed)	Crossbow or Grimoire	Medium	Keen on sword for crit
Iron Bastion	Greatsword / War Hammer	Arquebus	Plate (Heavy)	Steadfast on armor; Corrosive on weapon
Ghost Ranger	Hunting Bow or Pistol	Daggers	Leather (Light)	Keen on bow; Chilling for combos