So I was arguing about how Suda is better than the DA with my haters, and I realized that I haven't seen a thread discussing the balance of every single item in the game yet. So lets have at it.

The primary damage dealers:

These items are used for dealing damage against the main thing on a level. I find it best to bring about 2 of these to any given level, or one at least. These have special damage, and are situational against a certain genre of enemies. If there are multiple options for one use, they must be in direct competition with each other, meaning that they have to be balanced directly against each other rather than against similar weapons with similar mechanics.

Shadow damage:

Acheron VS Gran Faust

Acheron's main attraction over gran faust is its charge attack- while GF can be used for what is good damage on normal hits against enemies, acheron can do the same thing but better on the charge. Gran Faust on the other hand, has one huge thing over acheron- knockback. Overall, gran faust is better against mobs that don't dodge on its normal attack, but isn't nearly as effective at taking out polyp turrets, while acheron is better against polyps and the same against everything that GF excels at. It can be argued that GF is fine for taking out polyps, but again, the same tricks used to make GF take them out can be used on acheron, but to take it out faster. GF's charge is better at one thing- taking out huge crowds that have silkwings inside of them when the user has weapon slots/curse resistance... however, such crowds are not always common on levels that lack the features that make acheron better, and it is not such a big deal if you know what you are fighting as there are far better ways to deal with such a crowd.

Sentenza VS Umbra driver

Sentenza offers more mobility, while umbra driver offers more damage, and that is the bottom line. Sentenza has better control over the level due to its fast shot speed and large clip, while umbra driver offers the ability to utilize the switch-shield-shoot tactic that enables the user to rapidfire stronger shots and once again, deal more damage. Overall, Sentenza is much better if you can adequately strafe through bullet hell as it will help you out with that, while umbra driver is better at taking out bullet hell faster. Sentenza's charge is next to useless as well, while umbra driver's charge once again... does a ton of damage, and enable's umbra driver to OHKO enemies in a pinch, should the user have CTR on the thing. Umbra driver is also better against crowds of enemies, especially when gremlin healers are involved.

Sentenza is better as a side weapon in many cases due to its ability to hit buttons and things over gaps better, while umbra driver may be the weapon of choice for a "gunner" whom wishes to deal tons of damage. Keep in mind that umbra driver also requires more skill to use, and is far cheaper than Sentenza.

Dark Retribution VS other forms of damage

Dark retribution is a great source of damage against both large groups of enemies that are weak to shadow damage. It deals more damage than a single charge of a acheron when fighting mobs that are weak to it, and it is incredibly good against large mobs such as the jelly king, as well as mobs that don't move at all such as polyps and even gun puppies. All in all, it is a unique weapon that is about as effective as most other shadow weapons.

Elemental damage:

Brandishes VS Brandishes VS Brandishes

All brandishes are the same in terms of the normal attack, however differ quite a bit on the charge attack. Glacius offers ice, which stacks well with other ice weapons and provides a good deal of crowd control while not doing as much damage as other brandish lines. Not only will combuster hit all of the mobs for fire, but it will move them back to get in more hits, making it the 'deadliest' of the brandishes in terms of raw damage. The mid point to this is the voltedge, which hits them up for shock- it doesn't hit as many times as combuster due to the shock canceling out the knockback, but it does offer better crowd control than combuster and more damage than glacius. Thus, in the regards of damage and crowd control, voltedge is 'the best'. However, it is important to consider that glacius stacks with other forms of ice, and that combuster is good against slimes as well due to their weakness to fire. All in all, I'd put the brandishes even with each other.

Brandish lines VS Divine Avenger VS Warmaster Rocket Hammer

Similar to the argument stated above for 'Acheron VS Gran Faust', brandish lines are better at taking out turrets and about equal when taking out other things... the only difference in this argument, is that the DA is stronger when it comes to charges against the roarmulus twins, and against turrets. If planned correctly, you can OHKO most turrets with a single DA charge by standing about 1.5 squares away or so. However, brandish lines are still the best for taking out most other mobs one on one, and in a crowd given its charge that doesn't fail when next to a wall.

Enter WRH. This beast is capable of killing things extremely quickly when they can't move. Just run into them on the second hit, and smash them to bits. This makes it good when there are corners for you to push things into. In this regard, it is the greatest. However, it fails to brandishes when it comes to the charge attack- brandish lines have great crowd control, even when it comes to combuster. WRH's charge is decent at best, but is dangerous and ineffective compared to its 2nd hit, while brandishes can status crowds to kill them. It works well in conjunction with ice as well, due to the limited movement, although it is by no means restricted to this.

Bottom line: WRH for single target damage; Brandishes for everything else. Glacius/Voltedge+WRH is possibly the best if you're a swordy.

Alchemers VS Alchemers VS Alchemers VS Alchemers

Copied from another thread where I commented-
Nova: Best for single target damage VS enemies lacking shields that are not weak to umbra
Storm: Best for large groups of enemies that are close together and move often; works well with magma; best general crowd control
Magma: Best for turrets and large groups of enemies that do not clump together; works well with storm
Hail: Best for single targets that shield and healers; works well in conjunction with other ice themed items; best deliberate crowd control

And that about sums it up.

Alchemers VS Argent Peacemaker VS Polaris

Just as was the case before, much of the argument relating to 'Sentenza VS Umbra driver' remains true here. Alchemers are better for damage, while AP is better at mobility. AP's charge is just as terrible as Sentenza's, and the alchemers rock. In this case, the status alchemers are better in terms of crowd control, and AP is better at.. switches. The alchemers only get stronger though, as the rapidfire switching relies on them more often than not, and as I wrote above, Storm+Magma driver is an awesome combination, allowing the user to hit for massive damage quickly.

Polaris is the odd one out here. Its better at turrets, and somewhat terrible otherwise. The reason, is that it has knockback and shock... shock cancels knockback, making it unpredictable. That being said, it can be used to deal decent damage, but still far less than the alchemers and even Argent Peacemaker. If anything, polaris is just an efficient way to kill turrets, and as such is not good at this job.

Piercing Damage:

Flourishes VS Flourishes VS Flourishes VS Flo-SNARBOLAX SWORD

The current damage values assigned to the statusing variants are not nearly as effective as the non statusing variants of this sword. A 1/16 chance of stun is not so hot when it would otherwise take 3 hits to kill the thing. The only way it would help in that situation is if it stunned them, and somehow saved you.. but again, 1/16 is not enough of a chance to warrant using that. The fire variant is the same as the stun variant in this regard, in that it deals less damage than the damage variant, but has a slight chance to deal more. The one exception is that the stun/fire charges are much more effective against crowds of mobs- they deal 15/16 of the damage, and have a higher chance of status. This is of course a moot point seeing as that the snarbolax sword's charge deals a ton of damage against large numbers of mobs, and does not fling the user forward into danger.

Callahan VS Blitz needle VS Plague needle
Callahan has crappy damage, but the ability to knock down fiends and beasts. Blitz needle is pretty much the same way, except instead of crappy damage, it has the best damage of all time, but lacks much of the movement that callahan gets. Don't get me wrong, they both are sub optimal in terms of movement and vulnerability, but callahan less so. Callahan's charge attack is far worse than the blitzes, while blitz's charge is exactly the same as its normal hit, except longer and stronger. Callahan requires ASI, while blitz benefits from ASI and CTR, but mostly CTR. To fully unlock the power of the blitz needle, the user must use the charge. Click here for a summary of the blitz needle.

Plague needle is exactly like blitz, except that it causes poison and has bad damage. The poison caused is crappy, and the damage nerf is HUGE, and as such, the plague needle is not worth looking into unless you already own a blitz and plan to poison and then fight. The other place where plague is better than blitz is when there are healers and beasts in a crowd- shooting into a crowd repeatedly is a decent strategy, but even so, bringing venom veilor would be better than having it.

Dark Briar Barrage VS Flourishes VS Piercing Guns

DBB is much better against beasts. If you have troubles with beasts, make it, and spam it. It will destroy them, and is the overall weapon to use when using piercing against beasts, which it stun locks and destroys. Against fiends and vanaduke, it isn't nearly as hot as swords or blitz needle, although it can still be used to some effectiveness against fiends.

The Role of Normal Weapons (and other "helper" weapons):

Many people identify normal weapons as being useless, or sub-optimal mistakes by the devs, but I feel that I have seen the light on such an issue. They are, if you will, side weapons in many cases. If you're bombing, and want a side weapon that will take care of anything, you've got it. Think to yourself- do you REALLY need ASI MAX on your Brandishes in order to kill anything? Most of the time, no. Most of the time, you can beat anything without huge amounts of boosts, and that goes for specialized damage.

Lets say I told you to gear up to fight ANYTHING. That I would dump you into a random arena, and that you would fight it out. That arena might be anything- from islands of turrets you can't reach forming bullet hell to beasts from monster boxes on respawners. If you're a gunner, you might bring callahan, umbra driver and perhaps storm driver- but if you bring a fourth gun, you might not be able to deal with the possibility of the arena consisting of a small walk space surrounded by fire vents. So instead, you might want something like a sudaruska. You could then hit things away from your small walkway, and then gun them. Now, you might say "But DA is better for that!" What if you're fighting beasts on your walkway?? "Gran Faust!" You don't have room to hold onto both, and using one would sacrifice your guns.

But lets say that you aren't a gunner, and that you use whatever class fits the level. You don't know what this arena will require, but you do know that it is a normal arena with no statuses. Bombs could be the best if it had a large open space with mobs that chased you, guns could be the best if it had turrets, and swords could be the best if it had enemies that came up to you quickly. But you don't know what damage type will be the best- in this case, it would be best to bring things with the intent on just having something that will work. You don't need the overkill that is most specialized damage, but at the same time you do need something that works. So you might go for a loadout of ash of agni, valiance and leviathan blade, so that you can deal with whatever you come across. This situation occurs often in the form of danger rooms, in which you cannot possibly predict what kind of monsters you will fight.

Normal Swords:

Leviathan blade:
-Good DPS on turrets with the charge
-Good DPS on normal swings
-Less knockback on normal hits
-High knockback on the charge (can damage team mates)
-Works with ice semi-well

Cold Iron Vanquisher:
-Less DPS than Levi
-More DPS than Levi if fighting undeads
-Slightly worse in every other way
-Otherwise same as levi

Sudaruska
-Good DPS on charge; especially when fighting large amounts of enemies that follow you.
-Good Knockback on normal hits
-Bad DPS compared to other swords

Triglav
-Second hit may freeze; making this weapon dangerous to use from the front while stronger from the back
-Good knockback on the first hit
-Charge can freezelock and kill easily
-Works well with ice

Dread Venom Striker
-Poison makes large mobs die even faster+do more damage to the same target once you get started on it
-Worse for fighting multiple targets
-Good against enemies that don't move
-Charge is risky, but when pulled off deals a moderate amount of damage
-Works well with ice

Wild Hunting Blade
-Better against beasts
-Otherwise same as Dread Venom Striker minus poison
-20% cooler

Winmillion
-Is garbage
-Is mildly fun to use garbage that looks and behaves awesomely until you realize that it does next to no damage

Conclusion:
If normal damage is what you will primarily be outputting, then it would likely be best to take DVS/WHB (pending on beasts) or Leviathan. Leviathan would be best overall, although DVS/WHB can still kill turrets just as well, and won't hurt your party as much on the charge. It really all comes down to ice, if you have it, then DVS/WHB is better, if you don't levi will likely deal you better. Similarly, if you're going to be fighting large targets, DVS is much better, otherwise, Levi is. If you are focusing on gunning, then Sudaruska is what you're going to want, and if you are a bomber, then you're going to want Leviathan blade or DVS/WHB to back you up, as you probably already have crowd control without the levi charge.

Normal (or helper) Guns:

Supernova:
-Deals good knockback to mobs, allowing you to corner them and beat the crap out of them.
-Works with nitronome

Polaris:
-Random knockback; good for turrets only

Neutralizer:
-Offers knockback in specific directions
-Also capable of causing massive damage if played correctly via spamming the charge onto a single enemy and then leading other enemies into it to blow up.
-Is generally speaking not worth it due to its difficulty level being through the roof and the long time it takes to set up blasts; unreliable
-Works well with ice is an understatement

Biohazard:
-Not strictly normal; still used more as a helper weapon
-Much the same as Neut, but better on everything but slags; all else will be either be hurt more by it, or will be almost unbeatable by it or neutralizer

Iron Slug:
-Terrible source of DPS
-Fires slowly
-Has a high flinch factor, which relies on raw damage
-Putting all three of those together, in order to use it correctly, one must provide a large (about high-max) amount of damage buff, and in order to make it viable, you'll need a large (again, high or more) amount of attack speed increase. Used in conjunction with swords in order to stop bullets/enemies while attacking another enemy.

Volcanic Pepperbox:
-Great for turrets on the charge
-Great knockback against smaller mobs on the charge
-Great support weapon due to fire+the ability to knock enemies out of the way of party members
-Great damage weapon, but nothing compared to the blitz needle that it mirrors.
-Leaves the user vulnerable

Valiance
-Good knockback on normal hits
-Good knockback for large mobs on the charge (think being cornered by lumbers)
-Incredibly safe to use
-Low damage output

Conclusion:
Neutralizer/Biohazard is good if you have ice and only then, if not it is better to use volcanic pepperbox/valiance. Supernova is a poor choice overall, and is not really that useful unless you have many people to spam it with nitronome to keep safe. The best choice overall is valiance, due to its safety and the wide variaty of situations that you can use it in. For more experienced users, volcanic pepperbox is a fun alternative that can easily improve your team on most levels. Polaris is only really an option if you're a swordy wanting to kill turrets, and then it is a fairly good option. If you're using swords along with a swiftstrike buckler, iron slug can provide a side gun for you to bring along, although keep in mind that you'll need to get a decent damage (or ASI if you want to provide a damage buff using armors) UV for whatever you're fighting on it so as to actually flinch them.

Helper bombs: (notice that these are not "normal" bombs)

Nitronome (and other blast bombs)
-Decent damage
-Works well with itself and supernova
-Blinds your party and is generally chaotic and bad.

Shivermist Buster
-Is the keystone of the "ice" strategy, making many weapons better and many weapons fail
-Good if the party can plan ahead enough to make it work

Ash of Agni
-Is good for fire damage against all non-fire mobs
-Can be used to clear out large quantities of mobs at a time, slowly

Stagger Storm
-Can help your party to fight things; some mobs do not attack while staggered (mecha knights+Almire knights especially)
-Works in conjunction with all haze bombs; if you have 2 bombers, one can stagger to really clean up
-Will get your party killed due to stun's secondary effect of bending time and space to allow entities to attack twice when stunned; can be avoided by continuously placing the bomb
-Rarely resisted

Venom veilor
-Better than ash of agni if there are healers; though your party must know this (rare; tell them)
-Stacks with other haze bombs

Voltaic Tempest
-Stacks with other haze bombs (not shiver)
-Can be used in place of shiver to some extent
-Good for crowd control and damage

Electron Vortex
-Best bomb for crowd control and support
-Works well with high powered charge attacks
-Capable of grinding healers and other mobs to death with electricity
-Slow walk speed (making it harder to use by a bit, but incredibly effective once you get the hang of it)

Graviton Vortex
-Decent, but worse than electron vortex by far. Does not cause a status that holds the enemies; and as such fails

Conclusion:
While many of the bombs above are good for support, and are all somewhat good, the only one you will really need is the electron vortex. Unless you're fighting quicksilvers or other shock resistant mobs, it will outperform 90% of support bombs. If you're soloing, then ash of agni is far better than it, but even so, it is usable for that too. Spamming haze bombs is effective, but why bother when you can bring your electron bomb and just get your buddies to blast them? That being said, if you're pugging it up and you don't exactly trust your new friends to notice that you're spamming electron bombs, ash of agni/vt can provide better options alongside a neutral damage sword of your own. If soloing, nitronome is viable due to only blinding yourself as opposed to your team mates, although chances are that ash of agni will still outperform it due to no knockback. It is notable to say that shiver can be stacked with electron for added effect, and that shiver is popular at FSC due to its strength in the duke fight. Shiver is also a good option for most situations if your team has items that go with it, especially those in which shock is ruled out by theme.

Bosses

Snarbolax:

The snarbolax itself is not a problem, although the rabid snarbolax-plural found in the ultimate gloaming wildwoods can be. It merits mostly all out piercing attacks for damage. Specifically, piercing swords and the blitz needle for the actual hits. Electron vortex can come in handy here due to its ability to suck in the snarbolax, although is not specifically needed for such a thing, as your time is going to be better spent fighting the swarm thing that slows you down. I personally would also recommend wild hunting blade for the fight on one person, so as to kill the swarm seed at light speed, although again, it is just a nice touch over all. Of course, sentenza and argent peacemaker come in handy as well due to the bell mechanic. Callahan COULD be used, although its DPS is too low to really compete with blitz, as when the snarbolax is stunned, its easy to hit wihtout a flinch mechanic and doesn't benefit further stunning.

Roarmulus Twins:

The divine avenger is needed for this fight if you are to go at the fastest speed possible. While it can be done with just brandishes or even haze bombs for that matter, DA's charge will hit the hardest... the one case I'd recommend it in over that of the brandish lines. If you plan on running nothing but ICMF for an extended period of time, get a DA. Sentenza will aid you in the levels leading up to the twins, and will give you the ability to hit switches fast enough. Aside from that, not much is to be said.

The Jelly King: (because royal jelly sounds weird)

JK is an interesting boss fight, in that some items are just ridiculously effective on it while others are not. These items are pretty much one hit KOs when brought to the fight, and will make the entire thing a joke. If your party lacks them entirely, then you'll end up wasting time on the polyps in order to 'starve' the king.

The KO weapons that slay Jelly King easily are, in order of about most effective to least effective are: (Its hard to rank them in such a fashion)
-Dark Retribution
-Acheron
-FoV
-Volcanic Pepperbox
-Leviathan Blade
-Combuster
-Glacius/Voltedge
-Ash of Agni
-Umbra driver
-Gran faust
-Venom Veilor
-Magma driver
-Storm/Nova driver
-Hail driver

That is to say that while it will still work, bringing something like hail driver will be significantly harder to KO with than dark retribution.

Vanaduke:

Vanaduke's strategy revolves around the blitz needle, which deals a ton of damage to him. The poison variant has a side roll, if brought with either shiver or another blitz, it can be used to poison while your team deals damage.... basically free damage. The poison variant is by all means not needed, as you can almost do more damage just by bringing a blitz without it at all. Shivermist buster is good if you like to win without putting in any effort, or are new to the fight. Shivering is also a common job in most parties, as when playing with randoms it is best to assume that they know nothing about what is ahead. Shiver makes the fight significantly easier, and a teensy bit slower. If you're going to be doing vanaduke with only swords, war master rocket hammer is your best bet, alongside a dread venom striker. Warmaster rocket hammer is also good if you lack a blitz/shiver to help out in damaging vanaduke in that you can quickly kill the almire guard knights that he spawns.

Shadow lair notes:

The things in the shadow lairs that slow you down are best countered with either DVS or argent peacemaker/sentenza. If your party lacks that, most other swords will do just fine, but won't be optimal. The unknown passageway is best traversed by argent/sentenza as well, and nitronome/blast bombs are somewhat useful there as they can be spammed to push lots of things away from you in the timed fights. Other than that, using whatever you have to kill stuff should be fine. The levels found prior to the boss fights often favor polaris due to the large number of annoying turrets found within, although not so much within UICMF, especially due to the quicksilvers which absorb shock and red rovers which are for the most part a joke, although there are situations where supernova can be used if you really have turret problems.

......So thats about how I see the balance in this game, in terms of usability of weapons.

EDIT: I wrote about the balance of the new shard bombs here: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/63067