Talk:Flail of Ages/@comment-2.10.128.52-20181025143918

By the time it becomes +5, it's just the best 1-handed weapon in the game period. It does more damage than almost all two handed weapons, slows the opponent which brings all kinds of advantages (slows down casting time, makes melee attack animations easy to spot so you can fall back a second and charge again, prevents the enemy to flee, reduce incoming damage, ...), and grants Free Action which is amazing provided you don't forget to switch to a different weapon when a haste spell is about to be applied.

As a +3 weapon it is still pretty good, but the loss of Free Action and the elemental damage more than 3 times lower means that there are weapons to equal or outrank it, such as Celestial Fury or Crom Faeyr. Interestingly, the simple sword Belm is ToB end game material because it empowers the best weapons in dual wielding; switching to another off-hand weapon is only advisable in specific circumstances (immunity to +2 weapons or the necessity to get certain effects, or a lack of STR on the character making Crom Faeyr a potentially, but still arguably considering giant belts, better off-hand choice)