actually I\'d say all of those choices... if the weapons are balanced well with damge, speed, and type (such as slashing, bashing, etc etc) everyone high end weapon should come to about the same use. If the game is properly balanced the weapons would cleary all have their strong points and week points. Of course strange weapons (such as kukris, sickels, etc etc) are off in their own little world.
Weapons of their level (respectively, such as high medium or low quality) should all come to about the same utility. Such a balanced system would promote a large number of character options and keeping every player making cookie-cutter Uber Melee characters.
The same thing can be said for spells. Every way had beeter have some sort of balance to keep player creation, leveling, dualing, and just adventuring interesting. Look at the way every deck stands a chance in Magic... just some are better than others in different situations... unless if you suXoRZ!