While it is a lot of fun to parse structures from a hex dump or disassemble opcodes in my head, I rely on many tools to reverse engineer software efficiently. In general, it does not matter which tools you use. It only matters that you know how to use them. However, finding the right tool for the task at hand is not always easy.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of tools I use regularly during malware analysis. Many of these tools have been recommended to me by very talented and experienced colleagues. Others I found while reading blogs or malware analysis reports. I hope this list inspires you to incorporate some of these tools into your analysis process.