Which Tactical Axe Mk is the best at what and why?

[Derpro]

Hello. I think tactical axes are a very fun and overlooked weapon in general, especially if you slam the brutal momentum blessing on it with headtaker, or something similar. This thread will be for discussing each mark, which you prefer and why to ultimately find out which one is overall the best choice.

All weapons have been tested on enemies that are on damnation difficulty.

My impressions of each mk in general from using them on a veteran:

Mk II: My personal favorite. Light attacks are very strong and quick at focused single target damage with armor piercing capabilities. Heavy attacks both sweep enemies, hitting multiple of them at once. Special is a combo of swings from upward with the blunt end of the axe that staggers enemies effectively at the cost of dmg, which can even stagger crushers if spammed. The secret strength of this weapon I believe is the shove follow-up, which with brutal momentum absolutely shreds hordes, without any compromise to your single target options, armor piercing options you gain with this weapon. Overall this axe is the strongest pick in my opinion.

Mk IV: Light attacks all sweep, making it good at clearing hordes with lights instead of heavies that are both vertical, effectively being the exact opposite of mk II. The shove followup attack is different and does not cleave as much as Mk II in my experience, whether you use a brutal momentum or not, but it isn't as necessary either, as this one clears the fastest with the use of light spam. Special attack is a quick shove/stab with the axe blade, that can be spammed into its own special combo of 3 attacks if you keep using it consequtively, with the 3rd being the special attack of mk II. Two shoves will stagger a crusher if they hit. I think this is the weapon to use, if you prefer fighting hordes with lights and reserving your heavy attacks for specialist enemies. In my experience, the light spam of mk II beats this weapon at dealing with enemies in single-target situations, as heavies and lights must be mixed in to make mk IV compete with it in the same situations.

Mk VII: This axe is more specialized, as its light combos belong to mk II while its heavy attacks belong to mk IV. This is possibly the axe with the most potential out of the 3, in the hands of the right tactical axe pro. Not recommended for beginners, but a pick to be considered if you feel up to something more advanced for your melee options with a tactical axe. Both its heavy and light attacks are centered around single target options, making it excessively good at attacking specialists and armored enemies, but allowing for the lights to have a solid cleave with the brutal momentum blessing. The shove attack follow-up isn't as devastating against hordes as the mk II, leaving it the weakest of the 3 at horde clearing in my opinion. The special however is the strongest of all the 3 in my opinion, with a combo of only 2 attacks, making it the best axe of the 3 for combo options. However I recommend this of the 3 the least.

Have fun with tactical axes, boys.

[Bug Guy]

Yeah I agree with everything you said. I love the Mk II on my stealth zealot. I have brutal momentum and headtaker and it just tears through everything, lacks enough punch to one shot crushers with the invis, but its still great. MkIV I like for having that extra oomph in its heavies, but the fact that you dont have to try as hard to deal with hordes since you can light your way through it I think makes it the best beginner tactical axe. MkVII I have no idea how to use lol Im terrible with it

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Derpro:

Hello. I think tactical axes are a very fun and overlooked weapon in general

I agree with them being fun, not so with the overlooked. The problem is that they don't do anything that isn't done better by other weapons. The Knife has it beat in attack speed and sheer DPS and the Catachan Sword is the better horde clear. And all 3 of these compete for the same niche of "swift but deadly"

Regardless what you value them for, if you are already willing to spam those attacks you are better off with a knife and its much better heavy attacks and blessings. And you just can't have the wide sweeps of the Catachan swords.

And likely if you enjoy tactical axes over knife and C-swords, you will end up loving combat axes more than the tactical axe.

[varicose 'vascular' vinny]

The tactical axe has a lot more stagger power than a catachan blade or sword. This is where it niches out imo, it's good against all single target entities except carapace, and has good horde fighting unlike the combat axes that need brutal momentum or a push heavy loadout. Dealing with ragers and maulers close in is a lot easier than with a catachan blade, the heavy attacks stagger elites like crazy and you also have the special combo for even more stagger. Catachan blade needs both Zealot stagger perks to work on ragers, and it doesn't even do more than lightly stun.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by kidney geodes:

Catachan blade needs both Zealot stagger perks to work on ragers

It doesn't, tho. I know most people don't realize there is an extended push in the game, where you push and then strike. Or in the case of the Force Sword push and then Force Push. But if you push and strike or "heavy push", as i'll call it, the Catachan Combat Blade eats through a Rager. Same with the Sword, though with the sword the parry special is preferable to the "heavy push".

I would never rely on Stagger to deal with a Rager, unless you are an Ogryn.

[Derpro]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Originally posted by Derpro:

Hello. I think tactical axes are a very fun and overlooked weapon in general

I agree with them being fun, not so with the overlooked. The problem is that they don't do anything that isn't done better by other weapons. The Knife has it beat in attack speed and sheer DPS and the Catachan Sword is the better horde clear. And all 3 of these compete for the same niche of "swift but deadly"

Regardless what you value them for, if you are already willing to spam those attacks you are better off with a knife and its much better heavy attacks and blessings. And you just can't have the wide sweeps of the Catachan swords.

And likely if you enjoy tactical axes over knife and C-swords, you will end up loving combat axes more than the tactical axe.

Though I very much like the knife and swords, I find it lacking with its lack of a shove follow-up attack that can cleave. Otherwise I have tried the combat axe, and though I find the cleaving version of them (Antax V I think it's called) very strong, I prefer the mobility the tactical axe provides over it.

This thread is about tactical axes, though and not the above weapons you mentioned. Which one of the three mks do you think is the best?

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Derpro:

Which one of the three mks do you think is the best?

Personally prefer the MK 2. Its movement pattern work the best for me.

[Derpro]

Originally posted by Bug Guy:

Yeah I agree with everything you said. I love the Mk II on my stealth zealot. I have brutal momentum and headtaker and it just tears through everything, lacks enough punch to one shot crushers with the invis, but its still great. MkIV I like for having that extra oomph in its heavies, but the fact that you dont have to try as hard to deal with hordes since you can light your way through it I think makes it the best beginner tactical axe. MkVII I have no idea how to use lol Im terrible with it

That's what makes the mk VII fun to figure out, though, but it takes time.

[Zsrai]

Doesn't the IV have the weird upwards attack? I tend to prefer the VII because of that, but I also haven't used the II in a long time.

[Derpro]

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Doesn't the IV have the weird upwards attack? I tend to prefer the VII because of that, but I also haven't used the II in a long time.

Yep. Mk IV's heavy attacks are both vertical, but its 2nd comes from below. Mark VII's heavy attacks are pretty weird and not as easy to get used to imo, because its opener is mk II's opener, while it's 2nd heavy attack is mk IV's opener. [/quote]

[Rob DiGiorno]

tac axe rules

I feel like mel gibson in the patriot

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Derpro:

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Doesn't the IV have the weird upwards attack? I tend to prefer the VII because of that, but I also haven't used the II in a long time.

Yep. Mk IV's heavy attacks are both vertical, but its 2nd comes from below. Mark VII's heavy attacks are pretty weird and not as easy to get used to imo, because its opener is mk II's opener, while it's 2nd heavy attack is mk IV's opener.

Yeah that second heavy is why I don't like the IV much. Harder to get weakspot hits with it.

I'll have to pick up a grey II from Brunt's Armory and give it a round in the Psykanium to see how it feels, it's just been way too long for me.

[Arani]

Originally posted by Derpro:

Hello. I think tactical axes are a very fun and overlooked weapon in general, especially if you slam the brutal momentum blessing on it with headtaker, or something similar. This thread will be for discussing each mark, which you prefer and why to ultimately find out which one is overall the best choice.

All weapons have been tested on enemies that are on damnation difficulty.
...

Sorry for the necro, but since this is still accurate information and OP's summary is by far one of the best I've seen, I wanted to give my thanks!

Been using knives way too long and a few days ago started delving into the TacAxes. I've never considered them anything more than mid, but it turns out like knives once you invest into a bit of extra stamina and mobility (sprint efficiency & sta recovery speed), they become a lot stronger than one might think.

Their gameplay is very similar to knives too, so it was an easy transition. Both are fast, mobile, excel on headshots & crits with an innate crit bonus (just a 3% difference with max stats), and have fantastic push attacks. Biggest difference there is that knives have a 0.5 sprint sta consumption where TacAxes have 0.75 (same as Duelling Swords btw), and TacAxes have a much higher dmg per hit and the potential for some massive cleave with Brutal Momentum. So while knives can be blessed into high dmg, TacAxes excel at that naturally and it's not contingent upon the specific needs of the blessings. But TacAxes have no bleeds, which on knives enables some really strong hit & run tactics, low reliance on headshots & crits and makes it easy to solo monsters.

But one thing I can't figure out is the rep on VII. As OP said here, it has a huge reputation for being the expert axe. And I just don't get why? VII is just all single-target, with both attack types doing essentially the same thing while leaving it severely limited against hordes. Either of the other 2 will get you the same attacks for either light or heavy, while still having the other attack available for cleave & hordes. What am I missing here? The only thing I like about VII over the rest is that its base model is absolutely gorgeous and way better than any skins I have for it. xD

[xDaunt]

I haven’t found much use for the VII and don’t really get it. The II with its heavy attack pattern is very good on a standard momentum set up with brutal momentum and headtaker. The IV is absolutely monstrous in crit/martyrdom builds with shred and brutal momentum. The light attack spawn clears stuff like a Rashad but with crazy attack speed.

[[CBS] Ham]

I love my MK VII. This Weapon with crits shreds through everything.
Headtaker+ BM.
The attack-pattern is H into L. This pattern is a lawnmower. It uses both very horizontal-attacks and kills hordes very quickly.
Kills just about anything very fast. Best used on zealot with crit-build.
IMO far better than MKII, because the L-Attack comes out much faster than the MKII H into H, making this much safer.
The defense is also impressive with good dodge count and good dodge distance.


But with this said, did they fix the bug with this weapon?
Since a long time, when your finesse-stat is above 70%, many hits will just start to whiff. You will know what i mean. Every second attack will just do nothing. They will not be registered as a hit, or the hitbox is just weird.
This will only or increased occour if the weapon speed gets to fast(70% finesse was the breakpoint for me), so keystones with attackspeed are also not good.
Attackspeed is not really needed, because the weapon is fast enough with H into L pattern.
But I didnt bother testing this for a months.
This also only applies to my knowledge to mkVII.

Edit:
I did a little bit of testing:
The bug is still present, but it seems its gotten better. My 66% Finesse weapon does not whiff.
My 74% still whiffs somtehing like every second light attack in the pattern. Not acceptable, you will eat hits alot because of this. And miss damage.
I do not have faster weapons, so i dont know if this gets even worse with 80% finesse.
Do not take attack-speed keystones (like faithful frenzy on zealot), or this will also occour.
Edit 2:
The whiffs do not occour that much, but they just happen to much. especially on headshot to crushers. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Feels very random.

[Derpro]

Originally posted by Arani:

Originally posted by Derpro:

Hello. I think tactical axes are a very fun and overlooked weapon in general, especially if you slam the brutal momentum blessing on it with headtaker, or something similar. This thread will be for discussing each mark, which you prefer and why to ultimately find out which one is overall the best choice.

All weapons have been tested on enemies that are on damnation difficulty.
...

Sorry for the necro, but since this is still accurate information and OP's summary is by far one of the best I've seen, I wanted to give my thanks!

Been using knives way too long and a few days ago started delving into the TacAxes. I've never considered them anything more than mid, but it turns out like knives once you invest into a bit of extra stamina and mobility (sprint efficiency & sta recovery speed), they become a lot stronger than one might think.

Their gameplay is very similar to knives too, so it was an easy transition. Both are fast, mobile, excel on headshots & crits with an innate crit bonus (just a 3% difference with max stats), and have fantastic push attacks. Biggest difference there is that knives have a 0.5 sprint sta consumption where TacAxes have 0.75 (same as Duelling Swords btw), and TacAxes have a much higher dmg per hit and the potential for some massive cleave with Brutal Momentum. So while knives can be blessed into high dmg, TacAxes excel at that naturally and it's not contingent upon the specific needs of the blessings. But TacAxes have no bleeds, which on knives enables some really strong hit & run tactics, low reliance on headshots & crits and makes it easy to solo monsters.

But one thing I can't figure out is the rep on VII. As OP said here, it has a huge reputation for being the expert axe. And I just don't get why? VII is just all single-target, with both attack types doing essentially the same thing while leaving it severely limited against hordes. Either of the other 2 will get you the same attacks for either light or heavy, while still having the other attack available for cleave & hordes. What am I missing here? The only thing I like about VII over the rest is that its base model is absolutely gorgeous and way better than any skins I have for it. xD

Well, it only took a ½ year for someone to find it useful. Happy to help.

Reason I find VII complicated isn't that it is a complicated weapon in itself, but more due to how straightforward the other two options are in comparison. I also love the weapon, because all Tac-Axes are amazing choices, but I find the pattern requires a bit more thought to be put into while fighting. To develop a proper muscle memory I find it requires more practice than with the other two for optimal use, and can come off feeling different, given how easy the other two are in comparison. It's also a bit harder to weave the patterns properly, with a weapon that is as fast in nature as all the tac-axes are.