What's the best melee weapon type for a Multiple Arms/Chimera build?

[Atari Sorceress]

At first I thought going all Axes for Dismembering enemies was the best choice, but apparently that was back when axe crits dismembered instead of cleaving. Even with Two-Weapon Fighting ( 75% chance to hit with Chimera arms ) or Multiple Arms at level 30 ( 97% chance to hit ), 3% and 6% aren't especially consistent.
The way I see it, I have 4 options:

1. Focus on Long Blades , as they deal the most damage and have vibroblades
   
2. Focus on Axes for Dismember/Cleave chance
   
3. Focus on Short Blades for the off-hand Jab/Multiple Arms combo
   
4. Focus on Long Blades in both main hands, and either Axes or Short Blades for the mutated arms.

Dismembering sounds more fun, but going all short blades seems like it would be more effective in the long run.

[glass zebra]

The axe skill finisher is Berserk! which gives you a 100% chance to dismember. There is alos an item that boosts many chance based effects, including dismembering, by a lot.

You forgot
5. Focus on cudgels because they keep stunning enemies

Long blades have the highest damage per hit, but otherwise the set is about the activated abilites, which will only hit with your main weapon. Short blades do more damage (on average) per turn due to attacking 33% more often and hammers have backswing (also scales with the chance increase) which can deal more damage than long blades if you don't have too many of them, along with options for infinite PV cap.

Any of the melee weapons sets are usable and as a chimera you will really not need just more and more damage. You will get so many just from the sheer amount of arms that you might want to focus on other things too. Hammers and axes are definitely great for survival due to their cc, while short blades can also add to cc with the freezing or flaming items mods and the ray mutations.

It really depends on how the rest of your build looks like. If you e.g. decide to take double-muscled from the start and pump all rapid advancements into it, hammers lose some appeal.

[Portent of Salamity]

Long swords have vibro, sure, but a high strength build might just get enough strength to make use of polygel'd Obo's fists, i.e. dual wielding 2-handed infinite strength cudgels. Axes are good for dealing with very tanky stuff with less than maybe 17-ish armor with the instakill chance, though so can serrated vibroblades, albeit not as fast.

[I blame Earthshaker]

Long blades only are probably the "worst" option for multi-armed chimeras, although long blade primary with off-hand short blades is still OK.

[Caramel_Clown]

Axes. Dismembering enemies while they are still alive is hilarious.

[Nihilum]

Bear in mind that you also have Flurry, to attack with every arm, and Berserk for 100% dismember chance for five turns. You can also look out for Precision Nanon Fingers for triple dismemberment chance, which stacks. Two pairs of those gloves will bring your puny 3% dismember chance to a whopping 27%, and you can make all your axes serrated for another chance at dismemberment that doesn't rely on penetrating their armour.