Bardin Ranger build

[White Zombie]

Other than Dual Hammer, is the 2 handed axe or 2 handed hammer viable on Legend or Cataclysm?

[Goblin]

2 handed hammers are one of the best weapons in the game currently.

[NoSavy¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

One handed hammer works. Problem with the 2 handed hammer is its slow attack speed. That is a problem on cata. Havent played the 2 handed axe much.

[Haggis]

Both, and shields, and 1 handers with a large dodge range. Your melee weapon is really only there for blocking/dodging/kiting and dealing with ambients.

Ranger Bardin is more about the ranged weapon and your positioning. I have a love affair with the Grudgeraker so when the hordes come, I would focus on getting clear lines of fire and blowing away a dozen enemies at a time. This is made particularly easy when you stealth yourself, and you can have your stealth up a lot with the Grudgeraker if you take the talent that reduces the CD whenever you reload. Swap it out for a Crossbow if you want to be more focused on Elite/Special duty, although the playstyle is largely the same with both. If you are going bomber build then you are largely doing the same thing, but using your 2x bombs to blow even bigger chunks out of the incoming enemy.

Your main concerns as Ranger Veteran:
-How long until your ultimate is off cooldown?
-Where is the team relative to where you are standing, and can you get back to them BEFORE your stealth runs out.
Most importantly:
-Do you have enough room to use the smoke grenade? Bardin becomes temporarily vulnerable for some retarded reason when he uses it, so make sure that you've either bashed nearby enemies away with your shield, staggered them with your 2 hander, or dodged far enough away with your 1 hander. It's also recommended to be standing behind the front line when you use the stealth, and then you can go off and get your perfect angles.

If you do not have stealth then stick with your team standing just behind the front line and contribute whatever meagre amount you can. The focus will be on staying safe until you can abuse your ranged/bombing abilities again.

[Oni]

Viable Ranger Veteran weapons for Legend, Cataclysm

1h Axe (Underrated versatile, fast, good overheads, hard to use)
1h Hammer (one of the best 1h weapons in the game)
Dual Hammers (The best weapon for Ranger, imo)
Axe & Shield (Performs better than H&S)
Hammer & Shield (Better for IronBreaker, much slower, Slow Push-Heavy Combo)
Pickaxe (Throwing Axe Power Build, one-shots Elites/Specials)

2h Great Axe, 2h Great Hammer are very slow with Ranger and under-perform, i would not recommend

Great Axe and Great Hammer both have a good overhead but you will be using this much more than you want, since both weapon's heavy attacks are some of the slowest start-up frame attacks in the game, not effective with a burst DPS character

Sweeps for Great Hammer are Heavy Attacks that leave you open to getting hit with slow start-up frames, with a squishy hero

Sweeps for Great Axe you must use Push-Attack or an even slower Heavy Attack
(hold RMB, Hold LMB)

Ranger Veteran is the least proficient in melee between Bardin's Careers

[Noha]

Playing ranger veteran in melee after playing Slayer is such a pain with his incredibly slow swings (because you need "power vs" breakpoints on charm to deal enough ranged dmg, cant go with AS).

Result? i take ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of chipdamage because im spoiled with staggering the enemy with a melee-swing before it hits me.

With bardins ranger you need to be careful when you enter melee, you cant play the dual hammers like with a slayer (like a lawnmower), you need to block more and utilize your push attacks more.

Also Grudge-raker in a pug environment where people are kinda greedy to rack up kills is quite painful. Can be hard to get into a decent position in time.

Shot them in the back once to establish dominance (rofl)

Xbow is much easier to use but not as fun.

[Noha]

About melee weapon choices - with a Grudge-raker you can probably be a bit more flexible and not worry TOO much about breakpoints, since its mainly used to clear swarms/zerkers..

I wouldnt use a 2h weapon on ranger unless you got attack-speed on charm.. .