Axe & shield vs Hammer & shield?

[Fanda Nyamo]

Your opinions and why?

[Neptune Towers]

Axe & shield because the first charged attack is a shield bash, so you can effectively control hordes by alternating a push and a charged attack. The light attacks themselves are rather useless on both weapons, and the hammer version starts with a hammer bash instead of a shield blow which is a lot less effective in terms of horde control. Same for sword & shield vs mace & shield pretty much.

[M4tt]

Hammer is for cc, axe for AP damage. What I'd pick depends on what my secondary weapon is.

[Sticky Mick]

Originally posted by .xXx.W4R10KK.xXx.:

Axe & shield because the first charged attack is a shield bash, so you can effectively control hordes by alternating a push and a charged attack. The light attacks themselves are rather useless on both weapons, and the hammer version starts with a hammer bash instead of a shield blow which is a lot less effective in terms of horde control. Same for sword & shield vs mace & shield pretty much.

This^^

.....but 2H hammer is still the King!

[No emaN]

The Axe & Shield's purpose is to focus down elites without sacrificing your blocking. It starts off with the shield bash on a it's first heavy attack. The second heavy attack is a cleave for even more CC. The third heavy is literally a single target hit. If you continue using heavy (charged) attacks it alternates between the second and third heavy attacks. So if you want your shield bash you must reset the attack chain by blocking. I try to use the continued chain attacks to hit the horde, then smack an elite, horde, elite, rinse repeat. The heavy attacks are supposed to be CC, not the single target damage. If I wanted single target I would use the push attack or the base attack.

Hammer & Shield has the speed and gets the job done to take on hordes and elites. True that it doesn't start out with the shield bash but there' is a means around that. Push attack, then heavy there you got 2 shield bashes in that combo for 1 stamina. I can chain heavy attacks to CC without having to account for a suddenly strange ST third charged heavy attack. The first charged attack starts off with its damage rather than its stagger there is a personal purpose for that. For single target I can push attack reliably with an overhead strike that will land me easy headshots on ST's. Then just basic swings for elites but you just have to aim like other weapons or just charge attack to make it easy for others to kill. What's more important to me is speed and versatility.

The shields of Vermintide 2 are a different playstyle all together as your mobility while using is a laugh. Dodge is minimal of the weapon choices it's a hold your ground playstyle that forces the player to engage in the fight rather than run. Shields hold a great role in being an enabler, creating distance/wiggle room to work, and creating opportunities rather than waiting for them. If you have a team that can not take advantage of you then you're just gimping yourself. You're a walking fortress with a lack of cannons. The axe and shield is great at taking on elites but not hordes without being a slow lumbering idiot with wide openings in between the pushes. One hit your combo is done. For the love of Cousin Okri, support the Flamestorm staff/ Drakegun (if you're running a shield on Kruber/Kerillian's Handmaiden) that one hit can change the tide of a wipe. Shields are the middle finger to your enemies act like the giant online troll you're meant to be.

On terrible teams on Legend people tend to be running around like headless chickens running away from the massive mob that they neglect to even kill as they run forward as others get downed and killed and they rush for rescues as they just pull more aggro for that mob. You lack the proper DPS to handle the big boys without getting overwhelmed if you aren't actively aiming to take them out. So before whipping out your massive ego from the green circles convention. (Stats aren't that important and have corrupted some minds) Consider the possible dmg your mates can do before ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that nobody did their part. On another note you can't keep up with your faster allies as IB shield so expect everybody to be either running ahead or leaving you behind with the mass aggro if they're terrible players.

[Deja Vu]

Axe, because it goes through elites like butter and can still handle hordes reasonably (Combo the push attack with a heavy for cleave, and shield bash when needed by block cancel>heavy 1).

Hammer makes hordes very easy but gives up too much anti-elite ability to get it, considering that Axe is no slouch vs hordes itself.

[Kaelus Von Sestiaf]

So, I know on Ironbreaker everyone and their mother prefers Axe and Shield, but I personally still swear by the hammer and shield.

Both are very similar, offering tremendous amount of protection, safety and that lovely shield bash that fills your health bar with thp as it staggers the whole horde.

The difference is, the S&Axe has armor piercing on every swing, is slower, and the chained heavy attacks use the shield slam on the first strike, but never chain -into- the shield slam again.
While the S&Hammer only has armor piercing on the first heavy and the push attack, but the chained heavy attacks constantly chain into its heavy attack.

For crowd control, S&Hammer is absolute king because of this last bit. Constantly chaining into the shield slam if you spam heavy attacks lets you safely shield slam the entire horde over and over, never taking a hit, keeping them permanently staggered and letting your teammates deal with it easily while filling your health over and over. It's a much better teamplay and CC tool, and fits his overall toolkit better (and the Bulwark talent in particular). You can still deal with armored elites by spamming the push attacks, god knows you WILL have the stamina for it anyway.

I prefer the S&Hammer because it excells at crowd control, which is exactly my job as ironbreaker, and because I don't -need- to quickly deal with several armored enemies as IB. In a proper group, it's enough that I keep those armored elites staggered, along with the horde, so the group can safely deal with the threat.
And if I -do- want to do CC and elite killing, I'd pick the 2h hammer. Compared to S&Axe, it does CC better, it does armor killing better, and only suffers on the defensive bit slightly.

[Z.E.R.T.]

Hammer & shild if you want to control the horde Axe&shield if you want to kill elite and boss

[Chris]

I would just take a 2H Hammer and call it a day. It still has lots of cc with way more damage.

[mendāx]

Originally posted by Io, Saturnalia! - Fanda Nyamo:

Your opinions and why?

I prefer two-handed axe. Dward shields are nice but they limit visibility too much for me. Situational awareness is king.

[PoeticShaman]

Axe and shield. The combos are just flat out better than hammer and shield. Having the first heavy as a shield bash allows you to either chain push/h1 or h1/block cancel for infinite CC. There are many situations where you don’t want to waste time swinging your hammer when you’ve got a pile of monks/zerkers on you. Shield heavy will stagger them, something even the 2h hammer with stacked trophy on a slayer can’t do.

I rarely — if ever — see an IB with shield and hammer in cata or above. Most common picks by far are a/s, 2h hammer and dual hammers. Everything else is pretty much suboptimal. RIP 1h axe and 2h axe, probably his weakest weapons right now.

If you’re really worried about ability to deal with hordes, grab Drakefire pistols for a little more flexibility.

[Scout]

Originally posted by Chris:

I would just take a 2H Hammer and call it a day. It still has lots of cc with way more damage.

2h nowhere near cc lvl of a shields,when ♥♥♥♥ go south you backpedaling with 2h hammer just like with any other weapons.

[DEAD RaNgEr 888]

i prefer axe and shield because its charge attacks are faster and the 2 first charge attacks hit multible enemies. its light attacks are also decent againts armor

[endrsgm]

Originally posted by .xXx.W4R10KK.xXx.:

Axe & shield because the first charged attack is a shield bash, so you can effectively control hordes by alternating a push and a charged attack.

my bread and butter move

Originally posted by No emaN:

The Axe & Shield ... starts off with the shield bash on a it's first heavy attack. The second heavy attack is a cleave for even more CC. The third heavy is literally a single target hit. If you continue using heavy (charged) attacks it alternates between the second and third heavy attacks. So if you want your shield bash you must reset the attack chain by blocking.

throw in a push with the block and its even better :)

[Heisenburger]

I play dwarf a lot and I have tried both weapons quiet a bit, my advice is axe is good for ranger and hammer for iron breaker mostly because breaker with hammer is like a freighter train and will stagger hordes like no other while blocking everything.

Axe + shield ranger with the right combination can become dwarf jesus and carry the entire team even if the damage is not high. This is especially true on legend deeds and cataclysm.

Hammer + shield breaker becomes a titanium ball with beard that staggers everything on the way but has very bad armor penetration, it doesn't matter though because with shield and miners rhythm you keep staggering everything on the way and suffer no damage, this is probably the easiest way to play legend too.

[Moffin Bovin]

Originally posted by Kaelus Von Sestiaf:

So, I know on Ironbreaker everyone and their mother prefers Axe and Shield, but I personally still swear by the hammer and shield.

Both are very similar, offering tremendous amount of protection, safety and that lovely shield bash that fills your health bar with thp as it staggers the whole horde.

The difference is, the S&Axe has armor piercing on every swing, is slower, and the chained heavy attacks use the shield slam on the first strike, but never chain -into- the shield slam again.
While the S&Hammer only has armor piercing on the first heavy and the push attack, but the chained heavy attacks constantly chain into its heavy attack.

For crowd control, S&Hammer is absolute king because of this last bit. Constantly chaining into the shield slam if you spam heavy attacks lets you safely shield slam the entire horde over and over, never taking a hit, keeping them permanently staggered and letting your teammates deal with it easily while filling your health over and over. It's a much better teamplay and CC tool, and fits his overall toolkit better (and the Bulwark talent in particular). You can still deal with armored elites by spamming the push attacks, god knows you WILL have the stamina for it anyway.

I prefer the S&Hammer because it excells at crowd control, which is exactly my job as ironbreaker, and because I don't -need- to quickly deal with several armored enemies as IB. In a proper group, it's enough that I keep those armored elites staggered, along with the horde, so the group can safely deal with the threat.
And if I -do- want to do CC and elite killing, I'd pick the 2h hammer. Compared to S&Axe, it does CC better, it does armor killing better, and only suffers on the defensive bit slightly.

if you tap block first, you will always do a shield bash with the axe and shield. Which means if you want to you can just spam chained shield bashes. The hammer and shield is less effective at CC, the only reason to use hammer and shield or mace and shield is to give them to the bots.