Why is the battle axe so bad?

[TinyGiraffes]

Why is the battle axe so bad? Like, it's literally the worst weapon in any game I've ever played. The Sun on a stick is better, a freaking bottle in dishonored has more utility. Why would you make a weapon that requires you to sit still for a full second, where you are Most likely to be stunned, just to do the same damage as a bronze atgeir? The animation doesn't even cover as much area and it takes 100 Stamina just to do the full animation! It costs 20% of your movement speed and 35 iron! Every mechanic of this weapon clashes with every other mechanic. I would take any bronze weapon over it. If you're going to make weapons this useless, at least add a mechanic for players to deconstruct the mistake on a stick.

[OctoberSky]

Agreed. I do use the crystal battle axe along with the Elder blessing to deforest portions of the Plains. But for combat? I tend to stick to the atgeir line.

[cookie]

they are great for chopping down trees tho' .....i take it in the black forrest , but its just for fun to swing at everything , trees , greys etc , the one handed axe is better for trees, but who doesnt want to be a two handed lumber jack , use the elder power for it = see - its fun , but yeah not very useful

[AsianGirlLover]

Battle axes need a rework, that’s for sure. Either make them use less stamina or buff up the damage. Better yet, make the animation faster.

[Xea]

the secondary attack is faster and does less damage but highly increased stagger... maybe the idea was to use secondary attack then follow up with the primary if target staggered

[i have 2026 vision fear me]

Completely agree. It's an utter joke, and an incredibly niche weapon that would require the person to practice it for longer than a usual weapon, just for it to be still underwhelming.

The damage is terrible considering the slow swing speed and the massive movement speed penalty, and on top of that the knockback of your swings usually end up making your miss your 3rd and most powerful swing, so that mechanic is counter-intuitive. The range isn't that great either, 2.5, compared to swords' 2.4, and the krom beats it only by 0.1 at 2.6. The secondary attack is also just, silly looking to say the least, however, it is pretty good regarding stamina usage and stagger and to finish enemies off. Apart from that, the weapon type is just disappointing. And just to say, the weapon doesn't need to be super good regarding combat prowess like the atgeir as an example, i wouldn't mind it if it was fun, but it's simply not either.

Just feels like an "alt attack into m1 spam" type weapon, which may describe the atgeir, but that weapon type's range, damage and swing speed don't require you to alt attack to initiate, neither does it rely on parrying - which is also rather boring. But pretty much every weapon that isn't the battle axe, does the job of a battle axe better in a good amount of aspects.

I really hope it does get reworked too. In comparison, i love the krom/2-handed sword design, fun and good animation with good damage, speed, and knockback that doesn't screw you over like the battleaxe's does. Looking at it, Krom is just a better battleaxe minus tree chopping.

Edit: Also forgot one of the biggest reasons i never bother making it, is because of how bloody expensive it is to make, let alone upgrade. 125 total iron needed for tier 4 is absurd for how underwhelming the weapon is, and the upgrades aren't even that good.

[Jesus F. C.]

SLAAAAAAAANDDERRRRR!!!!

Battle axes are a sidegrade, not a downgrade. Although they get replaced in many scenarios in terms of raw dps, Id say you wouldn't be using the weapon correctly. Its basically the atgeir inverted; Slow, area main attack and a Fast, jab special. You ideally use it against swarmy enemies with a large stagger threshold. Otherwise, you'd be using either a sword or a sledge hammer.

Id also like to counterclaim the "atgeir better" argument. Atgeir is in my eyes more fit for the big beefy enemies, and in most cases, the ones with LOW stagger thresholds. Its secondary attack is more directed at giving you space when you get crowded on because thats what this weapon suffers in: Crowd Control. Its secondary can build some distance and setup attacks, but if you are in a group of 6-7 seekers with a himmin afl/krom (first of all, how) you may scrape away with one or two kills before getting impaled to death by the mandibles of the norse antlion. In the situation of the battle axe (gonna switch the scenario since there isnt a mistlands tier b.axe) A small crowd of fulings or wolves will get knocked back enough for you to recover for a followup attack or to reposition. As mentioned, this isn't diss against the atgeir, this is sidegrade talk.

I think the battle axe fits its niche, and a rework isn't necessary. A buff, however, we can talk about that. It needs a bit more force behind it so it can play a little more into its strengths, and be a little more viable for area clearing.

[TinyGiraffes]

Originally posted by Seraphim:

SLAAAAAAAANDDERRRRR!!!!

Ya but what is it good against? You say both: " ideally use it against swarmy enemies " and "weapon suffers in: Crowd Control"
Take the dragur, you are always facing against two but often 3 with a high chance of a ranger. The axe needs you to attack a good bit before them or they stagger you first. The bronze atgeir already stuns them with less stamina used.
The atgeir allows you to run around and regain stamina. The longer the fight, the easier it is. The battleaxe slows you by 20%, not only do you need a ton of stamina, but you don't have the time to regain it.
Wolves? Running away isn't often worth it. You need them stunned. Not only does the battle axe require you to start attacking even sooner, but you don't have near enough stamina to attack the whole pack. The atgeir gives you stun time and allows you to force the other wolves to go around each other. You can gain back like 5 stamina after each stun increasing your effective stamina.
Now if you're fighting two trolls? or a set of lox? Sure, I could see the battle being better then the atgeir, but why melee them in the first place?

You know what I don't get? Just give it more range then the atgeir! It's a massive chunk of iron at the end of a long handle, it literally would do more damage if you grip the handle and the very end! Something to give an archer spacing while dealing lots of damage? Now it's got a true niche. (Also make the jab a quick low strike, you shouldn't need to go through all 3 attacks just to do dmg to leeches and the atgeir can't do that.)

[i have 2026 vision fear me]

Originally posted by TinyGiraffes:

Originally posted by Seraphim:

SLAAAAAAAANDDERRRRR!!!!

Now if you're fighting two trolls? or a set of lox? Sure, I could see the battle being better then the atgeir, but why melee them in the first place?

You know what I don't get? Just give it more range then the atgeir! It's a massive chunk of iron at the end of a long handle, it literally would do more damage if you grip the handle and the very end! Something to give an archer spacing while dealing lots of damage? Now it's got a true niche.

Atgeir would most likely be a lot better against both of those scenarios considering it's pierce damage with is effective against trolls and neutral against lox. You can just middle mouse to stagger both trolls and m1 combo one of them to get it low. And more effectively kite the loxs due to it not having a 20% movement speed penalty.

How often is it that enemies are perfectly in range of your battleaxe to all get hit, but not hit you first to stagger or knock you back ? Rarely, unless you can dance around them for long enough, but usually by the time you do that, a regular weapon as well as atgeir would've been able to catch several enemies out by the time you find an opportunity that a battleaxe would excel at. A sword is of course a jack of all trades weapon, but feels much better against multiple enemies in comparison to the battleaxe.

To put it short, you have to put in more effort when using the battleaxe for it to come close to being as useful or practical as most other weapons. Now i would love a weapon design that causes you to need to form another playstyle that would take effort, IF, it was worth it. Battleaxe is just mediocre and i'll die on this hill saying that.

I would buff it by giving it slightly more damage, maybe make the swings a bit faster, but mainly focus on giving it the lowest multiple target damage reduction - so hitting multiple enemies/terrain wouldn't cause such a severe decrease in damage, therefore actually making it good against multiple enemies.

[Sly-Scale]

The battleaxe suffers no damage falloff as you hit several enemies with the same swing. In this, it shines over the Atgeir's alt-fire because that attack deals less damage + costs more stamina.

Is it slow and cumbersome? Sure. Does it not help that it has no blackmetal or Mistlands equivalent? Also yes. But as with the other weapons, there's practice involved in deploying it when and where it's most useful. The only issue is, that "shining" moment is also when you'd use the Atgeir's alt-fire for its superior stagger potential. And that the Atgeir is faster and has better reach, stamina cost be damned.

But if you don't need CC and you just want a cost-efficient way to damage 4+ enemies, absolutely try swinging the Battleaxe in mid-air. It'll do wonders.

[TinyGiraffes]

Originally posted by Sly-Scale:

The battleaxe suffers no damage falloff as you hit several enemies with the same swing.

I have no arguments, I just want to say I'm impressed you read a full paper's worth of valheim battleaxe discussions

[i have 2026 vision fear me]

Originally posted by Sly-Scale:

The battleaxe suffers no damage falloff as you hit several enemies with the same swing. In this, it shines over the Atgeir's alt-fire because that attack deals less damage + costs more stamina.

Is it slow and cumbersome? Sure. Does it not help that it has no blackmetal or Mistlands equivalent? Also yes. But as with the other weapons, there's practice involved in deploying it when and where it's most useful. The only issue is, that "shining" moment is also when you'd use the Atgeir's alt-fire for its superior stagger potential. And that the Atgeir is faster and has better reach, stamina cost be damned.

But if you don't need CC and you just want a cost-efficient way to damage 4+ enemies, absolutely try swinging the Battleaxe in mid-air. It'll do wonders.

That's fair, though like i said, how often is it that you find a scenario where 4+ enemies are perfectly in order where you'll hit all of them ? Sure, that type of scenario is where it shines, but realistically you're not going to see it often at all unless you purposefully round enemies up, or you're fighting greydwards/fuling villages. It's just super niche. Plus, you can do the same with an atgeir - round up the enemies, fulings for example, jump and start your alt attack, it'll stagger them and knock them back, but then you can just, alt attack the group again which would deal heavy stagger damage, and due to it's range and speed it's much less effort to set up.

And yeah, i jump swing with it anytime i use it as it seems to be the best strategy.

[Rathia_xd]

Originally posted by Sly-Scale:

The battleaxe suffers no damage falloff as you hit several enemies with the same swing. In this, it shines over the Atgeir's alt-fire because that attack deals less damage + costs more stamina.

As far as I know the atgeir's secondary, spinning attack doesn't have damage fall of either. so that advantage doesn't exist. I could be wrong tho.

[HolotipNInja]

i agree the battle axe is bad and needs a buff, but i dont think its as bad as everyone says it is at least according to their playstyles. i have seen so much ttalk about staggering stuff and i am currently maining the battleaxe for fun and im like 'i dont need to stagger it when its just dead' i kill nearly everything in one or two hits. its block and parry is quite good to from what i have used, shields are obviously beter in that regard though. poeple complain about its movement speed reduction and im justt like if u have the axe out why are you running, just turn around and kill whats chasing you.

the battle axe in my experience has the damage it needs to fill its roll as a crowd clearer its more of everyones playstle to run and avoid getting hit using bows and atgeirs or using shields when choosing to stand in fight. where it falls off on in my opinion is the stamina cost to swing. far to much stamina used for what u get in terms of dps. would ratther sword and board and get similar results as the axe for far less stamina cost in case i need to run.

{may not be the easiest read had to think and type fast to get ready for work. the tldr is its damage and all is fine its stamina cost is abysmal though}

[Kitsune Dzelda]

I have a battleaxe Ive trained in. I named it Whomper. Bad dps aside, when Im in the swamp and I see a tree come out the water, out comes Whomper, and down goes that tree in seconds. Nothing beats a good whompin. Especially when the monsters it spawns get caught in the crossfire too. Forests are also fun to smash. I was choppin once at night and I ended up killing a troll that brought his buddies to bear against me just by swingin Whomper around wisely. Was good bloody fun! And I do mean it: That was alot of blood goin down.

When I hit the mountains, Im christening the next battleaxe I build the Revenge of Whomper. And Im gonna be plain with ya, its gonna start fuling some rage.

[WuzzleFuzz The Wise]

I'm not sure the devs have actually used it.
There are a lot of times in games that it seems the devs don't know how a piece of equipment handles, they just go "yeah, those stats look good to me" and never test it in game.