Black metal axe or jotuns bane?

[Cattastrafy]

For mistlands and Ashlands specifically (until I get berserker axes of course).

[Kursor1]

I just carry an axe as a tool, so I just use a lvl 2 black metal axe for being mean to trees. So I honestly havent tried comparing them as weapons. I'm not fond of dot-inflicting melee weapons against non-boss enemies since the enemies dont really last long enough for the dot to do much before you kill them with the next hit, but ymmv. The jotuns bane does seem better and tree-chopping, but its strictly a luxury item to me, albeit a luxury I always make when I have spare resources.

[Exodite-Dragon]

I'd argue black metal axe. Less stamina use per swing, few enemies are vulnerable to poison damage, you generally only bring the axe along for chopping ygg shoots, and most opponents in the Mistlands especially you're going to want to go with Mistwalker/Frostner and frost arrows w/your bow for the slow effect, or a black metal atgeir, if you're running around on your own.

[Cattastrafy]

Thanks guys, makes sense and was kinda what I was thinking. Sad, seems jotun is kinda lame.

Doing an axe only playthrough so sadly I gotta choose one of them lol. Can't wait for zerkers tho!

[Faceplant]

What did you use for Moder and Yag?

I'm half way through an axe-only playthrough, but I'm having difficulty getting motivated to finish it. I have a near max crystal battle axe that I'm not very happy with, and can't see a good path forward.

[bacon]

jotun is perhaps the most skippable weapon in the game. black metal is fine.

[Bored Peon]

Ashlands is undead, undead are immune to poison. Which means Black Metal axe and Jotun Bane do the same damage.

[Cattastrafy]

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

What did you use for Moder and Yag?

I'm half way through an axe-only playthrough, but I'm having difficulty getting motivated to finish it. I have a near max crystal battle axe that I'm not very happy with, and can't see a good path forward.

I think I'm actually at the same spot you are. Working on finding modern now.

I misspoke, I'm also using a bow but trying to use it seldomly and might mostly use it for her and swap to Crystal axe when she drops or iron axe. Yag I've always had a hard time with melee but will prob try Crystal axe too and learn his attacks better. Blackaxe might be better tho idk what all the stats and his weakness are.

Battle-axes are def not...what I was hoping for.

[Draconis]

Originally posted by Cattastrafy:

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

What did you use for Moder and Yag?

I'm half way through an axe-only playthrough, but I'm having difficulty getting motivated to finish it. I have a near max crystal battle axe that I'm not very happy with, and can't see a good path forward.

I think I'm actually at the same spot you are. Working on finding modern now.

I misspoke, I'm also using a bow but trying to use it seldomly and might mostly use it for her and swap to Crystal axe when she drops or iron axe. Yag I've always had a hard time with melee but will prob try Crystal axe too and learn his attacks better. Blackaxe might be better tho idk what all the stats and his weakness are.

Battle-axes are def not...what I was hoping for.

From my recent experience, I would prefer the blackmetal axe over the crystal battleaxe for yagluth. I just tried out both, and in the end the blackmetal battleaxe kills him faster and it does not slow you down that much. Which is quite important iv you want to run behind him while he does the right hand slam attack.

[Draconis]

And regarding the jotun's bane...

The problem here is not that there are no enemies that are weak to poison (most are not even weak to frost, just neutral), but the probem is that poison damage reduces itself upon mutliple uses.

That means - if you apply the poison damage while the enemy is already poisened you don't add extra damage, you just restart the timer of the poison. So you effectively lose all the potential damage the last hit would still have done as soon as your current attack hits.

If poison was stackable, the jotun's bane would still be a viable choice. But the way it is you would have to wait until the poison stops inflicting damage in order to not waste damage.
In my opinion that would only work with hit'n'run tactics.

[Cattastrafy]

That's interesting news on poison, figured it might be ok against the seekers. If it doesn't work like spirit damage dot then sounds pretty useless as you claim, ty! Might use as a woodcutting tool, though.

Crystal axe in plains has been kinda annoying, gonna swap to iron and silver shield for stamina purposes until I get black. Can easily parry most things with crystal battle-axe in plains but the slow swing time and heavy stm use kinda makes it not really worth while.

[electricdawn]

Axes are really no longer preferable to any other weapon after Black Forest, to be honest. At least IMHO. For abominations, sure, but that's the last mob I'd still use an axe for.

The axe is slow compared to other one-handed weapons and it is just a pale shadow of the atgeir.

I know, we always attribute the axe to vikings, but in this game you better leave them behind quickly after the Black Forest or at the latest, Swamps.

[Cattastrafy]

Originally posted by electricdawn:

Axes are really no longer preferable to any other weapon after Black Forest, to be honest. At least IMHO. For abominations, sure, but that's the last mob I'd still use an axe for.

The axe is slow compared to other one-handed weapons and it is just a pale shadow of the atgeir.

I know, we always attribute the axe to vikings, but in this game you better leave them behind quickly after the Black Forest or at the latest, Swamps.

Nothing you said is wrong. (Although I think atgeir is kinda garbage the one playthrough I used it)

However, I'm using the axe "just because" this go, with the end goal being a bad mofo with the zerkers (supposedly the only good axe(s)) so how good it is compared to other weapons is kinda irrelevant to me :)

[Soma]

On our most recent playthrough I did Atgeir as main and switched to berserker axes when I was able to unlock them. With so many enemies and the quick attack chain of the axes I got to lv 35 quickly and killed final boss with them at that level. (yes they are that OP) I guess my points being are: 1 You do not need to "pick" something and stick with it (I used too think that way also) and 2. Skill points matter much less than you think and if you want to raise them late game Ashlands is the place since there are so many enemies.

[Cattastrafy]

Originally posted by Soma:

On our most recent playthrough I did Atgeir as main and switched to berserker axes when I was able to unlock them. With so many enemies and the quick attack chain of the axes I got to lv 35 quickly and killed final boss with them at that level. (yes they are that OP) I guess my points being are: 1 You do not need to "pick" something and stick with it (I used too think that way also) and 2. Skill points matter much less than you think and if you want to raise them late game Ashlands is the place since there are so many enemies.

1) Totally agree you don't need to stick with something, but it's my preference regardless. Wish it was easier to improve lots of weapon skills in a single game to master multiple.
2) Totally agree skill points aren't all powerful. Granted, I'll be doing over double the damage of someone with 0 skill *just upon acquiring the axes*. Maybe uh, they matter a little more than people think? ;D

Which leads me to say I can't WAIT to see what kind of damage I can do after you giving me your experience, ty for that!

[Draconis]

The blackmetal axe has one big advantage during the plains: You can stagger a fuling with the first hit.
Although I'm not sure if that works from tier 1 on or if you have to upgrade the axe fist.

And regarding the skill points - you only notice a difference if the skill is significantly higher or lower.
As an example: I used axes as main weapon from... well, I quess from meadows on, except for the swamp where I changed to mace. So I entered the mistlands with 71 skill on my axe and 0 on my sword... and then changed over to mistwalker.

Well, the difference was: I needed one more hit wih the sword to kill a seeker. I would not consider that much of a difference.

Also, the skills raise quite fast on lower levels, so it won't take long after switching weapons until you reach a decent level (blood magic being the exception here)