noob Q: grief

[zuriel]

noob Q: grief

I will have finally gathered the runes for my grief soon. I plan to put them in a zerker axe. Does it make any difference what axe I put them in? (ie. does the damage/stats of the original axe make any difference on the grief zerker?)
If so, what is the optimum socketed axe to use?

 

[Evrae Altana]

The base damage of the axe doesn't matter that much since Grief's damage is added directly, rather than being percentage based. Berserker axe is the most popular axe for Grief.

 

[LorveN]

Most people use either berserker axe or phase blade. Phase blades are faster, but berserker axes have higher range. If you want/need to make it in an axe, berserker axe is the way to go.

 

[frish]

pb >> zerker
simply because of the repair costs...
zerker breaks pretty fast and grief isn't the cheapest weapon to repair...

 

[seralph]

With a phaseblade and fana aura you will need only few ias on the other gear for maxspeed with a smiter. A zerker is usefull if you want to combine it with a other runeword which only can be made in a axe on a baba

 

[krischan]

In short: WW without shield or frenzy or two-handed weapon: BotD, else if WW with shield or for any kind of PvP: Grief BA, else (i.e. in most cases) Grief PB.

BTW, a Grief BA with less than 34%IAS won't reach the final WW breakpoint which will reduce the value of such a weapon a lot, no matter what the other stats are.

Edit: I was just referring to Grief in contrast to BotD. There are a lot of other very good weapons, of course.

 

[Evrae Altana]

pb >> zerker
simply because of the repair costs...
zerker breaks pretty fast and grief isn't the cheapest weapon to repair...

Berserker are preferred in some areas (ie. PvP) due to a longer range, and compatibility with other axes (ie. Barbs only need to max one mastery instead of two).
Don't simply think of only repair costs when choosing a weapon for your Grief.

 

[essquire]

I have never made a Grief in a berserker axe due to the repair costs and because you need a lot more IAS. On a phase blade, it doesn't matter what IAS% your Grief has, because phase blades are very fast.