To Sword or to Axe, that is the question

To Sword or to Axe, that is the question

Hi All

Barbarian. To specialize in Sword or in Axe? I do not want to waste my skill points. Or there are better weapons to specialize in?

 

Well you could go mace and IK set or spear/polearm and make a whirlwind barb. Depends really on what you have and what kinda build you want to make. If you want me to be less ambiguous we'll need more info on what build you plan on making.

 

A spoon... :lol:

I chose Swords for my barb, just cos I like the image of a sword and sheild, heavy armoured barb, there are also alot of nice swords to chose from. Maces may also be a choice, since the IK set is out there...

 

I've got a level 66 barb with sword mastery, and he done pretty well, but I haven't used him in over six months.

I wished I went with mace so I could use the IK set. Too late now and too lazy to start another one, especailly in 1.10.


Takis (El_Greco)

 

I am hoping my barbarians will be a front line tanking machine, able to deal alot of damage and at the same time able to withstand alot of damage.

 

swords are generally faster and axes generally have more damage.....hope that helps

 

Go watch the movie Kull

 

Well if you have all of IKs set you can easily do just that but if you don't you could make a whirlwind barb using spears. This build could deal out tons of damage and with the right equipment you can be quite sturdy. The best spear would be eth upgraded Hone Sundan if you choose to do so with say Dracul's Grasp, Hone Sundan and enough ias to reach the breakpoints

 

Kull the Conqueror doesn't seem to be the most popular flick out there . . . I suggest Krull instead. :teeth:

Swords: The 3-chipped-gem recipe will ensure you a variety of socketed weapons from very early in the game. There are a lot of powerful one-handers out there to choose from for when you want to fight with a shield.

Axes: Look really cool. If you get one of the big two-handers late in the game you will be devastating. Harder to find really good one-handers, though.

Personally I prefer axes because of the style factor. Also in 1.09 everybody and his grandmother was making sword barbs with the 3-chip recipe (which was really, really cheesy then) and I thought that was pretty boring.

 

there are a lot of good swords.

as everyone else said, the weapon of choice is all depending on what skill you gonna use, what target/end game gear you have in mind.

With sword, you can't go wrong with it, unless you want a WW barb or a IK barb.

if you want BoTD weapon, 1.07 eth berserk axe is the best one hand weapon.

I would go for sword, for personal reason (ever watched Conan movie? my Pat barb is a clone of Conan)

 

Completely unrelated to the topic... but my father was flipping through the channels and happened to stop on the Spanish channel for some odd reason. The movie they were showing was Conan the Barbarian, starring Arnold of course. The best part was when it was time for him to speak, and out of this muscular Austrian's body, came a squeaky Spanish voice :lol:. It was kinda surreal. :uhhuh:

 

so did I just screw up making a WW sword using barb?

 

Nah, it'll work smashingly well. Well, not smashingly, that would be maces and such, but slicingly well.

Someone smarter than me can tell you about the merits of using one 2-hander vs. two 2-handers vs. one sword and a shield as you whirl about.

 

i would go sword, anyday any time :thumbsup:

 

sword WW bard is cool, but there is better weapon than sword for WW. That's all.

He was asking which is better weapon, so that was what I was talking about, sword is not the best WW weapon.

@kaysaar: that movie should be cool, I wanna see it. no I don't understand spanish, but it is cool as long as the voice wasn't so bad (I've seen the english version quit few times, spanish, mhhh).

 

For a starter char (no weapon twinking), better go with swords first since its easier to shop for good ones.

Otherwis, I never though there's that much of a difference, except there are a lot more unique swords than axes.

 

go with axes. definetly
sure enough swords are easier to get but their is nothing better than seeing a giant axe wielding zerker charging at the big d himself.. buahaha. btw if your gonna use an axe use a giant axe cos they look the coolest

 

we'll need somthing more specific- you dont really need masteries early on in the game- currently with my conc barb i havent got any masteries invested since the conc ar is enough to last me for a while and BO synergies are giving me conc damage- tho either way swords are genereally better sinces they are the most common weapon- and if you want a tank you will be better off with a one handed weapon and since any sword can be used in one hand its probably your best choice. sorry again for the poor grammar but hey i dont know another word for concentration :uhhuh:

 

Depends on your play style do you like to make many small hits or a few really large hits.

Swords tend to be much faster then Axes but do not have quite as much damage as axes.

Axes tend to be slower and tend to have more damage associated with them.

Your build is up to you as many have stated though over all most barb players with this choice have in the past chosen swords over axes.

 

I have another question along this line. I haven't made a Barb, 1.10 yet, my 1.09 was WW IK (sans armour) and he rocked. However in 1.10 I have the elite tomahawk and Messerschmidt's Reaver. Would the second be a decent finisher weapon with the tommy on switch w/shield for archers and such?