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By axeman I mean a warrior who refuses to use shields (only picks magic shields for profit) and who prefers to wield axes. While it seemed more hack&slash fun friendly, it was painstakingly hard just to pass by 3 Rotting Carcasses, with my Iron Axe, as I was being stunned to death constantly. As I remember, using a shield made melee fights last more, due to weaker weapons or blocking. Axes only make it A BIT faster but also expose you to life draining (read: damage ;) ). What I really enjoyed 'bout 2-h weapons was a) the feeling of power and B) the pursuit of shooters. But... I haven't experimented a lot!
Any chance for life later in the game (in later difficulties)? How shall I distribute stat points with or without magic? Is Vit ANY worth?
Good night.
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Any extra damage an axe gives you is kind of negated by the slow speed. At early stages it can give some advantages, but at the higher character levels, especially when you have sufficient damage to stun lock, it's just more efficient to go with one handed weapon + shield.
I'm not going to say it's impossible, since there were \ are players that did some crazy things that a lot of people thought were impossible at the time. But if you think axe wielding is nearing frustration at this stage, it's just going to get worse at higher difficulties.
If you enjoy it despite the drawbacks, good on you. But for a regular, non variant character in D1 classic, at least in terms of efficiency axes or any other 2 handed weapons will not be the best setup for a warrior at the later stages.
( Having said that, I did remember one of my young Warrior using a diamond 2 handed sword to fight in early Normal\Hell. It was do-able, but the biggest advantage that thing gave me was to raise enough cash to buy a decent resist shield and 1 handed sword later on.)
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It is certainly possible to survive any part of the game with an axe warrior. People have cleared hell/hell with Vikings, who not only rely on axes (and occasionaly mauls) but also have severe restrictions on other equipment and don't read books at all. You could survive hell/hell even with a jewelry-only warrior if you were crafty enough.
But using an axe has lots of drawbacks and no real benefit. Once your base damage is high enough, the slower axes will actually do less damage per second than the comparable swords. Two-handed swords are a different story, but the difference in damage between a great sword and a bastard sword is certainly not enough to justify giving up a shield. The shield slot is a tremendous advantage to have. It increases your AC, gives you a very high chance to block hits that still make it through that AC, and gives you an extra prefix and suffix to be used for a large gob of life and either a ton of resistances or more AC. Giving that up is always a sacrifice, but the game is easy enough that such sacrifices can be overcome by those who are patient and alert.
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Ebon,May 16 2006, 04:10 AM Wrote:By axeman I mean a warrior who refuses to use shields (only picks magic shields for profit) and who prefers to wield axes. While it seemed more hack&slash fun friendly, it was painstakingly hard just to pass by 3 Rotting Carcasses, with my Iron Axe, as I was being stunned to death constantly. As I remember, using a shield made melee fights last more, due to weaker weapons or blocking. Axes only make it A BIT faster but also expose you to life draining (read: damage ;) ). What I really enjoyed 'bout 2-h weapons was a) the feeling of power and B) the pursuit of shooters. But... I haven't experimented a lot!
Any chance for life later in the game (in later difficulties)? How shall I distribute stat points with or without magic? Is Vit ANY worth?
[right][snapback]109906[/snapback][/right]
We axe in hell/hell and we do so very aggressively, with low AC even. It's very much to do with attaining a higher skill level though. As far as weapon effectiveness goes, two handed weapons certainly fall short of a good weapon/shield combo, especially axes and staves (as far as Warriors are concerned) because both suffer from a slower swing speed.
My advice would be to master the sword and shield first. When you are comfortable enough doing that, change your plate and shield from +%ac prefixes, to +%resist all prefixes. Then once you have mastered this low AC sword and shield style, take on the axe (haste suffix would be advised).
~Hureg
D1 Ironman Tournament
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Aarda's still throwing roses at the rain...
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i had a level 35 rogue that only used axes and got 2 dots so ya it's possible. and alot of fun. i'd always get comments like ''wha? a rogue with an ax, that's not right!'' but i was in hell with them, so anything is right in this game. that's why ppl still play it, there's always a new way to play. have fun and up the irons !
http://geocities.com/lemmingofglory/axerogue.html
thanks lemming.
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At a given time, against witches, a +resist magic maul (and another such spare equipment can be much better than a (weaker) sword with shield when you have 0 resists. Shields work bad against ranged attackers and damage helps for stunning. It indeed saved my character. BTW, it was only norm/hell :P
Good night.
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>At a given time, against witches, a +resist magic maul (and another such spare equipment can be much better than a (weaker) sword with shield when you have 0 resists.
When I used that diamond 2 hander (and yes, I have used other 2 handers at that similar stage as well) it was definitely useful as you said, against witches. But I valued it mostly for the resists, and the damage as a nice secondary bonus. That weapon damage bonus becomes less as my character damage increases however.
>Shields work bad against ranged attackers and damage helps for stunning.
That depends on what you mean by ranged. Against physical ranged attacks like arrows, high AC can be a lot handier than blocking. Against magical\elemental ranged attack, blocking and AC doesn't really matter since by then it's about resistance. (Well there is spell blocking with zero resistance but that's a bit of a gamble.) And in the hell dungeons there is usually an overbundance of magical ranged attackers, and that's where a resist shield can come in real handy.
I'm not trying to dissuade you from a 2 hander style, especially if you're having fun with it. Actually there's something really satisfying in seeing a Warrior landing a solid hit with an axe. But if we're talking strictly about efficiency in vanilla D1, then 2 handers is never high on the list. Thankfully this game is not always about efficiency. If this is what you like and comfortable with, then more power to ya.
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I have an executioner variant who does ok in hell/hell if he is careful. That variant can use an axe or a maul and has few limitations on gear other than no shield and nothing obsidian. Even hasted axes do not swing fast enough to stunlock mages, so I whip out the hasted maul for that purpose.
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Co-op advo (or any mage) killing can be a really funny experience:). Until you get good that is;)
Aarda's still throwing roses at the rain...
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Head: Grand+ Helm of the (Wolf+/Vim+/Stars)/Topaz+/Stability+
Body: Grand+ Plate of the (Wolf+/Vim+/Stars)/Topaz+/Stability+
Weapon: Messerschmidts reaver (if you can find it) or Lords+ Great Axe of Vim+/Speed+
Amulet: Jade+ Amulet of the Wolf+
Ring1: Jade+ Ring of the Wolf+
Ring2: Jade+ Ring of the Wolf+
Is my best guess to actualy work, but you still may need backup. (I havnt tested this)
Grand+ for you need armor, because you cant defend with a sheild
Wolf+/Vim+/Stars+/ for you will be taking alot of hits, and you need hp
Topaz+ for resistances, all warriors need resistances
Stability+ is a must.
Lords+ for damage and being able to hit. if an axe misses, its slow speed is death
Speed+ is almost a must for an axe wielder to fight the masses alone
Jade+ is for magical defences in hell.
but i havnt been able to test this, i mite sometime tho.
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