I’ve been messing around with the combat axe recently to try make it work in a veteran melee build and it seems to be the consensus that it’s somewhat lacking in the current game, which is the conclusion I’m basically coming to as well. I have a Rashad MK2 with mobility as the dump stat, headtaker and BM as blessings. Perks are crit chance and +25% against carapace.
Has anyone found a way to run combat axe that feels good? As it is I feel the damage output is lacking, especially against crushers, it’s very slow both in swing speed and mobility, and stamina costs are high. I feel friction when playing with it. The MK7 tac axe in comparison just seems better in almost every respect, and the single target damage is higher even against carapace and without the +25% carapace blessing. Combat axe has it’s moments where BM will let you drop 3 ragers in a row with a single crit light attack, but in general… eh.
Am I missing something in how this should be built/played?
I’ve been using caxe on veteran almost exclusively, not because it’s super-good, just because I’m lazy, don’t play veteran that much, and it kinda does its job sufficiently good, other weapons I tried were meh, or too clunky. It’s not a stellar or meta weapon, it’s just simple, versatile and hits hard enough for base difficulties. Worth noting I mostly play just two builds of veteran, and both rely on frag grenades for hoard clearing (caxe is kinda hard to use vs a lot of chaf), so that contributes too. This is kind of build I typically use:
As you can see, this build has a lot of hoard clearing capabilities via Frags and Double Barrel, so I only use caxe for that when hoard is thin. When fighting I throw in push attack from time to time (a wide swing), to just keep trash at bay and “condense” them a bit - then I chop them almost individually with light attacks. I don’t do push attacks too often as they do little damage and burn stamina like crazy, though.I take out singular more armored (scab) chaff with heavies to the head too.
I kill reguar elites by just chopping them with light attacks, mostly, throwing in targeted heavies when possible (if I can afford staying in one place charging and aiming it).
When it comes to Crushers, I observe what it does, if it targets somebody else, I attack him with heavy hits trying to aim at the head, after a couple of such I shoot him with dbarrel to the head which either heavy staggers or knocks him down, then finish him. If there are a bunch of them I drop Frags under their feet to disrupt them, and then target the ones that still keep charging. If it charges me I start with the dbarrel shot to the head to throw them off balance, and then chop them as usual.
Also note I’m using different bless on caxe, the one that gives mobs brittleness, it helps with killing heavy armor too.
The combat axe isn’t bad. Its pretty good and can definitely work on many builds. The issue is that there is nothing the combat axe really does for veteran. None of vet’s talents really synergize with it and while its a solid weapon there are just options that offer better damage or better utility.
If you just like axes I think the MK VII Tactical axe Brutal Momentum, Shred, Probably Flack Unarmored, on a zealot build with Scourge, Blinded by Blood, Prime Target, works really well. High attack speed combined with good damage and finess multipliers make it one of the best options for that. It can work on veteran but you are just giving up much stronger and better weapons, it will always feel a bit lackluster compared to just dueling sword, power sword, power flachion, or knife.
Yeah I’ve been running frags as well for horde clear and generally have a similar approach. That said, it’s not that I find killing crushers especially difficult, it’s just kinda slow which makes it weird playing with Skitarii running transonics. By the time I kill one they’ve cleaved 4. Which wouldn’t bother me if I’d killed my one BEFORE they finished off their 4
I tried using the brittleness blessing but given it only stacks 2.5% at a time and the combat axe is slow, I got rid of it. But the time you’re at 10% or so they’re about to die. Using it without BM is kinda painful.
Yeah my idea was that the weakspot finesse damage on vet should put it’s single target damage pretty high (on a single swing at least), but it’s just not doing it.
Yeah, this is basically where I’m at. I wanted to try it because I was kinda sick of the power sword activation and fast weapons like the duelling sword and knife. Wanted to mix it up a bit. Slow, but hard hitting sort of vibe. I haven’t played much with the falchion though, the move set weirded me out. I’ll give it another go.
I think you may be miss-reading what it does? At lv4 it give them 4 stacks of 2.5% brittleness a hit, so 10% brittleness in one hit. I can say for sure it makes a difference, when testing in the simulation, two hits with caxe sotften them up enough so that double-shot with dbarrel almost kills them after that.
Yeah, but if you do just want to run a axe currently the tactical axe is generally better. Headtaker Brutal + Momentum just makes it pretty good for vet. There are better weapons but it is good. I really haven’t seen people use combat axe on veteran at all.
You’re right, I’m in idiot. I was thinking of the talent that gives brittleness. not the blessing. So you think it’s worth trying? Losing BM or headtaker would be a big loss.
Yeah I swapped to it last night after messing with the combat axe and it felt so much nicer to use. Just way less friction
I don’t know, really. I would agree to the other person above saying that there are probably better options for veteran out there, so if you want efficiency, don’t listen to me. Over time I just came up with a bunch of builds that kinda work for me and I don’t see any reason to change them; I don’t play ultra-high difficulties where it would matter, Auric and Havoc 20s is my ceiling. I also like variety, and though I could use DS on veteran too (I use it on some Zealot builds extensively), I just don’t want to. And though power falchion is really good too, probably better than caxe, I find the need to constantly manage power unnecessary and its moveset kinda wonky too.
You can just try it out in the simulation, see what dps numbers you’ll get on Crushers at Auric difficulty with Thunderous and without. If you like the difference, and you still want to use caxe - what gives?
Yeah fair enough, I’ll give it a go. I think I tried it with an older build as well so I’ll see if I think it’s worth it with the new one. Might give falchion another go too. Thanks!
I’m less interesting in efficiency than I am in the fun of it. I have more effective builds, but I liked the idea of a slow single target damage build, but yeah, it doesn’t quite fit that niche as it stands.
When it comes to fun, I just enjoy the whole vibe of a mad space redneck, unstealthing in the middle of some gunners crowd after dropping a bunch of frags - and proceeding to chopping them and shooting from a sawed-off boomstick at poinblack.
For some scabs, the ones that have armor, it is relevant, takes 2 lights hits to kill them, or one heavy to the head, so if you have breathing room for charging heavy, it’s faster.
Not particularly. I like the combat axe and have regularly used it in weapon specialist builds, but the tac axes are generally superior options. Tac axes are just really goddamn strong weapons, while the better combat axe variants are merely good. Especially for vet with their comparative lack of attack speed and mobility talents. If you want to get more out of the rashad axe you should look towards zealot, possibly arbites, and especially scum.
For veterans only weapon specialist makes sense to use with combat axe for attack boost, but tac axe still outclasses it by much, so it’s better not use it all or on zealot and melee scum.
Yeah that’s basically what I’m doing - I think I have the Rashad, might have made a typo with the mark.
I tried both those marks but the move sets seemed kinda weird and I got more mileage out of the rashaad. I’ll give it a go on Zealot tho.
Yeah you really feel it when weapon specialist isn’t up. I have a bit of a build overhaul I might try as a last ditch effort but I think I’m having to give up too much to make it work. Might be time to acknowledge the futility of it and keep it as a meme build rather than something super viable.
In my experience they’re way better. Super high attack speed and very good finesse bonuses just melt carapace.
My usual mk7 tac axe on my hybrid vet setup does 1250-ish dps into crushers by simply crit fishing with light attacks. That’s enough to kill an auric crusher in a bit over 5s and a H40 crusher in around 8. Not amazing, but with a slightly more dedicated melee setup it easily pushes 1750 (for ~3.7s & ~5.5s TTKs respectively.) And I don’t even have a carapace perk on it. The mk4 tac axe has similar dps with its heavy spam and a bit safer to boot.
So, no. No it does not struggle with armor. Not unless you define “struggling” as “not two tapping H40 crushers like the mk6 power sword.”
Combat axes are perfectly viable. They just aren’t going to amaze you compared to other options. The rashad & antex are solid B-tier type weapons. Even the achlys combat axe, which is noticeably worse to a substantial degree, is far from non-viable.
I have +5% crit and +25% flak (experimenting with flak at the moment, I think you could use something else). Blessings are headtaker and brutal momentum. I’ve seen some people run decimator (I think it’s called that?) but the thing is so fast that I think missing the odd swing here and there is inevitable and keeping stacks up is annoying. I have about 40% crit average in games, so I don’t really think shred is worth it either.
Yeah don’t get me wrong, I’ve been clearing auric malestroms with it. I can make it work, it just doesn’t feel great compared to other options, like you said. I tried another build tonight where I pushed down towards the focus target keystone so I could pick up the +20% ogryn damage in addition to weapon specialist and that made a very noticeable difference, but I had to sacrifice a few survivability/utility talents to get there which made it somewhat squishy and limited team utility.
I might shelve it for vet for now and try it on Zealot. Would you recommend momentum or the crit tree?
