Cleave talents are not working on weapons with finesse but no cleave?
Because 0 + 200% is still 0
This is an interesting point though as many will believe that cleave talents add cleave regardless.
The talents don’t say they will only improve existing cleave, or certainly their wording doesn’t suggest that.
I thought every weapon has cleave, otherwise how do you explain if it hits multiple opponents?
every attack type of every weapon has it’s own cleave value
the cleave stat on a weapon (if it exists) change a base cleave for attacks
blessings will change that value further, but if a weapon has no cleave stat - it wiil work with the base values
for exmpl if u take chainsword mk iv (it has no cleave stat)
you will have these numbers
Light 1 - 1.5
Light 2 - 4.5
Light 3 - 4.5
Light 4 - 4.5
Heavy 1 - 0
Heavy 2 - 0
Heavy 3 - 8
After you take “wrath” with 5 stacks, ur base cleave will up by 200%
and will amount to (or something like that, not sure the values i roughly estimated are accurate):
Light 1 - 4.5
Light 2 - 13.5
Light 3 - 13.5
Light 4 - 13.5
Heavy 1 - 0
Heavy 2 - 0
Heavy 3 - 24
you can find some info here
Makes sense, but how comes the Achlys combat axe has 0.001 cleave xD
it’s just the developers’ design: a weapon for single targets only.
in the game, u need to solve 4 kill tasks during a run:
- trash waves
- specialists
- armored guys
- ranged guys
so, if u want to make ur build universal, u need to be sure u have the capabilities to fulfill all 4.
battle axes were designed to solve the 3rd task, but with the game’s power creep and the release of new weapons, they are outdated and have now become a toy for enthusiasts.
so no need to think about, just accept
Brutal Momentum blessing allows combat axes to bypass cleave limitations.
Darktide’s COOLEST Blessing ! Brutal Momentum Guide
As always I say to people: mechanical depth or easy to explain in a tooltip → pick one.
I mean i understand, that it supposed to be a single target anti armor weapon, but its clearly not and still has some horizontal attacks, so its dumb they stops in the first enemy if you dont have brutal momentum… 
As you just pointed out, its outdated and weak in its role so basically useless weapons, since dueling sword can deal more damage against armoured and other weapons have way cleave, so why bother…
As I always say: You can enjoy the game or think about the game - Pick one.
It has some horizontal animation, but it’s still a “strikedown” type, so it’s just a visual thing.
Not only are axes now in such a sad state, and I have no reasonable answer as to why FS refuses to overhaul old weapons.
And be wary of the term “useless”: there are always some freaks here who could emanate in the topic faster than light and make it clear to you that battle axes are a fully Havoc 40-capable weapon.
BM has since been nerfed to not give infinite cleave, but it is still super OP. It’s still the highest damage increasing blessing in the game.
You are correct in that it is capped at three additional targets now, as long as they are not ogryns, and iirc ignores the carapace stop flag.
But yeah, essentially takes a weapon with negligible cleave and makes it a top tier horde clear weapon (if you can hit your breakpoints).
I haven’t played non-Havocs in so long that I don’t remember if anything can one-shot Maulers/Plasma Gunners anymore.
Nothing I use. Maybe if someone used shroudfield to buff an axe swing? Bit of a hypothetical situation.
It’s a matter of class, martyrdom zealot and hive scum make hem very strong, mostly because they compensate low attack speed.
And HS and Zealot have better options than BA,
so, no, not to my taste.
Besides, HS was designed to utilize trash weapons 
And Zealot was monstrously buffed recently…
Nobody says you can’t use it, if you like it.
My post somewhere went down from rails, because i was talking about an axe variant using horizontal swings with 0 cleave. You can offset it with brutal momentum but its a must pick so only 1 other slot remains. Its a strong weapon, but not as strong against carapace on not melee classes as intended by the description in my opinion.
By any chance does someone have any spreadsheet / resource that indicates the damage values beyond the first target ?
Because sometimes you can stack cleave bonuses pretty high but it’s kinda pointless when the damage fall-off is super steep or even 0 beyond the 3rd target.
I guess it could be useful when you kill a carapace head enemy with weakspot you can continue the swing.