Tactical axes? Second tier?

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
1

I’m pretty sure this was the case pre-version13; are tactical axes just a second tier choice to combat axes? Am I just using them wrong/have a bad variant?

I thought I’d love the tactical axe; tac-tac-tac, tac-tac-tac - the three hit combo is nice to play with and I feel should be a two-three hit kill mechanic on hordes. But it just doesn’t seem to work that way for me. I need a three sequence on one trash-poxer opponent; or if I get a headshot crit then mechanically I’m making an air-swing and wasting the crit.

The combat axe however; faster to complete just one swing. MASSIVE damage and additionally cleave. Which means that the tactical axe is left in the dust.

Am I doing this wrong? Or are tactical axes just poop. I get they’re supposed to be high crit, but that makes no real difference on something that is meant to clear mobs easily.

Two axes _ two different impacts
Two axes _ two different impacts1448×1086 151 KB

(*edit spelling)

1 Like
2

iirc they used to have a completely different animation set, really quick series of overhead strikes for whittling down single targets with headshots. Was surprised when I used one recently and the attacks were way slower and more varied, think I liked the old one better. Makes them feel too similar but worse compared to the other types of axes imo.

3

You probably had a different variant. Probably the Tactical Axe VII.

@Jonboy : It honestly depends on your playstyle and what your build is centered around. I see you are going for breakpoints. For that the Tactical Axe is not as viable as the Combat Axe.

What the Tac Axe has going for it is the built-in critical bonus, that gives it a baseline +Crit Chance of up to 15 (currently 12.70) and critical hits deal more damage.
The playstyle of the Tac Axes is critical weakspot hits and you score them by using heavy attacks exclusively, no light attacks. It plays completely different from the Combat Axe.

How to build a reliable Tactical Axe in 3 easy steps:
First step: > Get rid of the MK II, the MK VII is miles better.
Secondly: > If you can help it, get 80 in damage, penetration, finesse and critical bonus. Now the stats of the one you posted are excellent, but it’s the wrong axe and the Blessings aren’t what you want.
Thirdly: > Get Shred and Brutal Momentum (yes, even post-patch). Also get 5% crit chance as a Blessing.

Profit: You now have a tactical Axe with baseline 17.70% crit chance + 5% (or 10%) from your archetype, another +4% if you have a Psyker with a good build around.
And with Shred you can get up to another 20% crit on top. This nets you are crit chance from anywhere between 42.70%-51.70%.

Now to iterate on what that is good for: As a Zealot, there is a talent deep in left side that reduces your Ability cooldown for 1.5s (used to be percentages) on every crit you score. The Tactical Axe synergizes amazingly with it.

You can pop off your ability, get more crit from it, attack a group of enemies 2-3 times, pop your ability again, rinse and repeat. That’s what this little Axe is made for.

You will chain your heavy attacks, every attack is a headshot and most of them critical. This damage gets augmented by all the Weakspot damage and critical damage bonusses from Critical Bonus, Finesse and whatever talents and perks you have regarding that. And that’s how you get your breakpoints with it. Every charged attack potentially oneshots everything that’s not an Ogryn or a Mutie.
And you can clear Hordes because Brutal Moment makes your damage spill over to new targets.

If you don’t want to build around crits, the Combat Axe indeed is the better choice, though.

2 Likes
4

This is what the forums should be for!

Thank you. Great advice, on both edits (:wink: I read both)

Sad that a variant of a weapon is immediately consigned to a “non working” pot.

But yes, I happen to have these particular two on the vet, where a crit build is probably less useful than a zealot crit special recharge build.

Likely I have something similar on zealot, though I prefer knife/turtolsky 9 there tbh.

I think I know the outcome here. The antax is just better on vet. Reality is the shared weapons across careers is slightly flawed : to the extent that the tactical axe I have just won’t ever match my style /build until there’s a balance patch.

1 Like
5

I would say instead of chaining Heavy Attacks, when facing Hordes do Block-Shove-Attack into Heavy attack. This gives you a block, a shove, and two very horizontal sweeps that are great for cleaving through heads. It also means you never get hit from constantly shoving.

You want the Zealot Bleed on Crit talent, and increased crit per enemies Bleeding. With a Revolver, you’re gonna be at 100% crit. Get every talent that works off Crit and you’re good to go. You can even much through the Carapace Ogryns as long as you land weakspot crits chaining heavies.
You also want to pick up the talents that improve impact and stagger. So your quick little axe will chain stagger even big enemies. It’s insanely good now, because low stagger was it’s one weakness.

2 Likes
6

Combat axes are more about raw damage, cleave, tactical offer slightly better mobility and higher crit chance. You can build around both?

7

That was literally my question to this forum. You’ve just presented my question back to me!

I think I’m still of the view (after 700 hours of general play BTW, so I’m not asking as a newbie ) that the combat axe is better for vet, and a knife/turtolsky is better than either on zealot.

IE tactical axe is suboptimal

8

You could say that its suboptimal, but then its a matter of a preference and nothing is perfectly balanced. On zealot you can increase your damage resistence on crit, so tact can support that as you can squeze out approx 15% of crit chance just from the weapon It’s still easier to maintain that with a combat knife, as you have a bleed blessing, which supports one of the zealot crit talents. Bleed got also buffed across the board during the last rebalance.

I hear multiple weapons still are to be rebalanced (SoonTM). There are multiple other weapons which make little sense atm, such as Crusher. Tac is from being bad, but it no longer gets carried by Brutal Monumentum.

9

Nailed it!

10

Perso, I don’t see it like several of you.

Sure a tactical axe is really good with a critic template, but it is not the only way to use it.
First, I use the MK IV cause the light can cleave and the heavy 1 is a nice strikedown.

I use tactical axe on zealot and veteran. I use it on critic template with shred for the zealot but I like decimator + BM or headtaker + BM that is really great on both.
Played yesterday with it on my main veteran. I had infiltrate and picked the tact axe as it works well in such fast gameplay.

However, I would use tact axe only in a template that involves a fast gameplay. This weapon can make you move and hit really fast.

1 Like
11

I like tactical axes more now, and I liked them more before. For exactly that they depend less on hit mass reduction, this is also what makes them good. They hit 3 groaners out of the gate, buff your power and you hit 3 pox walkers or dreg stalkers. Basically you can’t hit multiple bruisers.

Compare this to a combat axe, which is literally 2 groaners max unless you use push attack. Achyls is still erroneously low in hit mass (another big F for weird losers) so it can never hit more than 1 anything outside push. They also attack insanely slow. Tactical axes are a literal flurry of blows working specials and lights in between (so long as you have the punch that the non Mk2s open with).

The only weakness is Crushers, but we have a ton of ways through them now. I actually love Krak Grenades for this, and have been using Tactical Axe and Catachan Swords the most since the update.

Tactical axes needed brutal momentum LESS, the real nerf they got is decimator, lol.

12

It was good pre-patch, too. And for the same reason. Totally overlooked weapon by the community, simply because you can’t make the Light attacks one-hit kill.
And yeah, I didn’t mention the Bleed talent, but that gives you another 10% crit on top.

I mean, it’s not the weapon is non-working. But it’s animation set is just slightly inferior. If memory serves right, there is an upward chop towards the groin area in one of those combos. You cannot hit a weakspot with that, since Nurgle followers clearly have it rotted off down there or something.

I’d argue for a Vet the Combat Axe will be superior in most cases, although I see the melee attack speed talent making the Tac Axe decent. You can get some pretty good speeds on that.

Also Turtolski is insanely good, more now than before. The first heavy on one of them has 800 RAW DAMAGE. You can get the weapon with all dmg boosting talents to onehitkill muties. I love it.

Dagger is the choice of the fine connoissor, but it’s lost it’s edge compared to the rest of the pack.

If you can make the Tac Axe work for you in unconventional ways, good on you. How you use it is kinda niche, though.

13

This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.