Worst melee weapon in the game?

What does everyone think the worst melee weapon in this game is? Looking at overall stats and performance, which one is the weakest, clunkiest, slowest?
My contender for this spot is the warpick:


It is excruciatingly slow (light attacks take almost a full second, and while armory says opposite, the charged attacks are also slower), does absolutely pitiful damage with light attacks, the uncharged heavy attack feels useless, has the worst dodge in the game with just 2 dodge count and no dodge bonus (on par with shields and stuff like 2h hammer), no extra defensive properties (no extra stamina, no stronger pushes and no innate block cost reduction), has bad cleave (on paper the cleave looks good, but it has bad damage cleave and the fact that it doesn’t have a modifier is huge, it means it’s missing out on a 50% reduction on mass, and no extra properties like cleaving through elites or extra stagger) and the full charged attack is extremely slow and only has the capacity to kill one elite (if that). When you’re fighting large groups of stormvermin or maulers, killing one of them a second (being generous here), while being completely exposed, with bad dodge, and not crowd controlling any of them, it’s just awful.

The only career that can make this weapon not painful is Slayer, and that’s only because he gets massive buffs to power and speed. This weapon otherwise is awful. It can’t clear hordes well, the DPS is awful, the cleave is practically kind of weak, it deals terribly against shields and terribly against mixed hordes. It’s functionally very similar to the executioner but without any of the additions that make it good (like extra headshot damage, faster attacks, tank property, innate crit on heavies etc.)
I can count on one hand how many times I’ve seen this weapon in action, and one of those times is me.

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I agree with Pick being bad.

On Slayer, Pick is ok/a meme Elite deleter.

On RV and IB, the first Stat you need is Merc using Strike Together, or it’s barely usable.

I’ve argued for the Push-Attack to at least have Crit% so you can get SS up faster.

I’ve worked out the potential AS of Slayer, RV, and IB before, and I cba typing it out again.

1H Sword, 1H Axes, Sienna Mace, Elf Greatsword, Elf Spear, Falchion (1 extra Stamina Shield), are all close.

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Ofc this is my subjective opinion:
Hard to say. I’d personally put some weapon/career combinations like the 1h sword on Merc/FK pretty low (okay on Huntsmen, decent on Pyro).
I’d like to say the Mace and Shield but some people swear by it so I might just not know the weapon well enough.

The 1h Axe on Victor seems weak. No range horde clear for them and A&F is probably better for crit fishing anyway on WHC.
I’m not sure what the Falchion brings to the table. Not even sure what it’s actually supposed to do, but I think it’s supposed to be versatile. Has a nice movement curve on lights. The combination of the decent dodge and cleave would make it a good defensive tool for Bounty Hunter, akin to the 1h Sword for Huntsmen, but it only has two stamina so the Rapier is still better for defense overall.

Kerillian’s Greatsword can’t truly frontline against mixed hordes like Kruber’s (it lacks stagger cleave so it’s only good against weaker hordes) so it plays like a support for a frontliner, but the Spear is better for that and the Dual Swords can be too arguably, even if they have less reach.

Sienna’s Mace is okay, but seems to have been superseded by the Flaming Flail.

The 2h Axe seems like a bad idea outside of Slayer. IB might able to make it work by hit trading a lot. Not sure how much more effective it would really be than just using the Greathammer.

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Elf Spear.

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Thanks for reminding me. It hits everywhere except where you’re aiming, but the Spear and Shield is way more accurate.

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You can make Greataxe work on IB, but it’s quite awkward and requires a lot of push spamming (double pushes are necessary), and being super aggressive with the Flamethrower.

The weird thing is, against Patrols/Bosses/Elites, Gaxe on IB is quite insane. I’ve solo’d Chaos Patrols with it, because of the Light AS.

https://www.ranaldsgift.com/5/223323/7,3,4,6/8,4,5,8/3,2,5/1,6,4/2,7,3

It does still need some looking at though, as it’s way too unsafe to use on RV. IB Stamina Shield and ability to tank damage saves it. I tried the Stamina Gromril Talent, but you get hit too often for it to work.

Boon of Shallya, because you don’t have good THP generation.

Also, on Hordes Push-Attack > L2 > L3 is better than doing the Push-Attack > Heavy 2 > L3 combo, because it’s a safer way to get Cleave damage out.

I’d love to see the Push-Attack improved, or the pushes given half cost. This wouldn’t effect Slayer, because he mainly switches to Greataxe for Elites/Bosses/Specials, and not for Hordes (unless you have support).

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Agree with the Warpick. It’s quite bad. It could be saved if it’d be better vs. mixed hordes though. Maybe through better mobility and better light attacks. And a very slight wind up speed buff for heavy strikes would also go a long way.

Other contenders would be the Falchion as mentioned before, and Sienna’s Mace. No clear idea what those need to be good outside of a rework, though. 1H Hammer / Mace also feels really lackluster to me, but I’m not experienced with it and I’ve heard some people like it.

I actually think the 1H Axe isn’t hopeless, and that it can be redeemed relatively easy. Back in 1.6 Legend it was pretty good, actually, on all Bardin and Saltz’s careers (Bounty Hunter being debatable), and the key differences between then and now is that back then mobility was a better defense, and, most importantly: It actually had a very good hits-to-kill profile in those days. If Axe light strikes would get enough striking power to kill Fanatics and lower in 1 body hit and Marauders and under in 2 body hits on every difficulty again, it would instantly become a good-but-not-horribly-overpowered weapon.

I also feel the Hammer & Shield is an inferior weapon to the Axe & Shield in every single imaginable combat situation, but not so long ago I saw somebody play it with good effect on Cataclysm. So I might just have not figured it out yet. But if it was up to me, I’d do a rework.

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Surely Sienna’s mace is in there, as it’s only really got the meme-build block cancel thing to make it remotely possible to achieve anything with it. I have seen it in game at Legend once since 2.0

Poor vs hordes, poor swing patterns, painfully slow vs armour and complete lack of any synergy with any talents or careers.

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Sienna’s mace. Slow and awkward attack patterns. Superseded by other weapons in almost all aspects, be it armor killing or horde killing.

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Sienna’s mace is my top pick. Slow, low dps, poor cleave, it gains nothing compared to even the 1h Sword. It’s so slow in swings and movement that rats will often actually move out of the way between the time you click and the time they (would have) get hit.

Honorable mentions are Axe (no place in this game for single target weapon), Mace+Shield (outclassed in every way by the other shield), Elven Greatsword (I love it, but it just doesn’t do enough damage since 2.0), and War Pick (except on Slayer where it’s kind of ok).

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Kerilian’s 1H axe.
Great single damage, but has absolutely no cleave whatsoever. Even Sienna’s dagger is better.

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  1. Shield n Mace/Hammer
  2. Axe n Shield
  3. 1h Axes ( niche)
  4. Elf 2h Sword
  5. 1h mace/hammer (niche)
  1. elven 2h sword
  2. sienna mace
  3. darven h1 hammer
  4. elven crossbow

[about armory]
I installed it a couple of weak ago, and I am quite puzzled about the shown stats.

On the sheet, 1h elven axe is by far superior to the elven glaive… but IMHO it isn’t true.

[warpick]
Normal attacks stagger the enemies and it has a quite decent cleave and defense shields.

I am experimenting a berserk build, that can wipe out a full horde in frenzy while grinding temp health and recharging the ulti (yes. it can trigger frenzy 2-3 times in a row without any potions :slight_smile: ).

It is also good to one-shot one single elite…

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Hmmmmmm. I am pretty sure that this should have a higher placement in your list of worst melee weapons.

From those I used, I would also pick Sienna’s Mace. In my world, this should be the weapon which works with Unchained defense/support build. But I couldn’t get it to work. It just doesn’t have the crowd control ability I would expect from such a heavy weapon.

Other than that and based on weapon appearance (as in how often you see them in public games) mainly the 1-hand weapons (axes more than the rest) have some minor issues although this is to the partly broken nature of the dual wielding weapons which are just over the top. So, there has to be done some kind of adjustment of toning down the top outlier and slightly improving the less-seen choices.

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The elven poison bow is quite near to this list.

It is outperformed by elven shortbow by almost any aspect.

The most big problem of her 1h axe is, unlike all other her weapons, it makes you slow down.

I am pretty sure that Hagbane is considered the top choice for most players who can use it as intended. But that wasn’t the point I tried to make.

I think ANY ranged weapon makes a poor melee choice alone for the missing block function.

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Dual axes, they are just bad, worse version of 1h axe, are only slayer weapon that dont do anything good because they are pseudo horde elite killer but have no cleave and not good armor damage.

Otherwise i would say mace for sienna because its just worse version of coal poker

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Hagbane is a boss deleter land headsets and you get nearly triple the dot damage. Thats its purpose. Shortbow is a meme build.

Dual Axes are absolutely fantastic, You don’t need cleave when you swing so fast 1 hitting clan rats and chaos bois because the ease of getting heads host with them. Then they have the push attack which deletes elites. Not to mention an excellent dodge range on them which is something you need desperately on slayer.

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