Mace, axe, broadsword

[Brutal Justice]

But not katana because I don’t like to run like I’m constipated.  Is there something that each one of these sets does better than the other?  Does warmace have the best aoe?  Axe have the best mix?  Broadsword best single target and utility?  Why would you pick one over the other?  Is parry the only reason other than weapon skins?  Does damage type matter?  I really want to make one of these three but I can’t decide.  Let me know your reasons.

Thanks

[jack_nomind]

Mace has the best damage by a large margin.  (Axe and BS probably need some attention, tbh.  They're among the lowest-damage melee attack sets and don't have much in the way of special tricks to justify that.)

 

Axe has a chance for knockdown on every attack, making it pretty good at active mitigation.

 

Broadsword is also there.  It has a parry!  (Technically it can slot more -res procs than either of the others, so there's that if you want to lean in.)

[Knightward]

Having far more experience with broadsword than the other 2, and little to no experience with mace, my information will be extremely lopsided.

 

Broadsword's parry is the fun way to laugh at melee attacks even when you're not playing a def heavy powerset as it stacks with repeated usage.  It's strongest attack, headsplitter, also has a small melee cone and knockback so you can hit 2, sometimes 3 enemies at once with it if you line it up.  Its 2nd to last attack, disembowel, also has a knockup effect that very consistently works, to the point that if I chain it with the pbaoe's I need to pause for a second so they'll actually connect.  All its attacks except for parry also have a 7.5% def debuff, so the more you hit the more you'll continue to hit (and if for some reason you want to slot to enhance the debuff rather than murderdeathkilling you can).  Broadsword is essentially katana, but bigger: more damage, more debuff, more endurance, and conceptually similar attacks with vastly different animations; so if you know katana you know what you're getting here.

 

As jack_nomind pointed out, axe is great for juggling the enemy, so hooray less chance to fire off attacks!  I had plenty of fun with my tanker that used it.  While I can't quantify how much enemies constantly having to pick themselves back up improves your survivability, it absolutely helps.

 

Mace disorients, but I don't know the mag or duration for it and how well that works with most enemies.

 

While it's true that smashing and lethal are the most resisted damage in the game, the enemy groups that typically are better at resisting those other damage types tend not to be so great with their smashing/lethal, so you will get to enjoy shredding enemies that slow others down.  If memory serves, these powersets just flat out do more base damage to compensate for that frequent resistance.

[Hopeling]

War Mace is almost strictly superior to Battle Axe (Clobber vs Swoop, smashing vs lethal, otherwise basically identical).

 

Between mace and broadsword, broadsword's only real advantage is Parry. Mace has better damage overall, both single-target (thanks to Clobber) and AoE (thanks to Crowd Control, and Shatter's wider cone). Having played both to 50, this is as true in-practice as it looks on paper.

 

All three are plenty playable, but WM pretty clearly stands out as the superior set mechanically. If you're indifferent between the three conceptually, go WM.

[jack_nomind]

War Mace is almost strictly superior to Battle Axe (Clobber vs Swoop, smashing vs lethal, otherwise basically identical).

 

And the different secondary effect -- WM (mostly) stuns, BA knocks down.

[Hopeling]

WM still has a pretty good amount of knockdown though. Crowd Control actually has a 100% chance for knockdown, compared to only 50% on its counterpart Pendulum.

[PewPewThwomp]

 

Broadsword's parry is the fun way to laugh at melee attacks even when you're not playing a def heavy powerset as it stacks with repeated usage.  It's strongest attack, headsplitter, also has a small melee cone and knockback so you can hit 2, sometimes 3 enemies at once with it if you line it up.  Its 2nd to last attack, disembowel, also has a knockup effect that very consistently works, to the point that if I chain it with the pbaoe's I need to pause for a second so they'll actually connect.  All its attacks except for parry also have a 7.5% def debuff, so the more you hit the more you'll continue to hit (and if for some reason you want to slot to enhance the debuff rather than murderdeathkilling you can).  Broadsword is essentially katana, but bigger: more damage, more debuff, more endurance, and conceptually similar attacks with vastly different animations; so if you know katana you know what you're getting here.

 

 

So much this! My very first toon was BS/SR. I cried when elude got nerfed, but got over it. BS is still a great set, very powerful.. Parry works very well with SR. If you don't mind the whole "all or nothing" situation of the build, I highly recommend it.

[Kaeladin]

War Mace is almost strictly superior to Battle Axe (Clobber vs Swoop, smashing vs lethal, otherwise basically identical).

 

Between mace and broadsword, broadsword's only real advantage is Parry. Mace has better damage overall, both single-target (thanks to Clobber) and AoE (thanks to Crowd Control, and Shatter's wider cone). Having played both to 50, this is as true in-practice as it looks on paper.

 

All three are plenty playable, but WM pretty clearly stands out as the superior set mechanically. If you're indifferent between the three conceptually, go WM.

 

Basically it. War Mace is the superior set of the three (and actually compared to a fair amount of scrapper primaries!) in the combination of its ST/AOE/CC package (and smashing-type being slightly superior to lethal). Broad Sword takes up the last spot of the three; it's actually a set that, numerically, is disadvantaged compared to the other two; it's totally fine if you want to play it, and you can do well, but it's arguably the weakest of the three. Battle Axe is the middle tier between the two in terms of ST DPS, though Pendulum is quite nice for AOE, and another benefit is that it "blooms" relatively early compared to the other sets (i.e. it requires less recharge levels, especially compared to war mace, to do its "optimal" rotation for ST damage).

 

Also, since a comparison between broad sword and katana was mentioned; strictly from a numbers perspective (both tested and in spreadsheet form), katana is a superior version of broad sword. It has a stronger DPA cone and PBAOE attack, and a higher DPA (in the same time interval) ST DPS chain. Surprisingly, broad sword ends up being more "end efficient" compared to katana, but this is by virtue of its slower attack chain relative to katana.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I’ve never tried axe, but I’ll echo what is said here re: broadsword and war mace.  I love broadsword.  It’s my main and it was my main back in the good old days.  But it definitely underperforms war mace in just about every way.