Axe usually doesnt actually get as much complaints as Mace. The difference between Mace and Axe is that with Axe you get less secondary effects that aid survivability than Mace but you get slightly more damage to make up. Mace conceptually would be more disorienting anyway and Axe would, rather than bruise an arm, would take the arm off.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Axe has decent damage and good knockdown/back effects, it's not quite up to the level of SS and NRG, but still a nice set. Definitely better than mace.
i've tried axe a few times always found it to slow and i'm not a big fan of the look (needs to be bigger imo) i'm sure when the next big upgrade comes that lets us chop off limbs it'll become very good 
Got to agree there, I tried out axe for a bit after posting this, and it's just way too small =/
Needs to be a huge battle axe 
My lvl 48, Viking Furnace is Fire / Axe - and I have to say he's an incredibly "therapeutic" toon to play.
Not the damage of SS or NRG sure, but somehow a LOT more satisfying.
Only minus point is that it's a wee bit end heavy even with Stamina 3 slotted and an end rdx in each axe attack
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
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I'm gonna start playing heroes pretty soon and intend to try a tanker, probably Ice/*
I haven't decided on the secondary yet, and was wondering about Battle Axe. I've taken a quick look at the US boards and here, but it doesn't seem overly popular, even less than war mace, how so ? Is it really that bad ?
Also wondering how it would work with Ice primary.
Edit : forgot to add, PvE only