Does anyone take Ghost Slaying Axe?

Hey all I finally, finally, finally got my 1 year vet reward and I must say it is amazing!

Sands of Mu just helps out so very, very, very much at the early levels even with redraw times for certain power sets due to the fact that I can debuff and damage several enemies at once which is really useful. I had been having trouble with a mission when I last loged on, after getting Sands I dominated it!

I wonder though does anyoen take the Axe over sands? I have a hard time seeing under what conditions that that moderate damage single target leath damage Ax would be more useful over the High damage negative energy cone of sands but I have to assume the Ax is just as good as sands otherwise why offer you a choice right?

Are there really enough ghosts in the game that this Ax really pays off or it is just a non-choice and sands is always better unless you want an Ax for concept reasons?

I take it usually since I min-max and don't need both the ranged wands.
Its really nice when you get the special condiiton.

It's come in quite handy for some of my low-level villains. There are a lot of early missions that involve Nerva spectres and Spectral Demon Lords. Some yellows and the Ghost Slaying Axe can go long way. Just wished it worked on Diabolique

I do, because I hate those ghosts.

It's useful if you're a hover user, as you're usually not in range to use Sands, but ghosts in general can fly. So something spectral floats into range and gets axed. Also, if you're a Dark or Lethal damage user already with enough melee AoE, you really want the Axe to take down those pesky ghosts that resist everything you have, except the Axe.

Now, I admit some of these are edge cases, but if you have the (melee) AoE covered and/or do a damage type that ghosts are strong against, the Axe is a fine choice.

I like using it on Vazhilok zombies too. They're not true undead, and it doesn't get the extra damage against them, but it does do the base damage and paste up a great big "INEFFECTIVE" warning over their heads.

When it actually does kill them with the base damage, it's really funny to see "INEFFECTIVE" appear as they collapse to the ground, dead.

Aside from that, some of my characters took the axe thematically, like a tree-based controller. A tree hitting a human with an axe is morally satisfying.

Now that I get to have both (using the higher vet reward) I almost always take both Sands of Mu and the Ghost-slaying Axe, since another vet reward lets me take one of the ranged powers anyway. Very handy to have the Axe for COT spectrals and the like, especially if I don't have to give up Sands.

I think it is funny that the three people who responded as taking the axe are all 2004 vets who probably can make up the attacks elsewhere.

As a player who does not have access to any of the free ranged attacks, no, all of my characters take Sands of Mu because it is generally far more effective than the GSA.

All depends on the character, a lot of times I don't take either of the powers, cause I forget I can take them or just because I don't see the need to take them.

I've a fire/fire tanker that just hit level 20 last night that has neither sands nor any of the other vet powers. I have an inv/ss tank that uses the ghost slaying axe and I have a dark melee/Super Reflexes that uses sands of mu to get nearly a complete attack cycle consisting of sands, flurry and that other sands like power DM has which I can't recall the name of at the moment.

I often take ghost slaying axe, especially on squishy toons, because the animation time is much shorter so I spend a lot less time rooted in place. I also take the ghost slaying axe because I hate ghosts they can actually be hard to deal with at low levels for some melee types. I generally only get sands of mu if I feel a new character is weak on melee AOE damage.

I take it on any character that would need help slaying ghosts, which means any heavy smashing, lethal, or negative energy damage character. True, the ghosts are only a problem in low levels, but then again, that's really the only time you need the vet powers.

Both Axe and Sands are unaffected by Fury as far as I can tell, and at the times when I actually want to use my vet melee, I want to start out with it, therefore the redraw isn't a big deal and the higher accuracy and faster animation of the Axe is definitely nice.

Also, the Ghost Slaying Axe lets you to be a proper frothing barbarian.

I usually take the axe on characters who'd actually want the help killing ghosts - my dark blast defender and BS scrapper, for example. Sands is the default choice, but the axe is occasionally more useful, I think.

i always take the ghost axe, i hate the long animation of the sands of mu, especially when it misses your stuck in the animation

the ghost axe is soo much more useful especially when fighting ghosts when lvling up or exemping

I took the Undead Slaying Axe on 2 characters when it first came out and have deeply regretted it. So much so that I gave serious thoughts to rerolling them. I didn't because they both had multi-year anniversary badges. Since then, all my characters take Sands of Mu. When I hit 54 months Vet, I took the Sands on those 2 characters even though I didn't really need it anymore just so I could erase my earlier personal failure.

I could do with the Axe on my Warshade... Would be nice to actually do something to the CoT ghosts...

Other than that I think the Sands have a few more uses.

I usually take the Axe on any character that has a primary damage type that is heavily resisted by those ghosts (Lethal, Smashing or Neg. Energy). I just REALLY hate those ghosts.

Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize

I do take the axe on some toons but only because I can get 3 of the 4 vet attacks anyway. If I was limited to just mu or the axe it would be Sands everytime.

I always take on toons that deals mostly Smashing/Lethal.

I may skip it on a toon that deals Energy damage(Ghosts' weakness).

It usually depends on the class of the toon. If melee I take sands, ranged or control type ax.

I depends on the concept, really. If I have a more "martial artist" type of character, I'll usually go with the Sands of Mu. But if the character in question is an archeologist who collects relics, well, the Axe is perfect.

Plus, my Mastermind Psycommando uses it, just so I can tie a chat bind to it that says, "Behold! My Axe of Senseless Violence!" as he draws it. He's a bit of a loony...

Out of about 90 characters, I think I have taken it twice. Once on a dark melee scrapper because I already had shadow maul and because the axe was good against ghosts, which usually resist negative energy anyway.

The second was a trick arrow/arrow defender that had a Native American theme to it, so the Axe seemed to fit better as a natural weapon.

Everyone else gets Sands of Mu, whichever wand gives them the origin bonus, and then the other wand.

Something to keep in mind: the Axe's bonus damage is only for those enemies that if they tag you first, you'll receive a -tohit debuff to make the Axe's base accuracy suck that much more against them.

I have a Shield/Warmace tank with the GSA.
I also have GSA on my Sonic/Traps Corruptor.

Very nice when taking out CoT ghosts. If you can hit through all the debuffs.

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