Does anyone take Ghost Slaying Axe?
By
Angelxman81,
Posted on: 2010-09-10 08:23 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
Quote:
Let's see, off the top of my head there are the CoT ghosts, Tsoo Ancestral Spirits, BP zombies, invasion zombies, Shivans* , the Lich in Darrin Wade's arc, Croatoan ghosts, Ghost Ship ghosts, and Spectral Pirates. That's a fair amount of undead.|
Originally Posted by Mr_Frost
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?
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As for me, I take it on characters that use negative energy attacks since the undead resist those so much.
* Yes, it does work on Shivans, the reference in their description to "ectoplasm" is apparently not a mistaken term.
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I take it on occasion. Now that I have the 54 month vet badge I pretty much take it on every character, in addition to the Sands of Mu. Slashy and Smashy wedded together in a beautiful combo of death.
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On some of my older toons, I took the axe, but it stopped getting used once I gained more powers. On many of my 50s, Sands of Mu is still one of the primary attacks. I never take the axe anymore.
@Joshua.
My first 50 was my DM/Regen scrapper, so I almost exclusively tend toward Sands of Mu simply because lining up the cone is second nature to hit at least 2, usually 3 targets without even thinking about it 
The only time I do really miss the GSA though is fighting spectrals. Hate spectrals. Haaaate.
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I will take the axe when they offer a 4th and final pick of the vet powers.|
Originally Posted by Mr_Frost
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? |
The axe is single target, sands can hit up to 5 targets at once.
The axe does "special" damage against a very few targets, other than that it does lethal damage that is frequently resisted, Sands applies a to hit debuff against the targets it hits and provides an exotic damage type that is not as often resisted.
The targets that the axe is useful against typically use dark powers which provide anything from small to massive to hit debuffs, which means that the tie the axe is going to be most useful are also the times you are most likely to miss when attempting to use the axe.
My happy/fun/useful rating for the power? 1 1/2 stars out of a possible 10.
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I took Axe on my DM/SR because I needed something that wasn't negative energy damage for fighting mobs that resist it, and because Shadow Maul is better than Sands in every way imaginable already.
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This is a really good point.|
Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
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.
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I tend to just avoid CoT in early levels because of this. I think I took the axe on one character once and never used it, whereas Sands of Mu has been a staple of many of my characters.
I wish vet reward powers would customizable and respectable.
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i find them pretty respectable already.|
Originally Posted by Angelxman81
I wish vet reward powers would customizable and respectable.
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If i had to choose between SoM and GSA i would usually take SoM, but most of the time i choose both since i can.
While none of the vet attacks are affected by damage buffs, they are also unaffected by damage debuffs, which is why even at the higher levels i will use them during Rage's crash.
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I always take the ghost slaying axe if only because I really hate the animation of Sands of Mu.
I would say about 2/3rds of my characters take the axe over sands of Mu. That is either because they can directly benefit from it's special ability or it just fits their character better.
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Am I the only person here who picks based on whether fisticuffs or cold steel make more sense for the character? 
I seriously go by what looks right for that hero or villain. Truthfully, it means the axe more often than not as it's easier to justify a character having an odd item than having sparkly, speedy fists. (Plus I do just think the axe looks cool, heh.)
I'll pick the Axe for thematic reasons, but I prefer Sands of Mu for superior and more exotic damage and AOE capability. Both of them usually get replaced for my actual powers anyway, so I'm not too picky about choosing them.
The wands, however, get a lot of use on most of my characters. I like having the ranged attacks on my melee characters, and my Controllers get a lot of milage out of them since their attack chains don't usually fill out until very late.
Heck, Ghost Slaying Axe, Blackwand, and Sands of Mu is the primary attack chain of my Necro/Dark. After taking Tactics and slotting some Acc IO Bonuses it was actually pretty reliable.
I'm not a huge min/maxer, and I hate bouncing around trying to line up Shadow Maul/Sands of Mu. Plus, Ghost Slaying Axe used to have a really cool "Axe to the face!" animation.
Because of this, most of my characters have the Ghost Slaying Axe. The only exceptions being my Broadsword or Axe characters.
The Axe is great vs CoT ghosts at low levels, and it looks really cool. I definitely recommend it to anyone who can get over that fact that it's not the absolute bestest DPSes.
I've only ever taken the axe on one character, a Broadsword/Shield Scrapper.
Luckily, that was the character with whom I first ran the Croatoa arcs. It was perfect for fighting those nasty ghosties who resisted my sword!
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About half of my characters get it, usually ones that have weaker attacks or ones that don't rely on personal fighting (masterminds, defenders, etc.). For them, it's nice having something that does a lot of damage to at least certain enemies.
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I havent read any of the responses but I take the GSAxe on characters who should have an axe.
My Plant/Storm Controller is a Druid, so he has to be able to use an axe. My Electric/Fire Dominator is the queen of Hell, so she has to have an axe to behead those who are deemed unfit to live. Etc.
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I only take it on Dark Melee/Blast characters.
When I don't need yet another attack that does negative energy dmg.
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I tend to take it on damage-centric characters who might have problems with ghosts - for example my DB scrapper: she doesn't really need the extra damage SoM offers, but the ability to kill those annoying ghosts quicker, particularly at lower levels, is useful.
In general no, I don't find the Axe that useful. Here's my rationale:
- Sands is a cone AOE hitting up to 5 mobs (2-3 fairly reliably if you line it up)
- Sands has a much less resisted damage type.
- Sands deals more damage than the Axe.
- The foes that the Axe deals it's extra damage to, by and large, also have substantial tohit debuffs making it much less likely to hit. Against other foes it offers a widely resisted damage type.
- While the Axe has a considerably faster animation it's other drawbacks do not, in my opinion, make up for this.
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Sands of Mu does scale 1.08 Negative and 1.08 Smashing, not 2.16 Negative. Axe does 1.32 Lethal normally, and 2.64 Lethal against true undead (which also usually resist both Smashing and Negative). Amusingly, the Axe deals scale 0 Energy against Vahzilok zombies in addition to the base 1.32 Lethal |
Originally Posted by Mr_Frost
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?
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The Axe is actually a good choice if your arsenal is already full of Smashing/Negative (for example, Dark Blast/Melee characters). Adding a variety to your damage types is a good thing.
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Originally Posted by Obscure Blade
Yes, it does work on Shivans, the reference in their description to "ectoplasm" is apparently not a mistaken term.
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Nearly always the sands. I;m great at lining up 3-4 mobs behind it, which will coast me through street sweeping lowbie levels.
My Axe brute has the ghost axe. A few others as well, which I wish I could change on them.
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Conceptual reasons here too. Lethal or smashing damage users who are Natural usually feel odd to me using the Sands of Mu, so they get the Axe instead, and it is really nice against those annoying ghosts. I'd guesstimate I've taken the Axe on 2/3 of my characters, I have a lot of those types.
All the vet attacks tend to begin leaving my main 3 power trays in the 30s anyway, as they wane in usefulness generally. On low-damage characters I might stick them in a detached 4th tray, just in case.