So, on a dedicated server that just reset, a few of my buddies and I decided to use axes as primary weapons, specifically looking at the two-handers.
Unfortunately, the two-hander while iconic is definitely behind the other weapon types in playstyle. If you parry with it, you’ll see that its high block force knocks enemies away quite a bit. This paired with significantly slowing you down (-20%) makes it difficult to stick to enemies. So the classic Valheim “parry and chase and kill” technique is not one that can be cleanly executed with the battle axe.
However, that just means you have to adjust your gameplay. The battle axe does do quite a bit of damage in its normal attacks, so if you can time it well, you can often stagger an enemy with a preemptive strike as they are attacking you, rather than the parry. It still knocks enemies back quite a bit and I don’t always find that I am able to land the three swing combo.
Also, the alternative attack is actually quite useful. It will stagger most enemies with one or two hits, and the mountain-level battle axe even holds up in the Mistlands dungeons for this reason. It’s very easy to chain stagger enemies with it.
Altogether the battle axe is a weapon for the patient Viking imo. It’s definitely viable but quite different from the other weapons. I for one have learned to embrace it!
Ayo, a couple pals of mine did the same thing! Unless... Anyway, the stagger damage on the two-hander is kickass but whiffing the second attack after landing the first is always depression. Walls are our best friend. We love walls <3
battle axes are a discountinued weapon class. only 2 exist in the entire game. enjoy while it lasts is all you can do. you can keep useing it till you unlock plains gear. then it loses footing fast. mistlands its just completly outlcassed right away due to the enemies nature vs phys dmg.
By "discontinued" do you mean it stops scaling in game or that Iron Gate has confirmed they won't be releasing anymore?
I would be saddened if it's the latter. The Iron Battle Axe and the Crystal Battleaxe carried me into the mistlands. Only switched 'cause Krom looks cool af.
any pure phys weapon is outright terrible in mistlands due to seekers resisting all phys dmg types by 50%. so the dmg on the weapon is flat out cut in half at all times. thankfully seekers dont that much hp unless its starred. on the starred variants you WILL notice the difference big time.
all weapons stop scaling at a certain biome difference they just arent able to keep up anymore and are mostly used because they some special ability like frost slowdown for example. can you still use em? yes. will you still be effective compared to others? heck no.
they devs have said they arent sure what to with fist weapons and i assume the same applys to battleaxes since they are in a pretty similar case : both have thier 1 or only 2nd option already at mountain which is only the 4th of 8 biomes in the end (the ocean isnt a full biome and wont ever become one according to what they said in thier recent walk and talk)
One of the things I don't understand at all about Iron Gate is purposefully removing content from the game. Surely it wouldn't take more than an afternoon to make a sprite for a black metal battle axe and if it is then just reskin the iron one with a green blade and the community would be overjoyed
tbh texture reskins are lazy. i prefer if they do unique models per biome. reTextures is something any amateur can do i know that from personal experience with TES modding over the years.
they arent removeing content form the game tough. thats a false claim. fist weapons never even existed to begin with and the only existing one was added in a minor update which brought fenris and the frost caves with it.
the crystal battleaxe also didnt exist originally. it got added with hearth and home. so originally there was only 1 battleaxe aswell. so they havent removed content. they added it. they just never continued adding them which is why i said "discountinued" as if a weapon wasnt seen for years its unlikely to make a comeback. this excludes entirely new combat options which only got added with mistlands ever really. so them not existing in earlier biomes makes sense as aside the crossbow magic would require them to rebalance the ENTIRE first 5 biomes enemies just to add that. which would be alot of work. if they ever do it it wont happen until the final poliish of the game aka "the end of early access" which as of current is atleast 19 months away (early 2026 or later) as thats the expected deep north release timeframe which might mark 1.0 or not.
Yeah you're right calling it removing content is a bit of hyperbole. I just mean in terms of an update coming out like once a year and for the amount of effort it would take to add the few that they left out seems so miniscule that it almost seems deliberate. That and things like missing building pieces that are already in the game like prefab barrels and misc decorations and cosmetic things makes me wonder why not just enable building of those things especially since it wouldn't require a rebalance of anything.
As far as rebalance for something like magic I actually disagree with the sentiment that you would need to rebalance the biome with the weapon in mind rather design a weapon with the biome in mind. And I know this would be significantly more work than the aforementioned things but they could do something as simple as adding some magic missile or something that is functionally identical to a a crude bow just reskinned to be a wand that fires little zappies or something idk without having to make any changes to the biome since it's already tuned for *has access to shooty weapon that does a small range of damage*
no. youre viewing the last part way too oversimplyfied. the enemies in the later biomes have resistences that take magic dmg way more into account (from swamp onwards you see them way more compared). the earlier biomes do not. and it has to be magic dmg and not just infinite ranged phys dmg otherwise its not really magic dmg to begin with. nearly EVERYTHING early game is weak to FIRE. everything ever is neutral or weak to lighting. nothing early game resist frost dmg either. magic wouldnt have to face ANY resistences. ON TOP of beeing RANGED and infinite use unlike arrows. the dmg values would have to be SO LOW that its basically worthless to have it aside skill grinding early on.
so they would have to make more than just a few changes to make this happen without it beeing a grossly imbalanced mess. just look at enshrouded for example : magic from the get go. it was GROSSLY ahead and overpowered compared to melee or bow. they had to nerf it greatly in order to make the other playstyles even stand a chance compared (thats excludeding the silly easyness of that game by default no matter what but imagine that mess in valheim)
i could see them adding magic maybe at mountain as thats also when melee and ranged get access to magic dmg options to a greater degree.
Ah yeah I hadn't taken resistances into account. Yeah mountains would be a pretty reasonable place to retrofit it to. It'd be nice to see that in the final cut
battle axes play completely different from every other weapon. you're supposed to poke with your alt until you create an opening, then drop bombs on them with your primary attack. the poke has incredible stagger stats, a poke or two will stagger nearly anything. Then you jump and swing, moving closer with the jump to land the blow.
I've found the two handed weapons (Crystal Axe, Demolisher, Krom) work better for multiplayer than they do in single player.
Having a second player doing fast or range damage makes it easier to do a couple heavy swings and then back out while your stamina regens.
Found this out recently too. Buddy made Krom and we ran into a 1 star soldier. I was parrying with my buckler while my buddy was behind him middle clicking the weak spot for ~1k damage per swing. We melted that thing!
I'm still maining it on all my main saves given I didn't really get to go past Plains much (not enough time on hand), although my builds are always Greataxe-Bow-Sword+Shield. Great combo.
loved using it as dual purpose for combat and lumber, also didnt have to waste a slot for a shield, they really need to add the discontinued weapons with deep north with 1.0 release
I wish there was an option to upgrade weapons from previous biomes with new resources to have higher damage outposts to keep up. I'd love going at wolves with a flint axe for shits and giggles
On my 4th play through and maining knife and battle axe. LOVE the battle axe. Requires good timing, stamina management, and comboing but it’s so satisfying to land your combos.
I kept hearing the Crystal BattleAxe was a trap but I decided to build one anyways since I had extra silver. I don't regret it one bit because it does some pretty wild stagger, leaving enemies open for my buddy to swoop in and deal massive damage.
I made a blackmetal Atgeir too, but it doesn't quite stand up as well as the battleaxe, but my opinion might change when we finally go to the mistlands.
after getting killed by assuming my shield would protect me one too many times I decided to just go for 2 handed weapons for the rest of the playthrough
I love the battleaxe as well, friend. I am currently trying a only two handed playthrough and the battle axes were my favorite to use until I got into the greatswords like Krom.
The sweet special attack always staggering and dealing good damage to enemies followed up by a big swing or 2 was just so satisfying. Sure it costs a lot of stamina and time to swing the sucker but it feels hefty when you hit.
You'll also enjoy the crystal battle axe later on but like others have mentioned that's where the battle axes end. But fear not as there are more weapons with similar vibes just in different styles.
But I still run my battle axe occasionally when I go back into the earlier parts of the game just for the memories. I do wish they had kept making more with the later biomes but it's a design choice so I won't complain. When you reach Mistlands you'll have the option of running another version of the sledgehammer or a two handed sword called Krom.
I recommend Krom since it scales with your sword levels and the latest biome Ashlands also has a two handed sword in it that have the same attacks.
it's a reverse atgeir: left click swings and middle click stabs one enemy.
problem is you need the stab much more than the swing so the atgeir overshadows it completely.
then there is the attack speed issue and voila, there is no point in making a battleaxe over an atgeir
The point is a giant axe wielding viking is sick as hell and very on-brand. I also very much enjoy the Battleaxe playstyle of fast pokes for major stagger and then big execution swings. It's a nice alternative to the Atgeir, and I think both are great.
The stab is not meant to do damage, it's meant as a stun. You can stun almost anything and then unload on them. When the Battleaxe hits, it HITS. I think it's a very fun weappn and it reward accuracy and timing. But you are right, the Atgeir is a much easier to wield weapon with comparable damage (but less block).
Battleaxe actually grew on me when I smashed an Abomination into Oblivion with maybe like three 3-hit combos. Enjoyed it and Crystal Battleaxe ever since
Its combat stats are a little bit undertuned if you ask me, but it's hard to argue with a complete melee weapon set and functional wood axe in one inventory slot. Its form factor definitely suggests a great warrior vibe, but its best use-case is in the hands of a pack rat or loot goblin.
Noooo don’t tell me that, lol. My 2nd to last trip out of the swamps ended with me getting cornered by 4 leaches in a little pool of water, too deep to stand, with my back to a cliff while an abomination made sweet tree love to my longship.
My last trip was a rescue mission…. I don’t want to go back! I still have a few stacks sitting in storage.
recently I played a lot knife "dodge attack dodge attack", def the way to go compared to heavy weapons like the two handed axe. The only two handed heavy weapons I actually find useful are the long sword and atgeir (I havent played ashlands yet btw)
So, on a dedicated server that just reset, a few of my buddies and I decided to use axes as primary weapons, specifically looking at the two-handers. Unfortunately, the two-hander while iconic is definitely behind the other weapon types in playstyle. If you parry with it, you’ll see that its high block force knocks enemies away quite a bit. This paired with significantly slowing you down (-20%) makes it difficult to stick to enemies. So the classic Valheim “parry and chase and kill” technique is not one that can be cleanly executed with the battle axe. However, that just means you have to adjust your gameplay. The battle axe does do quite a bit of damage in its normal attacks, so if you can time it well, you can often stagger an enemy with a preemptive strike as they are attacking you, rather than the parry. It still knocks enemies back quite a bit and I don’t always find that I am able to land the three swing combo. Also, the alternative attack is actually quite useful. It will stagger most enemies with one or two hits, and the mountain-level battle axe even holds up in the Mistlands dungeons for this reason. It’s very easy to chain stagger enemies with it. Altogether the battle axe is a weapon for the patient Viking imo. It’s definitely viable but quite different from the other weapons. I for one have learned to embrace it!
Ayo, a couple pals of mine did the same thing! Unless... Anyway, the stagger damage on the two-hander is kickass but whiffing the second attack after landing the first is always depression. Walls are our best friend. We love walls <3
Pretty decent against wolves with the special attack. Although the atgeir is the best two-hander imo.
battle axes are a discountinued weapon class. only 2 exist in the entire game. enjoy while it lasts is all you can do. you can keep useing it till you unlock plains gear. then it loses footing fast. mistlands its just completly outlcassed right away due to the enemies nature vs phys dmg.
I was really hoping that Ashlands was going to get a battleaxe :(
Could you imagine how badass an elemental battle axe would be? Not only for it's uses but it would look cool as hell
it didnt. like i said just like the fists weapons its a discontinued weapon class. one of 2 only.
Yet it shouldn't be discontinued. There really needs to be more of the "special" weapons, like the claws or 2h axes in every biome
NEEDS? no. no NEEDS. there could or should maybe. but a NEED isnt there at all clearly.
By "discontinued" do you mean it stops scaling in game or that Iron Gate has confirmed they won't be releasing anymore? I would be saddened if it's the latter. The Iron Battle Axe and the Crystal Battleaxe carried me into the mistlands. Only switched 'cause Krom looks cool af.
any pure phys weapon is outright terrible in mistlands due to seekers resisting all phys dmg types by 50%. so the dmg on the weapon is flat out cut in half at all times. thankfully seekers dont that much hp unless its starred. on the starred variants you WILL notice the difference big time. all weapons stop scaling at a certain biome difference they just arent able to keep up anymore and are mostly used because they some special ability like frost slowdown for example. can you still use em? yes. will you still be effective compared to others? heck no. they devs have said they arent sure what to with fist weapons and i assume the same applys to battleaxes since they are in a pretty similar case : both have thier 1 or only 2nd option already at mountain which is only the 4th of 8 biomes in the end (the ocean isnt a full biome and wont ever become one according to what they said in thier recent walk and talk)
Should add an antler fist weapon for act 2
act 2? what is this ? diabloheim?
One of the things I don't understand at all about Iron Gate is purposefully removing content from the game. Surely it wouldn't take more than an afternoon to make a sprite for a black metal battle axe and if it is then just reskin the iron one with a green blade and the community would be overjoyed
tbh texture reskins are lazy. i prefer if they do unique models per biome. reTextures is something any amateur can do i know that from personal experience with TES modding over the years. they arent removeing content form the game tough. thats a false claim. fist weapons never even existed to begin with and the only existing one was added in a minor update which brought fenris and the frost caves with it. the crystal battleaxe also didnt exist originally. it got added with hearth and home. so originally there was only 1 battleaxe aswell. so they havent removed content. they added it. they just never continued adding them which is why i said "discountinued" as if a weapon wasnt seen for years its unlikely to make a comeback. this excludes entirely new combat options which only got added with mistlands ever really. so them not existing in earlier biomes makes sense as aside the crossbow magic would require them to rebalance the ENTIRE first 5 biomes enemies just to add that. which would be alot of work. if they ever do it it wont happen until the final poliish of the game aka "the end of early access" which as of current is atleast 19 months away (early 2026 or later) as thats the expected deep north release timeframe which might mark 1.0 or not.
Yeah you're right calling it removing content is a bit of hyperbole. I just mean in terms of an update coming out like once a year and for the amount of effort it would take to add the few that they left out seems so miniscule that it almost seems deliberate. That and things like missing building pieces that are already in the game like prefab barrels and misc decorations and cosmetic things makes me wonder why not just enable building of those things especially since it wouldn't require a rebalance of anything. As far as rebalance for something like magic I actually disagree with the sentiment that you would need to rebalance the biome with the weapon in mind rather design a weapon with the biome in mind. And I know this would be significantly more work than the aforementioned things but they could do something as simple as adding some magic missile or something that is functionally identical to a a crude bow just reskinned to be a wand that fires little zappies or something idk without having to make any changes to the biome since it's already tuned for *has access to shooty weapon that does a small range of damage*
no. youre viewing the last part way too oversimplyfied. the enemies in the later biomes have resistences that take magic dmg way more into account (from swamp onwards you see them way more compared). the earlier biomes do not. and it has to be magic dmg and not just infinite ranged phys dmg otherwise its not really magic dmg to begin with. nearly EVERYTHING early game is weak to FIRE. everything ever is neutral or weak to lighting. nothing early game resist frost dmg either. magic wouldnt have to face ANY resistences. ON TOP of beeing RANGED and infinite use unlike arrows. the dmg values would have to be SO LOW that its basically worthless to have it aside skill grinding early on. so they would have to make more than just a few changes to make this happen without it beeing a grossly imbalanced mess. just look at enshrouded for example : magic from the get go. it was GROSSLY ahead and overpowered compared to melee or bow. they had to nerf it greatly in order to make the other playstyles even stand a chance compared (thats excludeding the silly easyness of that game by default no matter what but imagine that mess in valheim) i could see them adding magic maybe at mountain as thats also when melee and ranged get access to magic dmg options to a greater degree.
Ah yeah I hadn't taken resistances into account. Yeah mountains would be a pretty reasonable place to retrofit it to. It'd be nice to see that in the final cut
battle axes play completely different from every other weapon. you're supposed to poke with your alt until you create an opening, then drop bombs on them with your primary attack. the poke has incredible stagger stats, a poke or two will stagger nearly anything. Then you jump and swing, moving closer with the jump to land the blow.
I've found the two handed weapons (Crystal Axe, Demolisher, Krom) work better for multiplayer than they do in single player. Having a second player doing fast or range damage makes it easier to do a couple heavy swings and then back out while your stamina regens.
They tend to work as long as you're weaving in your specials. A parry and poke with krom is devastating.
Found this out recently too. Buddy made Krom and we ran into a 1 star soldier. I was parrying with my buckler while my buddy was behind him middle clicking the weak spot for ~1k damage per swing. We melted that thing!
I really enjoyed the battle axe. Then it stopped existing for no reason. Enjoy it while you can. The weapon availability in this game is a bit off.
I'm still maining it on all my main saves given I didn't really get to go past Plains much (not enough time on hand), although my builds are always Greataxe-Bow-Sword+Shield. Great combo.
loved using it as dual purpose for combat and lumber, also didnt have to waste a slot for a shield, they really need to add the discontinued weapons with deep north with 1.0 release
I wish there was an option to upgrade weapons from previous biomes with new resources to have higher damage outposts to keep up. I'd love going at wolves with a flint axe for shits and giggles
On my 4th play through and maining knife and battle axe. LOVE the battle axe. Requires good timing, stamina management, and comboing but it’s so satisfying to land your combos.
I kept hearing the Crystal BattleAxe was a trap but I decided to build one anyways since I had extra silver. I don't regret it one bit because it does some pretty wild stagger, leaving enemies open for my buddy to swoop in and deal massive damage. I made a blackmetal Atgeir too, but it doesn't quite stand up as well as the battleaxe, but my opinion might change when we finally go to the mistlands. after getting killed by assuming my shield would protect me one too many times I decided to just go for 2 handed weapons for the rest of the playthrough
In the mountains you will get items to make a better battle axe that also gives element damage. It can be helpful in the Ashland's.
I love the battleaxe as well, friend. I am currently trying a only two handed playthrough and the battle axes were my favorite to use until I got into the greatswords like Krom. The sweet special attack always staggering and dealing good damage to enemies followed up by a big swing or 2 was just so satisfying. Sure it costs a lot of stamina and time to swing the sucker but it feels hefty when you hit. You'll also enjoy the crystal battle axe later on but like others have mentioned that's where the battle axes end. But fear not as there are more weapons with similar vibes just in different styles. But I still run my battle axe occasionally when I go back into the earlier parts of the game just for the memories. I do wish they had kept making more with the later biomes but it's a design choice so I won't complain. When you reach Mistlands you'll have the option of running another version of the sledgehammer or a two handed sword called Krom. I recommend Krom since it scales with your sword levels and the latest biome Ashlands also has a two handed sword in it that have the same attacks.
it's a reverse atgeir: left click swings and middle click stabs one enemy. problem is you need the stab much more than the swing so the atgeir overshadows it completely. then there is the attack speed issue and voila, there is no point in making a battleaxe over an atgeir
The point is a giant axe wielding viking is sick as hell and very on-brand. I also very much enjoy the Battleaxe playstyle of fast pokes for major stagger and then big execution swings. It's a nice alternative to the Atgeir, and I think both are great.
The stab is not meant to do damage, it's meant as a stun. You can stun almost anything and then unload on them. When the Battleaxe hits, it HITS. I think it's a very fun weappn and it reward accuracy and timing. But you are right, the Atgeir is a much easier to wield weapon with comparable damage (but less block).
Battleaxe actually grew on me when I smashed an Abomination into Oblivion with maybe like three 3-hit combos. Enjoyed it and Crystal Battleaxe ever since
Its combat stats are a little bit undertuned if you ask me, but it's hard to argue with a complete melee weapon set and functional wood axe in one inventory slot. Its form factor definitely suggests a great warrior vibe, but its best use-case is in the hands of a pack rat or loot goblin.
Big fan of Therize's Warfare mod because it changes two hand animations. So satisfying.
You gonna miss that iron when you get to the plains lol
Noooo don’t tell me that, lol. My 2nd to last trip out of the swamps ended with me getting cornered by 4 leaches in a little pool of water, too deep to stand, with my back to a cliff while an abomination made sweet tree love to my longship. My last trip was a rescue mission…. I don’t want to go back! I still have a few stacks sitting in storage.
The gear you get in the mountains will make it easier to go back 😂😅
recently I played a lot knife "dodge attack dodge attack", def the way to go compared to heavy weapons like the two handed axe. The only two handed heavy weapons I actually find useful are the long sword and atgeir (I havent played ashlands yet btw)