WoE battleaxe -- vendor trash or not?

[brian14]

I play a ranger 16 and bard 9/rogue 1. Yesterday ranger pulled Weakening +1 battleaxe of Enfeebling from Cholthuzz's chest, and I am not sure whether to keep it or not. My understanding is that WoE works best against beholders and casters; well, my ranger prefers killing both from a distance -- and just put an AH bid on a WoE bow. Also she is finessed and already has some really good rapiers and short swords, so if she HAS to engage a caster in melee, she can DPS him faster then strength-drain.

Which leaves the bard. He is not proficient with battleaxe, but that's no problem -- he's had Master's Touch hotbarred since whenever, and carries a longbow and a couple greatswords. Still, bard going toe-to-eyestalk with a beholder is not going to be pretty. Casters, OTOH... his standard technique is sneak invisibly on a bunch of enemies, play Enthrall song, then methodically backstab (rog 1, remember) each one in succession. His main weapon is Flaming burst longsword of backstabbing. He also has a Holy +1 sickle of Enfeebling he does not use much. Would WoE battleaxe/HoE sickle TWF do better job on casters? Or on anything else? Both weapons crit only on 20, and my bard only has TWF, not Improved TWF.

[Tumarek]

Its a nice weapon to have around, but it could be better. Crit range is low and battleaxes are not high dps weapons to start with. You will want something like rapiers, scimitar or kopesh to get the enfeeblement working. Keep it around till you find something better and then try selling it on AH for maybe 10k?

Don't think you will be using it much though... just wont do enough.

[Alabore]

Both weapons crit only on 20, and my bard only has TWF, not Improved TWF.

They basically replied about the axe itself over the other thread.

I would like to comment on the TWF point: when my chars can't afford ITWF/Bloodstone, I have them carry a seeker dagger, or maybe a seeker of backstabbing, as their off-hand weapon.
That helps with main hand hits and crits when your off-hand proc is low.

The way U5 dual wielding works, you're sometimes better off getting a support off-hand weapon to boost your main attack.

[Valindria]

This issue is the 20 crit on it. WoE works better when you can get 15-20 on the crit range with improved. My main bard has a WoE set of WoE Rapier + WoPG Heavy Pick (weakening pure good). I'm not sure if it's ideal but when in auto crit status the x4 offhand is better.

If you don't have any WoE weapons on your bard, hold on to it until you get something better or just trash it. For

Beholder tactics (in SubT on way to HoX) on my bard I like to run in and fascinate. After fascinate I try to get behind them and hit them with an OID. If you can do that you disable as well as WoE.

[brian14]

Thanks for all the answers!

Seeker dagger or seeker short sword as off-hand weapon on non-ITWF toon is definitely good idea. However, six days ago for the first time I got a shield actually worth using (http://ddowiki.com/page/Battered_Guardian_Shield) IMO. Since then my bard has been mostly sword-and-board. A seeker light weapon still good for backstabbing Enthralled targets.

My primary hotbar is rather crowded; I have Gwylan's Blade on 3, Gloves of Performing on 4, and depending on the quest either Enthrall, Fascinate or Music of the Dead on 5. So whatever weapon and gloves I happen to equip at the moment, if I need to fascinate in short order I hit 3-4-5. (Ogre Power gloves are keyed to letter "v", so I can quickly get them back on after playing the song.) But if I have time to cast Invisibility and sneak, I also have time to click a TWF set not on main hotbar.


If you don't have any WoE weapons on your bard, hold on to it until you get something better or just trash it. For

Beholder tactics (in SubT on way to HoX) on my bard I like to run in and fascinate. After fascinate I try to get behind them and hit them with an OID. If you can do that you disable as well as WoE.
What is OID?

[Valindria]

Otto's Irresistible Dance