Warrios with Swords vs. Axes

Ralin

Ralin

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Nov 30, 2006
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Alright. I played FFXI back in the olden days (well, the warrior classes) when it was brand new for PC. Back then, none of us Americans (and later europeans) really cared if a warrior used a sword+shield, Gsword, axe+shield, or Gaxe. Now, from what I can gather about warriors and the FFXI community, warriors in valkurm and higher are getting flamed for carrying a sword, and are told they should use axes. Now, I know high level warriors (50+, or so I've been told) get better weapon skills for axe type weapons as opposed to swords, and that paladins excel with the two sword types.

But what I'm asking is why is it a such big deal during the lower levels? When I return, I'm putting red mage to a rest and going to get paladin (been too long, characters are probably gone now, so I'm expecting to have to start over). Are there any real reasons for wanting a warrior to use an axe during the lower levels? I've looked at the stat differences between the two, and there's not really enough difference between the two to warrant the 'perfection obsession' I see going around. I only really care about taking warrior to 36 and going paladin, and have basically no interest in maxing out a warrior, so what's the big deal? Why can't I use my beloved swords?

Please help me put these age old questions to rest.
 
it shouldn't matter til like late 30s early 40s. people flaming people in the dunes because they are war and use sword is just retarded. At that low a level sword is pretty equal to axe. It's really w/e you want, either way is fine. Unless of course you are just starting using axe, then you may want to use it so you don't have to go from like 0-100something, which isn't hard but it could still save you time if you're in a hurry.
 
If you use a polearm as you want to be a DRG you will be flamed, if you want to use a sword and shield as you want to be a PLD you will not be flamed as a shield helps alot. Best thing though is 1-48 G axe 48+ Axe/axe 75 Axe/sword
 
At lower levels the difference in skill isn't as big of a deal, but you won't have as much accuracy with a sword as you would an axe. Once you get to later levels where the difference is more pronounced, and then even later with rampage(55), if you had not been using axes you will have to go skill them up rather than use them in a party. Swords themselves generally suck in terms of damage per hit and have crappy weapon skills compared to most other weapons; so there's no real reason to use them on warrior. If they're trying to skill up sword for their pld or some other job they intend to level it's not worth it, since they could skillup the weapon while partying on that other job without having lower accuracy/damage.

Also, at lower levels, great axe massively outdamages everything(sup sturmwind); plus it's the warrior's A+ weapon so it will have the highest accuracy. If you're going to bitch about lower level weapons, bitch about no great axe
 
Gaxe is smecksy.
 
It'sa me.. Wario!
Gaxe rules. nuff said.
 
All your questions can be answered with one word: Sturmwind.
 
To me, it really doesnt matter what weapon a WAR uses. As a poor member of Vanadiel i can sympathize with them if they are using a sword because that is what they have in their Mog House and they cant afford a new weapon.
 
Evilvivi said:
To me, it really doesnt matter what weapon a WAR uses. As a poor member of Vanadiel i can sympathize with them if they are using a sword because that is what they have in their Mog House and they cant afford a new weapon.
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They spent 100 gil on a sword, but they could have spent 110 gil on an axe or 120 gil on a great axe and would have been a much better DD job. Lower level gear is very very cheap, if you don't have enough money for proper gear, farm, it'll take 10-15 minutes. Don't level and bring down your party's exp just because you're gimping yourself.
 
yea, i feel you, when i started playin when it first came out in America, i was WAR with my beloved Sword.. until around Lv.36... no one really told me to get an axe.. until i quit and when i came back, i got a flameboard on me cause i went sword/shield to a fight... learned people "NEED" me to have axe/axe... but i love em now.. lol. RAMPAGE!!! hehe.. but i see no difference in lower levels, Fast Blade/Burning Strike is just as good as the Raging Axe at Valkurm...
 
WAR has A+ great axe skill and A- axe skill. Up until level 61, there is no difference between an A+, A or A- skill. The difference in skill level between A and B isn't a huge number, it's 1 points at level 1, 2 points at level 2, 3 at 12 and 4 at 22, but each skill translates to 1 attack and 1 accuracy. At low levels, accuracy is very important. There is very little in the way of accuracy gear for warriors until around the 30 to 40 range, but those options are by no means cheap. Plus, as has been mentioned multiple times, Sturmwind is probably the best weapon skill until higher levels. In my late 20's, early 30's, I was tossing out constant 200-300 Sturmwinds literally putting anyone else to shame, it's that good. Great axes are by no means cheap (by comparison to other weapons, but 4k-20k isn't espensive) especially the good ones. The neckchopper is pretty expensive (it was as high as 100-200k at one point, probably a lot less now), but it's worth the buy and when I used it, was very easy to resell with so many wanting it.

If you're expected to tank for any reason, axe/shield combo is doable as well, but you can tank with great axe just fine. You don't lose any of the attack and accuracy from axe, but once you get Sturmwind, it'll outshine any axe weaponskill for a long time. Shield should provide you with extra defense and allow you to block attacks reducing the damage. If you plan on leveling WAR to high levels, I would suggest keeping an axe and great axe on hand to keep both skilled.
 
i made the big mistake about not leveling Great axe when i leveled >< casue i was axe/axe from 20+ now my GA is severly underleveled which im trying to fix


The only time ive gone Axe/Sword was in kuftal tunnel. at lv50ish I used Viking Axe and a Tactical Magician's Esponda with the +12 atk. At that level i think thats the only viable combination for sword /Axe.. i also had 2 sword merits that helped boost sword skill

Later in levels though you get joyuese and Ridill but mheh... ussually if you get that high lvl you can make descions for yourself on what you think works better
 
I originally used spear because I wanted to be a dragoon ._.
 
Bajaratt said:
since they could skillup the weapon while partying on that other job without having lower accuracy/damage.
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This is the right answer. Use the Axe till 30 because it only takes maybe 10 fights at these levels to cap your skills after you ding. If you start paladin from scratch, and use 1H Sword the whole time, you should have no problem capping out while you party.

But hey, its your $12.95 right?
 
In addition to the other comments thus far, I'd like to point out that as a War through those levels, you'll be doing your fair share of tanking.

With that in mind, Axe or GAxe will do a lot to help you keep hate through better damage. The main reasons Plds keep hate so well is from the vast array of hate tools they get as they level, so sword doesn't hinder their tanking like it does a War.

As a former sword/shield War(1-25 way back in the day :P), I saw a huuuuge improvement on hate management after I swapped to GAxe when I leveled it on up to 37.
 
Theres also the fact that for Axe, Raging Axe is better than any low level sword weaponskill. The only reason why Fast Blade is clamoured for so much, is because of Sneak Attack with Thieves. Outside of that, use weapons your job is proficient at.
 
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