POLL: What's the better Tank weapon in ToB?

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Axe of Unyeilding +5 or Flail of Ages +5?

I'm taking a very long road of making Mazzy my main tank by dualweilding one of these weapons with Crom Faeyr in her offhand.

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 19 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: What's the better Tank weapon in ToB? (19 votes.)

What's the better Tank weapon in ToB? (Choose 1)
* Axe of Unyeilding - 32% (6)
* Flail of Ages - 68% (13)

 

I voted for FoA. Free action, 5 elemental damages and a good chance to slow your target make it the better of the 2.

 

If we're talking about actual tanking...you know, the business of meatshieldery, then the Flail of Ages' bonuses and slow ability help a tank's survivability much more.

If we're talking weapons with awesome badass value, Axe of Unyielding.

 

The FOA is a great weapon but you only get it fully 'tooled up' at games end, therefore the Axe is my choice.

It cleaves and kils in such an agreeable way!

 

FoA. I just love that weapon, it is simply amazing. It slows big time, which really hinders opponents, and it does nice damage which bypasses stoneskins. Axe is cool as it can kill instantly, but FoA is much more reliable IMHO.

 

FoA...

Does blunt damage.
Does elemental damage.
Has a slow effect that is a whole lot more reliable than vorpal effects, to which some creatures are immune.
Has an On-Equip Freedom effect, which is more useful than regeneration and AC bonus on a Tank.
Does more damage on average than AoU.

 

I always go with the Axe of Unyielding over the FoA for several reasons.

• Once in ToB, a lot of your enemies are going to be immune to some (if not all) of the FoA's elemental damage.
• The *free action* effect (not Freedom, as it won't save you from an imprisonment spell) is pretty much useless because most of the enemies in ToB are going to be using higher level spells...not low level grease, entangle, or slow spells. Also, your magic resistance/saving throws should be high enough by ToB to negate the effect. And if you do get slowed, a quick Dispel Magic spell will fix things.
• The FoA only reaches it's true potential towards the end of ToB...
• Korgan (one of my favorite tanks) was made for an axe!

But then, if you have a good set of armor, why not use both at the same time? Dual-wielding the AoU and the FoA is a nice combo.

 

FoA for me, mainly for the reasons Faraaz stated. Awesome weapon.

 

A little something called Crom Faeyr, my fine, feathered friend.

 

Crom Faeyr. But if it can only be aquired IN TOB then the Runehammer.

But I voted for FOA since it is good when you get all the heads.

 

Well, apart from not being a +5 (and despite the fact I dumped it in favor of axe o. u.), I would still propose good old celestial fury - that's what I call stopping power!

Anyway the weapon is (imho) not that important for meat shielding, as you put. The exception being when it doesn't allow for a shield, or has mirror imaging power, like my favourite sword from Soa does - but I forgot the name - it was a +2, IIRC.

 

@ArrynMorgerim: The sword with the mirror image power was a +1 Short Sword. In this case, it is more important to have it as a quick weapon than actually use it.

 

The Flail of Ages and Axe of Unyielding is the best combination that's been brought up here. Combined with the belt that gives you a 24 strength already. Which there are only a couple other belts worth puting in the place of it anyway on a tank. You get the best of both worlds. Axe of unyielding is powerful even in the offhand for those things that the Fail does work on and you don't have to carry an extra weapon that can give you more oomph for the ones that it has little real advantage or use against.

Crom Faeyr's one Extra Strength point doesn't give you enough of an offhand boost if you consider the belt of Giant strength into the equation. The combined boost of the small ammount of magic resistance from the full Flail, The elemental damage it can do as well as the increased ac, the regeneration, and the increased hitpoints that maddy would recieve from the higher Con that would be active at all times from the Axe of Unyielding. They give you a much stronger tank than either one of them combined with the Crom Faeyr.

the Grand mastery mod if you use it would only increase the advantages of having the flail and axe together provided her weapons proficiencies are such to allow you to get grand mastery in both.

 

I would never use either of the weapons I put in the poll as an offhand weapon. It's a complete waste.

 

not really.

But that's just one of the ways that you and I differ. I find Using Crom Faeyr a waste on most tanks when there are several other weapons that will give you much more abundant and more useful constant bonuses than a single dot of strength.

 

Actually, Starwalker, unless you're talking about some mods, the Belt of Fire Giant Strength is the one which you the highest strength of all belts, and it gives you a strength of 22. Plus, using Crom Faeyr opens up your belt slot for that belt which gives 50% magic damage reduction (and some other goodness).

As for the question of FoA or AoU, I'd go with FoA. Slow will help your tank survive, and the number of enemies which are immune to all the elemental damage of FoA are much less in number than the number of enemies that are immune to vorpal hits. Plus it's a lot more reliable.

And AoU makes for a fine off hand weapon because of its bonuses, much more so than FoA, which largely benefits you only if you hit something.

 

I never assembled Crom Faeyr, to be honest. Having several NPCs with 18+ str. seemed a better deal than one with 25. Besides, with draw upon holy strength (if your character has it) you won't exactly lack in damage when you need it. It's one of Ano's redeeming features, for example.

Otherwise - Flail of ages. It can be used by almost anyone, you interrupt spells through stoneskin and, iirc, protection from X spells, and you get the base weapon hilariously fast.

Edit: Wait a minute. We are discussing tanks here; why does everyone seem to advocate dual-weapon fighting? A tank should be able to take the damage, not necessarily dish it out. That'd imply sword&shield tactics, or at least 1-weapon fighting.

 

Henkie your right and I apologize. I went and double checked and realized that I had bumped over to my main in the game I was checking who's strength I got up to 24.

As for the belts inertial barier is the only vastly useful one for a tank and you may or may not have other places to use it. I often find it advantageous to stick on one of my mages.

But then one of my best tanks is often Viconia because I can give her extremely low AC, High Strength, High magic resistance, Other resistances, and buff with her spell casting all in one. I generally turn my warriors into damage dealers. Regeneration becomes a nice addition to either viconia or my damage dealers this way.

 

In ToB, where these two weapons are available, AC doesn't mean as much. High HP and getting your opponents downed before they can do much damage is the name of the game there.

 

I know that in ToB you tend to get hit often, and hence offense is the best defense, but then it's not a tank that you need. A tank, the way I know the term, has to survive anything you throw at him, and even in +3-4 AC could make a difference. Especially if your character is a X/mage, as mirror image/stoneskin/PfMW make for a very effective, if unorthodox, tank.

Note: this is less true if you don't have the mod that allows you to get bonuses from both rings of protection and magical armor/shields. Sometimes a bonus to your saves is just as important. For those cases... Dak'kon's blade is a staple for any x/mage tank, with the FoA as a main weapon.