My trusty woodaxe

[Skav]

So, I've always tried to get a pretty decent axe skill because i usually try to keep one on my character, do you guys think its wise or should i probably invest in a different type of weapon?

[Saiko Kila]

Axe is pretty decent. It's the best weapon against a shield, though it degrades other weapons quickly too. In one fight against a Njerp, my brand new masterwork shield was degraded to poor quality, i.e. lowest one. He was using a woodsman's axe. Still, I do prefer battleaxe, which is lighter, and has better attack bonus (and defence bonus, and blunt damage, and edge damage...).

The only reason I don't use the axe too much is it's degrading ability, I like my loot to be worth something. So I start fights with either spear or mace, and switch to battleaxe only if it takes too long, because the opponent is blocking too much. After a couple of axe blows he doesn't have anything to block with, heh. Additionally, I use the axe against the neck of unconscious or wounded opponent, to finish it quickly.

One potential issue with axes is that most of them, including battleaxe, are supposed to be used with two hands. But it is possible to use it successfully with one hand, to hold a shield with another.

[davidor]

All weapons degrade quickly if you don't have good skill and keep blocking with them.

Axe is decent but not good, they generally have average damage and little attack bonus, which led you into dogfight and let luck decide the result (Not something you want if you are trying to keep you character alive)

Battleaxe have a good looking stats but it is nothing compare with other top tier weapons (battlesword/ango/warflail) due to only having good (3/5) attack bonus where others have remarkable (5/5)

You should consider sword/spear as your main melee skill instead of axe

[Labtop 215]

Yea, axes have been nerfed as of late unfortunately.  They used to be amazing.

[Saiko Kila]

Battleaxe have a good looking stats but it is nothing compare with other top tier weapons (battlesword/ango/warflail) due to only having good (3/5) attack bonus where others have remarkable (5/5)

You should consider sword/spear as your main melee skill instead of axe

Not true anymore. Battleaxe has 4 attack bonus. But the attack bonus is not as important, especially if it is bigger than defence of opponent's weapon - which is usually the case. And ango's defence is lower, and battlesword's is the same as battleaxe's, all of them low. Battleaxe also has the highest damage of all melee weapons, bigger than battlesword and ango (which weigh 2.5x more, and you cannot really use a shield with them) or warflail had. There is no warflail in current game anyway, and good luck with finding better than average ango. If the skill in axe is bigger than in sword or spear, then it's a better choice as a main weapon.

Additionally, the axe is the best tool for breaking ice (from the news.txt, the order of ice-breakers from best to worst: axe, spear, sword, knife, stone).

Also there is a difference when blocking - spears degrade much faster than axes or swords, for example, no matter skill.

If choosing spear, I would take standard spear over ango. It has only a bit smaller attack bonus (4 instead of 5) and damage (7 vs , but has better defence (2 vs 1), is much easier to use with shield (penalty of 20 instead of 35), and is much, much lighter (5 lbs vs 8 lbs), making it great for throws as well as for melee fight. Plus you'll have a plenty of masterwork spears from traders.

Still, it's best to have more than one skill in melee weapons, plus one in ranged. If the next highest skill is in axe, there's no point in wasting time to train other skills.

[Dungeon Smash]

One other thing to note is that you will almost always have an ax in the early game, which you can use for fighting.  A woodsman ax, though not ideal, is capable of doing terrible damage in the hands of a skilled user.  Sword users may have to wait quite a while before finding a decent sword. 

Also, if you want to use a shield, you can carry several handaxes for throwing & fighting.  They don't do as much damage but there's no penalty for using with 1 hand.