Most discussions in regards to these two specializations seems outdated or very little information is offered. I'm curious, how effective are they? Are they a cop out only chosen for RP purposes? Can one be a successful combatant with either of them. I'm particularly interested in what people think of Axelord.

They're far better than they used to be. People appear to find them quite effective.

What about Axlore, Pureblade vs Bonecrusher, Blademaster?

The afflictions and wounding rates seem comparable, in my experiences. The biggest downside I can think of is that two-handers can't double raze someone.

(cleave...)

which is really slow

Two handers get a signifigant boost from Puissanced hits, one-handers not so much.

I am still unclear as to what exactly Axelord and Pureblade actually do in terms of skill and how they differ from Blademaster and Bonecrusher.

Find the pinned post in common grounds about the Scrying pool, it has skill lists.

Thank you

No, Puissance is a waste of time getting. Get to surge then stop, Lisarel has tested it with me, her waraxe did like 100-200 more damage, her greataxe did measly added wounding.

So for power cost, and the set up time limitation for when you can use it, it is about as bad as Invoke Winter... another silly skill

In my testing it yielded far, far more wounds. Perhaps her artifact runes threw it off.

Unfortunately I checked with her, it wasn't Lizzy I was testing with, damn I can't remember who it was, but Lizzy tested it too with Sintor she said it gave a decent boost, but it was really random, not any set boost... I think the max was 1000 but you could waste the power and end up with only 200 more damage/wounds one time and 1000 more another....

So I guess all in all it's not terrible, but not highly reliable either.

Pureblade is better than Axelord, however both are now usable combatwise. Axelord is still one skill short of Pureblade so need to get around to bullying my envoy to put a new AL skill in for when I start playing again.

Pureblades are everywhere, too.. I think Ildaudid is one... Axelords -were- a joke. I think they are fixed up now! And two handers as damage knights = pwnage level 70- none warriors

I used to be a blademaster, bonecrusher, and axelord, by far my favorite was axelord, I haven't been one since they got their updates so Hopefully they went from 0 to at least 5 on a scale of one to ten.

Axelords are quite balanced at the moment, but I still think 2 handers wounding bonus is a wee bit too strong.

Axelord is at the lowest a 7, more like an 8 with good weapons.

What would the other 3 specs be?

I'm trying to decide what to go.

Hmm thread necro ..... my personal opinion is BC -> BM -> PB/AL