This alone almost makes me want to trash my Kael faction... yeesh! Some people might grumble about the weight, but the STR bonus alone makes it worth it. :)
The problem brought about by the axe weighing 20 stones is not that it presents a problem as far as encumbrance goes, (as the additional str more than makes up for the axe's weight), but rather that you're going to be out of stamina halfway through a short fight. With some of the extremely long fights which take place in Velious, invigorate/extinguish fatigue is a necessity.
That said, anyone who would get this would probably also have one of the 9 billion class specific items out there that have invigorate as a right-clickable effect.
Unless u have rediculously low sta (which noone capable of gettin the this weapon would have) your sta bar is relatively pointless. With 100+ sta, the only thing that happens when your sta bar is down is you can't jump. So what? Who jumps in the middle of a fight? I weild this weapon and have had no probs with the sta drain. It's excellend DPS for a warrior, and is decent taunt too. Bulvar Biggins 61 Dwarf Warrior Scarlet Underground
As this is warrior only, i can not think of a race that is allowed to be warriors, assuming Sta was given NO bonus points and has no +sta gear (which is highly unlikely) this axe would put them at 100+ sta, eliminating the worry about running out of stamina (as per over 100sta when you run out of stamina you do not suffer penalties)
Don't forget dark elves and wood elves, Renovan. They start with a base 75 stamina, and therefore, without adding to sta or having sta gear, would have only 95 staminas with this axe.
That said, your point is well taken; I had assumed that a greater number of races had low base-line staminas.
Renovan..thanks for posting that. From what I understand from your post (no offense, but it was one long run-on sentence) :) - is this:
All the races allowed to be warriors would have over 100 points in STA when using this weapon (with +20 STA), even if they put NO points in STA at creation.
AND, since you don't suffer penalties when you have 100+ in STA, you don't need to worry about running out.
I DID NOT KNOW THAT...so thanks for posting :) (learn something new every day)
This is not true. You can remain above water if you lose your stamina from swimming. My character inexplicably fell off the shuttle to the Maiden's Voyage and spent 20 odd minutes swimming in Timorous Deep before reaching land. (One of Verant's many zoning glitches. Apparently she had zoned in after the shuttles left for the boat.) The character's stamina dropped to nil and movement rate deteriorated to a slug's pace but was never in danger of drowning and never once started to sink. Stamina score at that time was 93, as drowning was a concern and it was the first thing I checked once I realized my character was out in the middle of the ocean somewhere.