Chakan wrote:
You should use whatever suites your current task. Don't get caught up in what skill level the weapon skills are awarded.
Your multi-hit weaponskills will typically outshine most others in damage in solo play. So, yes, Raging Axe does pretty well until Rampage on most targets.
Smash Axe can be used to Stun enemy TP moves.
If you're doing skillchains in a group, you serve the skillchain and do the best WS that can be used for it.
Pretty much this, especially the bolded part. In some cases the WS aren't coded properly. For example with Samurai Tachi: Enpi (first weaponskill you get) just hits way harder than it did on retail, and around lv 50 would normally be swapped out for Tachi: Jinpu. But here on Nasomi, Jinpu is anemic and you continue using Enpi until you get Tachi: Yukikaze at level 60 or so. But even when things were coded properly in era, instead of WS getting gradually stronger (like you might expect) they were more or less all over the place in terms of usefulness and damage dealt. I think with axe it was Raging until you got Rampage, and then Rampage forever unless you needed Mistral for a Light SC.