Comments

Comment by 12333

This is Tier 2 of the Axesmithing two-handers.
The attack power and crit are more than that of the Macecrafting and Swordsmithing tier 2 weapons (similar to the sword).
Lack of stamina make it worse than the Thunder maces for PvP.
Depending on the proc rate of the Lionheart Swords, this may be a better option for solo / PvE dps.
In any case, this line is the best for Orcs with the +5 axe skill racial (which will probably be buffed).

Tier 1 -> https://www.wowhead.com/tbc/item=28434
Tier 3 -> https://www.wowhead.com/tbc/item=28436

Comment by Caelir

As I've said on the Lunar Crescent page,
the axe is very good for both PvP and PvE.

The popular discussion at the moment is whether the mace is better or not, that really depends on what kind of playstyle you have.

The axe gives increased crit rating, benefits from poleaxe talent's +5% crit, which in turn gives more return from the Impale talent.
However, some people swear by the rage gain from mace spec, and the increased stamina on the maces. The increased crit rating on the axes however, also means that when coupled with the impale talent, you gain more rage than the mace. Crits mean more burst damage --> your opponent will bite the dust a bit earlier, while you sacrifice a rather small amount of HP.

When I hit 70, I was very close to 10k hp unbuffed, with basically no enchants, and only gems which I got from mining and grinding/questing there. Nothing too fancy, you'll be able to gain the stamina you want VERY easily with a few days of grinding for enchants and gems.

Comment by 42168

Very nice weapon,has nice max dmg,so called warrior's aoe when doing whirlwind :)

Comment by 27500

Best hunter weapon for PVE dps

Comment by lankie

I'm curious as to why the Reagents for this weapon calls for 8 Primal Nethers, in game the amount of Nether's needed is 12. Is the amount of Nether needed to craft this going down in the next patch?

Comment by phangan

i found the T2 skin quite a downgrade from T1, i mean the axe is evolving with more parts. but the texture is an ugly greenish and way less shiny than T1. i guess they missed a shader. anyway who care of eye candy, not me. just a tought. will blizzard upgrading models? maybe next exp pack :p

Comment by 46466

It seems that this and the Gladiator's Two handed axe are very close in terms of how good they are, I have an orc warrior I am leveling and I am wondering if it is worth getting this, or to just get the Arena one instead, any thoughts?

Comment by Marouka

How would this compare to Gorehowl? I just recently got it and I am very close to having all of the mats for Lunar Crescent. Is it worth it to look forward to Mooncleaver? I probably would not be able to get Bloodmoon in my life time.

Comment by 24122

the thing i don't understand is why does a weapon for a melee class/hunter(if you don't wanna count them as a melee class) need a primal mana?

Comment by Allakhazam

Lunar Crescent:

Damage: 312-469
Crit Strike: 45
Attack Power 92

Mooncleaver:
Damage: 339-509
Crit Strike: 48
Attack Power: 98

Mooncleaver mats: 12 Primal Nether and 10 primal mana

Ok, my argument isn't that the Mooncleaver isn't a sweet weapon, because it is. In fact, if you couldn't just get the Lunar Crescent axe and all there was to get was the Mooncleaver with the mats listed, I guess I wouldn't have an issue.

However, the mats for the Lunar Crescent are quite reasonable and it's an awesome axe. My point is that the upgrade from the Lunar to the Mooncleaver for the mats that you need is absurd.

The primal mana is no big deal really. Whatever, they sell for about 20G, you can farm some, buy some whatever.

The primal nether is another story. These things don't just drop like candy for people. Not only the drop rate, but other crafters in the game NEED them as well. I feel very fortunate to have 2. I've seen 3 drop and won the roll 2 times where in each case 3 people needed for them.

Now, you might say just keep going man. You'll get to 12. It's not about getting to 12, it's about what else you can do with the 12. Let's take a look at what I'm getting for the 12 Primal Nether here.

I'm getting an upgrade of 40 damage
I'm getting an upgrade of crit from 45 to 48 (not percent mind you)
I'm getting an upgrade of attack power from 92 to 98

Big deal....that's not really much at all, not for 12 primal Nethers. I have epic plans for the Felsteel Axe. It requires 2 Primal Nethers and of course some other stuff but certainly obtainable once you have the Nether.

So basically, I can craft 6 of those axes compared to the measily upgrade I'd be getting from the Mooncleaver over the Lunar. Those axes I can craft sell for 1200 gold each.

I don't know, 5000 gold or an upgrade on an axe of 40 damage, 3 crit (not percent) and 6 attack power...

I have the Lunar and love it. I'd WANT to have the Mooncleaver but I want an epic flying mount more than 40 damage, 3 crit and 6 attack power from a weapon. I guess once I have my epic flying mount and have plenty of gold........that I could start trying to get 12 of these. I mean, you only NEED so much gold so if you have enough, you might as well take the Mooncleaver upgrade.

But in practical purposes, for the Mats of this item and the small upgrade from Lunar Crescent to Mooncleaver, I am going to use my Nethers to fund my epic mount rather than invest in such a tiny improvement in offense.

Never mind any warrior who's farming out these Nethers is probably prot spec and really not using this 2 hander all that much since he's raiding and going sword and board.

Comment by Allakhazam

yes, this is what you get by being a master axesmith, every blacksmith class can kerep improving their weapons like master hammersmith keeps getting better weapons, so does swordsmith and axesmith, and the armorsmith gets an armor which he can keep improving

Comment by Allakhazam

Screenshot: http://worldofraids.free.fr/bc/Blacksmithing/Weaponsmith/axesmith/mooncleaver.jpg

Comment by Allakhazam

Instead of wasting 1000g to make this and the "Lunar Crescent" just get one of the new Arena weapons they're much better like this.... http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Darkspear&n=Swifty

Comment by Allakhazam

Wow, its been close to 2 years since My master axesmith char has made a Arcanite reaper. Wonder how long Ill get to make these before they are obsolete. Any screens from test realms?

Comment by Allakhazam

Deep Thunder is so much better than Mooncleaver.

0,10 slower

+4 dps

has about 12 ap more than cleaver

+550 hp

And 1,13% crit chance opposed to Cleavers approx. 2% crit chance.

+++

The imba 4 sec stun proc.
Add a warriors 2h mace specialization and give him a WF totem and you have a stunned opponent through most of the fight.

Only reason for a warrior to choose Cleaver above Deep Thunder would be because he's an orc and get the racial axe benefit. But even then I would rather go Thunder.

Comment by Allakhazam

No this is not a component in something, this will be the finished product. As far as BC is concerned. I was pretty shocked when the new patch launched and I went to my Weaponsmithing trainer to find this and a slew of other new weapons. I beleive the top-end on the Mace is 540 or so. Wonder how hard they'll hit in the hands of a decked out warrior.

Comment by Allakhazam

first of all, it's very easy to realise axes are way better for arms/fury warriors...let me tell u why...well, with this on me i have 34.45% crit chance unbuffed in berseker stance..it has no stats...but it has $%^&loads of attack power, and with the savagery enchant it can get really nasty...sword spec is also nice, but having so much crit chance owns everything...

Comment by Allakhazam

This is what i call über..And this is component in something O_o

Comment by Allakhazam

This is the second stage 2h weapon for a Master Axesmith. To get this you have to upgrade the lunar crescent w/ 12 primal nether and 10 primal mana; these are BoP reagents, so you'll have to do more then scout the AH with a big bank roll to acquire the stage 2 and 3 weapons.

Comment by Allakhazam

wow... these mats are so easy i could farm all the mana's in less than a day and then do like 8 heroics and if u have 10 badges buy a nether.. so easy

Comment by Allakhazam

Wouldnt this axe however be good for, say Hunters?

Comment by Allakhazam

As of the new patch (2.1.0), the damage was buffed up to 118 dps, and it has more crit/ap. Also, the cost was reduced by 4 Primal Nethers. It now costs 8 Primal Nethers, 10 Primal Mana and 1 Lunar Crescent. You must be 375 Blacksmithing (Master Axesmith) to learn the plan, which costs 22g 5s.

Comment by Thottbot

As raiding was the only way to get the top gear previous it made engineering, blacksmithing etc. pretty useless. So Blizzard decided to make it that I assume you raid for materials and make these amazing weapons yourself so that more people pursue trade skills rather then 2 gathering ones e.g mining and herbalism

Comment by Thottbot

*Ahem*

And I quote: Requires Master Blacksmith

'nuff said.

Comment by Thottbot

ok, so clearly this axe is freakin badass as everything, but heres the question, which would be better, this axe, or this mace called Deep Thunder

https://www.wowhead.com/tbc/item=54289

they both do roughly the same amount of damage give or take about 10 dmg, and the exact same DPS with the mace being 3.90 speed and this axe being 3.80 speed, but would the +crit strike rating by 48 and +98 attack power be better or worse than having the Deep Thunder, except the stats on it are:

+36 strength
+35 agility
+54 stamina
Chance on hit: Stuns target for 4 seconds.

and im sure that for different classes, such as a shamen for example, one would be better than the other, but my question is from an arms warrior point of view, so which is better for a warrior, the Deep thunder, or the Mooncleaver?

Comment by Thottbot

My problem is just getting my smithing past 360! Good lord. It was hell getting it there. Anyone know a simple pattern I can go farm some where to go from 360 - 375? I was able to make my Lunar crescent and that hit me in the the wow pockets. Also what really sucks is that Bliz made 80% of the patterns from smithing BoP. Now how are we suppose to make money? Every other prof. is allowed to sell the good stuff they make... Not us.

Bottom Line...As a lvl 360 Master Axesmith I know how hard it is to make this, so anyone that makes on. You well deserve it.

Comment by Thottbot

Can anyone confirm that you will be able to turn in heroic badges for a primal nether?

If so, that's pretty easy if it's 1 badge for one Nether.

I'd be surprised. They may make it like 10 badges for 1 primal nether.

Comment by Thottbot

Well, as far as I've heard I'd say Gladiators Decapitator is prolly easier to get...and cheaper :P also IMO its better, it has stats for starters and looks HAWT!

Comment by Thottbot

Lunar Cresant is a good axe.

Mooncleaver is just about the same but kinda easy to get. Just get the 12 nethers while farming your badges and then just farm the 10 primal manas or buy them. But for the Bloodmoon... you gotta be kidding me. 20 vortexs would take FORVER to get and plus it really isn't worth the time getting them.

Mooncleaver FTW

--- Superslim
Thrall Server ---

Comment by Thottbot

as far as arena goes, i have seen that you could really go either way... i'm coming close to 37 percent to crit in zerker stance with my arms axe spec, but so far i've seen that the deep thunder proc would be far more useful for arena, and on top of that in raids even though you can't stun most mobs you still get the rage...

so in conclusion its your personal preference... i'm still torn between switching blacksmithign specs... right now i use the crescent, considering going to the mace because the deep thunder proc is going to be buffed come patch... casters and healers will hate you...

if you dual a MS warrior, i've seen that axe wins most the times because every time the mace procs and you get stunned, if you have 2 points in second wind you're regen'ing way too much health

Comment by Thottbot

I was arms the entire way through getting my nethers. I did PUGs for it, not guild runs or anything like that. So as a tip to warriors, there is NO need to go prot/tank unless you feel that's the way you need to do it.

Comment by Thottbot

The tier 3 axe is by far the best of the 3 craftables. If you look at the stats, why the heck would a warrior need 5% chance to resist fear effects? Any decently geared and speced arms/fury warrior should have deathwish on top of zerker rage. Totaly a paladin/hunter weapon. Attack power for the $%^&*!@, or dodge and a fear resist for the paladin, on top of the stuff he can spec for in his trees.

The mace spec proc? PURELY for PvP, not to mention the weapon's chance to proc is going to be cut significantly. You will notice guys with deep thunder or thunder getting rolled on the DPS meter, simply because they have a ton of rage, but if they didn't spec right, they have no way to dump it without burning aggro.

The axe IS the best choice all around for DPSing or switching off to PvP. Isntead of a 'chance to get so much attack power' you keep the highest attack power for the longest amount of time.

There is a lot of stupid warriors out there these days, so let me teach you a warrior basic... All our attacks are instant, save slam. Therefor, procs are good, but stats are better. Weapons with AP and crit before weapons with chance to impale for 400 damage. True, a 2h spec warrior with high weapon skills has the highest chance of weapon procs, but still, constant stats > procs, ALWAYS.

Comment by Thottbot

What is best of Hammer-, Sword-, and Axesmith?
If you are:
-Arms
-Defensive
-Fury
For my warrior

Comment by Thottbot

axes for orcs,mace for tauren/human. sword for dpsadin. other than that i dont think it much matters. stun is nice, but stun is just as nerfed as crit so i dont really see the difference. aka 15% druid stun resist. 15% warrs stun resist/second wind, 10% rogue stun resist, priest stun resist, hunter beast within. etc.etc.

Comment by Thottbot

I am going to get this soon what enchant i should make on it?mongoose or savagery?

Comment by Thottbot

yeah im still debating stun or more crits.... I have both thunder and lunar to test out to see which is better dps. Lunar crits like a $%^&* (most of the time 2/3 hits) and thunder just completely drops your spirit when you see the crit %

With the nerf blizz's throwing on mace specialization i think i'm leaning more towards axesmith. From experience of cussing and having heart attacks on the computer i'd be willing to sacrifice those stuns for stats. Besides, as mentioned earlier, all warrs have are instant skillz, put aside slam, so i see it as why would you need stun procs when you have pummel. Maybe to slow em down a notch...?

$.02

-It'd be nice to try out both deep and moon

Comment by Thottbot

i had a another warrior say that you get more crit and more ap out of the gorehowl but i told him no $%^&ing way dude because this axe has more AP and MORE CRIT RATING. I have at least an extra 50 ap if i didnt have sav on it and i got around around 2.5 to 3% more crit with this. gimme your feedback

Comment by Thottbot

Anyways Axe spec for a warrios = +5% crit chance.

Comment by Thottbot

I've got Lunar Crescent right now, going to be upgrading to Mooncleaver sometime soon (all depends on getting nethers).

I had Thunder for a while, and all the warriors I knew in PvP said that DT was a great weapon to have. The problem comes down to slow attack speed being mixed in with small stats compared to this. The stam on your DT may be nice, but you are losing a lot of AP and crit out of not having axe.

PvE wise, I've found the axe to be excellent for a 2h MS/imp slam/flurry warrior. Consistently in the top three for DPS.

PvP wise, DT USED to be a great choice for it, but the problem you run into now is that everyone has Glad gear because of the low honor costs. Therefore, a noob team can eat up that stun with dmg and crit reductions. The axe, however, allows a warrior to jump up another 5% off our spec, as well as the 3+% from these axes. With Lunar Crescent and a savagery enchant, as well as my gear, I can MS on a 300+ res opponent for 2k still. Don't get me wrong...DT (even after the 2.3 nerf) is still an excellent weapon...but if you are looking for an excellent stat boost and far better consistency in dmg for PvP, I'd suggest going axe.

Comment by Thottbot

Clearly axesmithing isnt the way to go for PVP for a warrior. having that said,

As a MS/flurry warr on spinebreaker with this axe i can say that although it does MAJOR damage (especially in PVE) in arena the nerfed mace stun chance is still better. a warrior on a healing class, especially a heavy res geared class will not be able to do enough damage with this axe to counterract good heals (not to mention instant cast hots). the stun chance even though it may be smaller, will always win PVP b/c of the healing interrupt it provides with that stun.

PUMMEL-good spell to silence nasty healers and casters, costs no rage, but has a cd and requires the crappy MS-less zerker stance, and a loss of rage changing stances (maybe).

All classes mostly have some way to get out of stuns and fears, really everyone can get their medallion of the alliance (or horde eq) to break at laest one not to mention gems, talents and gear, but if you think about it a good 80-85% chance to stun (assuming the stun procs) is a hell of a lot better than a 0% proc chance.

Besides arena, BG's and PVE this axe will dominate, but in arena be prepared to fall short of amazing as a MS warr with it.

-->If you did go axesmithing as a MS warr, for arena get the arena mace if you can. GL trying to run instances as a fury warr, not one of the best group support classes (in terms of CC-OH, cant really OT). go prot, let the axes gather dust in your bags, and do arena with these until you can upgrade.

Comment by Thottbot

Mooncleaver for hunters, Stormhearld for warriors, Lionheart for palas

The Axes damage for MS warrior is crap compared to Stormhearld, 500 Resi gear means that the crits wont do much anyway. The Lionheart has fear resist and if you get feard as a warrior then your just a bad warrior.

Stormheald all the way for MS warrior, hits like a truck non crit and gives crazy stun chances and rage.

View in 3D Find upgrades...Links

Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Mooncleaver

	Phase 1

Item Level 123
Binds when picked up
Unique

Two-Hand	Axe

351 - 527 Damage	Speed 3.70

(118.65 damage per second)
Durability 120 / 120

Requires Level 70
Requires Master Axesmith
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 52.
Equip: Increases attack power by 106.

Sell Price: 16 14 30

Guides

TBCC Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Best In Slot Phase 1 Gear TBCC Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Best In Slot Phase 3 Gear TBCC Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Best In Slot Pre-raid Gear TBCC Marksmanship Hunter DPS Best In Slot Phase 1 Gear Marksmanship Best in Slot Guide TBCC Survival Hunter DPS Best In Slot Phase 1 Gear Survival Best in Slot Guide

Mooncleaver

Guides

Related

Contribute