Interesting, I always assumed that the 2H passives were as restrictive as the DW passives, which often have the stipulation "While using DW attacks" which makes them useless for Magicka builds. But it does appear that the 2H passives do not have this restriction and should, I guess, actually work the way you say.

That said, don't use a 2H Axe if you want to use a 2H on a Magicka character. Use a Sword instead. That 6% extra damage is noticeable and will give you way more damage than a Bleed effect that uses your lowly Physical stats for Penetration and Critical Chance.

If you want to switch to DW you can have even more fun with melee weapons and you can use the Nirnhoned/Precise combo (if PvE) for wicked high Spell Damage and abilities that hit like freight trains. The downside is, of course, that your Light Attacks will hit like a noodle, but that would be even more true using a 2H.

YeetusKhajiitus wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but magicka abilities are not, and never were, considered melee?

That may be the case, however melee should be defined by the range of an ability, not the stat that affects its damage.

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

That said, don't use a 2H Axe if you want to use a 2H on a Magicka character. Use a Sword instead. That 6% extra damage is noticeable and will give you way more damage than a Bleed effect that uses your lowly Physical stats for Penetration and Critical Chance.

The whole reason I want to try out a 2H Axe as opposed to other 2H weapons is for the Heavy Weapons bleed synergizing with Draugrkin's Grip armor set. The set increases all damage sources by an additional 617, regardless of their starting value. If Punctering Sweeps proc'ed this passive correctly as the tooltip suggests, then I could cause the bleed to proc during Draugrkin's uptime, adding on about 3,700 extra damage. I don't expect it to be ground-breaking as far as new builds go, but I would like to see consistency with tooltips.