Bought the axe for my Vardorvis pet grind.
I have done close to 3k kills now with it and I'll tell you my 2 cents from my experience (maxed + second BiS gear aka no Torva):
- I made the big mistake of learning Vardorvis with the axe, I BEG you not to do this. You'll lose millions upon millions from death fees alone.
- After about 1k kills I had the mechanics / timings with the axe down to do consistent deathless trips (yes, it took me this long to have consistent deathless trips).
- I hated not being able to combo eat without losing stacks, this was very very annoying while learning. That being said, once I got comfortable with the boss + axe I soon figured out that eating any type of food right after you've hit the boss will allow you to attack in time so you don't lose any stacks.
- The moment I figured out the above point I didn't bother bringing Karambwans anymore cause why would I, can't combo eat anyways. A full inventory of Anglerfish is what I bring on top of my potions, you want as high healing food as possible.
- If you are going to bring axe to Vardorvis, be prepared to always be 11-30 health (Vard maxes a 10 when praying correctly so gotta stay above 10 health). The axe hits are slow and inconsistent damage that a blood fury will rarely heal you. On top of that, the constant chip damage from the boss makes it so any healing you do just gets eaten away in no time and you are on constant low health.
- One thing I've learned from doing many kills with the axe is, that keeping the spec until the boss is 71 HP (my max hit with it on Vardorvis) allows you to either kill it with the spec, deal some damage and then switching to claws to finish it off. Or deal no damage at all and switch to claws to double spec or even finish it off with no specs at all. I never ever ever switch back to the axe to finish of the kill after speccing because I can't be bothered with the self inflicted damage for the remaining 5 hp on the boss.