Sword, Axe or Hammer?

I have just started out with a new war/monk & have so far been using a hammer as another one of my chars found a pretty good one with only 6 req. However so far I have found very few hammer skills (upto Yaks), so thinking about moving over to sword of axe.

It seems like hammers are the most unpopular of the war weapons & swords the most, so I am just wandering why this is & also why if the sword does the least (basic) max damage its the most popular?

Hope this makes sense I am just at work, bored,

lemme breifly tell you what each is for:

sword is good for bleeding as well as final thrust. good in large groups, one target only. they are very good in pve, but so is just about any weapon. im talking in a pvp setting.

axe: good for spread damage, as well as inflicting deep wounds on everyone you see. they are like the average of hammers and swords, same attack speed as swords and slightly more damage, but the skills arent as good for attacking only the primary target.

hammers:
by far the MOST popular in a tombs setting, KD/AS (knock down - aftershock) warriors can usually annoy monk much more than a sword warrior or an axe warrior. if you go for w/e, equip after shock and then use backbreaker you will have that monk cursing in no time. but you attack somewhat slower and dont expect to spread many conditions except like weakness and blind (maybe).

if you just started out go sword. just about everyone is impressed with those FDS's. then later re-read my post and maybe ill sound like i have a brain.

or not

Hammer skills are stupidly powerful, which is probably why you're not going to find any major hammer skills till near ascension. [at least, not until u get a hammer elite. those are desperately needed to start knocklock combos due to none of the "lose all adrenaline" crap]

Swords? I don't know, axes has quite a few debaters in here.

Swords realistically cannot measure up in PvP. Its Hammer or Axe, and Hammer is probably better right now since Axe Warriors are stronger with enchantments.

Swords are by far the most popular since they look coolest. But then again so do Storm Bows, and Storm Bows suck.

As far as I can tell...

Swords: Good early skills, look cool. But second in damage and worst for disruption, and almost no quests give swords as rewards (what is up with that, anyway?)

Axes: Best disruption and utility, good early skills. But the worst average damage, if only slightly behind swords.

Hammers: Best damage, good disruption, appear often as quest rewards. But skills come late, and you cannot use them with a shield.

Basically you have to decide what kind of warrior you want to be. A disruption warrior uses Axes. A damage dealing berserker uses Hammers. Swords are the 'jack of all trades' option in the Warrior weapon line. A PvE tank -- someone tricked out for durability -- might prefer swords over the other options.

I'm playing a PvE tank with a sword right now, but I'm thinking of changing to axe to have some AE attacks and disruption skills.

I guess I will just play through the pve with my sword w/n until I find a good axe or hammer to make a new char for then

So between axe and swords... which are better for causing conditions?

Sword Skill- Hamstring is god

Hammer Skill- Chain knockdown is insane

Axe Skill- Cyclone Axe is insane for PVE, PVP i havent figure out what's good

I'm not really sure about PvE, probably anything.

For PvP axes are the best, followed by hammers. I have yet to find a good build for a sword warrior in PvP.

I've been happily using a hammer with my W/Mo12. My first character managed to farm some decent hammers that I'm dying to use (I haven't hit Lvl 12 Hammer Mastery yet...)

I've been pondering switching to an axe since I could use a shield though....

an axe warrior can own a group of spirits nice and fast with cyclone axe and EoE. but then you usually dont want to waste so much time with it cause theyre called spam groups for a reason.

and yea sword warriors are usually completely ignored in pvp. i heard something about a w/n with mark of pain being good with an axe, but i really dont know for sure.

its when you go up to a monk and knock them down for 3 seconds that they start to notice you.

There are benefits to each weapon, I know from experience.

Playing mostly PvE, I started with the sword and was amazed how much damage a Sever Artery/Gash/Galrath Slash/Final Thrust combo did. When the NPC tried to heal, I would Savage Slash to interrupt and repeat. Killing NPC's was fast, and I still had 3 skills slots open!

Then when I got to the Desert I found a nice Axe, so I switched and started using a nice Eviscerate/Executioners Strike/Swift Chop combo, with a Disrupting Chop at the ready. This was all about adrenaline though, so I took "For Great Justice" and Cyclone Axe too, and this left me 2 empty slots.

Then it was on to PvP, where neither my sword or axe builds seemed to work well, so I went and found a hammer.

Using "For Great Justice" and all attack skills, I found my hammer to be worthy in PvE as well, so I made sure I collected all the hammer skills, and it was on to PvP, again, my builds didn't seem too effective, but now at least I was causing a ruckus, spending most of my time using Balanced Stance so no one could knock me down, and waiting for Backbreaker to charge. Nice elite, that, +21 damage and it knocks down the opponent for 4 seconds. Can't do anything to me while they lie on the ground, so I always wait until Crushing Blow is ready too, thus hitting for +21 again, and now they've got a Deep Wound too. With Irresistible Blow, I also have an attack that cannot be evaded, and knocks down if its blocked.

So, the greatest part is, its all up to you! That's what I think makes this game great. Plus, after ascending and being able to choose any secondary, it leaves the warrior with a ton of playable options.

My current "Pure Warrior" build (PvE), doesn't matter what secondary profession:
Hammer Mastery: 12+3+1
Strength: 9+1
Tactics: 9+1

"For Great Justice"
Backbreaker
Crushing Blow
Irresistible Blow
Sprint
Balanced Stance
Endure Pain
Healing Signet

This build is ineffective if you are suffering from blind. LOL!