Worth pumping strength to use meat cleaver?

[RunBeagleRun]

My hunter is about level 130 now and my major stats are- Vitality 40, Endurance 40, and dexterity 64. I only have 16 strength at the moment. Should I get my strength up to 26 for the cleaver? I have a good dexterity weapon... Sharp winged spear +5, and I don't want to over-level my character, but the cleaver sure is beastly.

Advise me =D

[Dominions]

Meat Cleaver is much better two-handed than one- and you're only a point or two away from being strong enough to do that.

[Sferzar]

To be honest, if you have that much Dex I say stick to the Sharp Winged Spear +5.

[RunBeagleRun]

Alright, thanks for the advice. I got my strength to 20 so I could wield the north regalia, and 2 hand the cleaver, but the spear will probably be my main weapon for the time being. It's only getting about 305 damage though...

[HijiriOni]

I have about 51 dex and 34 str. Single handed I pitch 450 damage per swing on the cleaver. 2 handed I've seen as high as 800 but I don't know if that was a critical or sweet spot or a monster that was weak to the cleaver cause I haven't been able to do it again.

I love the cleaver personally...but that's because I love massive swords.

[FiOth]

I have about 51 dex and 34 str. Single handed I pitch 450 damage per swing on the cleaver. 2 handed I've seen as high as 800 but I don't know if that was a critical or sweet spot or a monster that was weak to the cleaver cause I haven't been able to do it again.

I love the cleaver personally...but that's because I love massive swords.

If only it wasn't so ugly, bloody and undecorated as it is... :D

[HijiriOni]

Amen to that, decorations mean nothing to me...but having a decent handle and no blood on it would be all I could request. Or something CT oriented, bloody when evil ct, and clean when pure.

[Hahalo]

For PVP, Your better off with other weapons since you don't want to over do your level.

If for PVE, go ahead, as is a pretty cool weapon to swing around with.

So it really falls back into your character objective.

[silvain]

To be honest, if you have that much Dex I say stick to the Sharp Winged Spear +5.

I want one of these. I made a sharp uchi +5 and that's been fun, esp with light weapon, but God, I love spears in this game. I have a moon winged spear +5, and I still come back to it most of the time with my dex/magic build.

[Dominions]

Cleaver's good for dex builds... it's like your only choice for a weapon with knockdown that will do decent damage from your stats.

[FiOth]

Cleaver's good for dex builds... it's like your only choice for a weapon with knockdown that will do decent damage from your stats.

Yes, but don't forget that by dual-wielding it you will get a +50% STR bonus. With this stat raised and Light Weapon (or Curse) the amount of damage per hit can get pretty crazy.

[Dominions]

Cleaver's good for dex builds... it's like your only choice for a weapon with knockdown that will do decent damage from your stats.

Yes, but don't forget that by dual-wielding it you will get a +50% STR bonus. With this stat raised and Light Weapon (or Curse) the amount of damage per hit can get pretty crazy.

I always advise against rounding out your "damage" stats. It's best to pump one stat and focus on weapons that scale well from that. You've gotta spend points here and there to increase the variety of equipment you can use, but I think the things that give you the most power pound-for-pound are:

1) leveling one damage stat really hard so you can use forged weapons that scale with your stat plus any special weapons that work well with your stat balance. This is actually a lesson I learned after balancing my first character's STR/DEX/FAI, he became a one-trick pony with Meat Cleaver really fast, everything else he could use was significantly underperforming what it would do for a specialized build at the same level.

2) don't level your damage stats AT ALL except for equip requirements and go with weapons that have nothing at all to do with attributes for damage ... Northern Regalia, Dozer's Axe, Dragon weapons, bleed/poison/plague, etc. There's a lot to be said for huge stats in VIT, INT, and END as long as you can do decent base damage.

[FiOth]

Cleaver's good for dex builds... it's like your only choice for a weapon with knockdown that will do decent damage from your stats.

Yes, but don't forget that by dual-wielding it you will get a +50% STR bonus. With this stat raised and Light Weapon (or Curse) the amount of damage per hit can get pretty crazy.

I always advise against rounding out your "damage" stats. It's best to pump one stat and focus on weapons that scale well from that. You've gotta spend points here and there to increase the variety of equipment you can use, but I think the things that give you the most power pound-for-pound are:

1) leveling one damage stat really hard so you can use forged weapons that scale with your stat plus any special weapons that work well with your stat balance. This is actually a lesson I learned after balancing my first character's STR/DEX/FAI, he became a one-trick pony with Meat Cleaver really fast, everything else he could use was significantly underperforming what it would do for a specialized build at the same level.

2) don't level your damage stats AT ALL except for equip requirements and go with weapons that have nothing at all to do with attributes for damage ... Northern Regalia, Dozer's Axe, Dragon weapons, bleed/poison/plague, etc. There's a lot to be said for huge stats in VIT, INT, and END as long as you can do decent base damage.

Your 2nd strat is only good for the first - lets say - 200 SLs. After that scaling is the only thing that can give you decent damage with your weapons so you will need to focus on at least one stat to reap the benefits from specific ones.

[HijiriOni]

Cleaver's good for dex builds... it's like your only choice for a weapon with knockdown that will do decent damage from your stats.

Yes, but don't forget that by dual-wielding it you will get a +50% STR bonus. With this stat raised and Light Weapon (or Curse) the amount of damage per hit can get pretty crazy.

Hate to sound picky here but Dual Wield means using 2, Double-Handing (2handing) something means holding with both hands.

[Cyon210]

I would advice you to skip Meatcleaver at your current build and focus on getting sharp weapon +5, you'll pwn most cleaver user if you know what you're doing. =)

[2much]

I have about 51 dex and 34 str. Single handed I pitch 450 damage per swing on the cleaver. 2 handed I've seen as high as 800 but I don't know if that was a critical or sweet spot or a monster that was weak to the cleaver cause I haven't been able to do it again.

I love the cleaver personally...but that's because I love massive swords.

If only it wasn't so ugly, bloody and undecorated as it is... :D

I'ts beautiful with light cast on it.

[Karkarov]

Uh meat cleaver doesn't get anywhere near 50% bonus damage 2 handed. No weapon does. Weapons designed for two hand use (like the Meat Cleaver) gain a increase of 1.2 times thier bonus damage from strength and I do mean ONLY strength. Any weapon when used two handed tends to do between 15-20% more damage give or take. It is hard to nail down the exact figure since so many different variables can effect a given hit and some weapons benefit from being two handed more than others.