Stormhawk Axe | Elden Ring Wiki

I used this one time in arena, pressed L2 twice and he died instantly even after panic rolling (he even had 1700 hp). Great for dealing with ganks but it feels too dirty to use in 1v1....

Submit

Funni antigank stick

Submit

for any hosts crying about this weapon despite having all the advantages they could ever possibly want over an invader, from one giant fromsoftware fan, there is one quote infamous in the soulsborne community which offers some good advice to counter this weapon:

"Git Gud"

Submit

Ahhh.. the go to for every $cumb@g invader that's losing the fight.

Submit

honestly I feel like it should be larger

Submit

...and here I am, just wanting this axe for a cosplay. You guy below have fun arguing.

Submit

Buttmad co-opers in the comments lol. I love drinking your tears in Limgrave and Stormveil with this weapon :) Only way to win 3 vs 1 invasions in this game.

Submit

It looks good

Submit

POV - You've been invaded!

Seriously peeps, at least have some variety in your 'builds', geez. When every other invader uses this, Stormcaller or Dragon Halberd it gets stale real fast. Every fight is just a passive waiting game to see when the L2 button gets pressed for any easy win or an easy punish and then it's over for everyone involved. Doesn't even seem to be enjoyable for the person using the easy win weapons as they almost always also send hate mail to those they kill. Yikes. Maidenless behaviour through and through.

Submit

>looking for a new weapon
>ask fromsoft if stormhawk axe is twink or ganker
>they dont understand
>pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is twink and what is ganker
>they laugh and say "It's a good weapon sir"

Submit

You didn't beat the host

Submit

It's a very good early-game weapon, but of course only early game if you wanna fail an entire questline

Submit

wow this thing is good! just tried it against godrick with base stats (for the axe) and +0, and well... it demolished him! i dont play pvp but i can see how this would be great. the skill just does ridiculous damage and that 120 lightning damage for a short time after is crazy too, especially for early game.

Submit

There's no way hosts/gankers could be complaining about this weapon, especially since they could use something like it to greater effect.
Say it's a 2v1 chasing down an invader. The host could try out the weapon art, and while the invader is getting blendered by the first 2 attacks, they're in hitstun so the summon could throw in a fully charged R2, weapon skill or spell like Comet to almost guarantee a one-shot. Just take advantage of their aggression, the same way invaders do against ganks.

Submit

If Turtle Pope asks, no, I didn't kill Nepheli, I just ran from the bird and it accidentally hit her five times.

Submit

Don't use this thing in duels people its great for invasions against overly aggressive hosts but in a duel you're just gonna get fried or frost potted whatever comes first.

Submit

The perfect get off of me stick for an invader dealing with over confident aggressive gankers. I've lost count on how much salty hatemail I've received from gankers I've killed with this thing.

Submit

Me standing comfortably outside the small AOE while I watch the lvl 30 host get blended into a fine paste. Truly an anti noob weapon.

Submit

If you're complaining about invaders in this game I hate to say it...you are very bad at this easy video game. Who would have thought DS3 would be the last sensible game to invade in. Yet people STILL complain about invaders here? Been playing PvP in these games since 2012 (although I stopped cause lol Elden Ring PvP) and it still boggles my mind players are so bad that they complain about invaders despite them getting nerfed harder with each game. Then again, Elden Ring is casual friendly and all the normies love it. So it is mostly just them complaining. You poor ER normies never had to deal with TWoG in DS1 or R1 vortexes from weapons like PKCS or Murky in DS3 huh...

Submit

All's fair in love and invasions. A message to invaders-- when you sprint at me with this axe in your hands, it never works. You need to practice hard swapping, or you need enough carry weight to equip it as a hidden soft swap. It is very funny when you lock yourself into the lengthy animation, letting me burn you away with the flame of frenzy, but I'm starting to feel bad about it. This has happened to me three times this week. Please try harder!

Submit

What RoB and Moonveil is to invaders, this is to ganks.

Submit

for how nigh-impossible invasions are when you try to play fairly, its remarkable how stupidly easy they become when you equip this weapon and only ever press L2

Submit

Seeing hosts whine about invaders being able to fight back against their ganks will always make me smile

Submit

the seething in these comments lol

Submit

When you wanna invade someone but want them to immediately know you have no personality

Submit

for those that want this weapon early without killing nepheli, you can use the trapped chest in weeping peninsula to go to the capital, use taunters tongue to get invaded and the invader will spawn at the bottom of the elevator, activating it to send it up. You can then use the elevator to access leyndel early (you can also use early leyndel to grab an early somber 7 stone without having to do the volcano manor jump)

Submit

This isn't a fishing game, but there are lots of fishermen...

Submit

The AoW is great for finishing off invaders that cower in a pack of enemies.

Submit

Guys... finally a good axe
no need to hate this baby, you will cry if it get nerfed

Submit

The best all round weapon in the game for me, and believe me- I've thought about it...
Fast guard counters, huge dps aow with thunderstorm (especially early game), easy to get early game, somber upgrades.
It's just a shame Nephali has to die :(

Submit

Amazing, though should have worked like radahns swords

Submit

Insanely powerful weapon if you’re playing an aggressive build that can stand to trade a hit if needed.
The Skill is so insanely effective, you can stunlock both enemies and players and pulverize them, provided you manage to anticipate them getting close, and it hardly costs any FP to use either.

Submit

for a somber weapon the game sure hands it like it's candy within one game cycle

Submit

Quick swap! Chop! Chop! Blend those gankers into slop!

Submit

A fair weapon against our beloved & maidenless Gankers!! otherwise i also dislike guy's who using this in arena for tryhard win. Pls no nerf fromsoft we need an effective gankhunter

Submit

The only somber weapon you could quad wield in one new game cycle

Submit

Range is bad, but the design is awesome, the particles are so cool, and the skill...holy shite, pull this off when ur getting gangbanged by mobs. It's also the signature weapon of the true lord of limgrave so 10/10

Submit

Braindead L2 stick no.16

Submit

This Axe is ultimate drip

Submit

Anyone else bothered how the ash of war of this weapon doesn't buff both axes when dual wielding?

Submit

A few things about this weapon:

1) Axe stance damage is pretty poor (only 33 for a charged R2, meaning you need 4 hits to stagger most bosses) but if you play smart and aggressive this axe will reward you will amazing damage on a stance break. I don't mean from the riposte: instead you should just start spamming the weapon art and don't stop until they get back up and smack you. Ritual Sword/Shield, Bull-Goat, and Shard of Alexander help with this, as do high-poise armor sets.

2) This is a quality weapon that scales better with STR than DEX. As such, your first investment should be to pump STR to 54, at which point your two-handed bonus and the scaling hardcap. From there, you can start bringing DEX up. Vagabond gets 80 STR and 15 DEX at level 77 at the lowest, but you'll see superior AR at the same level by capping STR and getting to 41 DEX.

3) The lightning buff your weapon art adds is substantially better (120 lightning dmg) than the buff from Lightning Slash or a grease (85 lightning damage). It's not great outside the first few areas of the game, but it boosts your AR a bit.

4) Pairs well with the Dragon Halberd, itself also a quality weapon that gets a lightning buff and scales better with STR -- not to mention its excellent moveset.

Have fun!

Submit

Could I add bleed

Submit

Only stupid players fall for this. And by stupid I mean the average ganker/password summon.

Submit

I love this thing as secondary pvp weapon. Hide it, at first, get em drawn em in, switch,
crank, start laughing. The gank pvp players deserve no less. Enjoy before they nerf it.

Submit

I have a +10 one mostly for the fashion souls, it's not bad but there are just way better weapons.

Submit

After Ng+7 I have 14 of these things…

Submit

Great for low level pvp, but the price you have to pay to get it isn't worth it.

Submit

You should always assume that any invader is going to start up this AoW at any moment. Insta-win

Submit

This is the best axe to kill Malenia by the way. Killer her in my second attempt and fist time she blossomed (second phase). Just locked her in the skill and she keeps stunning. So if you are having difficulty killing her use the axe. Talismans include Godfrey Icon and shard of Alexander.

Submit

Making a Quality build won’t be the first thing on the player-base mind. It’s a shame, cause this axe gets nearly 700 AR. And of course, the weapon skill is busted against mobs/ganks.

Submit

Oh no, did you and your ganksquad mindlessly run face first into an invader as usual, and get punished for it?

Submit

Basically the dragonslayer axe but not good cuz elden ring doesn't like regular axes, for shame

Submit

This really should have been a paired weapon like the Winged Knight Twinaxes from DS3.

Submit

Are axes slower than other one-handed weapons in powerstance? Yes. Are they a bit clunky? Sure. Did I enjoy using a pair of these for a NG+ playthrough? Also yes, and I tend to play healers and casters in most games (including this one.) Also, my previous playthrough was using the Golem's Halberd (which I also had some fun with) and compared to that, dual axes felt damn-near acrobatic.

These axes in particular do make up for some of the shortcomings with their AoW as well. As mentioned in other posts, it does have a bit of animation lock and short reach, but if you get under something and start spinning (especially if the enemy is staggered for a few seconds) you do rip health off of most things.

Submit

The damage you get out of this weapon by just meeting the minimum requirements is huge. Remarkably high base damage + flat lightning buff from the weapon art. I've been really enjoying this weapon on my RL 1 run.

Submit

the aow, if you connect it's great, but if they move out of the way you're a sitting duck. swirling, unable to move like a fool as they destroy you out of its range.

Submit

Man, I wish this was a greataxe

Submit

4 per playthrough? they really didn't want us to miss this thing

Submit

When you see someone with this in PVP it means you need to kill them from outside the hitbox of the one trick pony ash of war which they will spam because the moveset is lacking.

Submit

I like how they removed the startup stun on stuff like the royal greatsword because it would "feel bad to play against".

Then keep stuff like this

Submit

Fantastic weapon, be it early game or end, even max level this darn thing holds up consistently for PVE as well as PVP. If you like axes, lightning, god forbid both, this is your weapon!

Submit

S tier weapon when invading as it just delete ganks in seconds. Even when you get hit out of the WA the hitbox of it lingers for a second forcing a trade. Never jump attack into it unless you’re willing to take a trade. This weapon is worth having in your inventory as a swap even if your Dex or Str isn’t very high due to its insane base damage.

Submit

bye bye gankers

Submit

As someone still learning about over/pvp stuff,does Godfrey’s icon work for this and if not, what setup would anyone recommend,appreciate the help

Submit

i love this ash of war

Submit

Ash of war needs nerfing, once you get hit by the First hit, youre in for the whole Party. Not fun to play against.

Submit

why are there multiple of this weapon that uses sombers but not many others (i think at least, might be wrong)

Submit

honestly it does have a gimmicky weapon art but with base stat requirements and its high base damage, when 2 handed, this is one of the best VIT gouge weapons in the game. My RL1 weapon of choice as well.

Submit

By far the easiest and fasted way to kill the teleporting banished knights in castle sol for their armor

Submit

A lightning axe, with low requirements, that shines especially at low levels, and is obtained through killing an NPC after progressing a quest. DS3 Dragonslayer's Axe would be proud.

Submit

The one located in Leyndell is missable, isn't it? As far as I'm aware, you will no longer be able to enter the Fortified Manor after defeating Maliketh, the Black Blade.

Submit

i could swear gurranq gave me one of these

Submit

Very cool looking axe, reminds me of the eagle themed elven axes from Skyrim.

Submit

****s HARD after the buff to Axes' speed and range. Now an actually viable chasedown option to compliment larger weapons, while also having a pocket nuke in the form of one of the dumbest, highest damage Skills in the game. It's not meta or anything, but it's a breath of fresh air.

Submit

These weapons are not that great at all. Spent about an hour making a character and setting it up to do a build with both of them, theyre very underwhelming. You cannot buff both at once, so only receives the buff. The range on the ash of war isnt that great, neither is the poise. The damage is ok, just ok. There are many other options which are both stronger and more fun to play. If you are looking to do a dual wield build I recommend using curved swords for dex, dual greatswords for a str build, or dual katanas for bleed. These axes arent worth the time.

Submit

I wonder if someone out there has been stunlocked by someone as an invader with this Stormhawk Axe's weapon art while their phantom friend brings out their Giant-Crusher for a full charge heavy just to smash you to the ground.

Don't know if I would laugh about that or be mad to be honest. But hey if it's happened I would like to know xD

Submit

With the optimal scaling cutoffs of 47/40 Strength/Dex, which can be achieved at level 69 on a Vagabond, this axe gets a physical AR of 569, plus 120 additional lightning from the Thunderstorm for a total of 689 AR. When landing the full Thunderstorm combo on an NG+3 troll outside of Godrick's boss room I get a total damage value of 4,507.

To compare to a roughly comparable weapon and Ash of War, the Jawbone Axe with Stormcaller comes to mind considering its exactly equal weight (5.5), and for the fact that Stormcaller is essentially the exact same Ash as Thunderstorm minus some scaling differences and the lack of the 120 additional Lightning damage. To reach about the same AR as a 47/40 +10 Stormhawk Axe (569 AR), a +25 Heavy Jawbone Axe needs 61 Strength (571 AR). To simulate the additional lightning damage, we need 21 Faith with a +25 Finger Seal, which provides 159 Incant Scaling, which results in 119 lightning damage with Electrify Armament. This is ever so slightly less than 120, but the Jawbone axe is also dealing 2 more AR than the Stormhawk, so it's basically a wash; 690 AR for Jawbone when buffed, and 689 AR for Stormhawk when buffed with the Ash of War.

I did the same test on the same NG+3 troll with this Jawbone Axe setup, and dealt only 3,588 damage, or in effect, the Stormhawk Axe full combo dealt nearly 26% more damage, even with nearly the same AR and the same physical/lightning split, and at basically the same required level on a Vagabond at level 68. Prophet only required level 62, so you could dump in a few extra levels of Strength, or maybe Faith for Golden Vow, but the same can be said for the Stormhawk stat requirements, which are actually quite low for the amount of damage the Ash of War, and even just the axe itself can output.

At 150 on a Vagabond you could go for something like 60 Vigor, 20 Mind, 21 Endurance, 47 Strength, 40 Dexterity, 25 Faith. Gear could be something like a full set of unaltered Banished Knight Gear + Fire Prelate Greaves, and maybe Shard of Alexander, Great-Jar's Arsenal, Erdtree's Favor +2, and Carian Filigreed Crest (or Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman for massive physical negation) for Talismans. That should give you tons of damage, relatively high poise, and great damage negations, all with a solid pool of FP for buffs like Golden Vow and Flame Grant Me Strength, plus the actual use of Thunderstorm.

All this to say, this axe is really good, and makes for a very fun playthrough, especially because you can max out Somber Stone weapons way earlier than Smithing Stone ones.

Submit

Buffed with 1.07, extremely strong weapon in PvE. The AoW deals insane damage even at low levels (flat lighting dmg buff) and staggers a lot, will easily take care of knight-like enemies without allowing them to retaliate. Against bosses, you should try to stance-break with charged attacks/guard counters, then use the AoW - quite possibly killing them on the spot. Only downside is the short range, other than that, killer weapon.

Submit

While murdering Albinaurics en masse I discovered (as of 1.06) that this axe's weapon skill is silent as far as enemies are concerned: you can use Thunderstorm to murder an enemy without alerting other guards a meter or two away as long as you're not in those other guards' line-of-sight. This silence is useful for stealthily clearing areas, esp. that certain group of Alibinaurics.

Submit

is it even possible to get out of its ash of war? I really don't understand the timing

Submit

Ledo hammer swap v2

Submit

As far as I can tell, the skill does NOT exclusively deal lightning damage but a mix of lightning and physical damage, with the latter being the majority of the damage output. The skill deals much less lightning damage than one would expect.

I tested it by first using the skill normally, dealing 2101 total damage with my current setup. With the Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear (which buffs lightning damage by +20%), the skill deals 2148 total damage -- a 2.2% increase. Much less than the +20% buff to lightning damage the tear is supposed to yield. Do the math and that means the skill deals 89% physical damage and just 11% lightning damage.

My setup is a two-handed Stormhawk Axe +10 at 43 strength/43 dexterity and Shard of Alexander. Tested against the Troll just outside of Godrick's arena.

Submit

The lightning damage weapon buff that gets applied after using the Ash of War does not get buffed by Shard of Alexander. Shard of Alexander only buffs the damage of the thunderstorm itself, Roar Medallion buffs neither the thunderstorm nor the buff -- just tried it to be sure. Obviously it isn't a roar attack.

Submit

From Software: “No you cannot have another broadsword.”

Also From Software: “Here’s four Stormhawk Axes.”

Submit

Dragonslayer Greataxe's little bro.

Submit

undisputed elevator champ 2022

Submit

Biggest issue with this weapon is that is rewards a passive playstyle, you know, the best one that there is to begin with. When you see somebody with this, you can tell 100% that they are a 1-trick pony that will only use the Ash of War as axes are absolutely dogwater in this game aside from this one, and again only for it's Ash which is shutdown completely by ranged options. What I don't understand is how Stormcaller, the generic version of this Ash of War, can't true combo/rollcatch into itself while doing substantially less damage as well. I feel a parity change is in order for this weapon, to either remove the stunlock or give the standard Ash of War the same stunlock capabilities. My personal wish is would be that they buff the axe, hammer, and flail moveset, but nerf this thing's Ash of War to same level as Stormcaller to make up for the buffs.

Submit

lingering hitboxes: the weapon

Submit

Weapon for giga chads.

Submit

The fastest way to turn a three-man gank into a smoothie.

Submit

I don't know why I disregarded this for so long--it's my new favorite weapon

Submit

DELETE_GANKERS.EXE

Submit

great weapon art for both pvp and pve AND its the only weapon in the game with actual good quality scaling, i swear every other "quality" weapon in this game only starts to perform well when both stats are maxed and even then only really benefits from one


honestly my only complaint with using this is that theres no innate lightning damage and you cant buff it but thats still understandable and this is still an A to S teir weapon imo

Submit

Is the weapon buffable with incantations such as the dragon buffs?

Submit

In theory, it could even summon the Bifrost...

Submit

My counter against bloodhound step dual katanas, just wait for then to bhs towards you and use the ash of war to insta kill them with the full combo

Submit

Something interesting I found with this axe which I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: It will buff any shield you have equipped in your off-hand with I assume is lightning damage while the Ash of War is active (AKA while your axe is imbued with the lightning). Found this completely by accident when running alongside a Dragonclaw greatshield in the same build. Useful when paired with Shield Bash or Shield Crash AoW and quite useful with the Dragonclaw Greatshield in particular seeing as it already does a split of physical + lightning damage by default.

Tried to see if the buff also applied to off-hand weapons but it didn't, only shields.

Submit

The Stormhawk Axe will perform best with a quality build, slightly favoring strength but not as much as you'd expect. I encourage you to test the numbers yourself, but from my testing 47/40 seems like the ideal split, but this of course depends on how many leftover points you have after leveling Vigor and Endurance... Honestly, the differences are pretty slight tho so as long as your stats are somewhat close to each other it shouldn't matter much.

Submit

The ash of war is hilariously strong. You can one-shot entire ganks with ease, especially when they get overconfident thinking an axe build is easy pickings

Submit

The fact that these don't actually deal lightning dammages will forever confuse me.

Submit