If Minotaurs really existed what historical medieval weapons would they really use? Mt followup video on Minotaurs: • CHANGED MY MIND about ... Awesome shirts by Shadiversity: teespring.com/... Shadiversity on Patreon: / shadiversity
Minotaur obviously brute strength and thick hide make for a great tank add some form of heavy armour and you have a great damage dealer and a damage taker the centaur has a lot of weakness like both its human and equine parts would be hard to defend against a foe with the ability to utterly defeat any defense the centuar is better off a archer or a sniper attacking from afar assuming they both exist in the same 1 area around each other and are actively in conflict with the other
@@cripplinganxiety1941 minotaur with no buffs vs race horse centaur with any weapon he chooses on both hands. Then it would be fair (even though in the end intelligence will still determine the winner)
Greek guy here. Minotaur literally means Minoan Bull. The mythical king of Crete Minoas had a large dungeon labyrinth built to throw his enemies in (mostly atheneans) and he put a half man/half bull monster in it, known as the minoan bull (minotaur), to eat them. The bull (speficically his horns) were a religious symbol in minoan Crete. The 2 headed axe also was a religious symbol in minoan Crete. 2 headed axes were made for ceremonial purposes. So the guy that created the RPG monster put these things together and there you go. A minotaur holding a 2 headed axe guarding a dungeon/ruin. The original minotaur was killed by the athenean prince Theseas in the myth.
more likely his wife's bastard. His wife fell in love with a bull, probably Amur missed his arrow...but the bull didn't "want" her, so she ask an engineers, that one who created wings for himself and his son Icarus, and also built the labyrinth, he created a fake cow, in which she hide inside in necessary "position", the bull gave her an orgasm, she get impregnated, but died when giving birth to the Minotaur. The king enraged he put Minotaur into the labyrinth because it was a monster, and throw the engineer and his son to a prison, with the only 2 exits, one was through the labyrinth, which even the engineer couldn't escape from, and the second exit is the high cliff looking right to the sea which their prison cell is exposed to, like that prison cell where Tyrion Lanister was held at The Eyrie. The engineer then came up with the idea to use candle wax to glue albatross feathers to their arms and escape. There were different interpretation of this story, but this one is the original one, because it connected with other stories.
James Austin The king wouldn't sacrific a bull that had been given to him to sacrifice to Poseidon, so Poseidon made the queen fall in love with the bull, she had the engineer build a hollow cow to seduce it, and gave birth to the Minotaur, which was placed in the labyrinth.
18:20 Yes yes, lactose intollerance is a thing... but.. it's not generally that useful in a battlefield. Maybe they could spray something on a slippery surface to make people fall...but milk is really meant for the calves, to breed a new set of minotaur warriors. So indirectly, is its best offensive use, I'd say.
The reason Beastmen(Human animal hybrids) are often depicted using axes over swords and other things is becomes it plays into the idea that these creatures are usually on some level feral. They may be able to speak, have intelligent conversation and plan, but they are far more animal than man, and so focus more on brute force to get their way. The Two-handed axe is the ultimate symbol of savagery and pure aggression, and with the strength of a minotaur it is possible for one of these big bastards to cleave a man in half with one strike. Speed and brute power is how a Minotaur fights, having enough toughness and endurance to take hits and keep fighting, using their rage and pain as fuel for the flames.
Well an axe still has to be crafted and they usually don't have stone axe heads so they either have knowledge of forging or they stole it (if that was the case, they wouldn't have a signature weapon) . If they were completely savage they'd probably be using tree branches.
The Whisperer In Darkness would said they made them? They could have just attacked people and stole their stuff. This a fantasy world, some things need to be handwaved for the sake of the story
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2h-DPsxuHfM.htmlm27s Shad has talked over this point, in brief, low intelligence should not effect their ability to adopt efficient strategy and weapon combinations. Unless, it's low to the level that it's disabling
Sometimes it is indeed. Anyway, people seem to misunderstand intelligence. My idea is, in most examples of humanoid creature's societies, their intelligence is set by appliability alone. Don't get me wrong, genetic intelligence still plays a role, but most of the it's not about how smart you're born, it's about how much of your experience requires you to GET smart. If some tribe can get away with animal level of stupidity, guess what, they ARE going to be stupid. It would be a waste otherwise! But, far more usually all it takes is a bit of abstract thinking to enhance your chances of survival, success in murder and overall experience A LOT. So naturally, you're gonna want to acquire that intelligence one way or another. Also, there's the natural selection factor which sets the barier of minimal intelligence you can get away with.
I think most Minotaur-horns would get in the way of a scaled up longbows. They might reload large crossbows mighty quick tho'. And throw some heavy spears/lances/pila. I think that would be better ranged options.
Aleksander Gromsrud Maybe a larger version of the Mongol bow. The real thing was short enough to use mounted but with the draw strength of a longbow (war bow). A Minotaur sized one would clear the horns but use the power of its user.
Another good video. One thing pertaining to minotaurs and bows, their head shape would lead to poorer eye sight for archery as there eyes are more on the side of their heads leading to lessened depth perception and other less than optimal eye characteristics for archery.
A large heavy blunt edge sword, though sounding impractical, utilizing the minotaur's excess strength could be used to deliver massive blows in a fluid motion to literally bash an opponent to death and with a still having a sharp tip to impale through average human armor. Brilliant!
Jojo of Faraway Those freakin' australians! Don't care about our sleep. Make them addicted they say and then post videos in the middle of the night. Shads world domination is near indeed.
Great video, Shad, as usual. Not so sure about the sword. Like one of the other comments here, swords would suggest long training for proper use, not what is normally associated with minotaurs. Granted, every weapon needs some training, but swords more so...perhaps. The Axe is good to emphasise the brutish nature of the user, however, I would probably say dual hammers/maces/morning stars. Their superior strength and speed to rush the opponent means they would have insane momentum, so whether or not the opponent is wearing armour, the head would smash into them and cause crazy trauma. Imagine a charging bull, now add a swinging hammer. It doesn't matter how it hits (axes would need to be head on) it will rip the opponent apart.
Your right, and Shad also forgot to adress Minotaur toughness as in many fastatic settings they have something of the original Minotaur, which was invulnerable, minotaurs can be so tough it is like have some sort of natural armor. Another point would be the cost of bearing swords, because let's face it, the minotaur can grab a heavy club and crush puny humans inside their armor, giving him a expensive sword is overkill, and if he uses it in a brutish way it would damage the blade pretty fast, heavy clubs you can find everywhere, and axes easy to fix if they break the shaft. At last, depending on how are the eyes of the minotaur they not be that good archers, humans have both eyes ponting forward which gives a better ability to aim, the minotaur might be different. Bottom of line, I don't think minotaurs need weapons or armor to defeat *normal* humans, they may be too savage to make fine weapons by themselves, and too brutish for someone else to invest huge resources on expensive weapons they will break every now and then, so the axe is actually a fair good choice for them, and perhap a axe and a shield.
Your enthusiasm permits me to watch a lot of your episodes back to back. And for the record, you and I would very likely be friends if we lived near each other, it’d be like gravity, just too many similar interests. Keep up the great work.
7:40 holy nostalgia batman; back when that game first came out I couldn't run it on my computer... so I would just watch that intro cinematic over and over.
Not exactly early, but i think the minotaurs raging, charging, hyper-aggressive and completely non-tactical battle style does suit the axe a bit better than a sword, just because the blade of a sword might snap if the minotaur hits a wall too hard, which a creature who's half angry bull tends to do. Also, the hit wih horns and uppercut with axe would be devastating, and ironically, the best counter would be an axe swung to get it in the chin, in an uppercut, just done before the minotaur can hit with its horns and then attempt what is literally the exact same thing.
Their super strength may be slightly nullified by their lack of stability. Their hooves have a small surface area compared to their mass and theyre also not very grippy. A massive axe might put them off balance if they go too ham. The biggest advantage you could have may be to fight them on something like granite or ice
The reason the minitor has an axe is because it is derived from Minoan myth. Minoan culture is full of giant axes which seem to be related to the cult of the bull and bull sacrifice.
After watching your series on mythical creatures weaponry I now know why your fantasy campaigns are so complex and hard for the player. This is why I love you shadd
Its neither when your tinker gnome "accidently" blows up the lock on the cage that was keeping the minotaur as prisoner of the drow so he swears a life debt to you, and you come to the agreement that you should really...just be friends. However over the course of that friendship your gnome was injured and couldnt walk, so an exotic saddle was crafted and your friend carries you so you can watch his back. Mutual benefit. Neither racist nor sexist (which didnt even apply)
Can a Minotaur walk backwards with those feet? If not, there's severe limitations to footwork, right? There's also the issue of blind spots due to the shape of the head. I wonder the effectiveness of two handed sword techniques. I think they would largely benefit from a kit built for charging through opposition as when it comes to grappling or extremely close quarters, the minotaur ought to have weight and strength advantage. If we assume most human weaponry will have problems with minotaur skull, I think we need to focus attacking and guarding primarily on the leg area. I think roman kit would work for a Minotaur if we assume he can't move backwards without turning
Perhaps their wider area of vision would work better within tight formations rather than acting as a champion? There is going to be the issue of unit density though due to the size of the minotaur though.
As the vision, yes they have a wider area of perception, but a less good perception of distances, they see in two dimensions, a little like cinema's cameras (but I really don't think it's a good comparaison). APparently, they also have bad accomodations muscles (it's the muscles which allows you to see a clear image), so they see a very troubled image, with less colors than us (they don't have the cells to see red). So, all of that make the bull a very poor see, but very wide and which can hept all the movements.... because it's what an herbivor needs, a very wide vision able to see all the movements of the predators ^^
Can bovines see directly in front of them? I believe I remember hearing that the answer is no- this doesn't hurt most herbivores, who only need to run or occasionally charge, but for a Minotaur it would make it hard to react to an enemy parry or dodge.
I don't think that the udders of female minotaurs could be weaponized but let's look into it just for the fun of it! Science! Fiction that is. Anyway, in order to consider whether the udders of a female minotaur could be weaponized we must understand the science of it, the anatomy. So what is the anatomy of a female minotuar? Is it like that of a cow? If so then I think we have found our answer. The anatomy of an udder (specifically that of the average cow) is quite impressive with the suspensory system being able to easily hold about 50kg (100lbs). And not just that, the udders are largely a system of muscles and tendons and other various systems but that's besides the point. The point is that the udder is surprisingly durable for the task it has. First their is the skin surrounding the outside, not too tough but underneath there is mostly muscle. How can this be? Well the muscle is there so that the udder doesn't (excuse me for being so brash) 'burst' or tear open. You see cows can actually get a lot of milk in the udder and the muscles essentially hold everything together but because of this we can assume that a female minotaurs udders won't be that big of a weakness. However not as strong as the rest of her muscles. At the very least you can expect that a punch or kick to the udder won't do much more than to the stomach. As far as weaponizing I haven't found anything much. I have however found one thing in my studies. The cows udder is actually pretty amazing in a hilarious way. There are lots of muscle cells in the udder and there are even muscles in the teats of the udder that control milk flow. If a female minotaur wanted to she could spray a shorter opponent in the face with milk temporarily blinding them or even a opponent of similar size if the aim is correct and then get in an extra attack. Now I know it's farfetched but come on, we are talking about a mythological creature so let's give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that a female minotaur can do this. The first question that comes to my mind would be armor. What would we do, should a minotaur wear armor? The second would be what kind of impact would this advantage have on the kinds of weapons that a female minotaur can use? I feel that Shad should have the benefit of looking into this and find as much amusement (childish as it may be) as I did. So Shad, I implore you, do some research and use your witty imagination to answer any questions that might come up with this peculiar subject. I challenge you to adress this captivating yet enigmatic question; can female minotaurs effectively use their udders in battle, or will they merely get in the way?
but male minotaurs have nipples where male humans have nipples.... not on their stomachs like cows do. so....wouldnt that mean female minotaurs would have breasts like a human? if yes, the real question becomes.... two or six?
In a more RTS type of setting you could make your entire frontline minotaurs equiped with giant heavy shields and let them charge at the enemy at the same time, throwing them over or at least off balance, followed by small creatures stabbing the enemies on the ground.
A Minotaur with a Sword/Axe and Shield would be an absolute monster. With their strength and size, a shield made to fit their arm would practically be a weapon all on its own, and if you're somehow not dead from being bashed in, then they come at you with a one-handed chop or thrust. Or Halberds... yeah, you mentioned how you can dodge the initial swing of a polearm, but at the same time, due to their large size, the weapon reach they would have with polearms would be terrifying.
Heck, my favorite Minotaur weapon has always been something close to the Chronicles of Narnia scimitar looking thing. It might be because that was the coolest Minotaur I've ever seen in a movie.
They generally don't need them, but typically they just have the same body types as humans perhaps with supernatural speed and strength. So it would be situational then just like a human.
I could see this being a very interesting video. Personally I would see two sets of weapons. Ones to fight humans and others to fight other vampires. With humans they would probably want weapons that would reduce the risk of the human bleeding (so they can feed afterwards). Since vampires can't use holy weapons or sunlight without extreme risk to themselves they would have to rely on other methods like decapitation or stakes.
According to one art history class that I took at uni, the main reason that the Minotaur is usually depicted with a double headed axe is because the Minoan people who lived on the isle of Crete, where the Minotaur was said to live, had a specific cult symbol which was a double headed axe. The Greeks called double headed axes Labrys, which is a similar word to Labyrinth. Basically, it's a play on words, and also an interesting cultural reference.
A friend, a retired Seal, and I were sparring shield and ax against shield and mace, keeping our weapons high as we each tried to overpower the other. He blocked my mace with his ax, which had a greater flair that the ones you show. He locked my shaft between his blade and shaft and swung in a long downward arc coming away with both weapons. Moral: don't fight a Seal.
I was also thinking bearing swords the second you started shying away from polearms. Depending on the mythos, I think they might possibly even be able to wield it one-handed and still use a shield with it.
To get a helmet on a Minotaur, or at least most Minotaurs, you'd have to make one that is in two halves and then is strapped together around the horns.
In a strict biological sense, I can't really think of a way to directly weaponise a creature's milk against humanity. Maybe minotaur milk could contain a chemical that's hazardous to humans? Assuming they'd be mammals as well, I wouldn't think they'd have anythin that'd act fast enough in a fight. A niche use might be better; picture the scene, a minotaur fighting a human on a flight of stairs. The minotaur has the upper ground, but the human's faster and aiming for the legs. The human thrusts forward and the minotaur does a shabby parry, there's only seconds before a strike comes again. That parry gives out minotaur a golden opportunity; with a quick hand, she could manage to squirt milk against the attacker's eyes, and turn the tide fron there. The scene could also be arranged to cover the floor in milk, allowing the minotaur to trip an opponent, but then you'd have to ask if such niche uses are worth the danger to our minitaur. What anatomy rules are we even following? Human-like, chest-mounted breasts, or cow-like udders located near the groin? What dimensions? They'd make big, soft targets in the middle of battle to worth the risk I'd think. Then, of course, comes the question of magic. Depending on the system at hand, milk could be infused with all sorts of things: Being a liquid that could be squirted at sufficient speeds, it could be used to conduct electricity or fire. Assuming minotaurs have large supplies of milk, this could basically give them a biological flamethrower. Additionally, milk could be made flammable after dousing foes in it. Or it could be made viciously toxic. That'd be taking the original human-unfriendly milk idea to its direst applications. The organs themselves wouldn't be the best idea for natural fighting, either. I don't know about udders, but breast tissue can be particularly tender.... I guess you could argue that, by sheer mass alone, a minotaur's mammary glands could serve as a flail? Honestly, I wouldn't even think about it if I didn't have the ability to turn my flesh into a hardened material, in which case it might be worth considering; going with udders again, those four teats could present a great opportunity to act as spikes or the tips of spears, even better if the opponent has no idea minotaurs could do that... Though if you could turn your flesh into stone, it'd be easier to just bash them over the head with a punch. But the teat stalagmites sound like an interesting idea XD TL;DR: Don't really see how to effectively weaponise a minotaur's milk/mammary glands, without magic, in such a way that they'd be useful in a fight.
Bit late of a comment but hopefully you still read these. I watched this video and your dwarf weapon video and wondered, don't they use axes because they are commonly underground in tight corridors with low ceiling heights? I always assumed that made it slightly more difficult to swing a larger style of sword or a polearm style weapon. That being the reason axes were always depicted.
Minotaur is associated with Crete and Minoan culture has a ritual twin blade axe called Labras from which the word Labyrinth comes from, so that's why.
Using your example of Percy Jackson, in the 5th book, a huge war breaks out all over New York, where the Demigods are trying to defend the Empire State Building (The entrance to Olympus) from the Titan led army, comprised of many different monsters from Greek Mythology. During the fight, Percy, Annabeth, and apollo's children encounter forces led by the Minotaur Percy once killed. Riordan describes the Minotaur wearing full armor, covering everything but its horns, and wielding a double bladed axe shaped like an Greek Omega. That would be pretty damn intimidating.
One theory about why the Minotaur is associated with the Labrys (double headed axe) is that oversized ceremonial versions of the weapon were used to slaughter bulls during sacrificial feasts.
Felmar, fragons have several weapons built in... they have claws, they have teeth, they have spikes, and they have dragon FIRE (or other types of elemental breath, like acid)
DnD sometimes depict minotaurs using late Roman armor (lorica segmentata) and weapons... Only scaled up to the minotaur's. It's more of a reference to the legions use of the bull in their flags. But it would work if minotaurs were a nation rather than temple guardians.
Minotaur: I've got to admit that you have some good points that I really do appreciate. (speculatively examines sword) ... (finally nods) You've just made yourself a sale, good sir. Here's your gold and it's nice doing business with you. Shad: (takes gold) Oh, the pleasure is all mine! You do enjoy that sword, sir. And be sure to tell your friends to stop by Shad's Weapons Emporium! We've got the perfect weapon for any body plan!
Haven't seen it mentioned in the comments so far... The reason Minotaur has an axe is it being the representative icon of Crete; the Labrys is a large double-bitted axe and the word labyrinth (house of the axe) comes from it. Minotaur living in the labyrinth and being the son of the wife of the king of Crete could really use no other weapon. That leads to them as a fantasy race getting the axe too.
Just give them a super long, two handed bar mace. No edge alignment needed, shatters armour and bone alike, and you could even put a point on it for thrusting without altering its striking characteristics.
+ If the Minotaur has gloves or gauntlets he can half sword and effectively use this gigantic great-sword as a big mace. I'd give the Minotaur very high quality armor, even thicker, heavier armor so that the Minotaur doesn't need a shield for protection, and is effectively the shield. Having a cutting, piercing and crushing weapon in his ginormous great-sword. In terms of ranged weapons, I'd give them good ol javelins or some kind of crossbow. The explosive power that Minotaur seem to have could probably draw back a 200-250 LB crossbow no problem, you could even scale the crossbow and the bolts up significantly to fit the Minotaur. If not a Minotaur sized great-sword, I'd give the Minotaur a door shield, like you say in the second video and a heavy axe.
One thought on minotaurs using axes is the intimidation factor. If you have an already intimidating beast who now is showing utter disregard to personal paine and injury that is going to be scary.
shadiversity would you consider doing a video of best late-high medivel armaments to use against an emu war? another entertaining comical video that also spreads the odd history of Australia's "great emu war" even I've been had by fraudulent wikepedia pages etc its a fascinating tidbit as any children I'd have would also hear tales of the great zombie rebellion of 2015. but this may make for a fun video if you'd be willing to do the work for us all to have a few laughs. and shad keep up the videos I've become fond of how you present them.
Consider a relatively light (for a Minotaur) weapon to gain speed. The heavier the slower for a given wielder. He who hits first usually wins.I believe poleaxes and two handed axes were used in melee combat. That is tournament not battle. The second rank had longer weapons to reach over their own line. Axes also get around shields. If you get flanked you lose, no defense. Melee had a much higher death rate than jousting and was probably the main reason the church banned tournaments.
Aktually The Axe ( A Labrys Axe To Be Specific) was a Holy Symbol on Kreta while King Minos ruled the Island. Minos was also the one who kept the Minotaur in the Labyrinth and Reason for Its Name (Minos + Taurus which is Latin for Bull). Since Both the Minotaur and the Axe were Symbols for Kreta, they were often portrayed together. Sorry for My Bad english, i am german
Now I need to read/watch the Bell vs Minotaur fight from Danmachi again. The minotaur in this fight uses a claymore or bastard sword or something similar also one-handed to.
The shown bearing sword was allegedly used by Piers Gerlof Sonia, best known as Grutte Pete. It's said that he could behead multiple opponents with this sword. A equally ridiculous sized helmet exists it's also supposed to be his.
A thought occurs to me. You've discussed about fantasy creatures multiple times, but I think we are missing a very important question. Now centars, minotars, merfolk, are all well and good but what about, wait for it, half-dragons?!
Thinking about using minotaurs in my Eberron campaign as a last-war super-soldier program. Thinking two bucklers and celts' axe for one surviving fighting style, but bows... man, that'd be ugly to face.
My choice would be a war hammer with the flat head/top spike/curved blade combo design. Whether it would be a human sized one or a slightly sized up one, I believe that combined with a shield, it would be a great combo. Plus the minotaur's strength would be brutal
on one occasion I was able to convince the GM to allow me to play a "Good-aligment" Minotaur. It wasa HUGE stretch, but was able to convince him that wild minotaurs away from their evil-demonic religion influences they could potentially become "Taurens" like in World of Warcraft. So I would basically play a "cow" version compared to the WILD demonic Ox-Bull of classic minotaur. Other than that I played it as a Paladin (wow influenced again), so I changed some things. never used full armor, only breast-plate, a heavy shield (never a paves/tower shield) and as main weapon I used heavy Flail, allowing me to trip and push enemies away, giving me advantage when pulled off.
And if a Minotaur really wants to make an armored opponent question their life choices with that huge sword he can give them a Minotaur sized murder stroke.
the ONLY time I've EVER seen a minotaur use a weapon other than an axe was that one minotaur in DanMachi who used a "greatsword" (air quotes emphasized, it was a giant blob of metal with sharp edges and a handle)
The big problem with a Bering sword though is that all of its advantages are neutralized in cramped areas, like a narrow cave. or a narrow hallway (like you might see in a Labyrinth.
I think you overlooked the eyesight when it comes to bow, while an orc has the same eye positioning of a human, I'm fairly certain the difference in eyesight of a Minotaur could impede bow use.
Answering thumbnail question. Minotaurs are big with pointy horns. A dagger is too small, a sword too noble, a bow unfitting, spear too thin compared to body... So it's either a giant mace or an axe. But since most maces are thin, it doesn't fit the giant minotaur. So it has to be an axe, which is broad like the minotaur's body, and it looks like more strength is needed than skill compared to the sword. We expect beasts to be stronger than intelligent so a brutish weapon like the axe suits the minotaur.
That last part was udderly ridiculous. ... But seriously, the pole in polearms and spears are also part of the weapon. In fact, a most spears are staves with points to them. I've seen people in spear drills using every part of the weapon from the tip to the butt and shifting their grips so they can deal with opponents both distant and close. The only real close in weapon that works well against a spear is oddly enough a dagger, which is pretty much too small to parry with a large stick.
Depending on the size of the Minotaur I think he would have to take some care to aim his attacks low enough so humans wouldn´t be able to just duck under it. Considering that, I think they would just straight up stop using slashing weapons and adopt stuff like tridents, stabbing downwards and yanking some puny humans! Kicks and tackles would also be very effective if their opponents ever get too close
Three reasons why double axe is perfect for a minotaur: It is effective against all enemies, durable becouse you can just use the other end as well and it is so brutal that humans will run in fear as they see even the greatest warrior cut clean in half which prevents the minotaur from having to fight too much as it won't really be able to resist against a group of soldiers that are actually calm and have a plan and long Spears and Bows or even heavy machinery (the axe will be pretty effective in detroying spears and these machines.)
Bows would be a function of the two depictions of minotaurs. If it had the bovine head with the eyes placed on each side then the bow would not be as feasible of a weapon as if the minotaur had the more humanoid eye configuration of both eyes placed forward. Also depending on the depiction minotaurs often have less but larger fingers which wouldn't effect grip in melee but a bowstring may be problematic due to the manual dexterity needed to manipulate the bow string with massive hands.
It's an old video but a few counter points, minotaurs are usually savage so unless they find a two handed sword they won't use one, one handed swords would be too small, axes are easier to make, they could literally make an axe from sticks and swords, if they are sentient they might use a two handed sword, but the defense point is a bit flawed, minotaurs have very thick(thicker than a bull) hide and sometimes hairy which provides a decent amount of defense against cuts also muscles could actually provide some defense as well at that scale, also if they *are* sentient than they would wear armor on top of that, stabs are the biggest problem, anyway and the second defense is that they are bigger than humans by a significant margin, they have reach and power, along with their natural defense, no human would want to stand against a minotaur face to face, doesn't really matter if he has an axe or a sword, you can't block his attacks if he uses an axe it'll go straight through a shield with a sword a shield might hold up, and you most likely can't kill it in a single hit or even do significant enough damage to stop it, it however need one good hit and the human is dead or injured beyond fighting capacity, a sword is not good against armor either an axe can deliver a heavier blow. Overall the axe is not a bad choice in my opinion. Also the bow, but this was more about melee weapons. This was far longer than expected.
Late to the party, here, but I’d love to see Shad do a breakdown of some of the Relic Weapons from FFXIV, particularly the Bravura, since we’re talking about axes.
