True - in ARPG hammers have BIG aoe but here ranged enemy just dash from you 8 times and you have no aoe to hit them. Even in Souls Games - 2H weapons have high stagger but that stagger is higher here on daggers or shield due to basing MOSTLY only on parrying and not BIG hits
Stagger on 2H hammers should be biggest in the game
Hello Warlan,
As I already mentioned, my main character uses a 2H weapon and I wanted to share a few things I’ve incorporated into my build. Just today I faced the winged monsters while Pestilence was active. My build still isn’t fully optimized, but even so, I’m literally leaving chaos in my wake. Before I share anything, I have to admit I haven’t tested every single possible rune for 2H weapons—mainly because the game doesn’t make that easy. That said, I’ve tested quite a few and settled on 3 out of the 4 runes. Here are my little secrets:
Let’s start with the weapon.
As far as I know, Gnarled Saw has the fastest charged attack (no combo needed) of all 2H weapons. It takes just one second to cast. If you compare it to the Claymore, which might be the most commonly used 2H weapon, it charges in roughly half the time. Gnarled Saw simply allows you to land charged attacks in situations where other 2H weapons would miss because the enemy moves too soon. While its running attack does mediocre damage, we fix that with the Front Jump Kick rune. Front Jump Kick works in the same scenarios as the running attack, but it does significantly more damage, use stamina and is spammable.
The idea is simple: Gnarled Saw’s charged attack + Front Jump Kick is a very viable, low-risk combo. Any boss will be hurting after taking that combo, and their poise bar will skyrocket. But that’s not the end—today I discovered you can extend the combo using the Evasive Crushing rune (translated from Spanish). This rune (from some 2H axe I don’t recall) costs only 50 Focus and grants invincibility during part of its animation. It’s literally a dodge that ends in a strong attack. In practice, the idea goes like this:
You wait for the right moment to throw out your charged attack (1 second charge), chain it into Front Jump Kick, and if the boss tries to counterattack, you follow up with Evasive Crushing—dodging their hit and landing a third blow. This last part requires some skill, but even without it, the first two strikes are devastating and easy to pull off against any boss in the game.
P.S. The third rune I use is the damage buff—you can buy it from Eleanor’s shop.
2H weapons are just awesome. I never even used a 1H. Not that I did much thinking about it. It just called for it - the animations are just way too cool. This game was made for feeling like Conan.
Pretty awesome 2H knowledge in this thread here. There’s nothing much to add.
I myself did it pretty simple and used the corpse smeared blade for the full story playthrough, maxing its damage and slotting a single AoE rune on it. It does not matter much which one. Many runes have an AoE, even though it’s just a small one. E.g. one is doing an almost invisible forward-shooting groundrip, which is also tearing multiple enemies even if a bit farther away. Many runes also offer a quick hit. Some axes have a quick far reaching swing. Timing to the enemy moves is crucial. The Ballfishheads and the witches used to drive me crazy. With the right 2H and/or rune they don’t even get their first cast out.
Blister, the 2H sword has an axe-like 3-attack combo. All its attacks are wide roundhouse swirls. The first attack is very quick without much delay. The third attack can be switched to a charged attack which has only half the arc but goes a bit upwards and can also hit winged brood in flight, if not too high up. just tried it. The standard rune is a 50 focus roundhouse fire swipe. This blade doesnt need much aiming for sure.
Yeah I just slotted flip kick rune into my 2hander and first timed it.
It’s what I call cheesing the encounter. 
My point is I don’t think this is good game design. It’s an opinion and maybe not everyone agrees. I think the 2-handers need a 2-handed centric option to deal with situations like this. I shouldn’t have to become Bruce Lee to beat the battle when I want to be Conan the Barbarian. Know what I mean? I already have a character that is fists and completed the game with that character.
Unfortunately, I did not come across the Gnarled Saw in this play through yet. So the claymore is actually my fastest option. I put frontflip kick on my Festering Earth and just killed them all with frontflip kick. Effective but lame.
Oh well, maybe they can add better options.
I’ll have to check out Blister when it drops. It sounds like some of the moves could easily be made into a rune that uses stamina for 2-handed weapons.