people go nuts over it, but i find it very lacking. it's regular attack has an extremely small hitbox meaning you will miss things directly infront of you. It's not good vs most of the things that cause you trouble, and it also can't chop trees despite being an axe. I'll take crystal axe over black metal atgeir any day.

And yeah regular blocking is garbage in this game. even with max level armor, food and shield a 2* mob will still oneshot you if you try blocking. Parry or dodge, those are your options.