Surprisingly underpowered, axes are not the best choice for big damage. One-handed Axes have decent damage and attack rate, but can't match the top swords (for Barbarians) or hammers. Two-handed axes have decent damage, but less than spears or polearms, and have less rangethan these, a big consideration for Barbs using Whirlwind.

HK's edit: for For D2 classicplayers:  nagas Nagas (1 handed axe) and ancient axes (AA) Ancient Axes (2 handed axe) have no dex reqdexterity requirement. alsoAlso, the naga has Nagas have a range 3 (range 3 is much nicer than , for example, the BHBattle Hammer's range 1) (i think no 1 hand weapons get more than range 3), and AA has Ancient Axes have a range of 4 (only one less range than max range of 5 , like some spears and pole armspolearms) , so they do NOT "have much less range".  mace type weapons DO "have much less range". battle hammer (BH) (1 handed mace type) has only range 1 and martel de fer (mart) (2 handed mace type) has only a range of 3. mace type items have least range of all item types. axe type has 2nd greatest range of all item types. these axes could see some spears and pole arms have the greatest range of 5use.