I can't remember the throwing axe well, but as with any weapon, the base damage is listed on the specs of the weapon itself. Those specs will list if it has physical and/or elemental damage. There are no hidden types of damage on any weapon. If it has slots available you can enhance that damage with socketables.

Your character's base stats also enhance the damage of your weapon. If you pull up the character sheet you will see how much physical and how much elemental damage you inflict with any given weapon. Leave that character sheet up and swap out different weapons to see which ones give you the most dps in either or both categories. Sometimes it can be surprising what the totals are. A weapon might say it has more base damage, but on your character, with the various added stats of all of your other gear it might end up being less than a different weapon that has lower base stats. I've always wondered if the game also factors in the stats from your passive skills when it calculates damage output for the character sheet.

Anyway, the throwing axe is an unusual item and perhaps is the only way a melee character can do ranged basic (left-mouse) attacks. I apologize if you already know most of this. I remember the axe was fun to play with for a little while, but I made a melee character so I could do melee and got bored with that axe after a little while. Some skills cannot be used unless you have a certain type of weapon equipped. If the axe is categorized as a melee weapon then it lets you get around that requirement while still having a ranged weapon. :)

I think it is actually casting a spell. The listed damage I think is the melee damage of the axe, but the spell effect that proc's 100% of the time might have different damage or be modified by something else.

I think socketables will improve the melee damage, but probably not the ranged spell effect damage? You'd have to test it on a training dummy.

Good idea to test it on a training dummy and see if there are any debuffs of electric or other elemental damage on the dummy. That should tell you for sure.

The best drop I have ever gotten was Precise the Axe of Throwing, which has been very useful. I ranged weapon that is also a melee weapon is a dream come true.

Originally posted by Luke:

I think it is actually casting a spell. The listed damage I think is the melee damage of the axe, but the spell effect that proc's 100% of the time might have different damage or be modified by something else.

I think socketables will improve the melee damage, but probably not the ranged spell effect damage? You'd have to test it on a training dummy.

Given that it says the item "casts" Throwing Axe (with a 100 percent chance to) I assumed the Throwing Axe proc would be considered a spell and playing around with it on an Embermage with only Focus invested, it was dealing more than the base phyiscal damage listed so I assume the axe throw damage scales off Focus. I don't know if it is dealing electrical damage but I have an electric damage over time enchantment on it so I can't be sure. I'd be willing to disenchant it and see though. I assume it deals electrical damage because the axe throw is pretty much the same as Storm Hatchet.

Maybe I'll spec a point in Magma Spear at some point and see if I can throw axes with it.

Ahh....! I forgot that it says it casts the throwing axe spell. I remember being confused by that as well. If you want to test it for sure, you can disenchant it and try it on a training dummy to see what damage it says the dummy is getting. If the damage icons don't stay long it's sometimes hard to get your mouse over them quick enough to read them, but you should get some sort of idea what is going on with the axe. Trying to get the same enchantment back on the axe might be expensive though, if you really liked that enchantment, since the electricity enchanter (I think his name is Tesla) does random types of enchants.

Originally posted by HiFive:

Ahh....! I forgot that it says it casts the throwing axe spell. I remember being confused by that as well. If you want to test it for sure, you can disenchant it and try it on a training dummy to see what damage it says the dummy is getting. If the damage icons don't stay long it's sometimes hard to get your mouse over them quick enough to read them, but you should get some sort of idea what is going on with the axe. Trying to get the same enchantment back on the axe might be expensive though, if you really liked that enchantment, since the electricity enchanter (I think his name is Tesla) does random types of enchants.

The enchantments I have on it are 31 percent damage to secondary targets and several hundred electric damage over time. I got the enchants from whatever the guy's name is that appears in the Elemental Oasis after you defeat all four elementals. I'm not too attached to those enchants since the axe isn't even my primary attack; I mostly just keep it around for the novelty. As for the disenchant costs the character has over 450 grand in the bank so I'm fine. Right now I'm just trying to farm Lucky Dice from the Wellspring. When I get the chance I'll see what happens when I use Magma Spear with it.

Originally posted by nobodyknows729:

The enchantments I have on it are 31 percent damage to secondary targets and several hundred electric damage over time.

These specific enchants do not affect the number that shows on the target struck. I can confirm that however the Gear and Socketables that are worn as well as Skills can affect the damage output as TL2 does much more damage by interacting the DPS with other factors.

About Throwing Axe:

It deals 200% of DPS weapon.
It only triggers on basic attacks.
It deals physical damage.
It scales with Strength.
It does equal damages whether used in melee or ranged combat.
Its range is shorter than that of Storm Hatchet.
Its throwing speed is the same as that of the tier 1 of Storm Hatchet.
Stormclaw Berserker skill is not effective with Throwing Axe.