How many of you have a Zaw? Do you feel that the grinding has paid off, did it affect your gameplay significantly?

[LemonEnterprise]

I feel that the farm for a Zaw is really tedious, it’s boring and PoE farming in general feels more like a chore than actually being interesting and fun.

I am curious because a lot of players from Reddit praise Zaw, saying it’s the best in its class. What do you guys think? Do you think that Zaw should be a necessity for end game? Or are normal weapons like Tipedo, Galantine P and Lesion enough? 

Share your opinions, I am genuinely curious :) 

[Roughcut]

Don't worry about it until you level up your Cetus standing significantly, some of them can be stronger than other weapons in their classes, but for most content you won't even need that. Eventually it's worth looking into once you're a high enough standing level, but there's no need to rush into it. I personally love my Zaws, but I didn't rush to get them and so it didn't feel like a real grind to me. It's all about your approach really, and what you want. 

[Lawmonark]

Yes, they are really strong.

Need no, wanted yes.

They are some of the strongest melee weapons in the game.

[Ragingwasabi]

they are strong as fk, but theyre also ugly so i dont use them

[Diarmut]

I've got two zaws, one, my Machete zaw was more for aesthetic than anything else, and I liked the reward=grind ratio, but gilding them felt like another extra cheap hurdle in my eyes, so not worth investing in until you are already above the needed Cetus rep level.

[NinthAria]

I have a few. They're nice. Don't know if I'd call them necessary, or life-altering, but they didn't feel like a waste of effort.

[(XBOX)Solargeo]

I like my Zaw / Its also a good Saw XD

[Tricky5hift]

Some of them can be pretty nice stat-wise and in appearances.

Made myself a cool looking dagger.

[TrickshotMcGee]

45 minutes ago, LemonEnterprise said:

Do you think that Zaw should be a necessity for end game?

Not even a little bit, no. 

45 minutes ago, LemonEnterprise said:

Or are normal weapons like Tipedo, Galantine P and Lesion enough? 

All 3 of those weapons are above and beyond what you'd need for "endgame". With the way melee scales, at present, even mediocre weapons in that class can be extremely powerful and are more than viable for anything you'd want to do in the game.

[Zext]

They aren't much of a grind, to be honest. I'd love them a lot more if I could use my skins on 'em.

[Sintag]

Trust me when I say this; Get a Zaw.  Depending on how you make them, they range from decent to probably the best in their class.

[(PSN)ZeroSection]

3 hours ago, LemonEnterprise said:

I feel that the farm for a Zaw is really tedious, it’s boring and PoE farming in general feels more like a chore than actually being interesting and fun.

I am curious because a lot of players from Reddit praise Zaw, saying it’s the best in its class. What do you guys think? Do you think that Zaw should be a necessity for end game? Or are normal weapons like Tipedo, Galantine P and Lesion enough? 

Share your opinions, I am genuinely curious :) 

I think this would honestly depend on your goals and whether or not your a melee main or use melee a lot.  If yes to both then absolutely they're worth it. Any combination of Machete Zaw is basically best in class by default because of how poor the stats are on normal machetes.  Just add a dash of Cyclone Kraken and watch the fun.  The one-handed zaw swords are also extremely competitive with the top end one-handed swords.  I also believe you can make a polearm side grade to the Lesion.  The rapier zaw is in the same boat as the machete in that its best in class, and i expected the same would have been true for scythes until the announcement of the scythe changes.  Basically any zaw you can make can be competitive, match, or exceed the best weapons in that class.

However, if you aren't interested in the Min/Max aspect of it all. and just wanted good enough melee weapons, those options you listed are more than fine for the star chart all the way to sortie 3 and beyond.  Either way I'd give it a go even if you aren't interested in PoE content.  If nothing else you can say you made at least one and it'll give you something to do.

Edited April 17, 2018 by (PS4)ZeroSection

[Gandergear]

Theyre all heavily overrated and all mine are just collecting dust. As fodder they entered as fodder they left.

[JDxBarracka]

i got two a dagger with 1.6 speed that i use for covert lethality and a plaguestar zaw, a staff  about 10 m range with only primed reach

[kgabor]

The Plague scythe zaw is the only one i kept and only for funzies with Exodia Conntagion.

I keep Galatine P as my main melee.

Edited April 17, 2018 by kgabor

[--TheGoodDoctorSloth.exe]

My main melee is a Zaw, from the OG Plague Star event as well, the plague kripath with a riven that has status duration, both crit stats, and -puncture to make it a purely bleed and viral built melee. Thing scales amazingly in late and endgame so.. yes its very good. Coming from a MR25 player.

[Fukushu]

So far I've made a total of seven Zaws:

1. Kroostra, Ooltha, Ekwana II Jai (Donated, wasn't happy with the attack speed)
2. Kroostra, Cyath, Ekwana II Jai (Donated, wasn't happy with the attack speed)
3. Kroosrta, Ooltha, Ekwana Jai II (Donated, was more impressed with the Plague Keewar Staff)
4. Kroostra, Cyath, Ekwana Jai II (Still own, will donate and remake when the new Two-Handed Grip is released)
5. Kroosta, Plague Keewar, Ekwana Jai II (Still own, will donate and remake when the new Two-Handed Grip is released)
6. Laka, Ooltha, Ekwana Jai II (Donated, thought I'd at least make something with the Ooltha Strike since it's my favorite in terms of appearance, hated the short reach compared to the Staff version)
7. Kroosta, Ooltha, Ekwana Jai II (I just really like the speed and reach of the Ooltha Staff and have a love of it since it was pretty much my first Zaw, so I made another, will donate and remake when the new Two-Handed Grip is released)

Each of my Zaws have also been Gilded, had Catalysts installed, and polarized at least two times, so I can easily say that the Zaw crafting is one of the few things I enjoy most from PoE, but I feel like we need more weapon categories to really flesh it out (the Scythe, Nikana, and Hammer Zaws that we've been told of are a good start), and I'm really hoping to someday be able to make a Blade & Whip Zaw. As much as I like my Jat Kusar and Lacera, an Ooltha Blade & Whip would be my new primary Melee to never leave my hip.

Edit: It'd also be nice if DE fixed the animations for the Staff and Polearm Zaws so they actually hit with the edge of the blade instead of the flat sides.

Edited April 17, 2018 by Fukushu

[MarcusGraves]

I find the whole system of crafting custom weapons when we already have a massive buttload of options fairly pointless, and if there is going to be a custom gun crafting on the new Venus map I doubt I'd bother with that too.

I'd care more for this whole "create your own" system if we were making custom weapons/armor/accessories for our Kubrow/Kavat/Operator (I know Op get's a custom weapon, just lumping in) to make them stronger and more unique since items like this don't exist for them which makes the idea more appealing for me to bother with.

I know Helminth Charger is a thing too and I love mine, I was hoping we'd get some kinda cool mutation type system added to the Helminth room on our ship for tweaking them in different ways, maybe we will in the future.

[RealPandemonium]

Assembling and gilding a single Zaw requires just some light Plains missions.  Not unreasonable at all, and the customization is kind of fun?

[Fallen_Echo]

The zaw grind in my opinion was not bad (for low level stuff) but hunting those cursed wisps is the most terrible and mind numbing thing i had to do since the dreaded defection event. I still refuse to go to those maps and since i got myself my preferred zaw and amp already the plains are meaningless from now on.

[Gabbynaru]

I've made myself some zaws so far, but I couldn't get past the appearance, nor did I manage to make them better than my current equipment (though still equal). So, on equal stats and terrible looks, I'm sticking with my Cassowar for the time being.

[Fallen_Echo]

4 minutes ago, Gabbynaru said:

I've made myself some zaws so far, but I couldn't get past the appearance, nor did I manage to make them better than my current equipment (though still equal). So, on equal stats and terrible looks, I'm sticking with my Cassowar for the time being.

Thats the other thing, even when people claim that the galatine is ugly its far better looking than any of the zaws. Some of them look worse than the infested weapons.

[Gabbynaru]

1 minute ago, Fallen_Echo said:

Thats the other thing, even when people claim that the galatine is ugly its far better looking than any of the zaws. Some of them look worse than the infested weapons.

At least the infested weapons have some character to them. Zaws are just sticks with blades duct taped to them.

[Sqecmi]

plague kripath is the strongest melee in the game.

[MarcusGraves]

4 minutes ago, Gabbynaru said:

At least the infested weapons have some character to them. Zaws are just sticks with blades duct taped to them.

I mean they turn pretty after you gild them, but they totally look like you pulled them out of the trash before that.