Vulak Axe vs. Tunare Sword
 

Vulak Axe:
-Double the AC
-Melee Stats
-Universally useful, non-resistable lifetap proc

Tunare Sword:
-Slightly better DPS
-Much more mana
-More MR
-Better Fashion
-More situationally-niche, sometimes annoying proc (root)
-Usually goes for less DKP


Which one would you go for?

vulak all day

Agreed. Vulaxe is the better item.

Main benefit to Tuna Sword is it's easier to get than Vulaxe. If you don't think you'll be able to get Vulak loot anytime soon (perhaps your guild doesn't compete for Vulak often or at all), then go for the Tuna Sword.

having tuna sword on SK gives you root accecss, its worth getting for that, plus more mana

Technically you could always use a Herbalist's Spade if you need root. Root can also be detrimental at times, even more so for an SK.

So Vulak Axe is best, if you are blind or don't care about fashion.

Tunare Sword looks good for supertwink alt that you plan on unnecessarily taking to pick up group spots.

Since sleeper is basically designed to be unkillable, Vulak axe comes from what is arguably the boss of the expansion, where as Tunare is more of a (admittedly powerful) background character who canonically can’t be properly killed - just her avatar dissipated.

I’d say narratively the Vulak axe has better providence.

If push aggro ever makes a return in some capacity, tunare sword will be even more problematic. A better proc to compete with the vulak axe lifetap would've been thorns, basically making it a beefier ranger sky sword.

Y'all underrate tuna sword badly, works for me I'll take another for my other knight .

The issue is simply that root does not mix well with fear, when talking about SK's specifically. Face tanking a mob is going to be less efficient from a recovery standpoint while soloing, even with the faster kill speed of Tuna Sword.

Obviously in scenarios where you are face tanking and root doesn't matter or is a benefit, Tuna Sword works great.

Who the hell gives a care about fear kiting?

Is this dreadlands in 2000 you still obscurely live in amazed by some dude soloing like that?

Auto attack on.
Alt tab.
After YouTube finished or what have you, alt tab back.
Target next mob. Repeat.

The push spell cast interrupt changes made tunare sword amazing. Before that the 2hs and fist were absolute garbage items to have on. Now they’re BIS. In regards to comparing it to vulak axe. Vulak better. Hardly. Irrelevant comparison as both are so good.