[Noselacri]

Is this proven? People say the rampage effect on the Axe of the Slayers generates aggro too. When I'm using it, mobs just ignore me until I get my Obsidian Shards back out. If anything, it generates aggro from big damage but that's all I've noticed. It would be cool to get some background on this. Was it ever officially disclosed or is this one of those old EQ rumors? Or is this just how it works on P99?

I can't point you toward any source of information, but it was always widely regarded as an acceptable aggro weapon, and it certainly has been for me both here and back in the day. The aggro gain from the proc itself isn't huge, but it's decent enough, probably about half of a stun or shatter, and it has the aforementioned advantage of being AoE aggro that doesn't aggro more mobs or break mez. Kinda like healing somebody, really. It's very easy to see in practice, it doesn't take extensive use to notice mobs you haven't targeted to turn on you when it procs. I can demonstrate it for you in-game sometime if you're interested enough. Considering that the weapon's ratio is perfectly reasonable and the proc also helps your mitigation immensely until level 20ish, I say it's some of the best 100pp you can spend. I soloed 12-16 in Unrest literally without downtime, because on top of the reasonable absorb shield, the proc has some kind of small HoT that heals you for like 15-20hp over a few seconds after proccing. Stops being much good after level 20ish, though, because mob damage scales much more rapidly than the size of the rune, and you don't benefit much from the mini-HoT when the rune breaks instantly. Even so, I occasionally find use for the aggro properties now at level 24, because it's pretty tough generating aggro on 4-5 mobs as a warrior. Be aware, however, that the buff reduces agility by a fair amount and can take you below 75 if you're a clumsy race. And, since the buff gives a sizeable amount of strength for the duration, it conflicts with strength buffs and will either remove lower-level str buffs or will fail to apply if a higher level buff is active.

And to further ask, if swings didn't play a part, then why would an offhand weapon proc less than a mainhand weapon? Not calling anyone out, I'm just wondering.

Off-hand weapons have a naturally halved proc rate. Also, you'll generally swing a bit less with your off-hand, especially before level 40+, so that reduces the frequency as well.

Procs have a % chance per swing that amounts to a theoretical average number of procs per minute, usually 1-3. Most weapons with procs universally have the same chance, but some have a higher than average; 90% of the weapons in the game have the same PPM, a sort of standard that applies to almost all of them except the occasional special weapon. This PPM is independent of attack speed because it adjusts the actual % chance to proc per swing according to your speed, so that a fast weapon will have a low chance and a slow weapon will have a high. If the PPM is the same (and it usually is) the average number of procs over extended periods of time will be the same. Equipping an FBSS actually reduces an SSoY's proc%, but since you swing more often, you won't see less (or more) procs.

Here's another question, related to something also mentioned in this thread. I know that Ogre is considered the ideal race by most folks, but what is considered the ideal way to spend those 25 starting points? My friend had made his twink a barbarian (I argued for Ogre, but he didn't like the "feel"). He threw all 25 points into stamina. Would that still be the way to go if I could convince him to reroll and Ogre? Or should it be a split, maybe tossing some into agi/dex to compensate for the lower Ogre stats?

First off, ogres are generally considered the best race, yes. However, this stops mattering fairly early, or even becomes untrue once it becomes possible to easily max str/sta. Ogres have really high starting stamina but will eventually end up having a lot of essentially wasted points when their gear gives them +200 stamina and they only need +100 to cap out. This isn't easily attained until at least endgame Kunark, though. Since gear tends to have much more str/sta than dex, having high dex eventually pays off a lot. Agility gives almost nothing as long as you're above 75 (going below 75 gives a noticeable AC penalty) and generally isn't worth looking for at all. I'm pretty sure all warrior races have at least 75 by default, anyway.

Dex is a pretty good stat in general as it improves proc rate a little, and less importantly crit rate. However, having played a number of emu servers, I seem to have noticed that it helps more here than it did on Live, so I find it even more appealing than I usually did. Back in the day I would never have made a warrior that wasn't an ogre with all stamina, but this time I made a dwarf with all dex. Sitting at 150 dex with minimal dex gear is kinda nice, especially at levels where the stamina->hp formula is shitty.

Ogres still have stun immunity and slam, though. I'm not too concerned about the former when playing warriors, I think it's more of a shaman/SK thing, especially SK as they pretty much always tank while casting, and for a warrior it only means like .5 seconds of potentially wasted auto-attack time once in a while. Slam is really hard to give up, though, until level 55 when kick begins to stun. Fighting casters without slam is like twice as hard.