AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Is it really open for debate that you can't use the axe end for things specifying a spear?
Yeah, its quite open for debate. The actual issue revolves around what exactly the box on page 10 means when it talks about primary and secondary ends of the weapon. Oddly enough the consensus (and I believe WotC CS etc) conclusion seems to be that the entire weapon is both an axe and a spear and thus from a game mechanics perspective the only time you need to care about the d12 vs the d8 is when you use a power which requires an attack with the off hand. Thus by RAW you can use an urgrosh with RoB (or any other power/feat/etc requiring or benefiting from a spear) and still do the d12 damage. That being said it isn't a massive difference really, only 2 points higher average damage on each of possibly 3 attacks. The real kicker is the fact that you get to benefit from all the properties and powers, which opens up the real static damage nightmare stuff like Bloodclaw Urgrosh.