This. I don't see why people don't like them, even not maxed out cleavers 2shot anything and don't require repair for months. Yeah, they are slower although not that significant but that is also a pro in case of lag spikes. Maybe for pvp there are better alternatives but in PVE they are just devastating.
they are Godly for headhunting, but in the end, when attacked by a pack of enemies at once, you often end up swamped anyway. especially those pesky spiders in the nether can do a big number on you. (the big one is easy enough, but it spawns from 3 to 5 little ones when you kill it).
My prefered weapon is a green slime bow, fortified with moss and redstone. it is paired with flint or cactus headed arrows with slime rods and feather fletching. The low tier arrowheads give better range on the arrows, thus making it easier to snipe off ghasts and whatnot. if i feel rich i add 1 piece of quarts per arrow for the damage and maybe some blaze powder for some bonus burning. since these are made from mostly renewables i don't feel bad about loosing some arrows every now and then since they are cheap to replace.
There is one weapon that is hardly ever mentioned tho. the scythe is a real piece of work. it has a 3x3 AOE attack, and is goodly for grinding souls at a vanilla spawner.
make one with a many blade, paper, thaumium and slime Rods and binding. (the slime has to be a ROD, otherwise mix and match the rod/binding as you want)
it has 5 enhancement slots, and once fully stocked up actually does a decent amount of damage despite it's AOE balancing nerf.