What is druid's preferred weapon if there is one?

Question

Necromancers go with wand, sorcerers go with staff, paladins have scepter etc. Is there a default weapon to go with when playing druid? I am playing level 21 werewolf druid, and I am using falcion and spiked shield. Is it good, or should I change to something else?

Answer 1

If you're playing Werewolf, you should try to reach the fastest possible attack-speed. There's this handy calculator that let's you calculate the required break-points easily.

Luckily, the Werewolf already gains a boost to attack speed, so it's really easy to reach the fastest attack speed with a lot of weapon-types.

That being said, there are several things you should consider when choosing a good weapon for the were-druid:

• Look for weapons (and other gear) with Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike/Critical Strike and Open Wounds. The first being the most important of all, as it works similar to the sorceress Static field by reducing the health of a monster by a certain percentage (1/4) on a single hit. The Deadly/Critical Strike is a chance to double your damage. Very useful. And Open Wounds will help a ton at later stages, where it nullifies the monsters health regeneration.

• In Hell difficulty, you'll encounter lots of physical immune monsters. A weapon that deals large amounts of elemental damage is really useful in these situations. You could also have such a weapon on your weapon-switch, to deal with the physical-immunes.

• Range is important! If you can choose between a weapon with big range over a similar one with smaller range, pick the larger range. It will allow you to land hits faster, sometimes even before the enemy can hit you. This is more important in PvP than it is in PvM.

• Were-druids can use ranged weapons as melee-weapons. So if you happen to find a good bow/xbow, you can use this to great effect instead of a melee weapon.

• Druids can still block while in were-form. If you're gearing for safety, then a one-hander and shield are better than a two-hander.

Here are some good (and obtainable) weapons to consider. Of course there are considerably better choices if you also look at some of the very expensive rune-words out there (eg. Beast, Death, Last Wish, Grief etc.) :

• Ribcracker. A very good two-hander. Has insane attack-speed and crushing-blow. Will boost your defense as well as the recovery rate (your recovery after you get hit). In addition you can update the Ribcracker by using the Horadric Cube recipe that will turn your exceptional weapon into an elite weapon (1 Lum Rune + 1 Pul Rune + 1 Perfect Emerald + Exceptional Weapon).

• Butcher's Pupil. Very useful, especially at lower levels. The deadly-strike chance and attack speed are very good.

• Buriza-Do Kyanon. An example for a great ranged weapon that can be used as melee-weapon when in were-form. The attack-speed and the cold-damage/freeze make this one very useful.

• Baranar's Star. A ton of elemental damage and fast attack speed. Especially useful to deal with physical immune monsters.

• Immortal King's Stone Crusher. Quite a common item but has great stats. The attack-speed and crushing-blow are very useful and the sockets allow for further customization.

Answer 2

It doesn't matter. Just pick one that you like most.

Druid-only items are pelts(helmets), but they don't have their own weapon. You should really take the one that you like. I remember my druid was running around with a 2 hand maul just because I liked it :)

And as a paladin(hammerdin) I never used a scepter. It was either a Wizzy(+50 fcr, +75 allres dagger), either HoTo in a Flail(40 fcr, 30-40 allres, +allskills). As a smiter I was using Grief if a Phase Blade or a Fleshripper.

As a sorceress if I didn't have a decent orb(Eschuta or Death Fatom) I was using HoTo in a Flail or a Wizardspike.

So your question concerning preferred weapon has only 1 answer: take the best one or the one that you like more.

Hope it helps