Most Effective Weapon To Hunt Animals?

[guitarxe 50]

So you could go with a longsword+shield and get a good amount of parry+block and do decent damage to the animal. Ideally, this would mean you would take a longer time to kill it, but take a relatively small amount of damage yourself.

Or you could go with a large axe and kill much quicker, but take more damage.

Now has anyone actually tried both (with the same amount of ql/skill in both) to say which actually works better? Do you kill so fast with a large axe that the animal simply has no time to damage you enough? Or would it be better to use longsword+shield?

[Pollo 146]

I prefer 2 handed weapons (huge axe is flavor of the month).

I think with 2hander you have much better chance at inflicting a medium or worse wound. If you have to back out and heal before going back in or even if the mob just gets a heal tick during fight, you can see alot of very light/light wounds disappear in short time, mediums and worse generally wont.

I am running my alt up right now and he has 15 FS with studded leather (~60ql) and large maul (65ql) with 50LT. He can kill enraged huge spiders, although against even something easier like a bear, he will sometimes have bad string of rng and have to back out to heal. I dont have a decent 1 hander to try out, but i dont think it would matter much, sword and board probably gets better at higher FS.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Pollo

[Guest Docterchese]

Depends on the animal imo.

Small weps have the advantage of being able to parry, particularly useful for creatures that do lots of attacks (?such as crocs or bears?)

My favourite is the medium maul, it's a good balance of parry and damage dealt. Mauls are also very good against creatures that are heavily armed such as scorpions where bladed weapons would fail.

[demondan 1,865]

longsword and large shield, large axe and large shield or medium maul and large shield only combo if you dont want to suck.

[guitarxe 50]

Depends on the animal imo.

Small weps have the advantage of being able to parry, particularly useful for creatures that do lots of attacks (?such as crocs or bears?)

My favourite is the medium maul, it's a good balance of parry and damage dealt. Mauls are also very good against creatures that are heavily armed such as scorpions where bladed weapons would fail.

I didn't even consider the maul. I've seen several topics on this forum about how mauls are terrible (perhaps these were meant from a PvP perspective rather than hunting animals).

You mention using the maul against armored animals like the scorpions, but how does it perform on other unarmoured creatures compared to bladed weapons?

longsword and large shield, large axe and large shield or medium maul and large shield only combo if you dont want to suck.

Could you explain as to why you have this opinion?

[Elen 1,013]

Large axe i think looks the best.

[atazs 965]

Just get LT on something like a 2handed sword or a large axe. Problem solved

[guitarxe 50]

What is LT? If that's a priest enchant that would probably be impossible for now on Pristine.

[Garis 210]

That's a personal question, many people feel very strongly about their weapon choice, because they've put so much time into it, and choosing badly can get you killed. There are lots of arguments back and forth about sword and board versus 2H, and then between the types of 2H weapons. I don't know what the "best" weapon is, or even if there IS a "best" weapon, but I do know that one thing in Wurm is indisputable:

Dead critters don't bite.

For this reason, I use a q70+ Large Maul with Animal's Demise.

LT is hard to find, and expensive because it takes at least two Fo priests to cast it. On a q70+ weapon, Animal's Demise is a guaranteed success when casting (and you never risk damaging or shattering the weapon). It gives you a leg up in fights with beasts (90% of them on the Freedom Isles), effectively adding another 1CR to the balance on your side. AD is an easy and risk free cast even for priests with low channeling skill.

Aggressive stance gives you a bonus to 2H weapon speed and damage. Fight Skill and weapon skill will allow you to target animal's upper center parts. Also, you can fight at long range so that the animal's claw and bite attacks suffer at range more than your large weapon. In the rare situation where you can't blitz a critter down, putting all of your oomph into one deadly hit (a medium or bad wound for the critter) will make it 'stick' while you hide behind a door or a gate, or out in the water. The 10-15 light and very light wounds you suffered will all heal in parallel, but the single massive blunt force trauma wound you delivered to that animal is getting worse. You come back into the fight with full stamina against a weakened opponent.

Rinse, repeat, enjoy the meat.

Plus, mauls use body strength instead of body control, so all of that digging and mining has secondary benefits in your raw damage output.

I've been using an LM in aggressive stance since I had 10 Fight Skill and 20.00 strength. Fights almost never last long enough that I need to worry about the parry rate, and with ~20 or so skill in first aid and an ample supply of cotton, you can easily turn a medium wound back into a light wound without needing a cover.

I usually don't even bother with chain mail, preferring lighter studded leather unless I'm clearing a mine or fighting trolls. I don't need the extra protection, because dead critters don't bite.

This is my opinion. If you don't like it, that's okay. I have other ones.

[Vroomfondel 1,128]

Good reason to start with a weapon and a shield at first, you are lousy at fighting and need the protection of the shield. You suck at using it too, but it's better than going without a shield. Go fighting in normal mode first, you want that fighting mode up highest, as it is balanced in defending and attacking. Once you've gotten a bit of fighting skill and are able to handle the smaller creatures, then you can start getting creative and try different weapons and fighting modes. After that it's a matter of what you want to really be good with, choose it and keep fighting.

Edited February 6, 2013 by Vroomfondel

[Pollo 146]

LT is Life Transfer, it causes extra damage on the opponent and gives some of that damage back in the form of healing to you. It is a great general purpose weapon enchantment. Yes it is likely hard to get on the new servers as it takes 2 chained high faith Fo priests and is difficult to cast.

There are arguments to be made on either side. There isnt much argument on the weapons not talked about, spears/halbards, although they may have their niche places. There is a minority of people who swear by dual wield but they are a minority.

The best answer given has been q70+ and animals demise. Get the best weapon you can get and animals demise (other enchants are bonus) and stick with it, keep it imped as often as you can. You are not likely to complain with either sword and board or 2handers, go with what you like just get the best you can. When you are able to, get mounted this gives +1 CR which helps alot also.

Edited February 6, 2013 by Pollo