1 handed mace and shield VS 2 handed mace

[CypherZel]

For a pure Melee 3 rune is it better to keep the shield or go for a 2 handed mace instead?

[nago]

It depends. Using or not a shield especially for a melee "build" it is consequential to having or not having a good 1 hander.

For all weapon categories, good 2 handers are usually much more common than 1 handers, so most of times the answer is "no, don't do that, is bad". E.g. for m&f, you may find a great mace even before Lair, and often getting one in orc. It is then very very very bad to use a suboptimal 1 hander like a flail or morningstar avoiding to spend all your ?EW on that great mace in hope to find a demon whip\eveningstar.

However, if your first ?acq\trog\oka\floor gift is a evening star\demon whip, then you have a good weapon for a 3 runes win, so it is reasonable to use a shield.

[Shard1697]

For what it's worth, I think you can get by fine with an enchanted up morningstar... but if a morningstar is your best 1H option, yeah, it's better to go 2H.

[Utis]

Small addendum to what nago said: If you find a whip of electrocution then that often might be your best weapon choice for somewhat longer into the game than with other one-handers, increasing the chance to find a demon whip or evening star before you have fully committed to a 2-hander.

It also increases your chances to find a better 2-hander, though. So, unless you're a melee Ko or Ha, I'd just look at all my weapon options, once my early-game weapon runs out of steam and choose the most attractive option. Sometimes that might be a 1-hander with shield, but more often not.

[dowan]

If you get lucky, and find an early eveningstar, it's pretty hard to justify not using it and a shield, as it's only 2 base damage less than a great mace.
I'm not so sure if a demon whip outclasses a great mace in the same way, but it is a perfectly good weapon.
But if you find an early great mace, and have some ea scrolls, or branding, it makes sense to just go with the great mace.

[Gorgondantess]

As others have said, 1H+Shield is superior but only if you get a demon whip/eveningstar; to that end, I'd actually suggest a brief foray into Hell's Vestibule when you get that far, which is fairly safe since you can stair-dance, and the mob there will often drop a demon whip.

Until then, Dire Flail is pretty much your best bet - imo it's the best "common" weapon class in the game.

[ydeve]

You should have committed to an endgame weapon long before Depths.

[nago]

Yes this is exactly what I described before as bad. Don't wait up depths in the hope to get a good weapon.


Moreover, I'm pretty sure 1h + shield isn't superior to a 2h at all.
At most, they're are pretty much equivalent against most enemies. (I'm not considering sacred scourge in this)