Been reading, reading, reading. I need a couple of answers, please.

I want to digress into all sorts of stuff but I will restrain myself to the following two:

1) Straight up: Is there any use whatsoever for a Druid to keep up H2H??

2) Straight up: Is there anything coming that would make keeping up 1h* worthwhile?

I've levelled 17 and keeping 4 weapon skills up has become impossible. And, within that, is there seriously any Druidic preferance for 2h maces vs. 2h staves? (Personally I find staves more umm druidic hehe) I think I get daggers, but haven't found a trainer yet. Same question applies. (Ok, that's like 4 questions.)

Dont try to upkeep all the weapon skills. If you get a new weapon, it takes just a few minutes to go somewhere low leveled and jack that item skill up w/o risk's of dying. I've found some good 2H maces to add good amounts of Str, Agi, or Sta but you'll find most Druids wearing 2H staves. I have seen some seriously awesome 2H maces on some of my lvl 60 friends though.

When you're shifted into a feral form, I beleive your "weapon" skill is maxed for your level with the addition of the STAT bonuses from the weapon in your hand. When in caster form, it is necessary to upkeep your weapon skill. My brother is a Feral Druid so he relies on Str, Agi, and Sta. I being a Restoration Druid prefer Int, Spi, and everyone likes Stamina regardless of class. I have used some decent 1H maces with some nice off hand items but as you get to end level, as far as I have seen, you wont be using them.

1h anything should be taken in with what the offhand item gives. So if you get a +5 int/sta offhand plus a +5 int/sta 1h, that's better than a 2h +7 int/sta. You're just not going to do a whole lot of damage with weapons skill (at least compared to other classes), so you don't have to oggle over the best dps items out there (however dps does always seem to tie into the best stats as well, so oh well).

The best reason to keep up all your weapons skills is the "just in case" factor - just in case you get a really nice drop for your level, you can do damage with it. However, just like Badgemagus said, until a skill of +200, weapon skill points come with nearly every hit - getting from 200-300 slows down quite a bit.

All of my melee skills are at 299 (can't seem to get that last stupid point) except for H2H, which is only at 260. Don't worry about them too much while leveling - you'll find a lot of time to max them out when you're 60.

h2h = hand 2 hand = unarmed? If so I wouldn't bother trying to raise it for anything other than the novelty. Disarm lasts like 5s? and you can just go into your form or root and wait, whatever.

The basic thing while leveling up is to use whatever the best item you have is. Remember that druids need stats on their weapons, not procs. For the most part you will probably use staves, but there are some nice 1h maces around that are geared for healing that you may use for a few levels.

Near the end of the leveling game I remember going something like this:

~lvl 50: resurgence rod (staff)
~lvl 52: some random green dagger with agi/int buff on it or something. (dagger)
~lvl 54: Fist of Stone (1h mace)
~lvl 57: Twig of the world tree (2h mace)
lvl 60 (pre-endgame stuff): hammer of grace (1h mace), gift of the elven magi (dagger)
lvl 60 (endgame): warden staff, argent crusader (staffs)

In 10 levels I flipped around like crazy through all 4 of our available weapon types. Expect to do the same just based on what you pick up. At lvl 57 my 2h mace skill was ZERO. I brought it up to max within like 2 hours so I could use my twig of the world tree.

The best feral weapons I've seen to date(other than the rank 14 PvP stuff) are the Warden Staff(260 armor for bear form and some stamina and defense), and the Fist of Omokk from LBRS, a 2h mace with 29 strength and some stamina(I forget how much), which would be great for cat or even bear if you don't want to plunk down the money for Warden Staff.

For healing etc, Argent Crusader, Glowing Brightwood Staff, and maybe the Trindlehaven Staff are all really nice...or maybe the Rod of the Ogre Magi or whatever it's called...from Dire Maul, very nice staff but better for mages/locks imho.

There are plenty of times when you'll be using weapons to hit things. You needn't worry about the skills too much as your common weapon will get skill raises naturally. What you will probably find though is that you need to switch to cat or bear form to damage tough creatures. I find that weapon damage just drops away against orange enemies and spells get resisted, whilst the animal forms still do very well.

The special effects on weapons will not work in animal form so you're best to get some weapons with bonuses instead.

Hand to hand is worthless to a Druid, as those above have mentioned. To cheat yourself of 20+ INT/SPR is unthinkable.

2H Maces are for your bear form equipment set (though the skill is unimportant, as you'll likely be a bear!) and the 2H Staves are clear choices for the more caster orientated. Weapon skill in staves does come in handy when you are addicted to clearcasting states. :)

~Aida

OMG, naked boxing ftw

Seriously though, as said above. Just raise the skill in whatever you're currently using, if you end up switching later, it's no biggy, like spend a day meleeing in your groups and you'll max it. Our weapon skills are fairly irrelevant anyway, it's rare that I'll smack something while not in cat or bear and it that case it's always maxed anyway.