Earliest and Best Maul in the game?

[diablonoobbowbarian]

What is the best Maul that you can get in Normal mode? I am a noob Barb level 18 currently using Civerb's Cudgel, is that the best normal mode mace/Maul out there? What kind of damage should I be looking for for a top of the line normal mode mace?

Also once in Hell mode, what are the top maces and mauls, what are their requirements and what do they do? I heard of thundermaul? Is that very rare? Does it have alot of crushing blow?

[thegiantturtle]

Which weapon(s) you use depends on what skills you use, what other gear you have, and what you can afford to trade for (or what you find).

You can see all the unique and set mace mastery weapons on the Arreat Summit (http://battle.net/diablo2exp/items/normal/umaces.shtml). As noted in your other thread, maces, scepters, and staves all benefit from mace mastery. Note that there are normal, exceptional, and elite uniques for each weapon type. There are also some notable runewords for these weapons. All the runewords are linked from this page (http://battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords.shtml).

Personally, I'm a fan of the General's Tan Do Gi La early on, followed by stormlash and Eth Nord's tenderizer in late game for dual wielders or weapon/shield and an Ethereal Breath Of the Dying Thunder Maul (eBOTD Tmaul), Shael'ed Upgraded Ribcracker, or Immortal King's Stone Crusher (IK Maul) for 2-handers.

[MRanson]

In terms of mauls, once upon a time i used a Bonesnap through normal and nightmare, then upgraded to an IK Stone Crusher as soon as i could in Hell. An IK maul is a decent end gamer, with lots of CB and 2 open socs that you can do whatever you want with. Plus, you can get them for a handful of pgems since they're relatively common.

[SnickerSnack]

Well, here's a list of all the normal mace class weapons and their basic stats:

http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/normal/maces.shtml

and a weapon speed calculator:

http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english

Use those two together to find which weapon will do the most damage in a given amount of time. Also, take a look here:

http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords-original.shtml

for a list of the original runewords (look at strength). There are several decent runewords that can be made in normal difficulty, though you will have to kill the countess a lot (10-100 times depending on your luck).

What kind of damage should I be looking for for a top of the line normal mode mace?

That's hard to say (because I'm lazy). It's very possible to do a little research on the Arreat Summit and this site to figure out what the best possible weapon for you to use is. The problem is that it is most likely something that you will never find yourself in any reasonable amount of time. You probably won't find the ideal mace, so don't worry about it. What you probably should do however (which you seem to already be doing), is know which mods you want in a weapon, and keep an eye out for them.

[Are]

The best mace-class weapons for starting characters are the Horadric Staff and Khalim's Will (the item you create for the Act II and Act III quests), if you can manage to get one from a character who doesn't need it yet :)