Re: All Weapons manufacturing question. What runic with what material for the best it
First of all, nothing in the game is going to compare to the potential of a valorite or verite runic crafted weapon. Runic tools aren't restricted by property weight, so you're going to routinely get 600+ intensity weapons. Now, the odds of landing the 5 properties you want are ridiculous....even more so when you factor in that you're only going to get 15 or 20 weapons from a tool costing you 10-20 mill. Odds are, you're going to end up with a useless property or two that effectively prevents the weapon from surpassing what could have been imbued.
Which is why most people don't bother. Every weapon you see now is imbued......probably from a dull copper runic hammer. You want to land 1) 100% elemental damage, 2) exceptional quality (40% DI), and 3) 1 or 2 properties you were planning to imbue anyway. Even with 50 weapons from each hammer, you're looking at probably a few hundred before you find exactly what you're looking for. Then PoF it and imbue it as high as you can. Moving up to a bronze or agapite runic hammer is just going to increase the odds of a garbage mod like resist sneaking in. As far as enhancing, I know some woods offer bonuses to capentry or fletching weapons, but for metal weapons you only need to enhance if the physical damage percent is 40-60% and you want to make it 100% elemental.
Edit--------
Bronze. People will also use this hammer, but it's purely to potentially save costs on imbuing. A bronze hammer will run you 350K or so, but it could easily save you 1M worth of ingredients if you land the properties AND the intensities that you want. Which isn't easy. If you aren't looking for something specific, it's possible you may get one useful weapon out of three hammers......hence why the prices are set where they are.