In The War Within Season 2, your weapon is the single biggest item-level lever you have. Liberation of Undermine drops at 662 base on Mythic, climbing to 675-678 in the Mythic vault and ceiling, and a weapon swap is usually worth two or three armor upgrades because of how heavily it scales with secondary stats and on-use effects. Here is the best target per slot, what drops it, and when it is honestly worth a carry to skip the grind.

Two-handed weapons: where the biggest jumps live

For most two-hand users, the best raw stat-stick comes off the Liberation of Undermine final bosses. Chrome-Crushing Coregavel and the late-wing two-handers from Mug'Zee and Chrome King Gallywix carry the highest weapon damage in the tier, which matters disproportionately for Arms Warriors, Retribution Paladins, and Unholy/Frost Death Knights whose abilities snapshot weapon DPS.

  • Arms Warrior / Ret Paladin: prioritize the Gallywix two-hander; if it refuses to drop, the Mythic+ end-of-dungeon weapons from the Season 2 pool (Operation: Floodgate, The MOTHERLODE!!) are a clean fallback at 658 from a +10 vault.
  • Unholy DK: Mug'Zee's two-hander is the cleanest crit/mastery line.

If you are a heroic-only raider and the Mythic version is gated behind progression you will not realistically reach, the Great Vault from Mythic+ is the more reliable path: four +10s a week guarantees a 662 vault pick.

One-hand and main-hand options

Dual-wielders and one-hand-plus-shield specs (Frost DK, Enhancement Shaman, Fury Warrior, Survival Hunter, tanks) want to match weapon speed and stat budget to the spec, not just item level. The standout one-handers come from the middle wing of Liberation of Undermine — Sprocketmonger Lockenstock and One-Armed Bandit are the reliable one-hand droppers.

  • Fury Warrior: two matched one-handers from One-Armed Bandit give the cleanest crit/haste pairing; avoid mismatched speeds that desync Rampage.
  • Enhancement Shaman: the faster Sprocketmonger one-hand wins for Maelstrom generation.
  • Frost DK (dual-wield): two One-Armed Bandit axes; the trinket-adjacent on-use from that wing also pairs well with Pillar of Frost windows.

Daggers and the rogue/feral problem

Daggers are the slot most people get wrong. Assassination Rogue and Feral Druid both want low weapon-damage-variance daggers with the right secondary lean. The best Season 2 daggers come from Vexie and the Geargrinders (early, farmable) and the back-half bosses. Assassination specifically wants a matched main-hand/off-hand pair for poison uptime consistency. If you only get one dagger, slot it main-hand and keep your previous-tier off-hand until the pair completes — a single 662 main-hand plus an old off-hand still beats two mismatched 658s for most sims.

Ranged: bows, guns, and crossbows

Hunters live and die by the ranged slot since it is effectively their only weapon. The Season 2 best bow/gun drops from Chrome King Gallywix and the final-wing bosses, with a strong farmable alternative off Vexie and the Geargrinders on week one. Marksmanship benefits most from the highest weapon damage available, so this is the slot worth pushing Mythic for if you main a Hunter. Beast Mastery is more forgiving and can ride a Mythic+ vault ranged weapon comfortably.

Caster weapons: staves, maces, and off-hands

Casters care about the intellect and secondary budget, not weapon DPS, so the "best" staff or one-hand-plus-off-hand combo is whichever hits your stat priority. The top intellect staff drops from the final wing of Liberation of Undermine; the one-hand-plus-off-hand route from Sprocketmonger Lockenstock and the mid bosses often gives more total stat budget than a single staff, which is why many Shadow Priests, Balance Druids, and Affliction Warlocks split-weapon in Season 2.

  • Mage / Warlock: compare the staff against one-hand + off-hand in a sim like Raidbots — the split frequently wins by 1-2% because off-hands carry a full secondary stat line.
  • Resto/Holy healers: prioritize the one-hand + off-hand for the extra haste, and let a teammate take the staff.

The fastest reliable path per weapon

Across every slot, three sources cover Season 2:

  • Liberation of Undermine — highest ceiling, but RNG and progression-gated. Best for the absolute top weapon.
  • Mythic+ Great Vault — the dependable floor. Four +10s a week guarantees a 662 weapon pick and the dungeon pool covers most slots.
  • Crafted weapons — Season 2 crafting reaches a respectable item level and lets you pick exact stats, which is sometimes the best play for caster off-hands and daggers where stat shape matters more than raw ilvl.

Honest take: if you raid two nights a week and run your keys, your weapon will sort itself out in three to four weeks of normal play — no need to buy anything. Where a boost or carry genuinely saves time is the narrow case: you need the specific Mythic-only weapon that has dodged you for weeks, your guild has already cleared that boss, and you would otherwise pug failed Mythic attempts for a month. In that one scenario a single-boss Mythic kill carry is a reasonable time-for-money trade. Likewise, if you are starting late and need to hit a weekly +10 vault but cannot find a group at your rating, a Mythic+ key carry gets the guaranteed weapon pick without the LFG grind. For everything else — heroic weapons, farmable early-wing drops, crafted off-hands — just play it out; the drop rates are kind enough that paying is rarely worth it.