Weapon Stats
% Increased Physical Damage is the mod you are primarly looking for, which can be combined with flat physical dmg to create a good weapon early on.
Elemental flat damage is also very good and scales your dmg on all you attacks. All of those are prefixes and listed in order of priority on the rare weapon in the planner.
Attack speed is a suffix and the ideal pairing for any on the prefix mods.
Cold damage enabled your
Herald of Ice while going for Lightning Damage will enable your
Herald of Thunder.
Weapon Choices
Once you start your journey as a Huntress you will find a
Hardwood Spear which you want to replace with an
Ironhead Spear ASAP.
You can either buy one in town, drop one on your way to The Red Vale or find one in one of the lootable weapon piles in The Red Vale. Pick up everything you can, identify blue and yellow items and sell everything you do not need for some cash! This will ensure you can buy a good
Ironhead Spear with % Increased Physical Damage ASAP.
Later in the Act you will be able to find a
Hunting Spear in Lvl 10 zones. Keep a while one ready for one of the essences you will be able to find in The Iron Manor. Slap on Physical Damage, Cold Damage or Lighting Damage.
Once you drop your first Exalted Orb and are in a trade league you can also buy
Chainsting Hunting Spear which is absolutely busted for this stage of the game. If you can, get one with a Socket so you can insert an Lesser Iron Rune in the slot for 15% Increased Physical Damage.
Rings
Iron Rings can be found very early on with one being guaranteed in the Cemetery. Search for two graves and loot them. You can slap on a Transmute & Augmentation Orb to gamble for additional dmg. Ideally you want to hit flat dmg and start wrecking. Do not gamble for one. This is way to expensive and you will need the money for other upgrades later on.
Gloves
For your gloves you can get some really good one with
Northpaw. They can be found througout Act 1 and provide you with a ton of additional dmg as well as a better base crit chance. If you happen to find Gloves with Attackspeed and Flat Base dmg of 10+ you would want to switch to those.
Buckler
We drop the buckler as soon as we grab
Dance with Death in the Passive skilltree. 25% more Skill Speed is amazing!
Boots
Movement speed is king. Get 10% early, upgrade to new ones with 15%, 20% etc.