How important is weapon skill really? What are the alternatives

If you need to min/max as a guild requirement then you need edge masters no matter what if you play a non orc or non human. If you play causally then don’t even bother because 300 skill is enough to be competitive in dps. I would sometimes beat dual welding fury orcs with axes on my undead 2h fury build on some boss fights just by lucky wind fury procs. I’m the end everything is just RNG.