'I want to kill a dragon, but I need to do it on a budget'

Silver Sword is actually a bad idea against Moder seeing as she is completely immune to spirit damage. That means 1/3 of the swords damage is completely ignored. Modder is also immune to Frost, meaning Frostner is even a worse idea as it does spirit and frost, meaning less than 1/3 of the damage has any effect on Moder.

Draugr Fang Bow is the way to go, fully upgraded as you can. Obsidian Arrows if you have plenty, otherwise Poison Arrows. Moder is weak to fire but Fire Arrows do very little damage in comparison. Bring lots and lots of arrows.
The main key is to now waste shots. Don't fire unless you are certain you can connect, otherwise you'll run down your bows durability. If you don't waste many shot the fully upgraded bow will last you the entire fight. I still had over 1/4 left using poison arrows.

Other than that normal weapons, Like a fuly upgraded Iron Mace, but Moder is a very difficulty melee fight and can do attacks over 200 damage that are extremely hard to avoid in Melee range.

If you can pick a battlefield that gives you something to put between you and Moder when she lands. Either rocks or a pit. I had just mined out a silver node and the left over pit kept Moder from coming right at me, so I stayed on the opposite side and fired away whenever she landed, circling as she did.
Also set up a perimeter with torches or other anti-spawn items so you are less likely to get adds. Dealing with Moder plus a Golem is not fun.

Originally posted by Macdallan:

I fought Moder with a bow and iron mace.

What arrows did you use?

Use Draugr Fang (upgrade max for best durability) and lots of obsidian/fire arrows (200 of each for good measure). Don't be cheap.

tbh she stays in the air A lot so a bow is good and the mace should be fine

Bow is enough, but bring like 500 arrows.

I fought Moder with a bow and iron mace. Didn't run out of arrows but my bow's durability dropped to zero just over halfway though Moder's health. I had to finish off the fight with the iron mace. It worked just fine. My mace wasn't fully upgraded, nor was the bow. With enough patience, and if you don't make too many mistakes, you can get through most boss fights with gear that's not fully upgraded or not the best that you can make.

I mean the Draugr Fang is definitely a very viable way to defeat Moder, but if you want to get up close and melee, and you're on a budget, it would be hard to go wrong with the Fang Spear.

I just used the bow, not much point in meleeing Moder. Ive hit him a few times with the 2h hammers though, seem to work ok.

Originally posted by Eternal Herald:

I just used the bow, not much point in meleeing Moder. Ive hit him a few times with the 2h hammers though, seem to work ok.

Lol the sledgehammer is about tied for most expensive weapon in the game. And it's the only one that you have to literally dump gold into to upgrade. I would know, I carry it everywhere I go XD
edit: coincidentally the weapon I think it's about tied with for cost is also a hammer. That one just takes a ♥♥♥♥-load of silver.

no need to go crazy with silver sword, iron mace will work fine for smacking moder when she lands. use whatever bow you like just use fire and or poison arrows