I'm on a budget so I can't afford a 15>50 or anything like that.
Sephis Axe should of course be max damage. No mods would be fine; but a gold one would be preferable.
As for the shield, no more than req 10 Tactics please. I prefer Crude/Crimson Carapace/Stone Summit shields. Just don't try to sell me the collector ones.
The collector shields are better than 90% of the shields out there. If you're able to dye them, then you're probably better off using one of those. Rather than spending 200k+ on some always hp shield or some bs like that.