I have completely opted out of using a non-rod for Carve.
I tried weapon swapping with Catacombs Club for a while. However I noticed every time Carve came up, I had retroactive skills ticking that when I weapon swapped I lost a notable amount of damage.
I think it might be optimal to have a blunt weapon while Chortasmata is up, for the bonus 20% damage Druid mastery, which is calculated like this:
(Normal Damage * (Armor Bonus + Elemental Bonus + 20)) * Attribute Bonus
So much work though.
I chose to forego the ~400 damage (600 on leather) on each individual swing to make sure my magic procs were as strong as possible, always. But again, this may not be optimal.