w/p short sword vs holy rapier of punct

[tc12]

Not sure best place to post this, see weapon comparisons in lots of places. But trying here first, let me know if the Fighter or other forums would be better...

For a long time my rogue used a +2 holy rapier of pucturing. Nice against anything that both effects work on. Then a few months back, I traded some other stuff for a +1 wounding of puncturing short sword, thing realistically this is the best stat damager I'd likely ever have given the rarity/cost of a w/p rapier.

But now I'm wondering how a puncturing rapier compares to a w/p short sword. Sure the wounding on the short sword works on every hit, and still crits on a 17 (if confirmed of course). But the puncturing on the rapier hits half again as often. A lot of folks run a lot of weapon numbers, can anyone say how these compare?

For any calc purposes, this is on a Drow Rogue 13 / Fighter 3, obviously with IC: pierce. Hit rate is pretty solid, for most melee I'm using Divine Favor clickes and/or Fighter Attack boost, and normally have GH on since I have a Gird for the rare times a caster isn't passing it out. I mention this as any reasonable calculation needs to give an assumption of a crit confirmation rate less than 100% of course. The confirmation rate of the rapier seems to be 5% higher due to base +2 vs +1 on the sh sw.

Anyone care to take a shot at the comparative rate of stat damage across the two? I'm assuming the short sword wins still over the rapier, but want to know for sure and by how much. Thanks.

TC

[LeLoric]

Ok heres the math assuming you hit on everything but a 1 with your attack bonus looks like you should on lots of creatures.

Wounding will be .95 con dmg per swing taking into account the 1 miss.

Puncturing on a ss is avg 3.5 per crit which happns 20% of your swings so on avg 3.5 x .2 = .7

Combined your ss deals an avg of 1.65 con dmg per swing.

Rapier is 3.5 avg per crit 30% of the time so an avg of 1.05 per swing.

As ac goes up the number changes but also less likely to confirm a crit if dont have any seeker items or enhancements.

But rememper the rapier will do more dmg so that even though you wont take his con down as fast you are lowering his hitpoints with puncturing allowing you to not need as much reg dmg to kill. If you are a rogue that also does lots of sneak attack dmg a pretty good option is a burst of puncturing rapier it will pretty much even out the differences on normal at higher levels elite is a bit different as hp are inflated.

[Jaywade]

to me sounds like you should wield rapier in main hand and the SS in in off hand..... I agree with above poster though rapier is better