Weakening vs wounding question

[RS-Makk]

I posted this on the new player advice forum but figured this may be a better forum.

I have a drow tempest build (18 ranger, 1 rogue, 1 monk)

I have a wounding of pure good set (1 rapier and 1 short sword) and a weakening of enfeebling set (1 rapier and 1 short sword).

What I am wondering is, what am I likely to use more often and when should I use one over the other?

Also, I have two icy burst full kits and two frost kits, which two would you recommend I put the icy burst on? The wounding ones, the weakening ones, or perhaps one of each (the rapiers)? The other two will just get frost.

Thanks

[Samadhi]

I would not use either weapon set for 99% of content. You are better off going DPS or, situationally, vorpal.

[RS-Makk]

Oh, didn't realize that. Either way, for what situations would I use those two over straight dps and which would be more frequent?

Vorpal not much of an option for me given all my bonuses are for rapiers and short swords, but I guess I could go for vorpal kamas and a stance. A question then, when do you vorpal instead of regular dps? If I only kill on 1 of 20, wouldn't most mobs be dead by dps anyway after 20 hits on a regular dps?

[EazyWeazy]

You'll get to auto-crit faster with the weakening/enfeebling set that you have than with the wounding set. That being the case I'd stick your icy burst on those to kill faster once you auto-crit.

The other point made above is also viable in that you should be able to DPS things with that build a little better than with a weakening/enfeebling set. If you have some holyburst/pure good weapons you could add your icy burst to those instead.

You could still get to auto-crit with the weakening/enfeebling and then swap to the DPS weapon set.

What would probably be the best scenario would be to icyburst on the weakening/enfeebling set and the craft you some good Greensteel DPS weapons. That way you get some extra DPS while weakening/enfeebling and then swap to some real DPS.

[EazyWeazy]

Oh, didn't realize that. Either way, for what situations would I use those two over straight dps and which would be more frequent?

Vorpal not much of an option for me given all my bonuses are for rapiers and short swords, but I guess I could go for vorpal kamas and a stance. A question then, when do you vorpal instead of regular dps? If I only kill on 1 of 20, wouldn't most mobs be dead by dps anyway after 20 hits on a regular dps?

Weakening/Enfeebling is really fun with a rogue or on low STR mobs like beholders and casting mobs in general. They can't cast when reduced to 0 STR so it can really help take the sting out of those types of mobs.

I belive the general thought on Vorpal is when you either have everyone in the party swinging them, or when you wouldn't DPS kill a mob in less than 20 hits.

Also, don't worry about not being able to get your racial bonuses while using vorpals. The loss of damage/to-hit bonus is not important when you're going for an auto kill on 20.

[RS-Makk]

I actually have 8 icy burst sets. Putting one on a set of holy burst of pure good for dps, then I was thinking one on a bodyfeeder set for soloing, then 2 more. For the bodyfeeder I am undecided if I should do one or both.

I was thinking a third set could go to ml10 holy burst of pg I have for my alt (a favored soul currently at lvl 7), and the reason for this post is I couldn't figure out what to do with the 4th set. Based on what you guys are saying I may put it on the w/e set (my other reluctance with the wounding of pg set is that it may also hopefully get replaced at some point with wounding/puncturing when I get some of those)

at one point I thought I'd use one set on my metalline of pg set, but from reading some posts that's a bad idea given that most mobs I'll need metalline for will have ice resistance (was thinking of putting frost on those though, or should I not even bother with that?)

(I do have a pair of vorpal kamas I hadn't used yet and I can add frost to them).

Why is w/e good for a rogue? (and is that benefit seen with 1 level of rogue)

thanks so much for all the help!

[Blazer]

Why is w/e good for a rogue? (and is that benefit seen with 1 level of rogue)

Crippling Strike combined with w/e weapons leads to autocrit attacks on monsters very quickly. However, you don't have access to this feat with just one rogue level.