A paladins' toolbox: weapon setups.

[Jayzilla]

hey all, I've been playing my twf drow pally who is level 12 atm and will be 20 pally endgame. This is my first major character, but I play in a duo so I've managed to gather together a good bit of resources. the main problem I've been having is the fact that I've taken both khopesh and icrit:slashing, meaning i've got a good bit of my character invested into those weapon types (which are usually rather expensive). I'm going to list my current weapon setups, leave my current thoughts, and ask for any advice.

+1 thundering dagger of disruption + +1 frost dagger of disruption
+1 bodyfeeder khopesh of backstabbing(+1) + +1 weakening khopesh of enfeebling (picked up this gem for under 30kpp)
+1 cursespewing battleax of greater giant bane + +1 crippling warhammer of greater giant bane
+1 frost longsword of smiting + +1 club of smiting (the club is crappy i know, but i got it on the cheap.)

I also have a crappy +1 ghost touch set but as soon as I ding 13 i'll be wearing the Spectral gloves I managed to loot.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the disruption set, they dominate the giant skeletons in GH. However on the last boss of gianthold I feel like I'm just sub-par DPS because i just use my +1 holy burst khopesh + +1 holy light pick of undead bane.

For the bodyfeeder set, I love the temp HP's, they let me really spam Divine Light (which gives the crit multiplier increase). I've gotten some pretty brutal crits with this setup on human casters and those big drow scorpions, like double crits for 200-240 on each hand that included 40 extra total light damage, 6 strength damage, and more temp HP's to keep the hits coming. It's probably my favorite and most reliable setup although my to-hit is a bit low.

The giant set I've only used a few times, and it gives lower burst DPS of course but with more sustained and the very nice cursing effect. It's done ok, but I really think dual vorpal khops would be the most efficient anti-giant weapon (espescially since I duo with a barb who managed to get a vorpal gs). the problem is that vorpal khops (which would definatly be my preference) run about 100kpp minimum on the AH: still out of my price range :/

the smiting set was my first foray into the 'insta-kill' line of weapon effects when i managed to pick that +1 smiting club up on the cheap. I thought to myself 'this doesn't seem very effective but i guess it could work.' I took that club into the Orchard of the Macabre and managed to kill the named rare golem in three hits. I was hooked. now i've got the longsword with and i'm hunting desperately for another affordable slashing/smiting weapon.

I know that some of these setups especially the giant bane) are sub-optimal, but i've managed to pick up every weapon except the w/e khop for under 10kpp. What i'm looking for is advice on the next several levels. I'm very unfamiliar with the 14+ content as most of it has come out since i quit the first time. Where would the efficient place to put my money be? Should I pinch pennies and get the dual vorpal khops? or should I settle for cheaper stuff and wait til greensteel to open my wallet?

I definatly plan on using the +5 holy burst khopesh (from the holy sword spell) on anything holy will hit, but i'm not sure if +5 holy burst would work out better than disruption against undead trash mobs. I was wondering if i can cast that spell twice to dual wield 2 holy swords? or if i can only have one on at a time? Anyways, thanks for any and all input and for everyones game activity: having lots of other people playing DDO is what makes DDO playable

[Gercho]

I definatly plan on using the +5 holy burst khopesh (from the holy sword spell) on anything holy will hit, but i'm not sure if +5 holy burst would work out better than disruption against mobs. I was wondering if i can cast that spell twice to dual wield 2 holy swords? or if i can only have one on at a time? Anyways, thanks for any and all input and for everyones game activity: having lots of other people playing DDO is what makes DDO playable

You can cast the spell as many times as you want, providing you have the correct component, so you could have a pair of khopesh and a pair of battle hammers for skeletons, even a pair of rapiers for rakshasas :P

I use my holy burst rapiers for most things, carry a pair of components for hammers in case i end running some quest for which i need them, like SoS, have a couple of bodyfeeder and a couple of paralyzing that i use when soloing or shortmanning without cleric (the bodyfeeder is even better on rapiers), a set of Greater Construct Bane (portals or red named constructs), a set of Banishing (better on rapiers too) and a set of Smiters (ditto)

[Jayzilla]

smite and bodyfeeder are better on rapiers? why? maybe you don't have icrit:slashing?

How well do the paralyzing work? I've heard their worthless later on because of the low DC... but i don't know how credible the source was.

[Gercho]

smite and bodyfeeder are better on rapiers? why? maybe you don't have icrit:slashing?

How well do the paralyzing work? I've heard their worthless later on because of the low DC... but i don't know how credible the source was.

rapiers with ic piercing are better than khopesh with ic slashing (for those abilities), obviously you take the ic from your favored weapon.
Paralyzing is great on GH and early, has some use in the vale slayers, and drops his usefullness on higher level content.

[Jayzilla]

rapiers with ic piercing are better than khopesh with ic slashing (for those abilities), obviously you take the ic from your favored weapon.
Paralyzing is great on GH and early, has some use in the vale slayers, and drops his usefullness on higher level content.

oh, ic: you have icriteircing. Yeah, that makes sense. when you say higher level content do you mean 18+ stuff or 16+? I'm not very familiar with the encounters in that level range.

[Gercho]

oh, ic: you have icriteircing. Yeah, that makes sense. when you say higher level content do you mean 18+ stuff or 16+? I'm not very familiar with the encounters in that level range.

Higher than Giant Hold in general, though as i said, it has some use in the vale slayers. I have soloed vale slayers with just a couple para rapiers, or a couple of bodyfeeder rapiers without need of healing other than the occasional loh.

[Jayzilla]

Higher than Giant Hold in general, though as i said, it has some use in the vale slayers. I have soloed vale slayers with just a couple para rapiers, or a couple of bodyfeeder rapiers without need of healing other than the occasional loh.

ok thanks for the input: I noticed you never said vorpal or disruption weapons? are these too inconsistent?

[Gercho]

ok thanks for the input: I noticed you never said vorpal or disruption weapons? are these too inconsistent?

well, i forgot about my vorpal set really, i have a pair of long swords for that, vorpal has his uses, and for twf high speed attacking is great. But since vorpal doesnt comes in piercing weapons, for rapier users lowers his importance compared with a khopesh user.
I never used disruptors since never found them and didnt wanted to invest on that either, i just use bodyfeeder against undead, or the holy war hammers, not that you fight a lot of undead at higher levels...