is twf not the best now?

[Vidfinnx]

i am in the process of leveling a twf human warchanter speced for rapiers, i really wanna go bludgeon weapon cause they look cool but are they crappy? if so how are bludgeon weapons less superior to rapiers/khopeshs? but i am also new to ddo
only been playing a month but is twf crappy now for bards? if so why?
should i pay the feat swap at level 11 for a switch now?

[valorik]

bludgeon is pretty bad compared to scimitars, rapiers, or khopeshes, but not the worst choice. Two weapon fighting is still the best for bard builds, but thf is good if you want to save the feats.

[unbongwah]

The suckiest thing about blunt weapons is their low crit range; they only crit on a natural 20 (Improved Crit feat or Impact weapons make it 19-20). Also, if you're a pure bard, the only blunt weapons you're proficient with are maces and clubs, IIRC, which are x2 crit weapons; hammers & mauls are x3 martial weapons (same as axes). You can cast Master's Touch, but since pure bards are naturally proficient with rapiers, most just stick with them (or take khopesh feat). Finally, some of the nicest proc abilities aren't available on blunt weapons: e.g., Vorpal is slashing-only, Puncturing is piercing-only, IIRC. The main things blunt weapons have going for them are they're the only weapons with Stunning-nee-Weighted (% chance to auto-stun, +Stunning Blow DC) and Bone Breaking (d6 DEX dmg on crits).

Now all that said, if you're not obsessed with maxing your DPS, go with whatever weapons you like - and can hit with, of course! It's just important to know what the tradeoffs are. And the silver lining to going with unpopular / suboptimal weapons is they're a lot less expensive on the auction house.

[KKDragonLord]

Isn't Bludgeon better when used with Stunning weapons?

in general its inferior but there are exceptions i believe

[aldan]

User knopeshes if you can. They do rock for bards. Or rapiers for the crit range

[Vidfinnx]

unfortunatly i seem to feel obsessed with maxing dps, because i feel like if my dps can save a wipe lol then i would be bad to not do it. But if its not a make or break decision then i would rather break peoples bones and heads heh. i read on a few forums that puncturing is not that great anymore is this true? i love to use cheaper unpopular weapons if they are not that huge of a difference. will it be game breaking to use bludgeon? i know that its freaking expensive to switch my feat lol. is it true that endgame all that matters is crits because of mob ac/hp/dr? im a person coming from everquest for 7 years as a monk and bard and wow so to me this is a whole nother ball game. can anyone tell me exactly how it is endgame, is there nothing to do, am i building for nothing? in eq there was raid after raid after raid.

[KoboldKiller]

Thanks to "nerfdate5" unless you plan on taking all the TWF feats your off hand attacks will be lacking.

[ssgtkeats]

Re: puncturing
Puncturing isn't what it once was, used to be able to kill things when they got to 0 con. However now when mobs hit 0 con they get stunned and every hit after that is an auto crit. My ranger was running around with a WoP rapier and a seeker 10 pick axe for fun for a few days.

[unbongwah]

Isn't Bludgeon better when used with Stunning weapons?

Yeah, like I said, only blunt weapons can have the Stunning attribute, so they're a natural choice if you want to focus on amping your Stunning Blow DC - or just like the occasional free stun. The great thing about stuns is you get free crits on the stunned foe. For, say, a raging THF barbarian with Power Attack and a stunning maul, that can be a lot of extra dmg pretty quick.

i read on a few forums that puncturing is not that great anymore is this true?

Puncturing weapons do d6 CON dmg on crits. In the good ol' days, you could kill a monster by reducing its CON to 0 via Puncturing; but in one of innumerable nerfs over the years, you just render it helpless when it reaches 0 CON (or 0 any other stat, I think). Still good, of course, but less good than it used to be. [And a good illustration for my rule of thumb: never ever get too attached to a single tactic, because sooner or later the devs will realize how great it is and it will get nerfed just to spite you. Yes, you personally. ]

Also, bear in mind DPS comparisons are often situational. E.g., khopeshes are the best 1H weapon in terms of average sustained DPS - until you're facing something crit-immune, at which point they're no better than a longsword. Or you're playing a paladin, in which case there's a strong case in favor of scimitars and rapiers for their higher crit range (and the fact you can't make a Holy Sword khopesh).

[Chai]

Bludgeon crit range does suck, true, however, having a warhammer kensai and being able to rack up a 50+ stun DC enables me to pick any non red named mob that is crit-able out of the pack and put it into 2-20 crit range, with a side order of 6 seconds of pain.

The only weapons I have had to switch to slash for are zombies. Most of the other stuff that needs slash or pierce to break DR on is also crit-able.

[dkyle]

Or you're playing a paladin, in which case there's a strong case in favor of scimitars and rapiers for their higher crit range (and the fact you can't make a Holy Sword khopesh).

Holy Sword khopeshes are indeed available. THF Palis have problems with Holy Sword as the Greatsword is the only slashing two-hander availabe; no Greataxe or Falchion.