Razed

Ring of Kinship (Berserker), fairly surprised you don't know what a berserker ring is :P

Ever been to dag kings? Combat style REALLY matters. Same for DGing. Some monsters are REALLY stronk/weak to certain melee attacks. PR only has stab. Rapier actually has decent slash bonuses (67). I'm no metagamer, but I'm pretty sure that accuracy makes a much bigger difference in Dungeoneering. It's speed doesn't really matter if it's useless on high defense monsters (Read: Most/all monsters, especially bosses). Plus, it doesn't work well with the berserker ring, since it only has one aggressive attack style (Which is uncommon for monster weaknesses), while battleaxes and 2h swords have two (Which are extremely common weaknesses). This is also what caused spears to fall out of favor. Rapier has two aggressive stances, slash and lunge.

It is pretty well known that 2 handed swords and battleaxes generally dominate the melee field of dungeoneering. However, why is the rapier so underappreciated? Outside of dungeoneering, the rapier is pretty much the best all around weapon. Inside dungeoneering, this magically changes. Granted, monsters in dungeoneering have a much higher defense, but most of the monsters in dungeoneering have low defense (Shades, Giants, Demons, Brutes, Dogs). One might argue that rapiers have lower DPS but this is only sometimes true. Yes, the rapier is inaccurate compared to 2h's and terrible against crush enemies. But, Strength bonuses stack with speed. Beserker rings, prayers, pots, gaunts/b neck enhance Rapier's damage better than slower weapons. On monolith rooms, rapiers (at least to my experience), perform far better. Rapier is also the best weapon for rushing. If one binds a rapier and a CSB, a vast majority of the monsters in Daemonheim can be dispatched quickly (exception of Skeleton Mages, Giant Bats, etc). Note: The focus of this topic is not to 'devalue' 2h or battleaxes, but rather to advocate the usage of rapiers in dungeoneering.