Yes, I too used a dagger and parrying dagger for the longest time, just has
a -great- look. Actually the weapon I preferred: a Giant Snake Fang. O
loved that fang, nice for lv 8. The advantage, of course, is speed. I
believed, when I took up piercing, that the speed advantage may actually
even-out the damage disadvantage. One can procure a snake fang in the
Qeynos area cheapest (believe I paid 5 gold, but some say folks there
actually give them away), for fangs come off beasts from that BB dungeon one
takes to reach Halas.

Now that I have Anthem de Arms and Whistling Warsong, I just may set my
Minotaur Axe aside for a bit and grab that dusty fang from the bank. Always
good to keep piercing high anyway, but perhaps with the speed bonuses of
these songs, my fang will be even more effective?

On another note (pun intended), I noticed Lament seems to function better.
For a while it was great, then there was a patch, and at that time I noticed
I could now actually lament myself, definitely meaning a tweak to the song.
At that time, I was dismayed to see how quickly the effects wore off! But
now, just this morning, I tried it again on myself and the effects lasted
much longer (even longer with my mandolin). It also worked rather well on
an orc camp loaded with Blue Cons. Maybe it's just me, but for a week there
Lament just caused things to attack me, but now I seem to find it useful
again. (Still not going to try lamenting a sand giant though!)

Roop