What upgrade for rapier?

I'm making a a pure dex build with no faith or int. Trying to get as high damage as possible with backstabs and parrys. I've got my rapier at 10+ now and I wonder if I should make it 15+ normal or maybe lightning 5+?

I'm quite new to pvp so some insight would be welcome!

+15, split AR on the lightning will lower your overall damage. if you ever have 40 ANYTHING it will be stronger than lightning +5

I actually asked a very experienced friend about this earlier today. He was positive that the chaos rapier +5 had the best crit damage at 10 humanity. Im not sure either way but im gonna make one of each and then compare the crit damage on a variety of different enemy types and then compare the damage. Ill let you know the results

I'd go normal if you have higher than 30 dexterity,otherwise chaos if you have the humanity.Elementals are only better if you want to stack health or endurance.I know you get reduced scaling after 40 dexterity,I'm not sure on this but it MAY be worth going a bit higher as backstabs multiply base damage so every 5 damage could become 15 or 20.

Luvz - here's a video doing just that. A comparison between dark silver tracer, rapier +15, and chaos rapier +5 (with 10 humanity). It does seem to show that chaos rapier riposte damage is highest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_sro4D_8QY

The really interesting thing about this video is that it shows that, against some enemies, the chaos rapier is best for riposte damage, but not best for backstab damage. If you want to see that, go towards the middle of the video, where he's testing against the silver knights.

Nevertheless, OP, you might still want to go +15, because the non-critical damage will typically be better with this, which is still important, even for a rapier. And of course, it can be buffed with a resin, if you're into that sort of thing.

Thanks for all the anwsers! I think I'm going with 15+.
As an after thought, what would be a good upgrade for my parrying dagger if any?

It irks me that most people test on Enemies, if you really wanna see, Have a friend equip the Most fire defense and physical defense possible then test

If you have 40 dex, why not try both?

OP has chosen +15. OP, you should seriously consider crystal path. It is easily the best path.

But Lord, it breaks so easily. Well, get to farmin' chunks! Hell even slabs aren't all that rare now a days.

Chaos rapier does mean crit damage but not better than the crystal rapier.