Maugrim vs. Viper Silver Sword?

[pixel_rice_bowl]

I just looted Maugrim from a random chest during Wandering in the Dark. I'm currently using Viper Silver Sword. Which to use? Stats are as follows:

VSS:
112-138 damage
10% aard intensity
10% poison chance
20% bonus experience (monsters)
1 socket

Mau:
110-134
6% quen intensity
6% yrden intensity
2% bonus experience (monsters)
3 sockets

Maugrim is worth significantly more money, but I don't see the value compared to VSS. Any advice? Are the extra sockets worth that much? If so, is there a way to upgrade runes? Also seems hard to beat VSS's 20% bonus experience.

[Tim]

The bonus experience is effectively worthless considering the exp gain from monsters is rather insignificat. The Maugrim's extra three sockets mean you can potentially make it stronger than the Viper, but it's unlikely you'll even have any genuinely good runes to put on it at the moment, plus it's probably not going to change much during combat. Also that 10% poison chance on the viper is nice.

[Baron01]

I would use VSS. Sockets do not play significant role in early stages of the game--you can slap some less runes in already but they will not be strong enough to change the outcome. You will be changing weapons pretty fast this early in the game so it is better to save all the runes for conversion to higher runes later.

Use any sword you get your hands on that have better raw damage until you can craft and start using Witcher swords, both steel and silver. Once you have 2 or even 3 witcher swords, you will be able to upgrade one or the other every few levels to keep them up-to-date in terms of damage.

There are few other blades worth mentioning, although, they are not upgradable:
1. Tir Tochair blade -- extremely powerful sword with focus on critical hits and whopping 35% chance to cause bleeding. This blade is randomly generated loot and you can find it in various place as the story progresses. This is good because it will be scalling with the content, which means it can be relevant even later in the game.
2. Teigr - this is Witcher sword but it can not be upgraded, you will get it through a side quest. Very strong sword with focus on critical strikes that greatly complements Cat school fighting techniques.

[pixel_rice_bowl]

Originally posted by Baron01:

I would use VSS. Sockets do not play significant role in early stages of the game--you can slap some less runes in already but they will not be strong enough to change the outcome. You will be changing weapons pretty fast this early in the game so it is better to save all the runes for conversion to higher runes later.

Use any sword you get your hands on that have better raw damage until you can craft and start using Witcher swords, both steel and silver. Once you have 2 or even 3 witcher swords, you will be able to upgrade one or the other every few levels to keep them up-to-date in terms of damage.

There are few other blades worth mentioning, although, they are not upgradable:
1. Tir Tochair blade -- extremely powerful sword with focus on critical hits and whopping 35% chance to cause bleeding. This blade is randomly generated loot and you can find it in various place as the story progresses. This is good because it will be scalling with the content, which means it can be relevant even later in the game.
2. Teigr - this is Witcher sword but it can not be upgraded, you will get it through a side quest. Very strong sword with focus on critical strikes that greatly complements Cat school fighting techniques.

Oh, I should be saving my witcher swords then. I didn't realize they were upgradeable. Perhaps I missed that.

Thanks for the help!