Since my second theatric glad reached bloodgods and wasn't stomped to death immediately, i consider my expirience with exotics and theatrics are on a basic level.
Now i wanna dip my hands in that "honeypot of true knowledge" and ask what is the benefit of whips for theatrics without the entangle skill?

Which fighting style? Since we don't have shadow dance and whirlwind
Lunge seems not very wise with such a flexible weapon.
Bash also feels really wrong.
Slash is the way to go in my opinion.
Parry-X should be used with a stiff weapon.
CounterAttack should work.

For me the whip is the lighter version of the trident and not limited to just the mainhand.
It has a damn good reach, more than the trident as i can tell.
For example with a "trident+claw" combo the trident hits first more often, about 70-80%. With a "whip+claw" combo it seems 90% of the time the whip gets the first hit.
Stilettos and claws are sometimes to weak for heavy armor and scimitars are sometimes to slow for those rages able to pull off an activated right befor giving up... thus winning.
Trident would be my exotic of chose, but again a bit to slow for my taste.
Whip is very fast and hits quite hard, harder than claws at least xD

Whips used offhanded are a blessing. They are fast enough and hit hard enough to be used against both tanks and rages without underperforming in any case.
Mainhanded they are the exact opposite, hitting a bit to weak or to slow after the first hit connects. That was at least my experience.

I never found a guide or a usefull in depth analyzing for whips.
Even Kreegans weapon guide didn't mention them.

I use whips only on offensive theatrics. One pure theatric focused on speed and bleeding and the second a power theatric.

If all that is completly wrong and you think i'm a shame for all theatrics... so please tell me what is the purpose of whips?