[sadbot]

Before I start, I want to make a point that everything I'm referring to here is focused on pvp. Anything can get enough hit to function in pve content.

As it stands right now, daggers only see 'regular' use in 2 different scenarios:

1) As a sub weapon for divine eyes
2) As a mage based void assassin weapon, usually alongside a tome.

When it comes to their most generic intended use of crit basic attacks using their high base crit mod, they are completely and utterly shut down by any well built evade builds. Most daggers, even the few that have 90-100 base hit rather than 80, can't make it far enough past 300 hit to get passable hit chance without making incredibly inefficient sacrifices that kill the build regardless. Anyone well versed in pvp knows that this is the absolute bare minimum for basic attack focused builds to not just lose to anyone and everyone that stacks evade, and they can barely reach it at a stretch with mid 60's in skill and luck as well as every easily available passive bonus. On top of that, they have very little access to extra hit compared to other weapon types, whether that be straight up passive bonuses or attacks that gain a bonus to hit. For a weapon type that thematically seems like it should be the next most able to hit the mark right behind bows and guns, this seems far off from where it should be. I feel like this has been an issue for a long time now, something that slipped through the cracks when they lost their 2 most useful sub class options to get better hit in pre-rework ghost (fitting form) and pre-rework kensei (touki).

Daggers are arguably the most basic attack focused weapon type in the game, in part due to their low number of situational autohits and low swa potential with which to use them. Despite this, they lack the hit to even get passable hit chance against evade stackers. Obviously they shouldn't be able to get pefect or near perfect hit or it leaves those that stack evade in a bad spot against high damage dagger crits. Unfortunately, daggers are often left with 30% hit or less with one or two small buffs/debuffs. Unlike other weapons however, they don't really have the option to mix it up with some autohits the same way that other weapon types do, their lower swa leaving their autohits in a position of sacrificing damage for utility and leaving them forever losing the damage race if they rely entirely on them. I think that daggers need a substantial hit buff across the board, as well as some form of passive hit bonus on either rogue or void assassin. This is the base and promoted class that is most geared towards this big dagger crit playstyle after all, and hitting the mark at all seems a bit more important than hitting it hard. Personally I think that in terms of gameplay as well as thematically, dagger hit should fall somewhere greater than martial weapons but lower than bows and guns at least, due to their greater damage potential than the latter with their large base crit mod. I'm no balance professional though despite ranting here, so I suppose I'll leave that up to discussion and dev.