Daggers to use at 51+

[Wise Donkey]

I am returning to THF after having been gone for close to a year. At 51 my current weapons are Main Corsair's and Off Hornetneedle. Those are good for now, but down the road everything looks to be pretty meh until 65/68 when I can get Garuda's and a Harpe.

Do I stick with my current combo until then, or is the 1-2 more DMG I can get with a Darksteel weapon outweigh the +10 Atk of the Corsairs? I know it half depends on the +Atk I have on the rest of my gear, and I have not gotten past looking at Daggers yet, so I cannot currently answer any armor questions.

Thanks for any input.

[711rocks]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

I used 2 corsairs from 50-55 and it was too slow so I sold one and used Corsairs/hornet till 59, then used Darksteel+1/corsair. High base damage is important.
Darksteel kukri +1 DPS - 7.11
Corsairs DPS - 6.12

Edit: if you're not fighting raptors, try to get the pt to let you /war

[Wise Donkey]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

Edit: if you're not fighting raptors, try to get the pt to let you /war

I seek as /WAR and only change to /NIN if they make me.

[Spinnthrift]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

Personally - I don't rate Garuda's Dagger that highly, I did like Harpe though.

Corsair's is until you get to higher damage ones... alternatively, if you've got crit merits from another job, a pair of Kidney Daggers are very strong and worth the money imo.

Lastly, if you're not using Kidney's, consider offhanding a Chicken Knife if you're a puller. It's not that highly damaging, but it is quick - 178 delay, and the Flee effect procs enough to make your life as a puller a lot easier.

[Magoo]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

I had similar questions in a post that I made a while back when I returned after a long hiatus. The advice I got worked well for me, here is my own version of it:

I'd use corsair's and hornetneedle where you are, (switching to a bone knife+1 against mobs where your offhand is hitting for too little), then:

@59 Switch mainhand to Darksteel Kukri +1
@62 Switch to Cermet Kukri which is same damage as the above but with less delay
@68 Switch mainhand to Harpe (or Hoplite's Harpe if Harpe is too expensive), nice damage over time and you should see a very big improvement in WS damage
@69 Switch offhand to Sirocco Kukri @ 69 if you can manage to get your hands on one, it'll take some high level friends to camp it - it's pretty much the best low-delay offhand dagger you can get
@71 Offhand misercorde+1 or misercorde if you haven't been able to get your hands on a sirocco
@72 Blau Dolch is probably the best mainhand dagger you can get, but is very pricey

If you can't afford Blau Dolch, other nice endgame daggers are Jambiya (good all-around) or Martial Knife (really only good if you like to use shark bite a lot), or X's knife (pretty much an upgraded Harpe, like Sirocco it'll require some high level friends to help camp)

Edit: Oh and thanks to Ryba and Old Man for the original advice that I based this off of

[711rocks]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

I seek as /WAR and only change to /NIN if they make me.

Good lol thats the way to roll


Magoo's advice seemed fine, but about the martial knife, I SB and used martial for awhile, but I ended up changing back to Harpe, the regular melee swings and even the WSs are a lot better with it-the base damage is just that much higher or something D:

[Spinnthrift]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

Actually - not meaning to offend Magoo, but X's Knife is now the strongest mainhand weapon you can get at later levels if your gear is good enough (with the exception of Mandau obviously) - even beating out P. Harpe against the Gods/HNM's with the increase that crit damage gives.

It's real only drawback is it's rarity... it comes from a weekly quest style BCNM that you have to have CoP completed iirc (At least 8-4 active), and is a very rare drop from it.

- Sae

[711rocks]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

lol Xs knife isn't real

[Magoo]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

lol Xs knife isn't real

I saw a thf with one on our server about a month ago which is the only reason I even knew about it, and only briefly looked up where it came from. I didn't know it was so difficult to get.

[711rocks]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

Ya I've seen like 2 total on ragnarok

[rshermaniv]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

So, for Daggers, the main thing to look at is DPS, correct? So a Hornetneedle should be used offhand technically until another dagger can surpase it's 6.4 dps, which appears to be lvl 54 Darksteel Jambiya +1. What if no HQ daggers are available? Keep hornetneedle offhand until lvl 57 with a Darksteel Kris? What about the Kidney Dagger? It has a DPS of 5.9, but a +crit hit rate of 5%. It's not rare so i could use 2, does the + cirt hit rate stack? I have +crit merits maxed, so if they do stack that could be good. thanks! Mez

[711rocks]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

Idk about Kidney daggers, I never used them.
Best bet is probably Corsairs/Hornet till you can get a Darksteel Kukri+1 to mainhand.

[Armando]

Re: Daggers to use at 51+

I would like to emphasize that the main factor in weapon choice is DPS. Always. Delay on its own is not a valid criteria for choosing weapons, and any DMG differences between weapons will be far too small for the difference in WS damage to matter more than the differences in damage over time. Likewise, completely ignore DEX and AGI. These are not deciding factors - again, the differences in SATA damage will be far too small to matter compared to the difference in damage over time. I need to stress this because sometimes people refrain from using the best dagger combo just because they think "slow dagger + slow dagger = bad."

Kidney Dagger isn't worth it and I doubt the crit rate would stack anyways, seeing as none of the weapons with +crit stack. For a rough approximation of how much the crit rate factors in, just increase the weapon's DPS by whatever +crit% the weapon adds. Kidney Dagger still falls short of Hornetneedle's DPS, and barely has an advantage over Corsair's Knife in terms of DPS while Corsair's Knife also has that +10 Attack working in favor of both weapons.

That's the main caveat: weapons with +Attack/+Acc benefit both hands, so if the difference in DPS is small, it's better to keep the lower DPS weapon that has +Attack over a higher DPS weapon with no +stats.

These are the daggers I'd use, picking stuff that's reasonably obtainable:
@50: Corsair's Knife/Corsair's Knife or Corsair's Knife/Hornetneedle
@58: Chicken Knife/Corsair's Knife
@59: Darksteel Kukri +1/Chicken Knife (economical alternative @60: Cermet Knife +1/Chicken Knife)
@62: Cermet Kurki +1/Cermet Kukri +1 (economical alternative: offhand Chicken Knife instead.)
@68: Hoplites Harpe/Hoplites Harpe. Yes, it's slow, it's still the best at this level.
@70: Magnet Knife/Behemoth's Knife

Not much else to choose from after that - basically camp Sirocco Kukri, and get a Blau Dolch. Yes, Garuda's sucks at the level you can use it, Heart Snatcher is crap as well. I wouldn't recommand Martial Knife unless your party overhunts or you're closing Light, as Dancing Edge should do better than Shark Bite for general situations.