Is the Karyst good?

[(XBOX)SgtFunBun]

Should I keep it or just use it for MR fodder and toss it out the airlock?

[Cyborg-Rox]

Having a dagger with Covert Lethality is always good for high level Stealth runs, specially in Sortie Spy missions. Karyst however, is not a dagger I would recommend for that.
For you see, since Covert Lethality gives a flat damage bonus, the base damage doesn't matter that much, and Karyst has the highest base damage of daggers, but is slower than some other daggers. Since attack speed affects finisher speed, I'd recommend a dagger with faster attack speed than the Karyst.

You have 3 options in that regard. Heat Dagger, Dark Dagger, and Ceramic Dagger. Heat Dagger and Dark Dagger both have the same attack speed and damage, but Dark Dagger has an augment mod with a Viral explosion, useful outside Stealth. But in my opinion, the best Dagger for Covert Lethality will be Ceramic Dagger, simply because it's the fastest dagger there is.

[(PSN)FriendSharkey]

I just built one for my Inaros, threw a potato into it and I don't have any complaints. It gets the job done with the stealth finishers and the extra toxic proc with raw damage seems to cut through Ceres level enemy with ease. It's a good knife for Inaros until something else comes along that's better. 

[DeMeritus]

Karyst used to be crap.  Now it's pretty decent.  Put a Covert Lethality on there and you're all set.

[(PSN)robotwars7]

it's not bad, though Daggers as a whole are pretty lacklustre. with Covert Lethality the Karyst is ideal for stealth, and the innate Toxin damage is fairly useful in combat, particularly against Corpus as it will bypass their Shields. if you need it to work better on Grineer, you can add Shocking Touch and Voltaic Strike for Corrosive to reduce their armour.

it's a pretty good Dagger, but daggers could use a buff IMO. makes no sense why they are so slow.

[Darkwave1098]

I tend to chose it over the Dark Dagger due to the fact that it has toxin as its base damage. It's pretty darn good.

[HadrosaurHero]

I just built it but haven't used it, interested in the general opinions.

[TrickshotMcGee]

Yes, it does good damage, although I dislike using daggers because they attack strangely. The 50 base elemental (toxin) damage allows you to put a lot of elemental combos on it. I'd recommend using it over other daggers, but there are much better weapons.

[Syntax3Error]

It does pretty well on spy sorties with Covert Lethality on it. the stealth attack animations are also pretty fast IMO

[Nitresco]

Somebody recently did the math on various melee weapons and their DPS. Turns out a Karyst with Pointed Wind and Covert Lethality (among other mods) is actually one of the highest DPS melee weapons in the game.

Link, for the curious:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/4g3fod/ever_wondered_how_much_dps_melee_weapons_actually/

[RexRgisIocus]

1 hour ago, Cyborg-Rox said:

Having a dagger with Covert Lethality is always good for high level Stealth runs, specially in Sortie Spy missions. Karyst however, is not a dagger I would recommend for that.
For you see, since Covert Lethality gives a flat damage bonus, the base damage doesn't matter that much, and Karyst has the highest base damage of daggers, but is slower than some other daggers. Since attack speed affects finisher speed, I'd recommend a dagger with faster attack speed than the Karyst.

You have 3 options in that regard. Heat Dagger, Dark Dagger, and Ceramic Dagger. Heat Dagger and Dark Dagger both have the same attack speed and damage, but Dark Dagger has an augment mod with a Viral explosion, useful outside Stealth. But in my opinion, the best Dagger for Covert Lethality will be Ceramic Dagger, simply because it's the fastest dagger there is.

This is wrong. Base attack speed doesn't do anything to finisher anims. Attack speed mods are what change the anim speeds.

54 minutes ago, (PS4)robotwars7 said:

it's not bad, though Daggers as a whole are pretty lacklustre. with Covert Lethality the Karyst is ideal for stealth, and the innate Toxin damage is fairly useful in combat, particularly against Corpus as it will bypass their Shields. if you need it to work better on Grineer, you can add Shocking Touch and Voltaic Strike for Corrosive to reduce their armour.

it's a pretty good Dagger, but daggers could use a buff IMO. makes no sense why they are so slow.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/4g3fod/ever_wondered_how_much_dps_melee_weapons_actually/? I don't how accurate this is but according to it, Karyst is in the top 5-6 melee weaps damage wise.

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

5 hours ago, Cyborg-Rox said:

Having a dagger with Covert Lethality is always good for high level Stealth runs, specially in Sortie Spy missions. Karyst however, is not a dagger I would recommend for that.
For you see, since Covert Lethality gives a flat damage bonus, the base damage doesn't matter that much, and Karyst has the highest base damage of daggers, but is slower than some other daggers. Since attack speed affects finisher speed, I'd recommend a dagger with faster attack speed than the Karyst.

You have 3 options in that regard. Heat Dagger, Dark Dagger, and Ceramic Dagger. Heat Dagger and Dark Dagger both have the same attack speed and damage, but Dark Dagger has an augment mod with a Viral explosion, useful outside Stealth. But in my opinion, the best Dagger for Covert Lethality will be Ceramic Dagger, simply because it's the fastest dagger there is.

...is the finisher animation rly influenced that much by the base speed tho?

The karist still profits the most from the additional base-damage boost...

 

A decent weapon with the ability to oneshot evrything is still better then absolute crap with the ability to oneshot evrything as you just won't be doing finishers all the time!

Edited April 28, 2016 by (PS4)CoolD2108

[ThorienKELL]

Imo dark dagger and karyst are best daggers in game. I prefer dark, cause of syndicate proc but for sheer damage output (if you actually plan to fight) karyst is good too. Looks awesome. 

[DatDarkOne]

I have the Karyst, but I'm not replacing my Nikana Prime or War with it.  It's not like I don't have other ways to get one hit kills while in stealth.  Prowl + Headshot as an example.  Also, I haven't run across a melee weapon yet that has a faster stealth finisher than Nikana+Blind Justice.