Diversifying Melee Weapons - Single Daggers

[Stafer]

As we all know, there are only a choice few vastly different playstyles seen in melee weapons, despite the fact that melee weapons are the most numerous of all the three weapon types. As far as I know for melee playstyles, we have; Heavy smashing crowd control, dual weapons for multi target short range offense, light but more agile single target offense, and thrown weapons for ranged offense.

Of all the melee weapons that exist so far, single daggers seem to have some trouble thriving. Firstly, they are only obtainable through alert missions, or heat dagger for platinum. Secondly, they are short range, fairly low damage, and single target. All share innate armor ignore, but have an odd attack pattern, so overall, they struggle in effectiveness.

This is my proposition: make daggers have stealth benefits, last time I preformed a stealth attack with a dagger, it did not even result in a kill. Give daggers 100% crit chance on stealth (if this isnt already true) and a relatively high base crit damage modifier. Additionally, there should be a single dagger available as a blueprint on the market, and be silent on attacks as well. I'm sure there might be plans like this for the upconing improvement of stealth play, but I thought I might as well put this up to see what people think.

Thanks for your time.

[Archistopheles]

What about adding bonus damage vs bosses as well?

 

I bet people would start looking closer at daggers if they could hit that weakspot on Lech Kril's back, or do the same DPS as a Braton when he is frozen...

Edited July 2, 2013 by Archistopheles

[Diarrhea]

Give daggers 100% crit chance on stealth (if this isnt already true)

 

Also, a backstab damage bonus would be nice. like 100% crits when you hit their backs with decent crit damage. Or is this what you meant?

[Mhak]

Backstab bonus as mentioned by the poster above me is a good idea. I'd also say giving them all fairly high base crit chance (20%+) and a 250% or 300% base crit damage multiplier can make up their generally low damage, and turn daggers into a weapon that has usually low damage with decent chances for very impressive damage, especially on backstabs. 

[Stafer]

Backstabs sound like a good idea, given that the only reliable way to reach the back of alerted enemies would be to strike when they are occupied with attacking another player. This way, daggers will not suddenly become less useful if the team breaks stealth. I like the feedback so far, and even though I personally would not be a frequent stealth player myself, I can see this as an enjoyable and effective playstyle.