Backstabs with Knife Blades

[Umber]

Made a character and was hoping to go for an RP dagger/poisons build, but I'm finding it hard to fully utilize the perks and bonuses from knife blades. Playing solo, the 'Get It Off Me' skill of Animal handling doesn't seem to pull aggro from me to my pet very well. What do you do to get behind your enemies with knife blades?

It does look like in the latest patch that you can effectively use backshots with stuns now, but I'm curious what others do in regards to solo dagger play.

[kell.shepherd]

What I did is give up on solo knife. When I did solo, I didn't use backstab.

[Tsugumori]

Before the 'mez to backstab' was included it was kind of just wail on things, much like sword. That's what I did anyway. I used it with psych, mentalism, BC and necro just to experiment, settled on mentalism in the end. The AoE of dagger is pretty good, I've found it kind of pricey though in terms of upkeep.

[kell.shepherd]

I also was using Mentalism with knife.

[Erthiel]

I use Knife / AH as my main build and I generally play solo. I agree with you that 'Get it off me' sometimes does not seem to pull the agro. It takes a while for it to take effect. Unless you fight more monsters you might kill it sooner then the effect kicks in. Your pet does not always hit its target. I already tried reporting it because to me it also seems like it is not doing what I expect from the ability. It should be more useful somehow. Like immediately attracting agro from all monster in vicinity for few seconds. There are more AH abilities which act strangely (setting my pet to attack did not seem to work as well with clever trick as with sic 'em) or do not work (summon living pet). Pets do not use their power either so I hope the skill will eventually get bigger update.

Just to make it clear using backstab does not require you to stand behind the enemy. I usually set my pet to attack from distance (Sic 'Em) and then follow my pet. After it engages the monster I use the backstab. Works most of the time. That one hit is important and after that you just fight as usual. You can also use surprise throw which works the same way, except it uses throwing knives, so you don't get initial agro half dmg unless you are already in a fight + there are mods for it that add stun.

I think it is a great build and I am nearing lvl 70s in both, but both of these skills seem a bit neglected.

[Tagamogi]

I just focus on the non-backstab abilities of knife - there are so many different abilities, it doesn't feel like a hardship not to use backstab or gut. I actually switched backstab back in lately just because I had 3 different mods for it on my gear. It works out ok with the mods, even if the target is focused on me.

I use knife and battle chemistry, for the simple reason that I'd decided to level battle chemistry just as the knife skill was introduced. I'm pretty fond of the combo, and battle chemistry's poison bomb has a little bit of synergy with knife. ( The battle chemistry golem will pull aggro from me very regularly but I'm pretty confident that's a bug and I try to avoid using it as a backstab excuse. Hm, I should probably take backstab back out of my bar, so I won't be tempted.)

I think animal handling is in need of some attention right now to make the pets act more tanky. Animal handling/knife seems like it would be a really nice skill setup if the pet was better at distracting the mob.

[Yaksnot]

Made a character and was hoping to go for an RP dagger/poisons build, but I'm finding it hard to fully utilize the perks and bonuses from knife blades. Playing solo, the 'Get It Off Me' skill of Animal handling doesn't seem to pull aggro from me to my pet very well. What do you do to get behind your enemies with knife blades?

It does look like in the latest patch that you can effectively use backshots with stuns now, but I'm curious what others do in regards to solo dagger play.

Do not give up hope, once you get to a place where you can run Knife / Battle Chem you will be in a good place

[Oxlazr]

I've been working on knife the last couple days, I've jotted down some notes and feedback, but I just don't know if I've got the motivation to get it to 70. The skill just isn't all that powerful nor interesting.

That aside, I found out today, that if you use the Acid Shot skill on the crossbow to remove a target's armour, your pet will much more effectively hold aggro. Presumably because the pet itself is able to do more actual health damage causing more threat, but it's hard to say. I'm hoping this will make backstab in particular more useful, but we'll see.

[Umber]

Great responses! I think I may sideline the skill until I get my character a bit higher and get into battle chem and others. I'll get back into it after I'm a bit more powerful.

Thanks ;)