Knife ability stat comparison!

I'm having trouble figuring which knife moves I want to use, so I ended up grabbing the stats from the wiki (may be out of date, I don't know!) for each knife skill as a character would have it at level 60, and the enchantments you could get for them - though the enchantments are as level 70, it was too much trouble trying to find the level 50 or 60 enchantments. @_@ I did ignore the "_ gives _% chance of making cut / non-cut have a _% chance of doing +_ damage" enchantments though, because just... too much chance. So! Since I did this, I figured others might benefit too!

w and c = BASE power cost and cooldown
f = whether the target is focusing on you is a factor.
t = indirect trauma damage over time.
p = poison damage over time.

Code:

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Knife, At 60, with enchant 70
                        pwr cd        base stats        dmg        dot        other
Opening Tr 6 (b)        0w  2c        60 + 15% nxt        81                heal 13, +15% damage from next knife skill
Marking Cut 3                16w 8c        95 + -12 ev        189                +59 armor, +20% from trauma 10s
Blur Cut 6                17w 8c        177 +12% ev        239        128p        34 heal after 15, 31% stun ignore 8s
Slice 6                        30w 9c        189 + 189v        402+315        220p        ignore armor, 40%c 75armorheal and 534+412
Duelist's Slash 6        37w 8c        258                517        220p        ignore armor, 40%c 75armorheal and 660
Poisoner's Cut 4        31w 8c        164 + 40/8        290                5s: poison +40, pdots +22/tick; 50%c 470
Fending Blade 4                28w 10c        122 + -400 rg        211                rage -1100 total, heal 20, +20 power
Venomstrike 6                43w 10c        250 + 144p        429        443p        44%c 487 and stun
Gut 6                        25w 10c        142 + 150tf        450        568tf               
Backstab 6                58w 30c        517f                904f        689tf        lifesteal 85 (452+85 if target, 904+85+689t not target)
Surge Cut 6                21w 20c        116 + hl 150        156        248t        heal 215, armorheal 84
Hamstring Tw 6                30w 15c        193 + slw        784                slow 90%, +15% from trauma 20s
Surprise Throw 6        51w 45c        398f                1175*                (465 if target); (1175, stun, +62 power if not target)
Fan of Blades 4                31w 20c        233 AOE 15        620                knockback, +20% from poison 30s

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dot before poison trauma indirect 42%
blur cut 90p, slice 155p, venomstrike 312p, gut 400tf, backstab 485tf, surge cut 175t

((Base damage + Flat damage) * Multipliers) + (Base damage * (Base Multiplier -1))

base +35%
poison trauma indirect 42%
opening thrust: heal 13, cut synergy 22
marking cut: +64%, causes +20% from trauma 10s, +36armor
blur cut: +90p, 34health, burst evade 22%, 31% chance to ignore stuns
slice: +155p, +32%, +66, ignore armor, 40%c +39% and 75 armorheal
poisoner's cut: 50%c +101%, +42.5%, cause indirect p +14
fending blade: +46, rage -420, heal 20, rage -280 delay, +20 power
venomstrike: +37%, +168p, 44%c +42 and stun
gut: +170tfocus, +96, +42, +25%tfocus, +43%
backstab: +40%, 85steal, +485tfocus
surge cut: heal 65, armorheal 84, +175t
hamstring throw: +55%, +29%, +101, +65, +15% from trauma 20s
surprise throw: +54%, +29%, +31%focus, stunfocus, 62powerfocus
fan of blades: +28%, +29%, +13%, knockback, +56, +20% from poison 30s

Let me start by saying that you did a lot of work with this!

To math it out, I would use all of the mods numbers from gorgonexplorer.com, which would be level 80, and just use the highest skills available in game. But with knife, so many attacks get bonuses as a % change after using a specific attack, its fairly hard to figure out. And you wont be able to get all of the mods on the build, so its more likely that the skill fan of blades would remain a 30-sec cool down (which is fine if you use it for the poison debuff).

My knife recommendation after trying a build or three is this:
There are two "obvious" when spelled out builds, going all in on +poison or +trauma but not both. Knifes best damage is over time. If, with a mod, the skill deals/debuffs poison damage, use it for the poison setup. The poison knife does not care if the mob is facing you. Pairs well with unarmed. With the right pet, Animal Handling, and I think it would work with druid as well. You can use the snaply poisons to deal mondo damage.

Same theory but with trauma for the other build. You only now need the mob to NOT focus on you. Works well with psych or sword.


The 20% knife damage potions are fairly hard to get but the increased damage from them is really nice if you do go down either of these paths.