So far I have been using the Knife because in all MMOs I've ever played, I've loved to be a stealth-like class that uses quick weapons. It has been pretty fun because I very much enjoy the effects on the Knife; however, there are a lot of issues when it comes to the "surprise attacks."

Side note: For the remainder of this thread I will be using dagger and knife indistinguishably.

My initial impression was that a lot of people didn't use knives because they were under-powered. This is true. The base damage on the knives is very low. This prevents a lot of players from using the item, as they might attempt to start using it later in the game only to be disappointed and switch back to whatever they were using. I, on the other hand, looked up the guide on how to obtain knife fighting immediately when I figured out there were daggers in the game, upon meeting Joeh in Serbule. I am determined to use a knife because I believe they have potential, even though I have no information to back this claim.

While my opinions on PvP in this game are very low at the moment, the one thing I can say for sure is that it will be the best weapon if PvP becomes a staple of the game. I have already fought max-level Fire mages with my dagger and was rekt, but I managed to kill some of them despite being level 20 Knife Fighting at the time. That's amazing power. Keep in mind, though, that my dagger was paired with a special necklace and gloves that make it so my damage is increased after using my main ability, the basic attack, and my slice ignores armor. This is what causes such high health damage without having to worry about armor. The only issue is that getting the proc on the basic attack to increase the damage is very rare when you can't even hit the targets because their armor is so "thick." That being said, the main purpose of this game is PvE, which is kind of disappointing considering how many spots get camped by other players and how open-world this game is, because I can see PvP being super enjoyable when you decide to go somewhere to grind and you meet someone there.

The dagger for PvE is a bit lackluster. I see a lot of people around my level who are doing massive damage to mobs because they are using Fire magic or swords. This is mainly because a lot more people use fire magic and swords, so their armor is easy to obtain from random shops. I'd genuinely say that daggers are the least used weapon in this game, even compared to Bard. This is evident by the amount of things being sold everywhere that aren't for daggers. So I have decided that I would craft my own from hereon. This will allow me the ability to get the best kind of gear, and I'll write 2 other threads on my opinions at level 50 and 70, depending on if my opinion of the Knife changes enough by then--especially with the ability to craft my own.

When fighting mobs, I always wear the gloves and necklace that allow my basic attack to generate stacks of "Crit 4." Typically, I'll generate 2 or 3 before I use an ability "without the word 'CUT.'" This stacks very nicely and allows for some big numbers to come out. The necklace then adding the armor pierce makes my slice to some 100 damage directly to their health. This is not a lot, as I have said before, but this combo is repeatable rather quickly. My secondary is also Unarmed, so when I'm waiting for my cooldowns I'll kick them away from me. I believe, though, that Unarmed needs CC in the form of other abilities such as "Headbutt," instead of only allowing truly unarmed abilities to CC. Some simple CC would allow me to backstab the enemy and deal a lot more damage or even get off a cut. A lot of the bonuses on gear involve those two abilities, but they are damn near impossible to ever get off.

I'll sum it all up now. I've been using daggers for about 30 levels now, and they have noticeable bonuses and noticeable detriments. If you want a weapon that does a lot of damage, don't use a dagger. If you want a weapon that is guaranteed to be good in the future for PvP, then choose knife. Leveling it up will be hard, so you'll also want to learn how to craft them, too.