I've been rolling with waraxes for my character who intends to become an assassin starting at around 20th-level (building up skills and roleplaying to that point). And I have to say that I really like the character with two waraxes. She's now 17th-level and has the Backstab perk with Sneak at 54 and Armsman 4/5 and Savage Strike with One-handed at 66. With that, she's able to one-shot kill everything I've encountered so far that she's been able to sneak up on. I'm thinking that with the DB hands that she's simply not going to need daggers to kill anything she comes across other than maybe dragons and maybe a few draugr bosses which are a PITA to sneak up on anyway.

Do you really need the massive dagger multiplier in order to be an effective assassin?

The other thing is that I find that once you sneak attack one target, it tends to aggro everything else in the area and daggers don't really cut it for toe-to-toe combat. I intend to go Hack and Slash 3/3 as well so really wondering if those points in Deadly Aim and Assassin's Blade could be better spent elsewhere (or is it Elswyr?).

i needed it, with low smithing skill it can make a huge difference. Also if i'm quick enough sometimes i can backstab an additional enemy, although it doesn't always work out

War axes are heavy items. Swinging them breaks stealth. Daggers are lighter. They do not break stealth. Use daggers.

Sneak-power attacks with dual-wielding any type of weapon is bloody murder, IMO. I don't think you'll have to worry about any damage missed from not using daggers and assassin's blade.

If you're asking this question... then you're not playing the game right.

This isn't Warcraft... it's not about min-maxing. It's about choosing to have FUN your way... and the game is designed as-such.

I prefer daggers... there are high-leveled enemies that they can one-shot... and I can even one shot dragons at their roosts if I get close enough to them.

As the other poster above mentioned... if you don't have BS - that's the way to go, and for me -that's exactly what I did as blacksmithing wasn't adventuring to me.

I also wear Foresworn skins that are crafted up. Would Heavy Armor be better for 1-on-1? Absolutely! Do I need it? Hells no... cus I kill everything before it gets to be a problem. If I miss and they see me, I can still take plenty of battleaxe blows before dying.

Daggers are really much better for an assassin build in my opinion. As DTH mentioned, dagger stabs are silent. You do not break stealth if you miss with a dagger. Even with Blacksmithing, dagger is a better weapon for an assassin than a sword or a mace. If you enchant weapons to add damage, daaggers are better.

The disadvantage of a dagger is that it has shorter reach and it doesn't benefit from fortify one-handed enchanting and fortify one-handed potion. And it doesn't stagger.