I'm enjoying using daggers as my main weapon but I've run into some trouble against some of the tougher enemies because of their small hit damage. I've been bumping up my "one handed" levels but I'm debating whether or not daggers are just too weak a weapon (especially after dying a lot in Dustman's Cairn) to put a lot of time and effort into. Any advice?

Also, is the blade perk in the "one handed" category for swords and daggers or just swords?

I'm new to the Elder Scrolls games but so far I'm really enjoying it.

You want the sneak perk- 15x damage with daggers. I one shot almost everyone from behind in sneak with a dagger.

It is worth it with the 15x damage multiplier.

Great for any assassin or cut throat.

Daggers are better than swords if you take smithing, due to higher DPS. But they don't benefit from perks (except in Sneak) or "fortify one-handed" effects.

You need to sneak to the back of the enemy with a dagger in hand, and with the right perks you can insta kill almost all.

I believe they're only useful with sneaking and the 15x multiplier. Other than that, they're useless for nothing more than roleplaying.

Yes. If you sneak. OP apparently doesn't.

High-end Legendary daggers will do more damage per second than swords because their 20% faster attack speed will overcome the damage difference. Specifically, Legendary Ebony Dagger will do as much DPS as Legendary Daedric Sword. And then there's the Daedric Dagger and Blade of Woe of course.

The only problem with daggers is that they do not benefit from Fortify One-Handed enchantments. With those, swords will still rule. But if you don't/can't have enchantments, daggers are the way to go.

And daggers do not benefit from Bladesman, that one's for swords only(not a big loss since it's horribad)

Daggers do not benefit from enchantments. One-handed weapons are better in the long run.

You can use a dagger in the off hand just for the sake of a fraction of "realism" it might add, not all people are ambidextrous.

I'd suggest you get a set of daggers (dual-wielded Blades of Woe or Daedric Daggers, preferably) when sneaking, and a set of swords to use when you have to go into face-to-face combat. I've been doing this ever since I started my Assassin (lv 43 by now), and it works well.

For a straight up brawl, swap out to 1 handed weapons.

But once you get the 15x sneak perk (30x with DB gloves) you can't beat them for 1 shot sneak kills. Plus they have the advantage of not giving you away in stealth.

The only enchantments they don't benefit from are fortify 1-H, as far as I know. If you don't have that, and you can improve them fully, they are fine. Even without the higher strike rate, the actual damage number is only a few points off a sword of the same type. Like 41 to 45 or something, though I would have to go check to be sure.

If you have high enchant skill, adding magic damage enchantments (up to 2 different ones with 120+ total damage) makes daggers very fast, powerful damage dealers even without 1H or sneak perks.

But if you do, 12x700 on one-handed deals more damage than 30x250 on daggers. Not that the difference is big, but still.

Without the sneak attack bonuses - daggers fail miserably in comparison with one-handed.

That and having the item that allows you to do 30 times damage with sneak dagger attack.

First character I beat the game with was using daggers.

His end dagger had 18 damage, but very few things could take more than 2 hits.

I use a sword in the right hand, and a dagger in the left. Dual wield power attacks are blazing fast with a left handed dagger. You'd think two daggers would be fastest, but when used together they actually have the slowest power attack.

With the perks and enchantments that benefit your sword (fortify one-handed), you really only need the x6 damage multiplier from the sneak tree. I dont even take the x15 damage. If i feel the need to go all out assasin for abit, i just use the Dark Brotherhood armor for x12 sneak attacks. Game usually gets boring pretty quick playing like that, so i rarely use them.

Thanks for the advice. It looks like I'm going to have to start upping my enchantment or sneak to make it worthwhile. It's good to know that there are at least a couple of ways of making daggers a viable option.

You can get up to 30x damage with daggers, so yeah.

I used them as the primary MELEE weapon for a thief archer and they were fine. But never as my only weapon. Maybe I'll try that next playthrough but I'll probably need to beast the light armor and smithing as chopping down foes could take some time. I'd think you'd need the damage protection.



Oh yeah. This too.

Daggers are a tool more than a weapon;

They are a weapon for non-weapon users. That might seem like a nonsensical statement, but it's true. In a knife fight, it's better to bring a gun. There are two specific roles in which daggers shine - and they shine to the most overpwoered degree.

The first is that of the rogue, assassin or sniper. The x15 damage modifier perk in the stealth tree is strong enough that a purist rogue can deal fatal damage without taking ANY perks in the one-handed tree; if you go full on stealth and take shadow warrior, you can even fight straight up fights 5 on 1 and come out trumps by forcing impromptu sneak attacks.

The second is that of the artificer or enchanter. An enchantment is an enchantment, regardless whether it's a sword, dagger or warhammer, if you have a strong weapon enchantment on each dagger, then you can lay down a devestating flurry of enchantment procs that'll annhilate your foe in a storm of spellfire. The dagger's low damage is of little relevance.



So, as I said - the dagger is the weapon of choice for those who do not use weapons; but instead use enchantments, poisons or stealth

Have a look at this shadow warrior in action and be inspired
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KETNiqHg0oM

You can, with enough sneak and smithing, insta kill everything. Dragons, mammoths, giants, steam centurtions, dragon priests and adoring fans. A dual-wielded power attack with the right perks will grant you three power attack sneak attacks, which do 50% more damage and do x30 damage. Blade of woe and a daedric dagger upgraded to legendary, nothing will survive. This does, however, require enough sneak for all three hits to land as sneak attacks. With too low sneak, you'll be seen even before a single one of them landed. High sneak, all three hit and you killed anything, instantly.

Edit: And wow, stealth is overpowered even without that comboing going on in the above posts youtube link.. that's just.. sad..

Thats a fun way to play isn't it...

Daggers are worthwhile without exploiting sneak, they have insane attack speed, they can be used very effectively with the elemental fury shout (they can't be enchanted though), which increases the attack speed by 50%, 75% then 100% depending on how powerful your shout us.

Or you can enchant them, go for paralyse 1 second, you will get a good amount of charges and it will take down most enemies, allowing you to hack them to death. If you have the last enchanting perk, then go with paralyse 1 second and fiery soul trap 1 second (found in ironbound barrow), you will still get 350+ charges.

Valdrs lucky dagger upgraded to legendary kicks some serious butt in regular combat. Stick and move.

Why, because he didn't mention it? He also didn't mention if he likes carrots. Apparently he doesn't.

Seriously...

Shrouded gloves together with the backstab perk for 30x. Almost killed a lv 50 Ancient Dragon in one hit, on master.