Why the Dagger? - Page 3

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After all, Necromancers had that awesome Psycho pose with daggers in D2, which was enough to encourage pre-game hopes of viable stabomancer builds.




Nowadays you can get a pretty effective Daggermancer going. Although the playstyle is not for everyone. The stabbing and waiting bores some people.|||I remember using a dagger for insanely fast poison nova casting |||

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In the official Character selection page:

Wizard: Staff

Barbarian: Sword

Monk: Battlestaff

WD: Dagger?

Does anyone know why? I dont recall any dagger specific skills. I would think wands would be better suited.




They felt that the WD didn't really capture lame yet. So they added more.

I'm sorry, please forgive my half-humor/half-serious answer.|||Wizardspike.|||The trait Assassin adds +100% damage when wielding a dagger, but is this melee damage, spell damage or just damage to everything? They need to go into more detailed traits for us soon.|||Probably melee. Doubling spell damage for using a dagger is a bit too much.|||It depends on what +% spell damage mods the dagger can have if its lower than other caster weapons then it might as well apply to spells as well, I am sure there's +100% or more spell damage on some caster gear in D3.|||I think other posters have covered the thematic argument for the dagger so I'll just speculate on the gameplay.

With all the crowd control ability the WD has I think he'll be more durable in close quarters than most people think. I doubt he'll be able to wade through enemies but with hexing, confusion, horrify, pets etc. he shouldn't ever get surrounded. Blizzard stated that they want traits to affect your character in very noticeable ways so I'm expecting the Assassination trait will make his melee damage a relevant (if not class defining) tool in his arsenal.

I think speccing assassination would definitely add a fun twist. You've got your CC and your DOTS and you'll be able to run around in the middle of frog stomping chaos stabbing hexed enemies (read CHICKENS).

But for pure caster WDs....

You've got traits for +skill damage with 1h weapons and staffs. And since I haven't heard of any other characters focusing on daggers I'm assuming many of them will have some very relevant WD stats on them.|||I could see the potential for a Witch Doctor Focusing on "Blood" traits like Toughness, Mind and Body, Death Pact, Rituals, and Blood Rites being viable as a melee class, or hybrid at the very least. If dagger weapons have bonuses to spell damage or skills (ie Assassin Claws, Necromancer Heads, Paladin Shields, etc) or maybe an increased chance to crit when wielded by a WD, it could work. At the very least, the flavor is there.