I see Mandau at 91 DMG compared to the new dagger with 115DMG. Yea Mandau will still probably out perform it but it's a bit underwhelming when weapons are coming so close to the be all end daggers.
I see Mandau at 91 DMG compared to the new dagger with 115DMG. Yea Mandau will still probably out perform it but it's a bit underwhelming when weapons are coming so close to the be all end daggers.
Well, their Mythic is a lot better than it once used to be. +40% to Mandalic and all, and the SATA bonus. Empy's in general are just disappointing, and they should provide a damage bonus to their ws like the equivalents.
As for their Relic vs other 119 daggers, square have stated in the past that relics shouldn't be significantly better than their 119 alternatives. It being slightly better is probably inline with this philosophy.
On paper, Ipetam (the 115 dmg dagger you mentioned) looks better, sure. In reality though, Mandau has a significantly lower delay on it, so its DPS is only actually fractionally behind. Then when you take into account that it has occasionally deals 3x damage on it, the pure DPS isn't even in the same ball park. Also, as it happens, Izhiikoh although a lower damage actually beats Ipetam for DPS too, and it has 2% TA on it as well.
Mandau then makes up for it's lower damage by the fact that Mercy Stroke (with 40% extra damage on it) blows away any other WS done by a non RME dagger.
The only thing that makes Mandau (and Vajra) bad is that none of their useful traits carry over when equipped in the off-hand, meaning that owners of both/all 3 are still better off using Izhiikoh in the off-hand.
As a qualification to that mercy stroke statement, that only applies to SA or TA WSs done with low TP.