Afflictions and Tanto

[Darren Evans]

Am I right in thinking that afflictions like bleed and poison are not that important for Tanto weapon style? All the affliction bonuses and buildup buffs seem to only be in the Katana tree. I would think that Vulnerable Damage and armour penetration is more useful for Tanto to get those critical hits, yet there are Tanto's out there that have bleed and poison attributes.

My playstyle focuses on Leap Strike and Backstab in the Tanto tree. Leap Strike often leaves you behind the enemy who is now Vulnerable, ready for Backstab to deal massive damage. I also use Vault from Shinobi tree to make getting behind enemies for the Backstab too.

[Maguel]

I find the Tanto specifically great for affliction builds. It's fast attack speed procs afflictions quickly. Been using legendary poison tanto that has a perk that makes afflicted enemies vulnerable and i pair it with a perk that after attacking a weak point attack it makes the enemy vulnerable a second time. This results in 4 weak point attacks in row at best with the enemy being poisoned on top of it. I'd prefer a bleed tanto instead of poison but there's hardly any good bleed type legendary tantos right now. Stacking vulnerable damage is pretty viable too but no matter how much you can stack it i think doing 4 vulnerable attacks in a row is still stronger.