Assassins are indeed about getting behind a target as quickly as possible, and delivering as many backstabs as possible. Daggers do not do much good with frontal attacks, to the point where if you miss a backstab and the enemy turns around, it's better to end your turn and save the AP than to keep attacking.
However, my warning about lowering the base 3 AP cost of 1H weapons isn't about dagger damage, it's about the damage of non-dagger 1H weapons. If 1H weapons cost 2 AP, that means they can do a lot more attacks than they can now, which would make them overpowered because they ARE meant for frontal attacks and so they have much higher damage.
One other reason why I'm not so sure about the "let's think of 5 levels of bonuses" for all weapon specs is because before this patch, Daggers normally cost 2 AP and could backstab, and those were taken out to put into Way of the Rogue, seemingly to find something to put in there. I'm not sure they could think of 5 levels of bonuses for 1H, 2H, Bow, Crossbow, and each bonus would have to be tested and balanced, and the game is supposed to release in less than two months.
Well, 2 ap cost for a sword attack isn't as op as you think, it's just a 50% increase in total dps, the real advantage I'm sseeking there is to differentiate between the dps of a 1hand that would be specialized in dueling and 2hands that deals with crowds. Combined with a general increase in ennemy's hp after lvl5, (the game being relatively well balanced before this point), those changes wouldn't make those bonuses OP. As you've said yourself, there's currently no reason to ever take 1hand or 2 hands over way of the warrior.
As for thinking about 5 level of bonuses, we don't have to do it immediatly but number games won't just cut it if we want to balance the game because right now, with this system, there's barely any gains in power past lvl 9-10 when you have reached lvl5 main talent/15 main attribute. Those changes would allow a smoother progression to the later levels instead of currently peaking at lvl10. That's a rather big problem considering that the Beta is only 20% of the game.
As for way of the rogue, I thought about something else like that (daggers would backstab like before but their ap requirement would still be 3):
- lvl1 increase backstab damage and accuracy by 10%/ per level in way of the rogue (numbers may be lower)
- lvl2 avoid one attack of opportunity per round
- lvl3 at the start of your turn, if you aren't being sighted by any ennemies (sight determined by their perception and your sneaking level), you automatically go into sneak mode.
- lvl4 attacks done from sneaking can't miss and do 50% more damage
- lvl5 the first attack of your turn automatically crits
With various that can ONLY be used while in sneak mode like:
- shadow step (ap 1, cd 5): teleport to a place 15 meters away, that skill reloads when you go from visible to sneaking mode.
- deadly hit (ap ??, cd ??): does +100% damage.
- assassination (ap ??, cd ??): does +50% damage, if the ennemy dies from it and you are out of sight, you go back into sneaking mode.
I'm not sure how sneaking currently works in fights but it should have relatevily high ap cost for those skills to be balanced.
That way, instead of just being a dpser that attacks from behind, you become a real assassin that has to keep out of sight to do his job properly.
What I want, more than balancing, is giving each talent a different style of play that make it more interesting. Their main draw would start at lvl3 when it's relatively costly to get there.
Once you have a theme for each talent, finding 5 corresponding bonuses isn't that hard and could really improve the character building part of the game.
