Dagger specs were not nearly as big a problem for me as the long-term bleeding and the oneshot boneshatter combined that you get with impale. Although you're not wrong and a dagger/whip is a dangerous as hell spec combo for a bard to handle; trying to layer maledicts through distortion when you want to focus on fast damage doesn't work out as well as bleeding them out for a bit first, then going to town with your second spec (something like axes, hands or even swords).

Even if you get distorted, impale is your first strike and gets the long-ass bleeding you need to start leaking them of precious mana. Their songs are all up in the 20-40 mana range and they don't get trance. Most bards go into battle with about 500 mana (their prep songs are quite expensive to maintain) and that doesn't translate into a lot of staying time if they're not gaining something. The chances that you can whomp a bard like a cracked out giant axe spec are low, but the trickier bards that rely on long fights to land maledicts on tough foes (a la Eoria) will be stung much harder by Impale than by other maledicts. And for me, that's more critical versus the imperial training batch who have abnormally good defenses.

Yhorian