In ToA, you generally stop bringing a dragon dagger once you have a better spec weapon for your budget and raid level, with the most common upgrade path being zamorakian hasta → abyssal dagger / fang for melee damage and specs. The dagger is mainly a cheap early-game spec option; once your other gear is strong enough, it becomes one of the first melee items you can replace.

Practical cutoff

  • Keep it if you’re on a tight budget and still need a low-cost spec weapon for early ToA runs.
  • Replace it once you can afford a stronger melee weapon, especially if you’re already moving into higher-efficiency setups like a hasta or better.
  • If your raid team or setup is more focused on consistent damage than cheap burst specs, the dragon dagger usually falls off fast in value.

Simple rule of thumb

  • Early ToA: fine to bring.
  • Mid budget: upgrade away from it.
  • Higher budget / more optimized raids: skip it.

Why people stop using it

The dragon dagger is cheap and usable, but ToA gear progression guides commonly move from it to stronger weapons as soon as possible, which makes it more of a starter item than a long-term raid slot. Discussion around ToA dagger choices also centers on whether other daggers or weapons outperform it, which reinforces that it’s usually not the end-state spec weapon.

TL;DR: stop bringing dragon dagger to ToA when you can comfortably upgrade to a better melee spec/weapon setup; it’s mainly for budget or early progression raids.