Inhaled knock-out used to be the most reliable way to knock out someone by far. And that was even when I was playing a svirf poisoner with a size disadvantage. Now inhaled poison seems to fail as frequently as blackjack, if not as badly as strangle. With this high of a fail rate on inhaled poison, poisoners are nerfed so badly they're virtually useless until grenades come along (though I haven't yet had a chance to see if those still work as before).

So what gives?

I'd have to go code diving to refresh myself on which knock-out methods are better than what, when, etc., but I can tell you that inhaled poison hasn't been touched, let alone nerfed, in many many years.

Beyond that... *shrug* There seem to be varying opinions. One of them might even be half right.

When I played several h-drow thugs prior to 2015, I always learned blackjack (as opposed to weapon-butt blackjack). It had a much better success rate than 50% on PCs and mobs, once perfected, from what I recall. Far better. Maybe better than 75%.

Gr

I played several poisoners, and I always succeeded to KO someone far more than I failed. Now I'm failing far more than I succeed. And this has persisted even against PCs of a lower level than me, when I'm using a vial of poison that has a higher level than me. I even used a KO poison with a level of 60 at one point and failed repeatedly against a PC in their mid 30s. I was certain to wait for physical sleep protection to wear off before making each consecutive attempt. What's more, inhaled application seems to be similarly nerfed even when the target is asleep. During one of the times when I actually succeeded, I failed to apply fear poison 3 or 4 times in a row while they were unconscious. If knocked out, inhaled used to work close to 100% of the time.