Yes, I've done damage testing. I wouldn't have posted it as a recommendation if it didn't meet things out

I spent about 3 hours on dummies this week trying to convince myself this wasn't worth it and came out the other direction.
Solo on a dummy with 40% or so self-buff/crit I'm pulling 380-410K (saw 450K once during a 3 minute test but I think a trader might have drained the dummy for a bit ... otherwise it's crit randomness) depending on perks and Agg/Def setting. That's compared to 360-385K with just daggers (Xan or Medi-Blade) in similar gear/perks. So the damage add is significant. I'm using a Melee Arul + Perfected bracer to get +dmg. So overall it always seems to pull ahead. At the very least the Viral blade or Tonfa as an offhand is very useful for damage boost.
I'd pull more if I was more willing to manage Symbiosis in a Sublime Rapport (Symbiosis, which is a hidden massive boost to Ritual perks), but I mostly test with the tried and true SP setup instead of SR because of it's better solo/self-heal abilities. SR requires more management of Symbiosis timing before Ritual perks to get the almost double dmg buff compared to non-symbiosis Ritual perks. However there's no reason a standard perk layout can't be used. Lower damage but better defense.
Today on 12m with Soldier and Trader doing buffs/debuffs I was able to sustain 475K with various buffs. MoP gives a lot less DPS boost once you're selfing 40+ crit chance.
You've got the idea right that the only reason these setups are viable is that the newest MA weapons are ridiculous damage.
You can just use your standard Piercing perks. That's why you don't do this setup with Viral + Tonfa. I've been running this project with a couple of other MA shades (not coordinated, just at the same time). The MA buffing perks are also a valid selection but, as mentioned, lower soloing ability:
Piercing Mastery 10
Spirit Phylactery 10
Totemic Rites 10
Shadow (AI) 10
Acrobat 4
CiB 6 (3 if a trox without blue belt to keep Operative/Bastion out of OE)
Champion Light Infantry (AI) 10
either Atrox Primary or Champion of Nano (AI) depending on if you want to save IP for Nano
Most shades know this basic setup well and it serves very well.
However the max damage setup with good timing of perks seems to be:
Piercing Mastery 10
Shade Touch 7
Sublime Rapport 10
Totemic Rites 10
Shadow (AI) 10
Kung-Fu Mastery 3 (Tremor Hand after Ethereal Touch) ... or Genius 3 as per above for gear OE
Champion Light Infantry (AI) 10
either Atrox Primary or Champion of Nano (AI) depending on if you want to save IP for Nano
(I'm still doing the Genius 3 setup, so once I get my blue belt I'll be able to do some final number testing)
The reason the second setup works so well is 4 main things:
- Symbiosis (SR10) is "bugged" (but was kept bugged during rebalance) and you simple get the top Chthonian Symbiosis immediately for buffing Ritual perks from Totemic Rites. That means every 80 seconds you get 275 more add dmg than the basic Totemic Rites for 30 seconds.
- Ethereal Touch from Sublime Rapport gives Tremor Hand from Kung-Fu Mastery a good buff, but more importantly:
- Ethereal Touch and Doom Touch are huge -AC to boss
- with CoLI and Kung-Fu Mastery you're ending up with around 2250 MA, which due to how MA scales is noticeably better than 2K
The downsides to a MA perk setup are:
* Slightly less defense from no medi-blade heal proc
* Much less defensive without Acrobat/CiB (but you could hybrid to get them)
* Even less defensive since Spirit Phylactery detaunts mobs but Sublime Rapport TAUNTS bosses
* More babysitting buffs in NCU to make sure you don't misfire Rituals when Symbiosis is about to pop (along with not popping them when the stronger versions are up but Symbiosis isn't, because since the better Ritual is running you won't extend Ritual, you'll just lose it for a good chunk of the fight).
I'm planning to run the more traditional perks most of the time and run the MA/dmg perk setup for giggles when I want to mess with an enforcer. Today's 12m Bulldrone couldn't keep agg while I was trying.
Once I get my shoulders Awakened and a Blue Belt and do yet another Perk reset I'll post final numbers with all of the various configurations and 10+ minutes per on dummies, but it may be awhile.
I'm also hoping to eventually (who isn't?) score an ACDC on him. I'll probably swap out my crit scope for an Aggressive Webbing as well. 10% less crit but buffs to direct nano efficiency (if it works on perks, I'll find out) and lets me swap to Research HUDs on demand.