I’m just wondering. I have found some awesome uniques lately for rogues plus a lot of shards that I would use in the end game on T6 or T7 items because they are skill level increases and I think they would do great for Dancing Strikes. I see a lot of builds built around Shurikens and I have to admit, I have played those and Flurry and they absolutely rock. I am just looking to try something different.
I will not give you a build here, but there was a similar thread, where some1 ask for ways, how to use Dancing Strikes.
I can definitely tell you, that it is working very well.
The only issue Dancing Strikes has is the scalability at some point.
At least if you are using it as main damage source.
But Empowered Monolith is very doable, but 200-300+ corruption might be harder compared to other builds.
Here is the thread I am talking about, where i talk about possible applications for Dancing Strikes:
Thanks very much Heavy
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This is my current build for Dancing Strikes. It revolves around the Shadow Dagger proc and all the abilities aside from Decoy are built to provide support for Cascade/Shadow Dagger. I’ve taken this build to endgame Deathless, but have yet to make it to Empowered Monos just yet. I plan on continuing to take this build as far as it will go.
Essentially for Idols you’re looking for Improved Shadow Dagger Effect and/or Crit Multi since the Shadow Dagger proc is an instant Crit.
On another note, I’ve done some testing with an Ailment focused Dancing Strikes build that relies on Blade Barrier from Shuriken to help add Ailment stacks while dancing. If that interests you more, I can mock up a build for that, too!
Now This Rocks! Thank You Krolja! I am going to load into this right now and give it a go! This is the kind of thing I have been hoping to find for weeks lol! Thanks! I have been playing around with a lot of different ideas and playstyles but This is what I have been wanting to play with. I am not used to the Bladedancer skill sets though (hence my really wanting to play them so badly) and needed someone to help point me in a direction that would work and I really wanted to use Dancing Strikes especially. I am kind of tired of shurikens honestly. Shurikens is flat out deadly to the point of overkill so it made the game play boring for me.
You are very welcome! I hope you like it as much as I do! Feel free to tweak the Passives in the Glancing Blows areas to Dodge if you prefer a more Dodge heavy setup. I became really fond of the Glancing Blows after I had a few characters get bopped by some unlucky one shots when I didn’t Dodge when I really needed it. I also tend to have a slower reaction time when it comes to damage sometimes, so the Glancing Blows help give me the time I need to pop a potion when I get caught off guard by a big hit!
hi, I have not play this but have a quetion to the bd you posted. Shadow cascade’s node “porcupine’s wrath” says no melee attack, isnt it no longer effected by another node “excecution”, which is giving more “melee” damage?
Lol, nah I learned to love Glancing Blow a long time ago when I got the Marksman’s unique glancing blow quiver.
I see what Beelz is talking about and he may have a point BUT I have a suggested workaround. Actually four… Since execution is a single point access to get to Careful Assault, which does do substantial damage but the two “extra” points would “possibly” be wasted if the melee function is null, the two extra points can be placed elsewhere. I do have suggestions.
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One Point to Onslaught and One Point to Fight in the Shadows… why you may ask? First off, Careful Assault is built around having 4 shadows to gain it’s full benefit so we are already specing for 4 shadows. Cascade costs 15 Base Mana. Onslaught cuts that down to 11.25 mana per use. Then add in One point in to Fight in the Shadows. Fight in the Shadows lowers the mana cost (if you only put in one point like I am suggesting) by 3 mana Per Active Shadow. So If you have 4 Active Shadows, like we plan on using for Careful Assault, that discounts the cost of the skill by 12 Mana. … This would make Shadow Cascade a free cast every time we have four shadows up plus Careful Assault would be doing 100% extra damage on that attack.
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Shadow Torrent is another option. Two points added there would add 6% damage per shadow for each Cascade attack. That’s not a bad option either honestly.
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Rapid Expanse could have two points added increasing the area of the attack by 40% but that wouldn’t really increase your dps by much in most situations I am guessing.
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This is my last guess… One point into Daggerflow would increase the duration and range of the thrown daggers by 20%… then add one point into the next node… Fray would give each dagger fired (3 per attack) a 50% chance for a bleed effect and technically these bleed effects *can stack even though it doesn’t state it on the node.
Some options to play around with and learn with if the melee is null. I don’t know for certain that it is. I know this game has some weird curve ball rules on some nodes.
Again, Thanks Krolja
even the passive tree as well, there are few points allocated into base melee damage or melee damage%, if the melee function is null after the node porcupine’s wrath, these passvie nodes may have to change to other useful ones.
Krolja, before I jumped into creating a character and running with your build I was really intrigued and wanted to look in over in every detail. I’ll admit, I have Tourette’s Syndrome bad (luckily no cursing just movements) and built into that is OCD and ADHD supreme. I am naturally hyper and wired to an extreme. I’m lucky my wife loves me lol. Anyhow, I have been playing for a long time and I have played a lot of builds. I don’t know all the details behind the game because I had to work forever (until a few months ago when I became disabled and now I get a lot of free time). Anyhow again… This build of yours seems to be an S class build hands down with the right gear. The skills are definitely all there dude. This is definitely a tanky build. The Glancing Blow plus Dusk Shroud all over the place along with inherent Dex we have to use should keep just about anyone playing this alive and with Shadow Dagger built in to every skill pretty much as long as you are criting you are going to be doing a Lot of damage. I get ragged on about uniques but I lov’em. One in particular that drops at level 31 and higher would be a definite boon here if going for a crit build as long as it had decent stats (possibly getting better versions as you level up hopefully) and it gets paired with a really great dagger (doesn’t have to be unique as long as it is a great dagger) because of the passive Weapons of Choice built into Bladedancer. The sword I am talking about is Gladiator’s Oath. I have to hurry here. I have to help my wife but the sword does a LOT and it’s built around Dancing Strikes. One major part is every 3rd strike, it creates an arena zone around you in which every attack you make is a critical hit as long as the zone lasts. Someone told me it’s 10 seconds but I doubt thats true. That sounds too long. But that sword along with a nice dagger would guarantee tons of crit. Great job. This is hands down one of the best builds I have ever seen.
Now there I have to disagree simply because the passive trees affect not one skill but All skills.
Dancing strikes and every other ability are built around melee in this case.
Shadow Cascade is also in the “Blademaster” tree.
By giving Shadow Cascade a ranged function and, yes taking away its melee function, the creators simply gave the Blademaster tree, a melee based tree, a ranged option. Something which it did lack other than throwing a decoy and waiting for it to explode.
The melee nodes on the passive tree won’t benefit Shadow Cascade but they will effect the others. Why all of the others? Because of one key node in Dancing Blades. Shadow Daggers is an ability that is on every last skill from what I remember, therefore giving them all an inherent melee attack that crits.
If you are correct and by simply nullifying the melee ability of Shadow Cascade, the only heavy damage dealer on the Blademaster tree, that all melee passives are nulled, they need to reevaluate and remove that ranged option completely because it completely kills the whole idea of a blademaster.
Ohhhh, very good catch! I missed the melee part and the interaction with Procupine’s Wrath. I’ll amend the build. Thank you for catching that! I’m afraid I never would have!
Edit: Here’s the idea I went with. I looked at Leveraged Momentum since I’m already using Dancing Strikes and the Attack Speed scaling would now benefit both Dancing Strikes and Cascade. What do you guys think?
sure indeed, I only consider if I take Shadow Cascade as the only damage function, but like you say all I agree as well.
I am also new to this bd, you have a cool idea about it, I never have gotten into making a build with its skill proc like shadow dagger and other dagger nodes, so I m interested to take a look at it.
in addition to this, I usually consider choose only one or two main skills to dealt lots damage, and every others is build up upon it/them. in the bd Krolja’s, I have not been playing, but according to what I understand about rogue, I will take Shadow Cascade and its side-dagger as the only damaging skill, dancing strike is to buffing it and may have some non-mainly damage(during boss fight) If I am right. So first to first, I will go with maximize anything about the dagger part, unless I learn more about the whole bd during real fight then I will think about to make it better with the second skill, besides that, I may replace those points into survives and others.
All good. If you find something that works better or feels better feel free to let me know. I’ll gladly try something new! My whole idea behind this build is to have as many tools usable to proc Shadow Daggers as quickly and as often as possible.
So Shift/Cascade/Dancing Strikes all have some form of way to proc Shadow Daggers and between Shift CDs Dancing Strikes is always adding a Dagger and the free Cascades are just icing on the cake!
Right now my biggest concern I have is about the Perfection stacks. The more I look at the build, I’m curious how often we’ll maintain stacks since this build uses Glancing Blows instead of Dodge. I thought the final node of always granting Perfections at full health would be a good way to maintain it since the Leech in this build is so heavy.
Odd question but have you updated the Build Planner with your new ideas? I had to help my wife last night after my last mention (she works the late late shift from, a work at home) and then I had to go to bed. I had to work on my truck this morning. This in my first chance to jump back in.
Lol, Nm, I see it now. Jumping back in now haha. Thanks.
There may be a problem with Leveraged Momentum.
The problem is the node Crushing Darkness which is the keyhole node to all of the throwing dagger nodes. It specifically states that by taking it Cascade’s damage increases by 30% but in exchange it no longer scales from attack speed at all.
Another option to Leveraged Momentum is actually close by and actually states that it works hand in hand with Dagger Dance plus it can be upgraded with 4 points… 4 points which were previously put toward Leveraged Momentum.
That skill is Shadow Flourish. Yes it doesn’t help with single target at all but the way it works is , if you put all four points in to it, is as long as Shadow Cascade hits four enemies you deal an extra 140% damage for 4 seconds. In this game that is a long time and considering that we do damage fast, the downtime in areas like monoliths would be low because we would be hitting 4 mobs continuously pretty much throughout the game except in boss fights during non-trash parts of the fights. For example, during the Lagon fight when we have to fight the tentacles and all those sea creatures, we would constantly be gaining 140% bonus damage because we are constantly surrounded by mobs and tentacles. We would clear that phase pretty darn (excuse the language) fast. But in boss fights like the first time we fight Yulia the betrayer and her two allies, because there are only three mobs, it wouldn’t help. Luckily almost all of the game is 4+ enemy fights so this would almost always be active.
I noticed something BIG so I am asking the Rogue forum. Even after taking Porcupine’s Wrath, which says it removes melee attacks, the Shadow Cascade abilities three Tags maintains its Melee tag. In normal circumstances, if a node changed an aspect of a skill drastically it changed the tags too to reflect this. The tag would change to Throwing. Here it does not. It may be a bug and may get changed but I am asking. For now at least, the Melee nodes in the passive tree and on the Shadow Cascade tree may actually still effect it.