So, it has always been interesting to me that Dark Quiver can spec into Shadow generation so I what I’m trying to do here is put it into good use with Shadow Cascade as Bladedancer, since afaik that’s the skill that benefits from shadows most. I 've been playing a Bladedancer Flow build with shadows and Shadow Cascade for a while and I have some experience on how the whole thing works, so I think this may have some potential. The only issue that exists with this build is that the only Marksman nodes worth taking to get to unlock Dark Quiver are the Dexterity+dodge debuff and Concentration nodes so we have to play around that and that’s what I’m trying to do (the debuff is just an ok boost I guess, but Concentration is something you need to play around imo, especially as Bladedancer). And from that fact come my skill choices:
- Shadow Cascade. Main skill.
- Smoke Bomb. Absolutely necessary for Concentration to work I believe. I don’t think it can ever work without it.
- Dark Quiver. 2nd main skill. For shadow generation mostly but certainly not limited to that.
- Ballista. For supplemental damage.
- Shift. For boosting Shadow Cascade and, well, to dodge obviously.
How these skills are supposed to work:
We 're looking at a 5-Flow build, which I’m not really sure if it’s for the best but it’s been working really nice on the build I 've been playing and I think it would be quite good here too. So, the sequence of the skills used would be like this: Smoke Bomb-Ballista-Ballista-Dark Quiver-Shift-Shadow Cascade. What would actually happen is that you would run around inside Smoke Bomb picking up Black Arrows while your Ballistae shoot at things and finally use Shift inside the crowd and end the combo with Shadow Cascade for what is expected be massive damage and AoE (from Shadows).
The whole concept sounds very interesting to me although I’m not sure if I would ever play such a build because I just want something to spam on my left click. Regardless, I just wanted to put the idea on the table and see what people think of it.
As for the specialiazation choices, I’d like to talk about Smoke Bomb and Dark Quiver mostly. With Smoke Bomb I’m aiming for additional dodge rating and duration mostly, while Armor Shred is just a very nice boost and in Dark Quiver I’m aiming, except for the Shadows, for Dusk Shroud stacks and increased Arrow frequency, as well as Ballistae boosts. I 'd like to believe that with these choices you 'll be able to cast the whole combo twice during a single Smoke Bomb- …ok just realized you can’t do that, I’m an idiot. So maybe a 4-Flow setup with Smoke Bomb/Ballista/Dark Quiver/Shadow Cascade and replace Smoke Bomb with Shift while it’s on cd? Don’t know, sounds messy. Damn, the whole thing is ruined.
Anyway, just tell me what you think of this in the comments and if you have an idea to improve this in any way just tell me.
Here’s the link to the build:
(Last-minute change: Removed Pulse node)
