Introduction

Hi, my name is Byaku (Byaku#5660). I'm playing a variety of classes and decided to make a BD guide so people stop asking me for it in dms. If you have any questions, make sure to read the guide. In this guide, I'm only going to go in-depth on important Blade Dancer skills.

(If you're interested in learning more classes, check out our Class Guide Archive) - Vino

Skills

Kali

[Soul Flurry]: Used for your [CM3] with [Blade Step]

[Phantom Guard]: Super armor buff + damage reduction

Dancer

[Chakram Flurry]: Bubble gaining skill. Gives 4 bubbles on hit. Try using this more often than [Whirligig] as it does good damage unlike the other bubble skill.

[Whirligig]: Bubble gaining skill. Low damage, only good for bubbles.

[Bladeflip]: Useless, don’t bother.

[Swivel Charge]: Only useful as filler if it’s really needed (with your [CM2])

[Chakram Storm]: One of your 4 main dps skills. More on that later.

[Frolic]: Good long iframe. It is affected by the cooldown reduction of gaining 10 bubbles so you will have access to it a lot to dodge certain mechs easily due to long iframe. Useless as damage skill.

[Mist Caper]: Damage taken debuff. Has no cooldown if you land the hit. Part of your [CM2].

[Butterfly Whirl]: [Special Attack Button] during tumble, gives prolonged i-frame.

[Windcall]: Useless

[Windcall Twirl]: Keep this buff up 24/7. Gives 30% FD, reduces incoming damage by 10% and restores 5% HP on cast. If you need to recover without healer, spam it. Careful not to mistime it’s use, as if you get debuffed right after use you will lose a lot of damage.

[Dance of Ecstasy]: Main source of damage. This buff has 2 versions (3 but we don’t talk about the 3rd). Using dance and pressing [Special Attack Button] summons the Minotaur and gives you a flat 60% damage boost on all skills. Use the [Special Attack Button] option for bosses above 70% hp. It has a duration of 20 seconds. Using [Regular Attack Button] during Dance summons the elves and will give 1.5% extra damage per % of boss hp lost. At 60% boss HP it evens out the damage buff of the Minotaur version. This has only a duration of 15 seconds. Depending on how fast the HP of the boss drains you can use elves at 70% already f.e. in nests, where boss HP depletes very fast. Otherwise start using the elves version beginning with 60-65% boss HP.

Blade Dancer

[Squall Spin]: Make sure to land this skill without fail. It recharges both your Bubble-gaining skills ([Chakram Flurry] & [Whirligig]). Never use this skill with 0 bubbles, as you will have no chance to get to full 10 bubbles without waiting for the skills cooldown. Always ensure you have at least 4 bubbles before use. It is an i-frame.

[Gust Dementia]: Your best friend and helper. Huge damage, forward momentum, somewhat long animation commitment. It has high super armor, so in combination with Phantom Guard you can tank quite a bit of damage without getting knocked back. Combined with the total of 30% damage reduction (Phantom Guard 20% + [Windcall Twirl] 10%) you are able to trade damage with it if you can’t avoid it. Otherwise try to avoid damage by moving out of the way while using it.

[CM]: [Chakram Flurry] and [Whirligig] gives 4 bubbles each. At 10 bubbles you get a 20% AS increase and your Blade Dance skills get recharged by 60%. You will make use of this a lot.

[CM2]: When you use [Butterfly Whirl] or [Mist Caper], [Swivel Charge] becomes an instant skill. Mostly useless, but when you accidentally miss your [Squall Spin] you can use this as filler.

[CM3]: When you use Soul Flurry [Blade Step]’s AS and damage increases by 50%. (on that later in [Blade Step])

Awakening

[Grazing Rush]: One of your 4 main dps skills. Good damage, forward momentum. You might have to jump a bit backwards to not travel too far or use it as chasing skill.

[Blade Step]: Your other best and worst enemy at the same time. Does huge damage, [CM3] version does about the same damage as [Gust Dementia], but is a lot faster. It’s downside is that it is stationary and has a somewhat questionably narrow hitbox. Make sure to position yourself as far inside the boss hitbox as possible to land it. The non-[CM3] version is a full i-frame, but does less damage. You want to use [CM3] as much as possible, but if it delays your rotation too much by having to walk away from danger and back in to dps, you might just as well use it as a long i-frame.

Gameplay

You have 4 main damage skills, 2 (3) bubble skills and one buff.

DMG: [Gust Dementia], [Blade Step] [CM3], [Chakram Storm], [Grazing Rush].

Dementia & [Blade Step] do by far the most damage, so make sure to land it at all costs!

[Chakram Storm] and [Grazing Rush] is your other burst set, although with less damage.

Make sure [Windcall Twirl] has an uptime of 100%.

Skill Build

Unified skills: Max HP Boost, Final Damage Boost

Skill Crests

[Phantom Guard CDR], [Gust Dementia DMG], [Chakram Flurry DMG], [Windcall Twirl CDR], [Squall Spin CDR], [Chakram Storm DMG]

Skill up: +1 Gust Dementia

Rotation

A: [Windcall Twirl] --> [Gust Dementia] --> [Blade Step] [CM3]

B:  [Chakram Flurry]/[Whirligig] + [Special Attack Button] --> reset with [Squall Spin] --> [Chakram Flurry]

Be sure to use [Chakram Flurry] twice and [Whirligig] only once, as flurry does more damage

Each [Chakram Flurry]/[Whirligig] gives you 4 bubbles, use enough to get 10 to reduce cooldown of all your skills by 60% and 20% AS

C: [Chakram Storm] --> [Grazing Rush]

now the rota:

A --> B --> C --> B --> A --> B --> C --> B --> …

Bonus tips

  • Never use all your 4 damage skills before resetting it’s cooldown partially. You have to at least fill bubbles to 10 before using [Chakram Storm] and are allowed to use the other 3 skills in succession. If you do this you will have to use your [CM2] to bridge the gap of lack of skills, but it works out just fine.
  • Hug the boss. The hitboxes of most of your damaging skills are fairly narrow, hug them to ensure full hits!
  • Pre-stack some bubbles even if you might not need them yet. You can get to 8 bubbles before using your big damage skills. This helps you recover from missing a [Squall Spin] as those skills will already have their cooldowns recharge. Especially valuable before [Dance of Ecstasy], as you want to spend the minimum amount of time to regain bubbles to ensure you land your big skills.
  • Time [Dance of Ecstasy] well, as a big part of your damage comes from there. Timing this comes by learning bosses and mechanics properly.
  • Use Phantom Guard when you think you will have to tank hits.

I-Frames

The only really reliable i-frames are tumble & [Frolic]. But there are a few options:

  • [Frolic]: Long i-frame with a bit of a windup. You can cancel the backward animation with [Squall Spin] if you have at least 4 bubbles, otherwise don’t.
  • [Butterfly Twirl]: Prolonged i-frame after tumble/extra mobility.
  • [Bladeflip]: i-frame in the air but sucks overall.
  • [Blade Step]: non-[CM3] version is a full i-frame. Usage was explained in the [Blade Step] section.
  • [Swivel Charge]: yes but no

Dragon Gems

1 Conversion + 3 Elemental