I've been searching through the internet and I can't find a good build for this subclass anymore, and I'll explain why in a moment, but please, if anyone knows good PVE Bladedancer builds, I really want to play it again. BADLY.
When TTK dropped I picked up Nightstalker and didn't look back for about a year. The biggest reason? Vanish in Smoke. In year 1 I kept my fireteam fighting through Nightfalls with Bladedancer's invisibility, but as soon as Vanish in Smoke appeared, I picked up my Monte Carlo and became invisible at the touch of a button, no need to crouch or run into combat. It wasn't until I was reminded of Celestial Nighthawk's destructive power with ROI (as Nighthawk was useless in King's Fall) that I touched Gunslinger again, and I'm glad I did. I love that subclass again, and I really wanted Bladedancer back. But it's useless now.
Bladedancer invisibility is pointless compared to Vanish in Smoke. Arc Blade is terrific in PVP, but for PVE, even with the buff to damage, it's horrible. It takes forever to chew into anything worth using a super on, so it sits there doing nothing, and not even Memory of Felwinter (lose super, gain extra grenade and melee) can make up for that, because the melee abilities aren't that useful anymore.
The biggest problem is that every other subclass in destiny has terrific synergies. All warlock and titan subclasses are fun to me because of it, but Bladedancer's only real synergy revolves around Shadowjack, and once again... Vanish in Smoke. I really wish they'd just replace Shadowjack with somethig better. Give the full invisibility timer to anyone who uses a perk slot on invisibility (they deserve it if they do), and replace Shadowjack with a useful PVE perk, with some real synergy. Bladedancer was incredible year one, and I want to use it again.
If anyone has any really useful builds that are specific to Bladedancer, I'd love to have a reason to use it again. Please let me know.
Edit: Most of the suggestions so far are either conditional to Arc Burn being on for strikes (what if I want to play story or run Bladedancer for raid?) or fail to take into account that Nightstalker can do better what they're suggesting.
Edit 2: Lord Mathias suggested changing Shadowjack's perk to something like this: (Abilities used when coming out of invisibility have increased damage/double damage.) This would give Hunters a reason to choose Bladedancer's invisibility over Nightstalker's invisibility, and the abundant methods of going BD invis would make it easy damage to attain. You'd probably have to lower the damage for PVP, but what do people think?
Edit 3: There's a lot of comments posting in Bladedancer's defense, and I'm glad to see that people care enough about it. But if people really care, shouldn't we WANT it to be better. For every reason someone says it's not terrible, I can see multiple reasons why Nightstalker and Gunslinger are not only better, but can do what Bladedancer does anyway. For Titan and Warlock, each subclass has its own perks and differences, different playstyles and synergies. Are Hunters really NOT upset that one of our subclasses has been left behind so badly? Again, instead of defending it, shouldn't we be asking Bungie to take notice and improve it, make it useful? They wanted all subclasses to be useful in Wrath of the Machine (and we're talking PVE so raid is important here), but who can honestly say they find Bladedancer useful for WOTM instead of Nightstalker or occasionally Gunslinger. Of course I can't claim it's wrong/immoral, it's just a video game. But can people really not see/agree that it sucks?
Edit 4: More than a few suggestions have been given about builds to use, and after trying a few I've finally found one that's actually passable, though it still isn't as great as Nightstalker or Nighthawker and it uses your exotic armor and weapon. Fast Twitch for super quick melee regeneration, synergised (finally, though a small synergy) with Hungering Blade means quick recovery when needed. This also means you can put blink back on if you like/miss Blink. Then wear the Sealed Ahamkara Grasps for the additional melee (which means you have more chance at a kill to Proc Hungering Blade, and if you roll Switchblade for it you can get melee back even faster). Last but not least is the Monte Carlo, which reduces melee cooldown AGAIN and can fully recharge melee. SAG will also sometimes reload your primary, meaning more Monte ammo for more melees. It's a bit frantic for a build, but like I said it's passable, and it might still hold together if you change one of the exotics. For the other perks, try Fleetfooted for easy escape and quicker time to target, Arcbolt for dealing with overwhelming adds, and Showstopper for area protection. I'm going to test it in Crota's End soon and report back, but I invite others to try it too and comment below.
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3 RepliesBD was a crota raid beast