Bladedancer is my most favourite spec in rift, with its amazing playstyle of insane burst aoe and great ST, this spec has, in my opinion the most fun rotation! And the best thing, there are no macro's!
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Buffs:
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- Virulent Poision
- Leeching Poison
- Combat Preparation - Overwritten in raids by bards/oracles
- Defensive Pose, only to be toggled on when you're not near the fight or a disconnect is coming up
Masteries:
Level 61 - Any, i used Aggressive Defence
Level 62 - Any, i used Adamant Resolve
Level 63 - I used Boundless Energy, but you can use Juke and Run for dat increased movement speed on bosses that require you to move quickly.
Level 64 - Repetitive Strikes.
Level 65 - Energy Manipulation.
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Lets get started, there are 3 variants of this spec that you can use, these are;
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#yr8/xkGB5liGkG8/ws|TtTw - Mix between ST and AoE - doesnt suffer the losses as bad. Recommended to use.
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#y9E/xkGB5liGkG8/wn0 - Higher ST dps but has less AoE dps
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#y90/xkGB5liGkG8/wg - Higher AoE but has less ST dps
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Another note, this isn’t your top AOE BD spec either, this is a mix of your st, and aoe. And it works really well for both.
Ok, lets get on to the rotation of BD. BD doesn’t use any macros, don’t try to make it “easier” by making them yourself. Listen to my advice, making macros will make it harder and more annoying to play.
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Your ST Abilities!
Flash of Steel - Basic Charge - 30m range - Can be increased to 40 if you take Timed Focus as the level 64 Mastery but its a slight dps loss
Binary Strike - Basic Builder - Will be used before Quick Strike or Precision Strike
Quick Strike/Precision Strike - Basic Builder, Precision Strike give 2 combo points Quick Strike grants 1, but both can only be used after Binary Strike.
Double Strike - Your Main Finisher,
Dauntless Strike - Debuff Finisher - Usually in raids an assassin will put this debuff up with Lethal Posion (not that there are many occassions to play BD in raid)
Hundred Blades - 20m range cone aoe, hits 8 targets and can be used as a ST dps gain (more on this later)
Dancing Steel - 360 Degree AoE with a 7/8 meter range.
In a raid situation youre always going to start with 5 combo points (generate them with specs such as Phys, Tact or sab). Yes its min/maxing but it takes like, 8 seconds. Take the time to do it.
Your dances are where your dps comes from. Here is the list of dances in order of strength:
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Fated Blades
Blade and Soul Parity
Dualism
Double Coup
Blade Tempo
Side Steps
Fated Blades is your highest damage boosting dance, however this is only the case if you have 5 stacks of Dualist Pose. Dualist Pose is generated every time you crit. Usually on a fight you will start with 0 stacks of Dualist Pose, so you will usually start the fight with Blade and Soul Parity.
So, the usual rotation of dances will be: Blade and Soul Parity, Fated Blades, Dualism, Double Crop, Blade Tempo, Side Steps.
Don’t macro these, please.
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Here is the rotation for BD.
Opener: Flash of steel > Binary Strike > Finisher
After the opener your rotation will be: Quick Strike > Binary strike > Precision Strike > Binary Strike > Finisher.
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But Ani why do we use Precision Strike is Quick Strike does more dps?
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In Bladedancer, using a finisher will give you 3 stacks of Deadly Dance. Deadly Dance will improve the dps of the next 3 combo point generating abilities. By doing this rotation it ensures that every builder will be procced by Deadly Dance, meaning its a dps loss to just continuously use Quick Strike.
The rotation stays the same until you use Dualism. While using Dualism it will allow Precision and Quick strike to hit twice, while giving an extra combo point. This means Quick strike will give 2 combo points, while precision strike will give 3.
Because of this the rotation will change to:
Quick Strike > Binary Strike > Quick Striker > Finisher > Binary Strike > Precision Strike > Binary > Finisher. Rinse and repeat.
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For BD, your damage is based upon your off-hand attacks. Which means its wise to put your highest damage weapon in your off-hand slot, if you’re wanting to min/max dps.
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Tips for ST dps:
Hundred Blades will keep the entire proc of Fated Blades. You can clip the last second of Fated Blades by casting Hundred blades. This is a ST dps increase because it will do more damage than Dualism, ofc don’t use it if you need hundred blades for aoe dps further in the fight.
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Ok, in order to do aoe your dance rotation will be:
BaSP (if you haven’t got 5 stacks of Dualist Pose, if you do have 5 stacks, use Fated Blades first)
Fated Blades
Blade Tempo
Double Crop
Dualism
Side steps
Your aoe dps relies on Hundred Blades and Dancing Steel, if these are on CD use Twin Strike x5 and use compound strike as your finisher.
Things about Bladedancer that can help you:
Hundred Blades and Dancing steel – the first tick of damage on these abilities happens a gcd after its cast, if you can time the mechanics that its needed for, it can be a dps increase.
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Twin Strike is a DPS loss compared to the ST rotation unless there are at least three targets.
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