Solo Bladedancer
61 Bladedancer - 15 Tactician - 0 Ranger
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#z/xkGB5liGkG8/Th9E|XJPw
Rotation will change for each level, but i’ll do rotations for a 10 level block and explain abilities/rotations there.
Through levels 1-65 ignore all mention of Legendary abilities, they do not affect you until levels 66 onwards.
Level 1 - 10.
In this level gap you are given 10 abilities (and 1 passive)
~ Keen Strike
~ Side Steps
~ Deadly Strike
~ Deadly Dance (passive)
~ Quick Strike
~ Flash of Steel (charge)
~ Call Razorbeast
~ Quick Shot
~ Empyrean Bolt
~ Necrotic Torrent
~ Empyrean Ray (relatively useless, and you won’t ever need it)
Quick Shot and Empyrean Bolt both have a 30m range, Necrotic Torrent has a 20m range but is an AoE ability - And is more effective to use on >2 targets.
Call: Razorbeast is a standard pet summon that will be useful on solo content up to level 36.
Deadly Dance is a passive buff that will proc every time you use a bladedancer finisher (which is why Empyrean ray is useless) - You will almost allways use Deadly Strike at 5 combo points to gain the maximum effect of Deadly Dance, with the exception of an opener
Rotation for this level gap will be as follows - Flash of Steel - Deadly Strike - Quick Strike - Keen Strike - Quick Strike (continue this till 5 combo points - use Deadly Strike and repeat starting from Quick Strike until the mob is dead.
Use Side Steps when necessary as a defensive cooldown (50% dodge increase)
Note - Until you get Quick Strike/Deadly Strike you’ll be spamming Keen Strike, the rotation listed above is for players who are level 10.
Level 11-20.
In this level gap you gain 5 new abilities;
~ Weapon Barrage - Interrupt - 8s CD (useful for mobs with casttimes)
~ Twin Cleave - Spammable AoE - hits 5 targets.
~ Blade Tempo - Dance (see below)
~ Curative Engine - Buff
~ Reprisal (useless - never use this as it’s a dps loss)
~ Compound Strike - AoE Finisher
Rotation remains virtually the same, except now you have a Rythmic Action (dance - Blade Tempo) these are very important for Bladedancer DPS and you will gain more as your level increases, Blade Tempo will increase your damage by 30% for 15s - To be used off CD (when starting a fight)
Twin Cleave is useful when there are >3 targets - Any less and its a dps loss
You should keep Curative Engine on at all times.
Why not use Reprisal if its oGCD?
Reprisal uses a stack of Deadly Dance, which means if you use it when Deadly Dance up its a dps loss, there is a chance for you to use Reprisal in-between the GCD of your 3rd builder (which uses the last buff of Deadly Dance) and Double Strike, but that would be more work than most players are willing to put into a solo build, and it’s rare that Reprisal will proc in a raid situation
Compound Strike is a dps increase to use on >2 targets
Level 21-30
Your dances now last 21seconds - In this level block you gain 5 new abilities
~ Precision Strike - ST Builder
~ Combat Preparation - Group Buff
~ Meditative Trance - Self Heal Finisher
~ Necrotic Core - Small AoE (You won’t use this)
~ Sprint - Increases movement speed for 15 seconds by 50%
ST rotation is slightly changed, you will incorporate Precision Strike into your rotation now, so it will look like:
Flash of Steel - Deadly Strike - Precision Strike - Keen Strike - Precision Strike - Deadly Strike
Quick Strike is now a dps loss to use (Precision Strike allows for more finishers and because it grants 2 combo points allows for all your builders to benefit from Deadly Dance - Which in this level block got increased dramatically)
Use Meditative Trance if required (small self-heal - Heal based on the amount of combo points used)
Level 31-40
In this level gap you gain 7 abilities
~ Dauntless Strike - Now replaces Deadly Strike for your main finisher
~ Dancing Steel - 360° aoe - 7m range around the rogue
~ Double Coup - Another Dance - Increases builder damage by 85%
~ Dissasemble - Debilitates for 6s
~ Dualism - Your Precision/Quick Strike hit twice and grant an extra combo point.
~ Defensive Pose - Self-buff that increases movement speed
~ Barrier Remote - Self Shield
You also gain a buff that procs when you crit called Dualist Pose that increases weapon damage/ap by 4% per stack (max 5 stacks)
New dance order is as follows:
Dualism > Double Coup > Blade Tempo (for ST)
Blade Tempo > Double Coup > Dualism (for AoE)
When you use Dualism your rotation changes slightly, and Quick Strike becomes useful again.
When its up it will be as follows;
Flash of Steel - Dauntless Strike - Dualism - Quick Strike - Keen Strike - Quick Strike - Dauntless Strike
Defensive Pose can be used out of combat and when needed to in combat, don’t keep it up all the time as it risks draining you from energy.
Barrier Remote will be used as a CD when needed
Dancing Steel is a dps increase to use on >2 targets or at the last second of Blade Tempo which makes it a dps increase because it will carry the buff of Blade Tempo for the duration of the channel.
Note - in this level gap your ranger pet will stay capped at level 36 and won’t progress any more.
Level 41-50
In this level gap you gain 3 more abilities!
~ Hundred Blades - Cone based AoE - 20m range (its larger than you think so be careful when using it)
~ Untangle - Break Free
~ Disengage - Stun
Not much to explain in this level gap, ST rotation remains the same, Hundred Blades is a dps increase on >2 targets.
Level 51-60
In this level gap you will complete the BD tree, and gain 4 new abilities
~ Blade and Soul Parity - New dance
~ Fated Blades - New dance
~ Double Strike - New main finisher (*)
~ Binary Strike - Replaces Keen Strike
2 new dances means a new dance rotation. This is where Dualist Pose comes into play, if you are at 0 stacks of Dualist Pose, you’re going to start with Blade and Soul Parity, if you’re at 5 stacks of Dualist pose, you’re going to start with Fated Blades.
Dance rotation will look like this (with 0 stacks)
BaSP > Fated > Dualism > Double Coup > Blade Tempo - ST
BaSP > Fated > Blade Tempo > Double Coup > Dualism - AoE
If you have 5 stacks swap BaSP/Fated around.
New builder and finisher means a new rotation! Your new rotation will look like
Flash of Steel > Double Strike > Precision Strike > Binary Strike > Precision Strike > Double Strike. (repeat from the first Precision Strike)
If you are using the Dualism dance, your rotation will look like;
Flash of Steel > Double Strike > Dualism > Quick Strike > Binary Strike > Quick Strike > Double Strike. (repeat from the first Quick Strike)
(*) - With the new Finisher compound Strike is now a dps increase on >3 targets (slightly less dps when used on 2)
Level 61-65
This is the end of spending points into your soul tree! Congratulations! Now, masteries, although these are fairly easy so you don’t need to worry.
You will gain one mastery per level, 61 through to 65 (so 5 in total)
The Mastery choices you want to take are:
61 - Planar Replenishment
62 - Revitalize
63 - Juke and Run
64 - Repetitive Strikes
65 - Planar Variation
Planar Variation can either be used as a Self heal, or an aoe attack - Not to be used for ST.
Level 66-70
Welcome to SFP! With 4.0 came an entirely new way to improve abilities, by making them Legendary! What is a Legendary ability?
[quote] To put it simply, Legendary Powers makes your favorite abilities even better! Whether it’s adding new effects, new mechanics, or simply powering up an ability to a whole new level, the Legendary version of a power amplifies your power! [/quote}
You get to pick 5 Legendary abilities, 3 is the maximum you can spend in any soul tree. Each soul tree has 5 different legendary abilities that you can pick and choose from - Once you’ve locked the selection in you can’t change it unless you do a soul reset.
You gain one Legendary point per level (5 in total) here is how you should spend your points:
66 - Curative Engine (Tact)
67 - Twin Cleave
68 - Empyrean Bolt
69 - Fated Blades
70 - Hundred Blades
I recommend always taking Curative Engine first, the others don’t really need an order, but that’s how I spent mine.
Twin Cleave will refresh your current dances, so you use Twin Cleave at the last second of your current Dance.
When you get Empyrean Bolt you will want to use it after every Twin Cleave (you have a 20s period that you can use Emp Bolt in - Try to use it when you’ve spent all of your Deadly Dance stacks so you don't lose dps)
Fated Blades allows you to have Fated + Another dance at the same time, the other dance will be Blade and Soul Parity - These should have a 100% uptime in perfect scenarios
Hundred Blades now no longer has a CD, but will increase the cost of energy with every subsequential cast - You can cast Hundred Blades 3 times before getting fully drained.
Your ST rotation for a level 70 BD should look like:
Opener;
Apply Dances -> Flash of Steel -> Finisher (to proc Deadly Dance) -> Call: Razorbeast -> Precision Strike -> Binary Strike -> Precision Strike -> Deadly Strike -> Double Strike
From this point your rotation would look something like;
- Precision Strike - Binary - Precision - Fin
Whilst using Twin Cleave/Empyrean Bolt as necessary
Your ST rotation should look like:
Pre-cast both dances (BaSP and Fated) and Call: Razorbeast as you're about to start.
Hundred Blades x 3 - Twin Cleave (to refresh dances) - Empyrean Bolt - Dancing Steel -> Emp bolt - Planar Variation - Hundred Blades - Twin Cleave - Empyrean Bolt - Hundred Blades x2 - Dancing Steel - Empyrean Bolt
There is the possibility of having to clip your hundred blades/dancing steel a second early to refresh the dances, rotation is slightly clunky for that.
From this point on its waiting for your dancing steel to come off CD and Hundred Blades de-buff to drop, you can start pre-casting Hundred Blades at the last second of the de-buff as it won’t tick for 1 gcd, so it won’t add to the de-buff and making sure you refresh your dances.