Category:Bladedancers

Long ago, in the time of the Great Fae, there lived a warrior of sublime grace and cunning, known as Tessrah Bladedancer. She developed a unique fighting style which she taught to some of her fellow Fae, and which was passed down among the High Elves after her death. Most High Elf Bladedancers were killed in the Second Great War, and the Fae who remember the art do not teach it to Midgaardians. Legend describes it as a semi-magical fighting style concentrating on misdirection and surprise. Like all Prestige Classes, they retain the original class's Prime Requisite, in this case, Dexterity. As the Bladedance is a highly passionate fighting style, Bladedancers can become Berserkers earlier than Rogues. However, they cannot become Assassins.

Abbreviation: Bld.

Base Class: Rogue.

Prime Requisite: Dexterity.

Bladedancers in General

Bladedancer Creation

At level 50, Rogues who meet the following requirements may become Bladedancers;

• Female - No male characters may become Bladedancers, nor neuter.
• 0(zero) Deaths - Your character may not have died up until this point, ever. If you are not sure if you have died or not so far, type score to find out.
• No, or, very very low racial damage modifier. Current known races: drw, elf, gob, gno, hel, Har, HiE, human, kzn, lzd, mir, spr and presumably a number of other unconfirmed races.
• Poise practiced.
• You may not have Racial Evil. Due to this, hob and dsd are not able to become Bladedancers.

If all these requirements are met, find Araxia in the Kingdom of the Willows to be inducted into this Prestige Class.

With Dodge being such an essential skill for Bladedancers in that it so strongly affects their stances, races with higher dexterity, rather than lower, would seem to be better suited to this Prestige Class. With creatable races, this would be Kzinti. Furthermore, if Racial Fly has a positive affect on one's Dodge (unconfirmed), then Harpy, or Sprite with Remort, may also prove to be a good choices.

Bladedancers at Hero Tier

Training

Bladedancers at hero tier will be able to train their dexterity five higher than at lowmort tier and to train their other statistics two higher than at lowmort tier. They will continue to be able to raise each of their statistics up to three more than they can train them to (respectively), unless they devote themselves to a deity, in which case these amounts may be modified slightly. See Devoting below for more information about this subject.

Practicing

Bladedancers practice with Araxia in Kingdom of the Willows. Sublime Grace is the first skill which should be practiced. This is the central skill for Bladedancers as it is a prerequisite for a number of other skills later on down the line, but beyond that it gives the ability to hit more often.

Enhanced Damage and Third Attack are possibly the most important skills to learn post-hero, as with Sublime Grace they will increase your hits to potentially six per round and the damage of each hit. Other skills or spells are essentially only as useful as you find them. However, Bladedancers appear to make reasonably good mana gains and Drow and Elves, for example, may be able to make good use of their no-fail quality to work as support or utility casters.

Once at 101, Bladancers will be able to practice Balance to increase the range of weapons they will be able to make use of effectively, learn Quickstrike and gain access to their Stances. Bladedance will only be useful when soloing or tanking, and Inspiring Dance only for the later when leading mana users. Dervish Dance, however, can be used from any position within the group.

Devoting

Fighting

Prior to 101, Bladedancers fight in a very similar way to Rogues and even afterwards, there are more similarities than differences to their play styles. They are reasonably versatile from the very beginning and can take tank or hit positions, and their ability to solo steadily increases as they advance in levels, as with all all classes.

Soloing:

Tanking:

Hitting:

With Enhanced Damage and Third Attack allowing six attacks each round, Bladedancers can find themselves doing more damage than a warrior of the same race, even before 101. With the addition of Quickstrike at 101 into the bargain they can kick out a significant amount of damage each round and should find themselves a welcome hitter for any group. It should be noted though that Quickstrike will be less effective in larger groups, as many mobs will simply be dead before there is a chance to use it and that warriors of races with strong damage modifiers will still likely do more damage than your average Bladedancer.

A Sneak Attack trigger to activate off the tank's target will increase a Bladedancer's effectiveness in combat, as will the use of poisoned weapons. In general it is a good idea to use a different poison on each weapon, as Bladedancer's use both weapons equally well. Depending on the group make-up, tripping or tossing may be useful additions to the usual moves and with nothing better to do in a longer fight, a surged 2 Desiccate or Ultrablast can give you something to do.

Dervish Dance is the only Bladedancer stance which is likely to be of any real use to you from a hit position (ignoring the advent of an aggie mob jumping you). However, this stance is only useful of two or more mobs are attacking your group at once. Striking automatically at each additional attacker beyond the first who is attacking anyone in your group is useful in aggressive or assisty areas, and areas which get swarmy. Where it really comes into its own though, is when you are part of an Area Effect run, probably lead by a Mage or Wizard who is using Acid Rain a lot.

Healing:

Bladedancers do not make effective healers. All of their healing spells are out of class, and thus cause an extra round of lag. Without access to Augment, their healing is slow and basic and caps out at the Heal spell. That said, Bladedancers often have a surfeit of mana, and prior to 101 and Quickstrike may find themselves with little to do in a fight. In such circumstances, Bladedancers, especially those who are no-fail like Drow and Elves, are useful for topping up a group member's hps. Likewise, the ability to brandish here can be a useful enhancement to a run. However, Bladedancers should probably not be counted on to act as primary healers.

Bladedancers at Lord Tier

Bladedancers Remort Options