McFluffin has been playing and making content for Last Epoch since Alpha. He has also been a Community Tester since the implementation of the program, which has allowed him the opportunity to provide feedback to Eleventh Hour Games on pre release builds since 2020. With degrees in both science and philosophy, McFluffin enjoys applying the analytical processees he's learned to build making, efficiency, and a better understanding of the inner workings of the games he plays. Despite all of that, his favorite thing to do is be weird on Twitch while hanging out with his friendly and welcoming community. Learn how to scale your Damage and Defense in the Dancing Strikes Bladedancer Build to reach the different Endgame Activities like the Monolith, Dungeons and Arena.
Build Scaling
This build is focused around consistent movement with lots of large Shadow Daggers crits clearing everything in our path. The playstyle needs high Dodge because when we're going not getting hit we're at our best with all of our buffs up. We also want to ensure that we're taking the right stats to scale Shadow Daggers so Flat Damage, Crit Multi, and Physical Penetration With Shadow Daggers are what we push for.
- Flat Melee/Throwing Damage: With 450% Added Damage Scaling from Shadow Daggers we can never have too much Flat Damage. Thanks to Shadow Daggers having both Melee and Throwing tags the Passive nodes Swift Assassin and Once will provide a double benefit. Try to get Melee Physical Damage on a Legendary Smoke Weaver to really boost your damage!
- Physical Penetration With Shadow Daggers: Since we don't get Physical Penetration anywhere else in our build and we're only scaling Physical Damage, this stat effectively works as a multiplier for all of our damage. Prioritize your helmet and get as much as you can on your idols without sacrificing too much HP. If you're incredibly lucky and get a Wings of Argentus with LP, see if you can get insanely lucky and put a tier 7 Increased Shadow Daggers Effect on it to effectively double your damage!
- Cooldown Reduction: Unlike most builds, Dancing Strikes doesn't scale off of Attack Speed. Instead it scales from Cooldown Reduction, making this stat far more effective for this build than most. Get it wherever you can.
- Increased Mana Regeneration: While Dancing Strikes isn't crazy expensive baseline Mana Regen isn't enough, so get as much Mana Regeneration as you need to make the build feel good. Generally two tier 5 affixes should be enough.
- Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your Crits deal. We get 75% for free from All In. Stack the rest on gear.
- Chance To Shred Armour on Hit: Each stack of this Ailment reduces enemy Armour by 100 for 4 seconds and stacks infinitely. Enemies have 0 Armour by default and it can go into the negatives. At -1000 Armour a target takes 23.7% increased Physical Damage, while at -4000 Armour it takes 57.2%. With the amount of hits the build has, the stacks ramp up quickly. We get a lot of Armour Shred from our skills, so with some Increased Armour Shred Duration on Idols and 50-100% Chance To Shred Armour on Hit on our gear we can easily shred a lot of Armour.
- Dexterity: We get both Increased Damage and Dodge Rating from this stat. It's not a priority in gearing and we can get most of our Dexterity from passives, but fitting this in wherever we have room is a nice bonus.
- Increased Damage: We get so much of this from Passives, Dexterity and Smoke Bomb that we don't really need it on our gear. Physical Damage on our Belt is nice to have but other stats take priority.
- Evasion and Wings of Argentus: Since Dancing Strikes counts as movement these two sources provide a tremendous amount of reliable Damage Reduction. As long as you don't make a mistake and take a big hit while standing still you're very resistant to damage.
- Dodge: The stats Dexterity, Dodge and %Dodge allow us to reasonably reach between 50% and 60% permanent Dodge before buffs and on top of Silver Shrouds. Getting two well rolled Smoke Weavers makes a huge difference for Dodge scaling. Buffs can keep us above 70% most of the time with bursts over 80%. The Elusive Node on Shift provides a significant Dodge boost for 1 second. The passive node Confidence will reward good play with a large burst of sustainable Dodge while Once will help to make up for some of what is lost after a mishap.
- DoT Damage Reduction: Along with Evasion and Wings of Argentus which also provide reduction for dots, we have Prolonged Demise from the passive tree and Crimson Shroud stacks from Crimson Shroud. This build performs well against DoTs, but the Melee nature of it means you need to make sure you aren't standing in ground DoTs for too long.
- Silver Shrouds: As long as you have one up, the next hit you take is Dodged instead. You also gain 100 Ward per Silver Shroud once they proc to Dodge the incoming attack. Use Smoke Bomb in high intensity fights to get a free dodge, or if you want to maximize your damage on a boss you can always try to time their mechanic with it instead of running away!
- Glancing Blows: When we take a Glancing Blow we receive 35% less Hit damage. We only have 31% chance at base but we also generate more from Dusk Shrouds through Shroud of Dusk and Veil of Night. This equates to about 11% average damage reduction.
- Armour Mitigation: Before the Throne of Ambition nerf this build used to scale Armour to an extreme, but we can still get a lot of damage reduction here. With Grand Body of Obsidian, Grand Bulwark of the Tundra, Increased Armour on our boots and Confidence we can get about 2700 Armour which equates to around 45% Physical and 32% non Physical damage reduction from hits.
- Shift: This dash gives immunity frames while it's used thanks to the Shadowslip node. Time this Skill properly to avoid incoming damage or potential 1 shots. It also provides a significant boost of Dodge on use.
- Decoy: Crazy support skill that Taunts. While Taunted, enemies focus the Decoy instead of attacking you. Can be used unspecced.
- Health: This build can stack a decent health pool despite not having double suffixes from body armour. It's very effective when combined with all the other defensive layers this Bladedancer has access to.
- Leech: Thanks to Blood Dance, Siphon of Anguish and Melee Damage Leeched as Health on our gloves this build has excellent leech. Even though we don't leech the throwing part of our damage it makes no difference since the leech we do have can top us off almost instantly.
- Chill: This is an Ailment that greatly reduces the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. We get ours from Coldsnap Strike on Umbral Blades, which frees up a suffix slot on our gear for other defenses.
- Frailty: This Ailment reduces the Damage dealt by enemies by 6% for 4 seconds and it stacks 3 times. We get ours from Incapacitate on Shadow Cascade. This frees up a suffix slot on our gear.
- Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use: Cleanse all Ailments on Potion use. This is especially valuable for clearing high damage DoT stacks.
- Critical Strike Avoidance: Getting crit means we take double damage, so avoiding that is a must. We cap this through the blessing Grand Survival of Might and one tier 5 Critical Strike Avoidance suffix, preferably on our crafted ring.
- Endurance: At cap this stat provides us with 60% damage reduction for any damage taken below our Endurance Threshold, which is 20% of our maximum health for this build. By scaling Endurance we mitigate the risk of one shots and also provide ourselves with a chance to recover from DoTs by out leeching them at low health.
Our Damage Explained Article covers all you need to know to scale Damage.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
End Game Activities
Last Epoch has multiple end game activities with completely different roles and rewards. All the builds at Maxroll.gg have been tested and are designed to complete all available content. However, not all builds excel at doing the same activities. Make sure you are familiar with the end game strengths and weaknesses of your character.
The Monolith of Fate is the main end game system. Most of your character gear upgrades are found here. Once you get all of your desired Empowered Blessings, you can start pushing Corruption to increase your chances at finding incredible Exalted Items. The Monolith of Fate rewards speedy builds that are able to target farm Echo Reward Nodes or stack Timeline Stability as fast as possible.
This Bladedancer is very solid for Monolith of Fate farming. It has good survivability, solid AoE, and has excellent speed to rush objectives. Single target damage good enough to defeat Bosses in a reasonable timeframe to farm their Unique drops and Blessings.
Monolith Goals
Your goals in the Monolith of Fate will differ greatly depending on what build you play and what stage your character progression is at. Here are the objectives you should aim at when playing this build:
- Reach Empowered Monolith as fast as possible.
- Farm your Combat Empowered Blessings. Prioritize gaining Timeline Stability and fight the Timeline Bosses as often as possible. Once you are done with one Timeline, move to the next one. Reach 200 Corruption to farm your desired Blessings faster, as it unlocks a 5th option to choose from after you defeat a Timeline Boss. Defeat the Shade of Orobyss to gain and transfer Corruption between Timelines.
- Get your Drop Rate Empowered Blessings. Start with Grand Binds of Sanctuary at The Stolen Lance Timeline since the boss also drops Wings of Argentus, allowing you to farm both at the same time.
- Farm for key Uniques.
- As you farm for Uniques, stack Corruption as high as your gear can handle. The higher Corruption you do, the more Items you find. Get your character ready for the other end game activities.
Monolith Modifiers
Every time you choose an Echo a Modifier comes attached with it, adding difficulty and changing how enemies behave. These Modifiers stay active for a maximum of 6 Echoes and stack with each other. Some Modifiers can handicap your build immensely while others can almost be ignored. Monolith Modifiers scale with Corruption and increase the Item Rarity of Echoes. Ideally you want to do the hardest content possible, without delaying your clear times. Keep up Item Rarity as high as you can without it slowing you down.
Easy Modifiers
- Enemy Critical Strike Avoidance (Ignored thanks to Critical Strike Vulnerability).
- Enemy Critical Strike Chance (Once you have 100% Critical Strike Avoidance).
- Enemy chance to Dodge (Ignored thanks to Focus Fire).
- Enemies heal if they have not been damaged recently.
- Rare enemies have high speed and crit chance until approached.
- Rare enemies regenerate health.
Avoid these Modifiers
- Enemy chance to receive a Glancing Blow.
- High health enemies take less damage.
- High health enemies deal increased damage.
- While bossing: enemies Enrage at half health and enemies gain Frenzy and Haste when hit.
Learn more about the Monolith of Fate with our Empowered Monolith Guide.
Dungeons are another important end game activity. All of them have an unique reward system attached that can only be accessed by defatting the Boss guarding it. They are divided by 4 Tiers of difficulty; it might take you some time to have a character strong enough to defeat Tier 4. Remember, Dungeons require specific Keys to enter them.
This Bladedancer is a good Dungeon farmer and a decent Boss killer. It can speed through maps and has a number of ways to deal with boss mechanics while being relatively tanky, but the Melee style high skill ceiling keep it from being in the highest tiers. Overall it is a good but not great build for Dungeons.
Dungeon Tips
When it comes to Dungeons, each build has different needs and should focus on the ones that fulfill them. Remember, each Dungeon comes with an unique Dungeon Skill. Make sure you are familiar with the different Dungeon Skills, Boss fights and Rewards before you attempt them.
Recommended Dungeons for this build:
- Temporal Sanctum: Since it's a Unique heavy build, it requires interacting with the Eternity Cache often in order to upgrade any desirable Uniques you find with Legendary Potential. The Boss fight against Chronomancer Julra can be somewhat challenging for this build due to the Melee nature of it and her tendency to stand in ground DoTs and telegraphed attacks. Silver Shrouds can help, but poor rng can lead to her standing in places where you can't reach her for significant amounts of time which effectively removes the ability to leech.
- Lightless Arbour: While the gold sink in the Vault of Uncertain Fate is not necessary for this build to progress, it has a great time dealing with The Mountain Beneath and, thanks to Silver Shroud, his most dangerous attacks can be trivialized. The Stone Titan's Heart is also easy, just make sure to use Shift to go through its moving lasers. Run this Dungeon when you have some excess Gold, be careful as it gets expensive really fast!
- Soulfire Bastion: This build does well against Fire Lich Cremorus thanks to Silver Shrouds and the invincibility Frame from Shift being on a very short Cooldown. Make sure you pay attention to the Damage type on the floor while fighting. Overall this Dungeon and the Soul Gambler are low priority as nothing attached to them is relevant for the build.
Remember, if you struggle to do a particular Dungeon you can always dedicate a different character that shines against it to earn its reward. This is not possible if you play in any of the Solo Game Modes.
Check all of our Dungeon Guides if you want to learn more about their Bosses and rewards systems.
Use everything explained in the Gameplay and Build Scaling sections of this Build Guide to defeat them.
The Endless Arena is the main competitive game mode. It's all about the Ladder! While you might get some upgrades, the other end game activities are far superior for gearing up. The Endless Arena is not for everyone and only the best builds and players can reach the top. You need an Arena Key or an Arena Key of Memory to enter.
This Bladedancer is not designed to be competitive in Endless Arena. It will clear early waves quickly but the Melee playstyle will leave you susceptible to large amounts of damage at higher waves.
Endless Arena Tips
Adjusting your playstyle to the build you are playing is mandatory to reach high waves. Use the easy early waves as a practice tool; learning about wave management, developing good habits and limit testing your build are very important things to become a better Endless Arena player.
Tips for playing this build in Arena:
- Make sure you always keep track of all 4 enemy packs. New waves do not spawn as long as there are two enemies of the current wave alive. Finish them up at the right time!
- Fight 1 spawn at a time, manipulate the enemy pathing with your positioning and engage on your terms.
- Remember that you're tankiest when moving and in close range. Standing in place at a distance will likely get you killed. Try to avoid enemy attacks by circling them instead of running away when possible.
- Try to keep Perfection capped and if you lose it avoid getting close to dangerous enemies until you can cap it again
- Hold your Decoy for emergency situations. You never know what enemy types are coming next.
- Use Smoke Bomb to clear challenging groups or dangerous enemies by taking advantage of the free dodge from Silver Shroud while increasing your damage.
Eager to get competitive? Check our Arena Guide!
