Welcome to the First Intention Wardancer Build Guide! This build revolves around strengthening your core through a multitude of buffs, then quickly unleashing a flurry of blows against your enemy.
First Intention Wardancer can inflict reliable amounts of Stagger and Destruction, and her Counter is readily available. The Class Engraving allows you to focus on your martial arts skills, while significantly increasing your damage.
- Good defense
- Good mobility
- Easy to learn
- Melee
- High APM
Want a more mystical playstyle, that focuses on unlocking your true potential? Check out our Esoteric Skill Enhancement guide.
Builds
Raids - HallucinationRaids - Nightmare / Dominion
Chaos DungeonsNeed some tips for general content? Check out our Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons guides.
- Sweeping Kick, Leaping Dragon, Energy Combustion, and Flash Heat Fang are your main damage skills.
- Lightning Kick is your main Synergy (Weakness Exposure) skill.
- Roar of Courage and Wind's Whisper are your self-buff skills.
- Sky Shattering Blow is your Counter skill. Besides that, it serves as a secondary Synergy skill, and a self-buff skill.
- Ultimate Skill: Fist of Dominance is your Awakening. It is preferred over Ultimate Skill: Flash Rage Blow thanks to its damage reduction effect.
Alternative Skill, Tripod, and Rune Options
Roar of Courage
- Purify - Allows you to cleanse your debuffs.
Check the Rune Guide for more details on Runes and how to obtain them.
Need some tips for general content? Check out our Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons guides.
- Sweeping Kick, Leaping Dragon, Energy Combustion, Flash Heat Fang, and Lightning Kick are your main damage skills.
- Roar of Courage is your Synergy (Weakness Exposure) skill. Additionally, it provides +20% Crit Rate for 6 seconds, but only to yourself.
- Wind's Whisper is a self-buff skill.
- Sky Shattering Blow is your Counter skill. Besides that, it serves as a secondary self-buff skill.
- Ultimate Skill: Fist of Dominance is your Awakening. It is preferred over Ultimate Skill: Flash Rage Blow thanks to its damage reduction effect.
Alternative Skill, Tripod, and Rune Options
Wind's Whisper
- Purify - Allows you to cleanse your debuffs.
Check the Rune Guide for more details on Runes and how to obtain them.
This build is optimized and meant to be used only in Chaos Dungeons. For Ebony Cube please use a Raid build.
- Roar of Courage, Leaping Dragon, Wind's Whisper, and Esoteric Skill: Blast Formation are your main ways to deal with large packs of lesser monsters.
- Esoteric skill: Azure Dragon Supreme Fist and Sweeping Kick can both deal with Elite monsters on their own.
- Esoteric skill: Azure Dragon Supreme Fist is your primary way of dealing with the Boss on the 2nd Floor.
- Sky Shattering Blow serves as a quick mobility option. It can also easily break crystals on the 3rd Floor.
- Ultimate Skill: Fist of Dominance is your Awakening. It is preferred over Ultimate Skill: Flash Rage Blow thanks to its wider area of effect.
Recommended Engraving Setup
Acquiring additional engravings leads to a faster clear potential, but the build can perform quite well with the bare minimum.
Minimum requirements
- Preemptive Strike causes your attacks to deal immense amounts of damage to monsters that you haven't attacked yet, making it ideal for Chaos Dungeons.
Additional engravings
- Contender is a stacking Attack Power effect that increases in strength once you kill a monster, making it ideal for Chaos Dungeons.
- Raid Captain provides damage based on your Bonus Movement Speed, synergizing well with the Buff Nodes scattered throughout Chaos Dungeons.
- Esoteric Skill Enhancement increases the damage of your Esoteric Skills.
Gameplay & Skill Rotation
First Intention Wardancer opts out of using Esoteric Orbs, instead focusing on her martial arts skills and empowering them.
Your identity is disabled for this build.
All attacks with a Back Attack affix receive +10% Crit Rate and +5% Damage when they land on the target's back-side indicator. It is important to position yourself accordingly as much as possible in order to take advantage of this.
This build focuses on a sequence that utilizes the Crit Rate buff from Roar of Courage and the Attack Power buff from Wind's Whisper to empower and unleash powerful skills. In the downtime that comes after this, you are free to use your secondary damage skills or perform mechanics.
Wardancer Identity
Basic Rotations
Standard Damage Rotation
- Using skills in this specific order is recommended in order to maximize damage output. Remember to reactivate Energy Combustion towards the end of your rotation!
- Try your best to maintain your Synergy using Lightning Kick and Sky Shattering Blow, even if you aren't planning to attack immediately after.
Stagger Check Rotation
- Using skills in this specific order is recommended for most stagger checks. However, each check can vary in duration, so you may need to readjust depending on the situation and your party's composition. Remember you can also use a Whirlwind Grenade if you have one equipped!
Opening Rotation / Dominion Maintenance
- Using your Awakening activates the Inner Awakening effect of the Dominion Fang gear set. You should keep an eye on its remaining duration and use your Awakening again to refresh it each time it's about to run out. Timing the Conviction + Judgment effect to trigger before using your Awakening is key to maintaining Inner Awakening with as little downtime as possible.
Standard Damage Rotation
- Using skills in this specific order is recommended in order to maximize damage output. Remember to reactivate Energy Combustion towards the end of your rotation!
- Try your best to maintain your Synergy using Roar of Courage, even if you aren't planning to attack immediately after.
Stagger Check Rotation
- Using skills in this specific order is recommended for most stagger checks. However, each check can vary in duration, so you may need to readjust depending on the situation and your party's composition. Remember you can also use a Whirlwind Grenade if you have one equipped!
Tripods and Gems
Tripod Levelling
Increasing the level of Tripods greatly enhances their effectiveness. You may only increase the level of 18 tripods at a time. Some of them cannot be leveled at all, or are left at level 1 - these tripods are omitted from the table, even if they are used. Here are the main tripods you should look out for in order to maximize this build's potential.
| Skill | 1st Tripod | 2nd Tripod | 3rd Tripod |
| Sweeping Kick | Weak Point Detection | Intense Shock | Pure Excellence |
| Leaping Dragon | Dragon's Teeth | Red Dragon | |
| Flash Heat Fang | Magick Control | Master Hit | Final Strike |
| Wind's Whisper | Quick Prep | Ready Attack | |
| Roar of Courage | Magick Control | Quick Prep | |
| Energy Combustion | Combustible Armor | Intense Battle | Last Whisper |
| Lightning Kick | Thunder Kick | Flash Lightning | |
| Sky Shattering Blow | Ready Attack |
Tripods written in bold text are your highest priority, make sure to level them first!
| Skill | 1st Tripod | 2nd Tripod | 3rd Tripod |
| Sweeping Kick | Weak Point Detection | Light of Justice | Pure Excellence |
| Leaping Dragon | Dragon's Teeth | Red Dragon | |
| Flash Heat Fang | Master Hit | Final Strike | |
| Wind's Whisper | Quick Prep | Ready Attack | |
| Roar of Courage | Quick Prep | ||
| Energy Combustion | Combustible Armor | Intense Battle | Last Whisper |
| Lightning Kick | Ruthless | Thunder Kick | Flash Lightning |
| Sky Shattering Blow | Ready Attack |
Tripods written in bold text are your highest priority, make sure to level them first!
For more information on where to obtain Tripod Amulets and how to use them, check out our Skill Tree System Guide.
Gems
Gems are another significant aspect of your build, as they directly impact the damage and cooldowns of your skills. You can equip up to 11 gems at a time. Here are the ones you should focus on in order to maximize this build's potential, listed according to their priority.
Damage Gems
- Sweeping Kick
- Leaping Dragon
- Flash Heat Fang
- Energy Combustion
- Lightning Kick
Cooldown Gems
- Sweeping Kick
- Leaping Dragon
- Wind's Whisper
- Flash Heat Fang
- Energy Combustion
- Lightning Kick
For more information on where to obtain gems and how to use them, check out our Gem System Guide.
Stat Priority
This build utilizes Swiftness and Crit.
- Swiftness is the primary stat. It is required in vast amounts due to having naturally long cooldowns.
- Crit is a secondary stat. It offers damage consistency.
Standard Setup
- Swiftness + Crit
- Swiftness
- Swiftness
- Swiftness
- Swiftness
- Swiftness + Crit
Gear Set
Hallucination Set
This set is optimal thanks to the combination of Damage and Crit Rate that it provides, on top of not requiring any active maintenance beyond initial activation.
The name of your set will change every time you acquire a higher tier of gear, but the set effect will remain the same. Look for your set's keyword when recrafting it to find it more easily (e.g Entropy, Hallucination etc).
Nightmare Set - 2 Pieces
This set's two-piece effect reduces your skills' mana costs by -50%, as well as providing damage.
Dominion Set - 4 Pieces
This set lowers your Awakening's cooldown and damage, as well as granting additional casts. After using your Awakening, you receive the Inner Awakening buff, significantly lowering the cooldown of your regular skills and increasing their damage.
The name of your set will change every time you acquire a higher tier of gear, but the set effect will remain the same. Look for your set's keyword when recrafting it to find it more easily (e.g Entropy, Hallucination etc).
Check out the Gear Progression Guide for step by step instructions and early game gearing.
If you are interested in Sidereal Weapons, click here for more details.
Engravings
Engravings are a core part of your build. Typically, most engravings will be used at level 3, but there are some that can be used at level 1 or 2 in addition to the others, after reaching item level 1540 and unlocking Ancient Accessories.
Relic Gearing Build (5x3)
- First Intention
- Grudge
- Raid Captain
- Keen Blunt Weapon
- Mass Increase
Ancient Gearing Build (5x3+1)
- First Intention
- Grudge
- Raid Captain
- Keen Blunt Weapon
- Mass Increase
- Adrenaline Lv 1
Engraving Explanations
Core Engravings
- First Intention provides a significant damage boost.
- Grudge increases damage done while also increasing damage received. The engraving is a highly effective damage increase without needing specific positioning, making it worthwhile even with the penalty.
- Raid Captain synergizes well with your Swiftness stat.
- Keen Blunt Weapon synergizes well with your gear set and various Crit Rate buffs.
- Mass Increase provides a significant Attack Power boost at the cost of -10% Attack Speed. This is negated by your Swiftness stat and Attack Speed buffs.
Level 1 and 2 Engravings
- Adrenaline provides an additional source of Crit Rate and Attack Power. It is fairly easy to upkeep.
Check out the Engraving Guide for more details.
Bracelet
Bracelets provide beneficial effects to yourself or to your party members depending on the rolls they have.
The primary goal is to get the main stats used by this build Swiftness and Crit. After that you should be aiming for Special Rolls to get more damage. Please note that this system is heavily reliant on RNG, and you should not expect to get much more beyond your main stats early on.
Optimal Bonus Rolls
Swiftness
Crit
Circulate
Fervor
Hammer
Wedge
Ambush
Alternative Bonus Rolls
Precise
Assail
Superiority
Weapon Power
Strength
Check out the Bracelet Guide for more details.
Elixir
The recommended Elixir Set for this build is Critical.
The recommended Elixir Set for this build is Master.
Check out the Elixir Guide for more details and general stat recommendations.
Card Sets
Cards are an endgame system that helps maximize your character's damage. Here are the recommended card sets for this build.
- Deep Dive is used early on as it is fairly easy to obtain.
- Light of Salvation is the standard endgame option, but it can take a long time to acquire 30-piece Awakening.
- Kazeros's Legion Commanders is used as an alternative to Light of Salvation, in content where enemies have a weakness to Dark Damage.
Check out the Card Guide for more details on how to obtain cards and interact with them.
Early Game Damage Card Set
End Game Damage Card Set
Credits
Written by Raeinor
Reviewed by Starlast