The Bladedancer: Stalkers, masters of the unseen blade.
Hunters are the fastest and most precise of the three Classes. They use speed, agility, and stealth to overcome their foes.
Hunters begin with the Gunslinger subclass, unlocking Bladedancer at Level 15. If you’ve already unlocked a subclass on another character, you can unlock the Bladedancer subclass immediately after creating your Hunter. [divider]
Basics
The Bladedancer focuses on shredding its foes with Arc-charged melee powers and slipping into the shadows with your cloak to evade retaliation. The Bladedancer subclass features the longest range melee attack in the game in the form of Blink Strike, the unique ability to cloak, and the mighty Arc Blade super.
Strength/Intellect splits are the recommended choice, giving you more access to either your Arc Blade or your Blink Strike. However, Blink Strike has a unique upgrade – Fast Twitch – that reduces its cooldown to five seconds, meaning you can completely skip Strength if you choose it and maximize your Intellect and/or Discipline.
Bladedancer Hunters have the unique ability to cloak. While cloaked, enemy combatants in PvE lose track of you completely, though they can still fire at your last known position.
Cloaking also gives allows you to save your Fireteam in PvE if things are getting really hectic, such as in the Nightfall Strike.
In PvP, you are visible as a ghostly outline that fades in or out depending on how quickly you are moving. If you’re sprinting at full speed, opponents will probably detect you easily.
Cloaking reduces your Motion Tracker signature in PvP. It is functionally identical to crouching, but you maintain full mobility while cloaked, so you can use the delay in the Motion Tracker to strike offensively. Push in one direction, then suddenly change course and attack from a flank. Cloaking slows tracker pulses to 5 seconds from the normal 3.[divider]
Recommended Exotics
Helmet
- The only Bladedancer-specific Exotic helm is the Mask of the Third Man. The Unstable Current upgrade on this helm reduces the amount of super energy your Arc Blade uses.
- The Knucklehead Radar helm is good too, even though it doesn’t directly benefit the Bladedancer, it’s still got some enticing upgrades which makes it a great alternative.
Chest
- Lucky Raspberry was made for the Bladedancer. Its Improved Arcbolt Grenade ability allows it to chain further, and you’ll also spawn with grenade energy.
- Crest of Alpha Lupi is the other Hunter Exotic chest, but this one could work just as well for a Gunslinger.
Gauntlets
- The Don’t Touch Me gauntlets prove very useful in parts of the game, like the Crota’s End raid. The invisibility effect can be extended with Shadowjack, and has no cooldown, so wading through swarms of Thralls turns trivial with these.
- Ikaheka’s Hooks are going to be introduced in the House of Wolves expansion. It applies a poison effect to enemies you hit with melee while invisible.
Boots
- The Radiant Dance Machines increase your movement speed while aiming down sights, similar to the MIDA Multi-Tool. These boots are a fashionable choice to fill your exotic slot with if this is an ability you think you’d find useful.
- The Unremarkable Bones, which are coming out in the House of Wolves expansion, turn your Double Jump into a Triple. If you aren’t using Blink, these will give you a huge boost to mobility.
[divider]Abilities
For a detailed look at Destiny’s grenades types, click here.
Blink
Blink completely replaces Double Jump with an instant teleport move. Rather than letting you float or jump through the air, it transports you instantly in the direction of your current momentum. This means that you can jump in one direction, look in another, and then Blink in the direction you are moving without looking.
You can use Blink twice in quick succession before it requires a short cooldown. Blink is a bit more difficult to use for general mobility and terrain traversal than the other movement abilities, which is the tradeoff for having an instant movement speed.
In PvP, Blink can be extremely powerful for disengaging or disorienting an opponent. The instant teleport can get you out of trouble or take you behind an opponent before they realize where you have moved. Alongside the Bladedancer’s potent melee abilities and cloak, you have a powerful combination for rapid aggressive movement.
Arc Blade
Arc Blade gives you a lethal Arc-charged blade that you can use to slice and dice your foes. Using Arc Blade grants you control in third person, allowing you to see nearby enemies directly around you.
Pressing melee while aiming in any direction causes you to lunge in that direction with a swift melee strike, and Arc Blade has a very generous auto-lock. If there’s an adversary in that direction, you are all but guaranteed to hit them. If you leave the stick neutral while pressing melee, facing the general direction of an enemy, you automatically target them.
Arc Blade normally gives you around 12 seconds of use. However, if you use a melee strike, it drains more quickly. Swinging reduces the meter whether you hit or not.
Arc Blade is unique among supers as a melee range attack; it has a long lunge distance and gives you damage resistance while it is active.
Blink Strike
A powerful melee attack with extended range.
Blink Strike teleports you forward several meters, instantly striking your foe with a lunging stab. This quick blink can surprise opponents in PvP, and close distance quickly in PvE. You can even use Blink Strike as a quick evasion tool by lunging at an adversary that is behind cover.
Backstab
Hitting an enemy from behind with Blink Strike causes significantly more damage. Backstab deals double damage, giving you a long-range melee attack that is almost always lethal in PvP. In PvE, Backstab is easier to trigger against AI combatants most of the time, especially if you’re cloaked.
Fast Twitch
This talent cuts your Blink Strike cooldown to five seconds! Needless to say, this is one of the more powerful melee talents in the game if you enjoy melee combat.
Fast Twitch lets you take full advantage of your maximum range melee strikes, essentially as often as you want. It also means that you can put the full focus of your stats into Intellect and Discipline without losing any melee effectiveness.
Escape Artist
Hitting an enemy with Blink Strike grants brief invisibility. Escape Artist causes you to instantly cloak after a Blink Strike, giving you nearly a 8 second cloak duration. In PvE, this is very useful for scoring a hit and then evacuating from a dangerous situation. You can keep Escape Artist in your pocket for when you need it, triggering it mid-combat to escape.
In PvP, you may cause enough confusion when you cloak to score a kill. Typically though, if you’re in someone’s line of sight, they’re not going to lose their fix on you because you triggered a cloak.
Passives
Tier 1
Path Forgotten
Training focused on toughness and speed. +2 Armor, +2 Agility
Path Forbidden
Training focused on battle Recovery and speed. +2 Recovery, +2 Agility
Path Unknown
Training focused on battle Recovery and toughness. +2 Armor, +2 Recovery
Tier 2
Way of the Drifter
Training focused on all attributes. +2 Armor, +1 Recovery, +2 Agility
Way of the Fearless
Training focused on toughness at all costs. +5 Armor
Way of the Nomad
Training focused on maximum battle Recovery. +4 Recovery, +1 Agility
[divider]PvP Tips
For a full guide to Destiny’s Crucible, check out this guide.
- Speed gives you an edge on the Motion Tracker. When you cloak, and move more quickly than an enemy is expecting, you can easily pull off a flank.
- Arc Blade’s Razor’s Edge can penetrate a Ward while maintaining a distance.
- Arc Bolt is a great way to capitalize on chaotic close-range encounters, as (at the very least) the enemy hit with Arc Bolt will be starting the fight at a health disadvantage.
- Arc Blade’s Escape Artist allows you to vanish and surprise enemies at close quarters. This super greatly synergizes with the smaller maps of Rumble.
- The Fleet Footed talent will increase your slide distance, which is excellent for both speedy evasive mobility and shotgun and melee rushing.