How Good is Dance Of Death as a Shattered Pillar?

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Hey guys, 

 

So, I've heard a lot about all of the super amazing Monk actives and passives, but no one's really talked much about Dance of Death or its upgrade. It seems to be kind of useful for the sort of build I'm wanting to run (Wizard/Monk melee DPS Sage), but I'm wondering if it might not be good for a Shattered Pillar because I'll be generating so many wounds through autoattacks anyway. 

 

Is it worth taking just to have/just for the Accuracy bonus, or am I better off skipping it? 

[grayrest]

It's kind of dependent on exactly how you play your monk. In reading builds mostly see it on ranged monks, particularly hybrid builds that are using Helwalker for the stat buffs and not really generating/spending wounds.

 

Sage can definitely use Enduring Dance and I think it's worth the points and resolve. Mirror Image provides enough deflection that the buff is moderately reliable if you're getting attacked by one enemy but not reliable enough that I'd put it on a behavior to auto-cast. I did a shattered pillar Sage revolving around Citzal's in 1.1 and the accuracy boost for swift flurry, heartbeat drumming, and stunning surge with the Citzal's AoE is quite good. I'd be hesitant to use the base Dance in melee without a super high deflection build (high resolve + Tuotilo's + Cloak/ring + Arcane Veil/Wizard's Double).

[Boeroer]

I think it's pretty awesome. What most people miss is that it immediately generates a wound (and an ACC bonus) as soon as you activate it. So you immediately turn mortification into wounds and get an ACC bonus with a chance that it continues and increases.

 

Before the Shattered Pillar nerf I would have skipped it - but now you spend wounds on attack abilities and only generate new ones by auto-attacks. This is a hefty nerf. Having to stop spamming Torment's Reach because you need more wounds is bad for you. Also because the Shattered Pillar's dmg threshold for generating wounds much higher than that of other monks. If you can get additional uses of Torment's Reach from Dance of Death and improve you accuracy then in my opinion it's a no brainer.

 

I like it even more on a Nalpasca because you can be supertanky (not get even grazed) but generate 2 wounds every few seconds from drug + Dance of Death.

 

Obviously it's better when using the upgrade. Loosing its bonuses after one single hit is meh. "The Dance Continues" improves this a lot.

 

I never regretted picking it. Maybe that would be different if I played a monk that gets pummeled all the time because then it's obviously very short-lived.

Edited July 8, 2018 by Boeroer

[Incendax]

Nalpazca/Illusionist can do some absolutely silly things with deflection. Not quite as much as an Arcane Knight, but you've got longer drugs, easy wounds, brutal accuracy, and monk fists. :D

[gkathellar]

Nalpazca/Illusionist can do some absolutely silly things with deflection. Not quite as much as an Arcane Knight, but you've got longer drugs, easy wounds, brutal accuracy, and monk fists. :D

 

Does Nalpazca ever actually need more wounds, though?

[Boeroer]

If your defenses are very high then yes.