Year 1: I mained a Tradedancer
Year 2: I mained a Tradedancer
Year 3: I initially mained a Tradedancer and have recently decided to dabble in the world of the Titan.
Now in Year 1, I was that guy to back up Hunters to the end of the world and back because I loved them and their squishy yet elusive selves. Bladedancers could quite effectively hold their own in Year 1 because their neutral game was super solid. Furthermore, Year 1 being the Year of the bolt grenades just solidified the viability even more, forced enemy teams to not play like butt buddies or they'd run the risk of getting chained by the then substantial arcbolt. Back in the good old days you could blink in, with your [b]PRIMARY[/b] ready (I was not a blink/shotty scumbag, check my shotgun usage if you like). After you blinked (which blink is just like any other jump imo) you also had your radar still which was awesome. And QuickDraw was incredible, you could be easily prepared to switch from long range to short range combat!
Then it all started it go downhill, they first killed the arcbolts (lol wut damage?). They then killed QuickDraw (lol wut lightening fast reflexes). They then [b]SUPER[/b] killed Blink (lol wut radar, lol wut recovery, lol wait wtf, why am I being punished so hard for using a predicable jump that doesn't go that far with a cooldown? I swear those other hunters can disengage anything that tracks by shadestepping and they get to keep their radar and recovery! I'm sorry that slipped out, this isn't about them, this is about us). Now they've reinstated the recovery and reduced the radar penalty (Which I still don't get. I'm literally ONLY JUMPING). So now the only real saving grace hunters have left is their super! The super that no one is afraid of. The super that forces you to make melee connection! THE SUPER THAT CANT ONE HIT KO ANY OTHER SUPER BUT A GOLDEN GUN WHO YOU 90% OF THE TIME WONT GET NEAR ANYWAY! The super people like to shame by holding on to their Novas and Fists of Panics to preserve their precious 2 kill streaks.
But enough about the shortcomings of the Tradedancer. The real travesty here was discovered when I decided to try a sunbreaker. A friend of mine told me, "you should try running Suncharge, it's a great perk, I think you'll like it"... and so I did. I popped my super and pressed R1... I soared through the sky like a god, I disintegrated someone's face whilst cauterizing my wounds... then I did it again, and again, and again. And I thought to myself "Holy crap" this is like a god mode Tradedancer, I can melee people from 46.29 miles away, and if that's too far I can throw a hammer! I can one shot anyone out of their super with a hammer or a suncharge, none of this 2 swipe Tradedancer bs, how is this fair!!!!!
Even though I don't plan on retiring my Hunter in this world of Titans and Cheesestalkers I'd like to officially embrace the level of R.I.P the Tradedancer subclass is on right now
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The funny thing is you will still find people who say "bladedancers are in a good spot now". If you open the bladedancer subclass (where all the perks are visible) it's easier to count how many perks have not been nerfed rather than counting the ones that have. The only ones that haven't been nerfed are Fleet Footed and the Super Perks like Razor's Edge and Showstopper. Everything else? either nerfed once or multiple times like Blink (3 nerfs so far?)