Blade dancer isn't a defensive class. It's a close range, knife edge DPS that allows for indirect tactics using stealth. Gunslinger works much better defensively using trap/area denial grenades and a ranged single target super. The mistake in the class was making invis a necessity. And not significantly enhancing the charged melee. Outside of invis focus. Maybe a multi target blink strike, hold the button to chain to other nearby targets. It'd chain additional blink strikes to targets in range up to a certain number at normal damage. Hitting each target no more than once. Default selects the nearest target or can have manual selection using the movement stick. The chain can be manually stopped by releasing the button. The point of this would primarily be evasion within melee range and would be most effective in pve allowing a melee strike without trading hits as the final target will likely be caught off guard and not starting a melee attack. For pvp this ability could be unbalance, but should be fine as you rarely see close enough groupings outside of objective areas, and it will only be that effective vs unaware or poorly positioned enemies. The chain attack will have an initial delay just long enough to trade melees or a shoty with an aware player. The next hits will function about the same meaning if 2 players are aware and facing the right direction the attack will fail from melee. And only 1 needed if a shotgun is out. The main purpose of the ability is disorientation but it will be more so to the user. Or a second more powerful hit or flurry by holding the button. So hit and hold standard melee delay then a second 4x damage hit or a rapid series of slashes. This could replace the backstab ability which is a great RPG ability but doesn't play out well in shooters. It function in pvp as an anti shield move and a good counter to scorch. It'd still stay balanced in the pvp melee fights as the 2nd hit would take the same time to strike as 2 regular hits which would kill a non shielded enemy anyway. So the time to kill would only be decreased against shielded enemies. The time delay on the big part of the damage would also keep it from being an easy super killer as arc blade would only need one shot, nova and havoc are too fast, GG is killed my 2 melees anyway, bubble Titans will probably have a shoty, and radiance should either 1 shot or be able to win on a first strike. In pve this will serve as a means to combat stronger enemies in CQC, granted you'll probably need to sneak up on them at higher difficulty. But the blade dancer needs more style and lethal capability for its knife skills outside the super.

You're somewhat decent at pvp, you should be well aware of how insanely strong they are. If you still think they're weak, then you're using your advantages poorly

It's not that they're weak, it's the fact that they have the highest chance of consistently getting big killstreaks, they need some sort of counterplay. Although with the introduction of all these super high impact shotguns in HoW I think they got a little too much counterplay.

If you think Blade Dancers aren't OP, then you don't know how to use them.

So many times on PoE I've not been able to kill a single Captain (yellow) with my Bladedancer super...frustrating!

In sry but whenever I see a bladedancer I follow him for his light lol

You asked about exotics... Mask of the third man is great, even more arc blade Lucky Raspberry, EVEN BETTER arcbolt. Spawn with grenade Knucklehead Rader, always see radar Crest Of Alpha Lupi, more orbs. Faster revives Those are just good for Bladedancers, but there are other good viable ones to... The Ram without a doubt is the best exotic armor in the game, nothing can compare to it... It's like comparing thorn to Necrochasm

High risk high reward in PVP for the fact they have to engage at close quarters, they'll show a bit more consistency once shotguns are gauged back a bit since that seems to be the best thing to shut down a Bladedancer besides a rocket. Most people SHOULD be able to get a couple of kills before being dropped. PVE wise the only thing that's disappointing is the lack of orbs you are able to generate, trash control is fine since you can basically make blade dancer last a lot longer, but it's not recommended taking on yellow enemies in the nightfall with blade dancer, haha.

Arcbolt, QuickDraw, and blink. These three things make them one of the easiest classes to dominate with

They're just fine in PVP. Invisible Bladedancer on a control map? Death.

Bladedancer is the best class for PVP

Epic troll... But they should turn up the orbs in pve...

And why doesn't arc blade count towards the melee bounties?