Assessing Armor: Dancer Armor (Lion Knight Hybrid) (Patreon)

We've trudged past the rather questionable Brawler set, which is an armor set that exists pretty much as a loading platform for the Lion Skin Cloak and experienced just how torn that set is with its lack of focus and weak affinities.

However, this week, good news everyone! We're looking at the hybrid set which has risen the most in my estimation, in fact the more I play with it, the more I want to move it up the rankings in power level.

This is the Dancer Armor set.

Phoenix Helm

Resource Cost: 1x hollow wing bone, 1x small feather, 1x bone

Assessment

Efficiency: It is worth noting that the armor level of the Phoenix Helm is lower when it's combined with the Dancer armor, which reduces the efficiency of this piece of gear slightly. However, it is still a phenomenal piece of gear, as I've written before tokens are technically more powerful than straight stat gains from gear because of things that interact with tokens.

S-

Defense: Evasion is one of the highest levels of defense in the game, and this is no change here. I would deduct a bit from the score because of the lower armor level and lack of self insanity gains, however the synergy built into the armor pulls that score back up.

S

Abilities: You have to be insane to get that extra armor, this is a little trickier than it is with Phoenix armor because nothing in the Dancer set gives you insanity gains.

B+

Affinities: A down blue is very normal and not particularly special for head gear, but it is exactly what this armor set needed.

B

Score: A solid start to the armor, the Phoenix Helm is possibly more powerful on the Dancer set than it is on the Phoenix set. However the lack of self gaining insanity does keep its score in check.

A+

Rawhide Vest

Resource Cost: 1x hide

Assessment

Efficiency: The efficiency on this piece of gear is absolutely insane. I've already rated the normal vest as one of the best pieces of armor you can get. The Dancer version has 3 armor instead of 1/2. Making it at a minimum a 50% improvement over the previous one.  

S++

Defense: 3 armor, +1 evasion and that's in addition to the helmet providing +1 evasion and as we'll see later, the boots having strong monster grease ties.

S++

Abilities: +1 evasion, a second place in an armor set where you get +1 evasion. Very, very strong.

S+

Affinities: Up blue, right red. These two half affinities fit perfectly with the head and arms. Sure it's not as many as a lot of body pieces give, but for the price of 1 hide or more likely, a spare rawhide set you had laying around, it's a great deal.

A+

Score: An absolutely phenomenal piece of gear made stronger by the innate buffs to its armor and its synergy with other evasion gaining methods.

S+

Screaming Bracers

Resource Cost: 1x pelt, 1x hide

Assessment

Efficiency: Another incredibly efficient piece. This gear is cheap to make and pays for itself with acanthus gains for the rest of the campaign. It's got one of the highest ROI out of any arm piece in the game.

S+

Defense: 3 Armor, nothing fancy, but also solid enough for a DPS style character, or as we'll see soon, an evasion dash-cancelling tank.

A-

Abilities: The ability is one of the big draws here, the Screaming Bracers didn't used to have such a powerful ability, in 1.31 all they did was give you a marginal ability that let you move through other survivors when slamming. In 1.5 they are an acanthus factory. Not only spawning acanthus, but giving you bonuses to interacting with any type of terrain that requires a roll.

S++

Affinities: Left red and up green half affinities are absolutely perfect for the armor set.

A+

Score:  In an armor set that's jammed full of phenomenal pieces, the Screaming Bracers compete for being the best individual gear very hard. I think I absolutely have to give this one a very high score as a consquence.

S+

Leather Skirt

Resource Cost: 1x leather

Assessment

Efficiency: Incredibly efficient to build, costing 1 hide and a fraction of an endeavor. I don't need to go into details why I consider this to be one of the single most efficient pieces of protective gear in the game.

S+

Defense: Nothing fancy, it's 3 armor to the waist. Slightly worse than leather. But armor is not the primary defense on this armor set.

A-

Abilities: N/A

Affinities: The down green is better on this armor set than it is on Leather, because the bracers connect to it with ease.

B+

Score: No frills or excitement, just like most piece of waist armor. For the price paid, this piece is exceptionally efficient.

A-

Leather Boots

Resource Cost: 1x leather, 1x hide

Assessment

Efficiency: Twice as expensive as the skirt, but more than two times effective. The Leather Boots are low key one of my favourite items in the game and Dancer Armor can make better use of them than any other build out there.

S-

Defense: Not only do the boots give armor, they also provide extra movement, and as you'll see when we discuss the armor set as a whole. Unlike leather, where this extra movement is just a minor benefit that helps with positioning. In dancer armor this extra piece of movement is a huge deal.

S-

Abilities: The move after your act on this armor set is very, very powerful. It enables an unique kind of tank, one who dash cancels rather than blocking/sucking up hits.

A+

Affinities: While the armor itself doesn't connect to the left and right half green affinities this piece of gear provides, monster grease covers the left side, so you only need a right facing half green affinity to get up to +4 evasion from gear alone. This makes them at least as strong as they are in leather, perhaps stronger.

S

Score: Another incredible piece of gear in an armor set filled with incredible pieces of gear.

S

Dancer Armor

Resource Cost:  1x hollow wing bone, 1x small feather, 1x bone, 3x hide, 1x pelt, 2x leather

Assessment

Efficiency: Just like the brawler armor set, you can build parts of this armor in the early game and then transition across to Dancer. It's worth noting that you can easily cannibalize a leather set into the parts for a vagabond set, a dancer set and a warlord set. Which makes for a very useful progression line in a campaign.

There are only 3 monster specific resources in this gear, 2 from the phoenix and 1 from the Antelope. So you should be able to get everything you need to complete this armor once you've beaten 1 antelope and 1 phoenix (on average).

S-

Set Bonus: So, this armor's set bonus is absolutely insane. It's one of the best in the game because of how powerful movement is. You can combine this armor with Propulsion Drive to deal massive damage and critical wounds quickly, or you can combine it with Harvestman (something that the tumble fighting art supports) and build a survivor who tanks despite having relatively low armor. Dash cancelling attacks from the monster, which is very easy to do with this armor set, is one of the most powerful ways to vex monsters in the game.

Tumble is also an incredibly strong fighting art, providing protection against the Dung Ball, the Phoenix's materialize, trample and more besides. Getting a 4th fighting art for free, especially one as powerful as this, is nothing to sneeze at.

S++

Defense: While the armor points on this set are not high, the evasion gains, tumble and the ability to dash cancel are incredible. I think that this armor set may well be one of the highest defense armor sets in the game, but rather than sucking the hits up with armor points + block, this set seeks to avoid being hit at all in the first place.

S++

Abilities: Tumble, +2 evasion, Acanthus Spawning, Bonuses to interacting with terrain, an extra movement, a free space to step after acting. This has a huge amount of things packed into a small space and all of them are good.

S+

Affinities: 1 blue, 1 red, 1 green, 2 half greens. That's not a lot, but it turns out that it's everything this armor set needs to be able to be a power house. It also has a phenomenal layout, leaving a solid amount of room for other gear to be slotted in.

A-

Score: It is hard to not call Dancer Armor the best armor in the game, it falls a little short of the big 3 (Rawhide, Cycloid, Rolling) because it's either less efficient, less flexible or not as strong at doing specific things. However, when you have armor that can be used both by tanks and DPS survivors in different roles, you know you have something special. So I am confident when I call Dancer Armor the 4th best armor in the game right now.

S++