Quickstep — Radiant Dance Machines (Arc Hunter)

Anchor: Radiant Dance Machines (Legs) · Subclass: Arcstrider · Role: Primary-kill dodge engine — near-infinite dodge spam for a neutral-game / PvP duelist Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Almost every Hunter dodge-engine leans on a melee refund (Combination Blow, Gambler's). Radiant Dance Machines moves the trigger to your gun: every Primary-ammo final blow gives dodge energy back, and once your dodge is full the overflow stacks extra charges. So you don't dodge once and wait — you shoot, kill, dodge, shoot, kill, dodge, banking charges as you go. The exotic also sharpens the gun it keys off (hip-fire mobility/range/accuracy + airborne effectiveness on Primaries). It's class-agnostic — any dodge-centric subclass profits — but Arcstrider is the natural home, because every Arc Hunter aspect and the dodge↔melee loop are gated on the dodge you now spam. Be honest about the lane, though: this is a neutral-game / gunplay / PvP duelist build, not a boss-DPS build. It eats adds and Guardians; it does nothing special to a boss health bar.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Super	Gathering Storm (flexible)	Take whatever — the build isn't super-reliant. Gathering Storm jolts a pack to feed Flow State; Arc Staff is fine too.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	The keystone ability. Reloads on dodge and keeps you on your gun — and RDM refunds it off the kills that gun gets. Gambler's works too if you lean on melee (see Weapons).
Movement	Triple Jump	Air control — and RDM boosts airborne effectiveness on Primaries, so you're rewarded for fighting off the ground.
Melee	Combination Blow	Melee kill → heal + stacking melee damage + dodge energy. A second dodge-refund source that stacks with RDM, so the dodge effectively never goes cold.
Grenade	Flux / Arcbolt Grenade	Cheap jolt-on-demand. Jolt feeds Flow State (amplified) and Lethal Current. Any Arc grenade works; pick for the jolt.
Aspect 1	Lethal Current	After dodging, your next melee gets lunge + jolts + an aftershock, and blinds jolted targets. You dodge constantly, so this melee is always charged — and the jolt it lands lights up Flow State.
Aspect 2	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target → amplified; while amplified your dodge recharges more quickly, you're more resilient dodging, and reload is greatly increased. It literally accelerates the engine the whole build runs on.

Exotic — Radiant Dance Machines (Legs)

The Dance: Moderately increases airborne effectiveness and hip fire mobility, range, and accuracy for weapons that use Primary ammo. Final blows with Primary ammo weapons return dodge energy, which can overflow to create additional charges when full.

Two halves, both about the gun. The first half is a flat gunplay buff to any Primary — better hip-fire and airborne handling, which matters most in PvP and close-range neutral play. The second half is the engine: Primary final blows refund dodge, and once the dodge bar is full the refund doesn't waste — it banks extra charges. That overflow is the difference between "dodge has a cooldown" and "I have three dodges saved up." The catch, and the reason this is a neutral/PvP build: the refund is per kill, off Primary ammo only. No adds to kill, or a single boss, and the engine stalls — there's nothing here for a DPS phase the way a sustained-damage exotic (Speedloader Slacks) holds up.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• The dodge is the build, and your gun keeps it loaded. Every Primary kill refunds dodge (RDM), overflowing into banked charges. On a pack of adds that's a dodge every second or two — and each dodge fires Marksman's reload, re-arms Lethal Current's jolting melee, and (with Combination Blow) you've got a second refund layer. The loop never waits on a cooldown.
• Two refund sources, stacked. RDM refunds off weapon kills; Combination Blow refunds off melee kills. They don't compete — they overlap, so a mixed gun-and-melee fight tops the dodge from both directions. This is the redundancy that makes "near-infinite" honest at the add-clear scale.
• Flow State turns the dodge into a flywheel. Jolt a target (Arc grenade via Spark of Shock, or Lethal Current's melee) → kill it → amplified → while amplified your dodge recharges faster and reload is greatly increased. The build's own output (jolt kills) accelerates the resource the build spends most (dodge). The faster you fight, the faster you dodge, the faster you fight.
• Lethal Current makes the spammed dodge offensive, not just a reposition. Because you dodge so often, the "after dodging, your next melee jolts + blinds" window is always live. The dodge isn't only an i-frame and a reload — it arms a jolt-and-blind melee that crowd-controls and lights Flow State. Blind is also a strong PvE/PvP survival tool baked into the loop for free.
• The Arc fragment chain self-feeds. Arc kills → Ionic Traces (Discharge) → Bolt Charge; jolted kills → more Traces (Ions); melee hits → reload/stability (Frequency, doubled while amplified). None of it is load-bearing, but it means your Primary stays topped, you stay amplified, and the dodge stays fast — all off the kills you're already getting.
• Class-agnostic, but Arc earns it. RDM cares only that you have a dodge and get Primary kills — it works on Void (invis-on-dodge spam), Solar (Gambler's → Combination Blow on Gunslinger), Strand, Stasis. Arcstrider wins because every one of its aspects (Flow State, Lethal Current, Tempest Strike, Ascension) keys off the dodge you're now spamming, so the exotic's overflow has the most to spend on. Build it on Arc; know it ports anywhere dodge-centric.

Weapons

You live on your Primary — it's the whole engine, so pick the one you shoot best.

• Main: any Arc Primary you can reliably get kills with. Arc, specifically, so Spark of Discharge/Ions feed Traces → Bolt Charge, and the kills that refund your dodge also run the fragment chain. A 600-RPM Arc auto, an Arc pulse, or a hand cannon for PvP all work — the archetype matters less than your accuracy, because the refund is per kill. Lean into hip-fire/airborne (RDM buffs both) for close-range duels. Hip-fire perks (Hip-Fire Grip, Threat Detector) double-dip on the exotic's hip-fire bonus.
• Anti-champion: cover it on your other two slots. Stun is intrinsic to weapon archetypes (Anti-Champion 2.0), so pick frames covering Barrier/Unstoppable; jolt (from Lethal Current / Arc grenades) handles Overload behaviour. These don't need to be Primary — but note that only Primary kills refund the dodge, so when you swap to a Special/Heavy for a champion, the engine pauses until you're back on your Primary.
• No exotic weapon needed — RDM wants your exotic slot free for the legs and your damage coming off a reliable Primary. An exotic Primary (e.g. an Arc auto/ pulse) is the only place an exotic weapon adds to this engine.

Stats & archetypes

The dodge is king, so build Class first — it both reduces dodge cooldown and increases dodge energy from every source, which compounds directly with RDM's refund and overflow. Then Weapons, because you fight off your Primary all day (reload, handling, +damage to minors/majors — exactly the targets your kills come from).

Suggested gameplay spread: Class ~150 · Weapons ~120 · Health ~70, with Melee / Grenade / Super as dump stats (you're not ability-reliant — Combination Blow and the Arc grenade are cheap and partly self-refunding). Fragment deltas above already net roughly +10 Melee / −10 Grenade before mods.

• Helmet: Harmonic Siphon (match your Arc Primary → Orbs on multikills) · Class Font ×2 (push Class toward the dodge-cooldown floor).
• Gauntlets: Weapon Font ×2 (reload/handling/damage on your Primary) · Heavy/ Special Ammo Finder if you run a champion weapon.
• Chest: Arc + Solar + Void Resistance (flat DR — your only standing survival layer besides Flow State's dodge-resilience and Lethal Current's blind).
• Boots (RDM): Arc Weapon Surge ×2 (≈+17% to your Arc Primary — straight onto the gun the whole build keys off) · Recuperation (orb pickup → heal).
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums Orbs — and you dodge constantly) · Class Font (→ the Class target) · Reaper (after dodge, next kill spawns an Orb).

Set bonus (optional)

Pure garnish — the engine is the exotic plus the dodge↔jolt loop, and it runs on any gear. If you want one, anything that rewards weapon kills or Arc/amplified play fits the gunplay identity (an Arc-weapon-damage or reload-on-kill set). Slot it only if your pieces already carry the Class/Weapons stats above; never chase a set at the cost of the dodge-cooldown stat.

The loop

Shoot → kill → dodge → (jolting melee) → shoot → kill → dodge. The Primary kill refunds the dodge (RDM, overflowing into banked charges); the dodge reloads (Marksman's) and arms Lethal Current's jolt-blind melee; the jolted kill makes you amplified (Flow State) so the next dodge comes back even faster; Combination Blow tops the dodge a second way on any melee kill. Throw an Arc grenade when you need a guaranteed jolt to re-light Flow State. Swap to a champion weapon when one walls you — then get back on your Primary, because that's where the engine lives. Against a lone boss there's no loop; this build is at its best clearing rooms and winning duels.