Is the Bladedancer Arc Blade special viable at all in harder difficulties? Seems like an easy way to die. Was doing a Heroic last night and sweet Jesus. I would not tempt fate trying to melee a Shank.
As long as the enemies aren't a higher level than you you should be fine. Going arc blade on a major or ultra is risky business since they will likely just pummel you while you are smashing them.
Arc blade should only be used to clear out all the minions. Helps a lot in strikes with bosses that spawn minions. Having a bladedancer on your team is amazing because they will slice through all the small (but dangerous) minions so you guys can keep doing damage to a boss.
Now that I think about it, in PvE, its best to have a Warlock who can do his long range nova bomb super, a bladedancer to kill the little dudes, and a Defender titan for when you need that shield.
Then again, you can also switch it up, having the Warlock be a sunsinger for general support and revives, the hunter will have Golden Gun to do big damage to the boss, and the Titan can still have his defender active.
Me and a friend were talking about this before, the Titans striker hulk smash ability is dangerous to use in PvE since it requires you getting close range. If lower level enemies happen to be bunched up its fine but that doesn't happen tha often. A blade dancer can cover more ground and slash all those enemies.