Waterfowl Dance

skill waterfowl dance elden ring wiki 480px
Perform a series of one-footed leaps in the manner of a waterfowl to unleash a swift yet graceful slashing combo. Repeated inputs allow for up to two follow-up attacks

Waterfowl Dance is a Skill in Elden Ring. Waterfowl Dance is a Unique skill that is only available for the Hand of Malenia, and cannot be added to any other weapon by Ashes of War.

 

How to get Waterfowl Dance in Elden Ring

 

Elden Ring Waterfowl Dance Guide, Notes & Tips

  • This is a Unique Skill
  • FP Cost: 12 ( - 9)
  • Deals 16 stance damage.
  • This Skill is not Chargeable
  • All 3 separate flurries can be Parried
  • On use, you hover in the air for a split second before dashing forward in a flurry. Repeat inputs of the weapon skill button extend the skill for up to three flurries total.
  • The skill can be extended while in midair, and its forward momentum for each flurry lets you cross gaps that you normally cannot jump over.
  • The wind-up animation for this skill can be interrupted.
  • The skill is parryable.
  • The repeated attacks from this skill do scale with Winged Sword Insignia, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, and Millicent's Prosthesis, and trigger Godskin Swaddling Cloth.
  • BUG: using this skill while buffed by the Commander's Standard Rallying Standard ability will cause Waterfowl Dance to deal greatly reduced damage (reports show as low as 1% normal damage).

 

 

Elden Ring Skills
Ancient Lightning Spear  ♦  Angel's Wings  ♦  Assassin's Gambit  ♦  Barbaric Roar  ♦  Barrage  ♦  Barricade Shield  ♦  Bear Witness!  ♦  Beast's roar  ♦  Black Flame Tornado  ♦  Blade of Death  ♦  Blade of Gold  ♦  Blood Blade  ♦  Blood Tax  ♦  Bloodblade Dance  ♦  Bloodboon Ritual  ♦  Bloodhound's Finesse  ♦  Bloodhound's Step  ♦  Bloody Slash  ♦  Braggart's Roar  ♦  Bubble Shower  ♦  Buckler Parry  ♦  Carian Grandeur  ♦  Carian Greatsword Skill  ♦  Carian Retaliation (Skill)  ♦  Charge Forth  ♦  Chilling Mist  ♦  Claw Flick  ♦  Contagious Fury  ♦  Corpse Piler  ♦  Corpse Wax Cutter  ♦  Cursed-Blood Slice  ♦  Death Flare  ♦  Destined Death  ♦  Determination  ♦  Devourer of Worlds  ♦  Double Slash  ♦  Dynast's Finesse  ♦  Earthshaker  ♦  Enchanted Shot  ♦  Endure  ♦  Eochaid's Dancing Blade  ♦  Erdtree Slam  ♦  Eruption  ♦  Establish Order  ♦  Familial Rancor  ♦  Firebreather  ♦  Fires of Slumber  ♦  Flame Dance  ♦  Flame of the Redmanes  ♦  Flame Spit  ♦  Flaming Strike  ♦  Flowing Form  ♦  Frenzyflame Thrust  ♦  Ghostflame Ignition  ♦  Giant Hunt  ♦  Glintblade Phalanx (Skill)  ♦  Glintstone Dart  ♦  Glintstone Pebble Skill  ♦  Gold Breaker  ♦  Golden Land  ♦  Golden Parry  ♦  Golden Retaliation  ♦  Golden Slam  ♦  Golden Tempering  ♦  Golden Vow  ♦  Gravitas  ♦  Gravity Bolt  ♦  Great Oracular Bubble Skill  ♦  Great-Serpent Hunt  ♦  Ground Slam  ♦  Hoarah Loux's Earthshaker  ♦  Hoarfrost Stomp  ♦  Holy Ground  ♦  I Command Thee, Kneel!  ♦  Ice Lightning Sword  ♦  Ice Spear  ♦  Impaling Thrust  ♦  Kick  ♦  Knowledge Above All  ♦  Last Rites  ♦  Lifesteal Fist  ♦  Lightning Ram  ♦  Lightning Slash  ♦  Lion's Claw  ♦  Loretta's Slash  ♦  Magma Guillotine  ♦  Magma Shower  ♦  Mighty Shot  ♦  Miquella's Ring of Light  ♦  Mists of Slumber  ♦  Moonlight Greatsword  ♦  Nebula  ♦  Night-and-Flame Stance  ♦  Oath of Vengeance  ♦  Onyx Lord's Repulsion  ♦  Oracular Bubble  ♦  Ordovis' Vortex  ♦  Ordovis's Vortex  ♦  Parry Skill  ♦  Phantom Slash  ♦  Piercing Fang  ♦  Poison Moth Flight  ♦  Poisonous Mist  ♦  Prayerful Strike  ♦  Prelate's Charge  ♦  Quickstep  ♦  Radahn's Rain  ♦  Rain of Arrows  ♦  Rallying Standard  ♦  Raptor of the Mists  ♦  Reduvia Blood Blade  ♦  Regal Beastclaw  ♦  Regal Roar  ♦  Repeating Thrust  ♦  Rosus's Summons  ♦  Royal Knight's Resolve  ♦  Ruinous Ghostflame  ♦  Sacred Blade  ♦  Sacred Order  ♦  Sacred Phalanx  ♦  Sacred Ring of Light  ♦  Sea of Magma  ♦  Seppuku  ♦  Shared Order  ♦  Shield Bash  ♦  Shield Crash  ♦  Shriek of Milos  ♦  Siluria's Woe  ♦  Sky Shot  ♦  Sorcery of the Crozier  ♦  Soul Stifler  ♦  Spearcall Ritual  ♦  Spectral Lance  ♦  Spinning Chain  ♦  Spinning Slash  ♦  Spinning Strikes  ♦  Spinning Weapon  ♦  Spinning Wheel  ♦  Square Off  ♦  Stamp (Sweep)  ♦  Stamp (Upward Cut)  ♦  Starcaller Cry  ♦  Storm Assault  ♦  Storm Blade  ♦  Storm Kick  ♦  Storm Stomp  ♦  Storm Wall  ♦  Stormcaller  ♦  Surge of Faith  ♦  Sword Dance  ♦  Taker's Flames  ♦  The Queen's Black Flame  ♦  Thops's Barrier  ♦  Through and Through  ♦  Thunderbolt  ♦  Thundercloud Form  ♦  Thunderstorm  ♦  Tongues of Fire  ♦  Torch Attack  ♦  Transient Moonlight  ♦  Troll's Roar  ♦  Unblockable Blade  ♦  Unsheathe  ♦  Vacuum Slice  ♦  Viper Bite  ♦  Vow of the Indomitable  ♦  War Cry  ♦  Wave of Destruction  ♦  Wave of Gold  ♦  Waves of Darkness  ♦  White Shadow's Lure  ♦  Wild Strikes  ♦  Wolf's Assault  ♦  Zamor Ice Storm
 



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    • Anonymous

      kind of weird how there's such a relatively short window to actually continue the combo but a massive window to buffer doing the start of it again

      • Anonymous

        Water isn't flowing or taking temporarily human shape and dancing. 0/10

        Just like moonlight butter doesn't fly you idiot.

        • Anonymous

          even if it had infinite poise u can still literally just dodge it. everyone knows the exact timing to dodge waterfowl dance no way ur ever hitting anyone w this in pvp

          • Anonymous

            Why do people complain about too little hyperarmor when all you gotta do is take a baldachin's blessing first

            • Anonymous

              Pair this with endure, maybe you will make someone else go to this thread to complain about WFD being overtuned(when it's endure that prevents you from being interrupted, not WFD lol). You can also try Dragonbolt Blessing, but it's kind of a hit-or-miss, usually miss, at least in my experience. If someone hits you with anything that is not a colossal, cipher pata\coded sword, flail, whip or a great hammer, then they'll bounce off and will be left wide open to a flurry, but most people will jump attack you, and as far as I know jump attacks don't bounce off. As well as two-handed attacks and running attacks. It also lowers your lightning resistance.

              And, if you are in a 1v2 or 1v3 setting, you can initially target one guy and at the last moment suddenly switch the lock on and Waterfowl his buddy. An obvious trick, sure, but very effective.

              • Anonymous

                In pvp if someone does waterfowl dance counter ash of war with stamp sweep or something else with hyper armour while ther'ye doing to knock them out of the sky.

                • Anonymous

                  Damn there goes a +10 somber stone... should have checked the comments here first... can't kill crap with this thing

                  • Tested this in PVE and it was very underwhelming. It has a very lengthy start up animation and execution time, and there is also a lengthy delay between each flurry. You do not get super armor so its possible for heavy attacks to interrupt you.

                    The skill does 4 hits for the first flurry, 2 for the second flury and 4 for the last flurry. You get 50% status effects on each hit. Damage wise, the first and second flurry are roughly the same as spinning slash, only the third flurry does significantly more.

                    Altogether, if you use it on an enemy that just stands still and tanks all 10 hits from all 3 flurries, you will do massive damage. But this is extremely unlikely to happen in PVE as you will either get interrupted or the boss will simply move away while you were hanging in mid air. Its not even good against omens or knights because they will not be staggered by this skill and will smack you out of the air.

                    Even when stacking millicent's prosthesis + rotten winged insignifia, i did not see amazing damage. At any rate, to get to the 3rd tier of the attack bonus, you need 9 hits anyway...and the skill only does 10 hits.

                    To top it off, the skill does very little poise damage and wont stance break anything. Spinning slash does 30 poise damage and can be executed in the time of 1x flurry, and doesnt have that super vulnerable animation.

                    For cases where you can actually stand there and use the full animation, stormcaller would probably be better as it deals massive damage, the final hit knocks omens down and every hit of the skill will stun lock omens and knights.

                    • Anonymous

                      "The wind-up animation for this skill can be interrupted.'

                      Yep, just died because I jump R1ed someone and it didn't stop them from finishing their windup and royally screwing me. This AoW is cancer.

                      • Anonymous

                        I enjoy dressing up as Malenia and using this skill in invasions at the Hailgtree Roots grace to capitalize on other peoples misery from failing this boss.

                        • Anonymous

                          People still wanting a buff to this have not endured the cancer that is endure + WFD in a tight space. Basically becomes Malenia's for 3 seconds, canceling out the counter potential of hitting the WFD user out of the air

                          • A sword technique that unleashes powerful shockwaves. Costs Spirit Emblems to use. Its namesake comes from a large eddy of distant cloud forming near the headwaters; the Fountainhead Spiral.

                            Tomoe would watch her young master as he gazed longingly at the coiling clouds. The sight meant everything to her.

                            • Anonymous

                              Thanks to patch 1.10, this skill is finally usable, but there's still some weaknesses that can be exploited:

                              - WFD still loses to sprinting or rolling backwards repeatedly; if you spam back roll on reaction, it still can't catch you
                              - WFD still can't deal with hyperarmored attacks like colossal weapon attacks or skills like Lion Claw
                              - Still need to get more tests, but 1H colossal R1s and 2H greatsword R1s seem to knock WFD out of the sky pretty well; if I were to guess, jumping R2s and maybe even standing R2s on other weapons could be enough to do the same (assuming they don't miss)
                              - If you are hit with anything during the initial jump up, you will still be knocked down; that said, I've noticed some attacks pass through a player's legs during the jump, implying jump i-frames were added to the skill (or were always there, and I never noticed)
                              - Afflicting status conditions still work (e.g. frost pot, bleed loss, madness, etc.)
                              - The first two parts of WFD are true while the third is not (though it can roll catch if you only roll once); this has actually always been the case, unless you had enough poise so that two hits would be needed to stagger you, allowing you to just roll out of WFD whenever you wanted; this is no longer possible after patch 1.10

                              Also, for some reason, parrying WFD seems to be bugged, as it doesn't always allow for a critical hit. But other than that, that's all the counters I've found to be successful against WFD so far. It's improved enough to be usable in PVP, but it's still got some flaws to balance it out. The best way to use this skill seems to be as a counter to a predicted attack (that isn't from a colossal weapon). It shouldn't be spammed, though, as it's still a stamina guzzler and endlag is a thing.

                              Hope this helps in the wild west that is post-1.10 PVP

                              • Anonymous

                                This thing needs more hyperarmor if you're going to be just hanging out in the air for a full second. Should have at least as much as Storm Kick, which takes about the same amount of time to startup.

                                • Anonymous

                                  how much poise do you have when using the AoW? and would building poise add on and compensate so its harder to inturrupt or is that pointless?

                                  • Anonymous

                                    This skill would be viable if it had hyperarmor in its startup. Once you start swinging, the hyperarmor should go away. Simple fix to make this a balanced counterattack, like it was supposed to be.

                                    • Anonymous

                                      Ironically good against Malenia right after she uses hers, if you can hit the first part of the attack she will be unable to dodge the rest of it or cancel the waterfowl so you can hit the full dance and with the Godskin swaddling cloth you can heal a good amount of health.

                                      • Anonymous

                                        The water fowl dance is a reference to the game of thrones where Arya Learns the waterfowl dance from her sword instructor

                                        • Anonymous

                                          Defeat got absolutely obliterated by this move and got erased from existence. Wait what am I talking about? I have never known defeat, who's that? he sounds like a chill dude.

                                          • Anonymous

                                            Classic from software, giving us a skill that one shots us when bosses use it but barely tickles anyone when we use it

                                            • Anonymous

                                              What is the timing for the two follow up attacks? I haven't used it on any enemies yet but I have messed around with it to see if I like it. But I'm not seeing the same thing shown in this video clip. The part in the video where it shows the player leap and travel forward a second time I haven't been able to do that.

                                              • Anonymous

                                                First saw this being used by Millicent with her Shamshir in the Aeonian Swamp. Was disappointed to find out later that it was locked to Malenias Prosthetic Sword and that Millicients Shamshir was a inaccessible custom weapon.

                                                • Anonymous

                                                  Giving this skill i-frames during the rise of the jump would make it a good counterattack, as it’s not much of an offensive WA given its poor poise and forward distance. It’s a small change, but it’d make weapon much more capable

                                                  • Anonymous

                                                    If this had I-frames during the jump, it would be a respectable counterattack. Not great as a offensive art, as it doesn’t have much poise or distance, but could make for a great counteroffensive with this small change

                                                    • Anonymous

                                                      Great skill! I'm really enjoying using it. It does NOT activate easy mode though, some enemies can dodge it and/or interrupt you. Its a lot of fun though and paired with Melanias armor set its kinda nice to cosplay as her :)

                                                      • Anonymous

                                                        If you use this you should stack a ton of poise, I'm talking like over 100. You can actually tank though some heavy hits during the startup.

                                                        • Anonymous

                                                          This attack is a reference to Rei's technique from Fist of the North Star. Nanto Suichu-Ken ("Waterfowl Fist") was a series of graceful motions with mostly cutting attacks.

                                                          • Anonymous

                                                            Not sure why the last comment didn't get through, but as of V.1.04 This moved is bugged if using the ashes of war "Golden vow" or "Commanders standard: Rallying cry"

                                                            If you are expericing that your Waterfowl is doing close to no damage, this would be why.
                                                            Spells of Golden vow and Fire grant me strength still works with it.

                                                            • Anonymous

                                                              This is currently bugged as of 1.04 if you use Golden vow (ash of war) or Battle standard. Causes Waterfowl to do less damage than barehanded.

                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                dont be scared, if its close your attacks can easily knock the person out of the starting animation. (peeler running r2 does it easily) if its far, you either run away since it has really poor tracking, or punish with a spell to knock out of it

                                                                • is it just me who can't get the attack to extend? Doesn't matter if I press LB again or press RB, it will only do the ''default'' attack

                                                                  • Millicent, when she invades you in the Caelid, has a weapon with the same attack, I couldn't figure out which it was tho. What I can say is that this weapon was definitely not the Hand of Malenia, maybe this could be a little hint that all weapon arts are/will be obtainable for all weapons (Maybe in a DLC), although I believe also they just gave her this because she's related to Malenia, idk.

                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                      Fun Fact: In German it is called Dance of the cranes.
                                                                      Quite Interesting when you consider how often Malenia stands on one leg and has the other bend like one.

                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                        Everyone thinks this is op but in reality its easily countered/punished. The wind up and attacks have very low poise. A jumping r2 or a halberd r1 will usually always knock them out of it. Bloodhound step, raptor rise and some of the other mobility ashes of war can also do the trick. Its great for shredding brainless coop/gankers but anyone with pvp experience will make waterfowl useless

                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                          could i have this weapon art on my hand of malenia right hand, but have a sepukku uchi in my left and still use the weapon art?

                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                            Human hands aren't even physically capable of these moves. Malenia acts like she's soooo skilled. She has one attack, Waterfowl, that makes her OP, and she can only use it because she has a prosthetic hand.

                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                              Is it just me who thinks this WA needs a bit of nerf? Not in term of damage, but the FP cost. A lot of powerful spells or WA such as Unsheathe eats through FP, but this WA has so low FP cost and yet it has a massive amount of DPS. I know that its huge windup essentially meant that you become extremely susceptible to bosses' attacks while other players can run away unless cornered, but it doesn't deny the fact you could spam the WA. Just my opinion though, could be stupid.

                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                Does anyone know what talismans and buffs (like wonderous physic) effect this? given the proximity to malenia both location and lore wise, and the fact that milicent herself uses Waterfowl dance, i want to beleive the talismans from milicents quest, the Rotten Winged Insignia (Greatly increases attack power with successive attacks) and Millicents Prothesis ( increases dex and increases attack power on successive attacks) work with with this Weapon Art. on that note, what about the wonderous physic flask that increases damage on successive attacks, and the one that increases stance breaking. can we assume that they work for this as well?

                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                  This will get nerfed in the first round of rebalancing. WA is way too damaging, esp for PVP. If you get your target into a corner or a hallway or something where he doesn't have completely free movement to roll away, congratulations: you just got a free kill for holding down L2. Dude stunlocked me and one shot me, melting away 1,600 HP.

                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                    Pretty sure the name is a reference to Rei from Fist of The North Star, and his South Star Waterfowl Fist.

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