So, we've been playing the 3rd edition for about a month now. The group consists of a Dwarf Ironbreaker, Dwarf Ratcatcher, Human Priest, Human Bright Wizard, and me Elven Wardancer.

I've been incredibly frustrated in every single battle with the wardancer. While all of the characters seem to actively contribute to every combat, all of my abilities are excessively complicated with added difficulty, all for the bonus of being completely unprotected against any attack whatsoever. The best I can possibly hope for is that they manage to miss when I use up all my active defenses, or that they are somehow engaged with someone else, rather than using their maneuver to close and hit me when I'm completely defenseless.

My abilities only even function if they are all successful on subsequent turns, and I actively flip my stances back and forth (as opposed to the guy next to me doing nearly the same amount of damage with normal melee strokes). If any of my abilities fail, the short recharge on most of my dances means that the actual 'triggered' abilities on my attacks are worthless.

Yes, I could wear armor, but that's completely against the flavor of the career itself (and is rather explicitly stated on the back of the career).

This is nothing more than a rant, and I apologize, but I need to vent somewhere. I have no idea how someone could get any enjoyment out of this career. They are intended to be a -melee- class, but do not have any ability whatsoever to stand up in combat.

I created a Wardancer for a one off adventure (lasted two session) separate from our main game. Playing for only the two sessions I found the Wardancer great fun trying to combo up the cards but can see if played for a longer campaign it could become very frustrating.

I posted in another thread which I copy below the sequence I tried to use with my Wardancer. The Tempest Fury in the second round can really put out some damage and I did find him effective in combat but as you say once you fail a roll you miss a step and things begin to go wrong. To be successful he was very tightly focused on stats and the Dance cards and had no other skills, weapon skill and coordination only trained.

I started with:

Shadow's coil to get some much needed defense and allow a quick stance change
Tempest's Fury for a high critical attack, ready the next attack/defense cards and have a long term recharging dance to power other cards
Whirling Death as a basic attack which can also power up
Stooping Hawk Leap second attack
Tactics
Catlike Reflexes
Roll with it

I have leather armour

My basic sequence is(which never seems to work out in practice):

First Round
Go to 1 in conservative
Whirling death 4 recharge, 3 at end of round
Between rounds
Defend with Shadows coil 2 recharge and change to stance one into reckless, and dodge (power up with catlike reflexes) if necessary
Second Round
Go to 2 in reckless
Tempest Fury, remove 1 recharge from Shadows coil and 2 from Whirling death, both now have 1 recharge and on conservative side.
With only two successes this is +6 damage +3 criticals which is not good for anyone, two boons gives an extra +4 damage from the recharging dances. Use Wardancer abilty to flip card to conservative 6 recharge
End of round Whirling death and Shadows coil recharged, Tempests Fury on 5 Conservative
Between rounds
Defend with Shadows coil 2 recharge Reckless, and dodge (power up with catlike reflexes) if necessary.
Third
Stooping Hawk Leap 3 recharge and look for the two boons for yet another critical. Use Wardancer ability to flip card to conservative.
You can run the cards as you want maybe Tempest’s fury next round with two conservative cards to power it up.
I have found the Tempest Fury to cripple most single opponents and most henchmen groups, but the wardancer cannot stand toe to toe with multiple opponents. It is important to maneuver in and out of combat with the Wardancer, this does mean burning fatigue. I have tried to use Woven Mist which does work in longer combats but would not pick it to start, maybe first buy.

Having looked at the cards again if I was to remake the character I would Orion’s Gambol rather than stooping hawk leap, this to me gives a more certain critical to trigger the Wardancer ability.

The Wardancer career is certainly not for everyone. It takes planning on skill to develop but for those that like to play a lot of cards and constantly feel like they are in motion then the career works well. You just have to really consider the cards you put together and make sure your stats compliment those cards. It's one career that feels like you are playing a little Magic the Gathering (sorry Warhammer Invasion) when you put him to use.

But you have to play accordingly. You can't just stand in the pocket and hope you don't get hit. Amketch's suggestions are pretty much spot on. But I'll add that in addition to that game play is about staying out of reach so that your opponents have to come to you. Also try and the other characters moving through combat so you can engage opponents already engaged with others etc... You are a tactical striker not the impenetrable wall. Let the iron breaker draw the fire, that's what he's good at. Let the Bright wizard support with ranged attacks. The Rat catcher and his dog are really good at occupying a target. You are left to flow between them all lending assistance as necessary.

Now this goes for everyone but if each person in your group just does their own thing then you don't really have much of an option. You are a group co-ordinate your efforts and play to every ones strengths. Combat should be about your group vs the enemy. Not just a whole bunch of individual fights.