On Dancer as a main job

My blog posts seem to come in bursts, so here's another one!

From looking around the server, I noticed that there just aren't that many people with level 75 Dancers. Not as rare as PUP, but still pretty rare. I guess part of it is that people have a low opinion of Dancers in the first place since many of the people taking it to sub levels simply... don't play it well, possibly because they tend to be melees who simply want a sub for campaign and do not have the right mindset to be a healer. They're forcing themselves to level a job that they don't enjoy. I think Frodorn put it best the other night when he finally completed his DNC sub, wondering how I managed to get DNC to 75 and expressing relief that his ordeal was finally over. For me, Dancer was always much more fun than any other job, and I really enjoyed the leveling experience. Of course, I enjoyed it a lot better after level 40 when I got Reverse Flourish! I'm always surprised by people talking about either Dancers who don't heal, or asking if a Dancer can handle main healing a part (the answer is yes :P) or even better yet, "What can a Dancer do?" (was asked this Monday afternoon)

Then again, I'm still discovering what Dancer can actually do myself. I've always figured that DNC was a good main healer, and with /NIN, a good backup tank at low levels. In the past, I've been experimenting with other things, such as focusing on enfeebling with Stutter Step for BLMs, or Box Step for melee DDs. With /SAM, I've toyed with doing some DDing, and I'm surprised at the skillchain results from just using Wild Flourish. I'm not even macroing in any special gear yet.

So, here's a super-sized post about Dancer as a main job... partially for myself so that I can get my thoughts together about my gear and what pieces I still need to upgrade, and partially to help understand what Dancers can do.

What Dancer is:
Dancer is... a hybrid class. This groups it with Red Mage, Blue Mage, Puppetmaster, Corsair, Scholar and possibly more. As I think about it, Dancer is actually closest to Red Mage in terms of capability and responsibilities. We can both heal(Waltz), enfeeble the mob(Steps & Flourishes), and support the party(Samba). Both Dancer & Red Mage have an incredible amount of endurance. However, as a hybrid, it is harder to define exactly what a Dancer should do because... well, it can do quite a few things!

Dancer is... a main healer. Yes, this includes healing before White Mages. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Our heals are instant. White Magic still takes a second or two to cast.
2. Our TP builds up over the course of a battle, basically meaning that our cures are "free" as in it does not contribute to the downtime of a party. The ability for a party to handle emergency situations depends on how high the White Mage's MP is. A Dancer will regain TP during the course of any battle
3. If not curing, White Mages can use their MP for other things that will contribute to the party, such as throwing up some enfeebles, Hasting, etc.
Of course, this doesn't mean that a White Mage doesn't have things to do in a party with a Dancer. Due to the Waltz recast timer, we're limited in how fast we can cure people. While a WHM can go from Cure IV to Cure III in rapid succession, we have to wait out a single timer. This means in AoE or emergency situations, a backup healer is necessary to help the DNC keep up with the load. Additionally, while a Dancer can handle curing a party, removing status effects is not something that Dancers are good at. Healing Waltz has a long recast timer, takes a lot of TP and prevents a Dancer from curing damage. If a WHM or /WHM sees status effects on the party, remove them as it'll let a Dancer concentrate on healing damage.

Dancer is... an enfeebler. Yes, those Steps we use to build up finishing moves actually do serve a purpose! If we're fighting a Thief-type mob, Quickstep lowers their evasion. If we're manaburning something, throw a couple of Stutter Steps up and it'll really help get those Black Mages killed. All other mobs, Box Step will help with overall damage. One other thing that many people don't realize is that our Steps will not wake a sleeping mob. They don't do damage, so it is possible to sleep-nuke a mob while a Dancer steps down their magical defense. We do need to be engaged to the mob, but simply keeping our back turned will let us use steps on the mob while keeping it asleep. Oh yeah, we also have two flourishes that get often overlooked... Violent Flourish is basically equal to Head Butt, just on a 30 second timer instead of a 3 second timer. Desperate Flourish is Gravity.

Dancer is... a supporter. Haste Samba. 5-10% haste depending on merits. My understanding is that this does not add to the magical haste cap, so one of these days I'd like to take a party with 2x March, Haste + Haste Samba and Haste gear to see how fast people swing. :o
Oh, and in emergency situations, we'll switch to Drain Samba to try to keep the party alive. Finally, if there's a PLD, BLU or DRK, we'll be keeping an eye on your MP and throw up Aspir Samba if possible. Finally, we have Wild Flourish that lets us set anyone up for a self-skillchain. All we need to do is throw Wild Flourish out before someone WS's and we have an instant skillchain. Of course, coordinating this is really hard given that I can't read people's minds on when they're going to use their TP :)

Dancer is... a damage dealer? Ok, this is the area which I have the least experience because I'm normally concentrating on the other tasks. I've pulled out a few surprising Dancing Edges, and combined with Wild Flourish, some good SC results. I should experiment using Building Flourish with that other quested WS (forgot the name). With /SAM and Reverse Flourish, we'll probably WS a lot if we concentrated on doing nothing but damage. I'm still not convinced that this works well, but... I'll give it a try!

Dancer is... a tank? Well, at low levels, a DNC/NIN can tank as well as, if not better than a NIN/WAR. Between Animated Flourish for an initial provoke and the crazy amount of hate our heals generate, most Dancers have to hold back in the 30s, or simply accept tanking half the fight. At high levels, well... our evasion is high enough that we can get away with toying with Easy Prey & Decent Challenges without problems. A Dancer is probably a Thief's best farming-duo partner.


Wow... that's a lot longer than I thought it would be. Hope that helps someone in their image of Dancers. Next up, something more for myself to get my thoughts out onto paper.

Dancer - Equipment breakdown by slot
I'm currently quite happy with my Dancer's equipment. Unlike BLU, I think I'm fairly well equipped on DNC. Gear wise, I've been focusing on two aspects: Accuracy & Haste. I put on as much Haste gear as I can, and swap it out for accuracy as necessary depending on the mob. So far, I've rarely needed to resort to accuracy gear, only when I'm dealing with mobs like Kaiser Behemoth, or highly evasive mobs like Chigre.

Main Hand: Azoth - Accuracy +4, Evasion +4, and high DPS
It was Ashle who convinced me to plop down the gil to buy this super-expensive knife. I think it's actually better than even the mythic weapon Terpsichore due to the increase in accuracy, and that to take full advantage of the Terpsichore, you have to WS, which is something Dancers rarely do in the first place.
Alternative: Terpsichore - If I had this and was /NIN, I'd simply off-hand the Azoth xD

Off-hand: Currently Jambiya - High DPS
Alternative: Kard - +5 chr, low delay
I still have my two Jambiyas that I like to keep around for show... and to wear during WoTG cutscenes with Lilisette :D It has a high DPS rating, but otherwise, nothing too special about it. Alternatively, the Kard would be a good choice for an off-hand due to the lower delay, and the additions to Chr which would help in main healing.

Ranged: Currently: War Hoop (+4 chr, pulling)
Alternative: Tiphia Sting (+2 Accuracy & Attack, but -4 evasion)
Ever since Aquelia put me through "pulling boot camp" on my lowbie WAR and during my last levels exping Dancer, I've been addicted to pulling whenever possible... almost to the point where I get too impatient and pull mobs when I'm not supposed to ^^; Chances are that I'll be using my War Hoop since it can be used for pulling, and the charisma boost is always good.

Head: Walahra Turban (+5% Haste) / Optical Hat (+10 Accuracy & Evasion)
Alternatives: Enkidu's Hat (+8 Accuracy, +2 Dex, +2 Subtle Blow), or
- Panther Mask (+5 Chr, +2% Haste, resist paralyze), or
- Denali Bonnet (+4% Haste, +3 attack & evasion) or
- Pahluwan q-thingie (+7 accuracy, +5 attack)
Right now, I have to choose betwen haste or accuracy, which isn't a big deal really. My alternatives all trade off a little haste, or a little accuracy for something else like attack & evasion. Denali's Bonnet & Enkidu's hat both look like good alternatives for when I need to mix things up, and I'm considering picking up a Panther Mask for the extra charisma when curing.

Body: Rapparee Harness (+4% Haste) / Scorpion Harness (+10 Accuracy & Evasion)
Alternatives: Enkidu's Harness (+10 accuracy, +5 evasion, +10 attack, +5 str, +5 Subtle Blow)
- Pahluwan k-thingie (+10 accuracy, +Crit Hit Rate)
Again, a trade-off between haste & accuracy. For upgrades, Enkidu's Harness is a significant upgrade compared to the scorpion harness even though the evasion is slightly lowered. I guess dot would be higher on Enkidu's due to the higher attack & strength

Hands: Dusk Gloves (+3% Haste) / Cobra Unit Mittens (+4 Accuracy, +3 Store TP)
Alternatives: Enkidu's Mittens (+5 Accuracy, Str & Dex +4)
- Pahluwan's d-thingie (+5 Accuracy)
The same haste/accuracy trade-off. Again, Enkidu's Mittens are a significant upgrade over the Cobra Unit mittens. We really need to go do more ZNMs... I want that Enkidu's set!

Legs: Cobra Unit Subligar (short shorts!) (+5 Accuracy, +3 Store TP)
Alternative: Barbarossa's Zerehs (+3% Haste, +4 Str)
Finally a piece where Cobra Unit > all! No other piece gives as high accuracy in this slot. Denali kecks does give evasion, so that might be useful for soloing, but for once Enkidu's subligar does not outperform Cobra Unit, at least not for Dancers. I still need the Ashu Talif pants in order to complete my haste set... hopefully we start that up again soon.

Feet: Dusk Ledelsens (+2% Haste, +4 Attack) / Cobra Unit Leggings (+4 Accuracy, +4 Store TP)
Alternatives: Enkidu's leggings (+2% Haste, +4 Attack, +3 Dex, +2 Subtle Blow)
- Denali Gamashels (+5 accuracy, +3 Str)
In this case, we have good replacements for both my haste & accuracy gear. The Denali Gamashels would be quite a significant upgrade with one more accuracy and the extra strength, while the Enkidu's leggings would at let me actually run at normal speed, plus I'd be able to sell my dusk feet for some gil ; ;

Earrings: Brutal Earring (Double Attack) & Suppanomimi (Enhances Dual Wield) OR Minuet Earring (+1 Str & Dex, Minuet: Accuracy +3)
Alternatives: Coral Earring (+5 Attack, Magic Damage -1%)
- Roundel Earring ("Waltz" potency +5%)
Earrings is one place where I find it hard to figure out good equipment. Right now, I'm using a Minuet earring when I'm not /NIN to pair with my Brutal Earring. The Roundel Earring would be the obvious "killer" piece for both WHMs & DNCs, but so far, nobody knows where it comes from.

Rings: Blood Ring (+5 Accuracy) / Rajas Ring (+5 Store TP)
Alternatives: Ecphoria Ring (+4 Accuracy, Remove Amnesia)
- Other super hard-to-get accuracy rings
I'm actually pretty happy with my ring combination. The Rajas Ring gives enough Store TP that when I'm using /NIN, my first two hits gives me 10% TP, which is enough to start stepping. I normally hold onto my Ecphoria Ring just in case I really, really need to remove amnesia, or if I need a little extra accuracy for some reason. The only other rings that I've noticed are even higher accuracy rings which area really hard to get (Absolute Virtue, or Promy-Vahzl ENM >.>)

Back: Amemet Mantle +1 (+2 Str, +15 Attack)
Alternatives: Psilos Mantle (+1 Accuracy, +12 Attack)
Back pieces are hard to figure out. There really isn't too much to choose from. I've been using the Amemet +1 since I use that on BLU, but I really should pick up a Psilos just to get that +1 accuracy. It's only 30k on AH, so... once I raise enough gil... yes, I'm that broke right now ; ;

Waist: Swift Belt (+3 Accuracy, 4% Haste) / Nu Sash (+10 Accuracy)
Alternatives: None!
Well, not counting the impossible-to-get alternatives like the Speed Belt or Velocious Belt for an extra 2% haste. These two belts are basically the best that I can get on DNC! Thank you everyone from AP who put up with me when we did the Swift Belt runs all those months ago (and especially thanks Vargie who let me have his Swift Belt drop). The Nu Sash was a lucky drop during our Assault rank-ups. If I didn't get this one, I'd probably still be using my Life Belt, or bugging people to go repeat that one assault >.>


Equipment Conclusion
Let's see... I have a short shopping list:
- Psilos Mantle - 30k
- Panther Mask - 5k

For drops, basically I want Enkidu's Harness set. Specifically, the leggings, mittens and harness are all high priority items that would replace my existing equipment. The subligar & cap I'd want to just finish off the set ^^; Upgrades from Enkidu's Harness would result in
- Accuracy: +1
- Attack: +10
- Strength: +9
- Dex: +7
- Subtle Blow: +7
Add on Denali's Gamashels for an extra +1 accuracy and +3 strength and Barbarossa's Zerehs for my haste equipment with +3% Haste and +4 Strength.

I forsee lots more ZNMs & Ashu Talif in the future. I wonder where the Roundel Earring comes from...

Dancer Merits
Last bit... With the category 1 merits added for Dancer, I've been meriting both Haste Samba (4/5) & Reverse Flourish (3/5). I'm still considering how to handle the last three upgrades I have for this category. I'm definitely going to push Reverse Flourish to 4/5 so that when I reverse with 4 finishing moves, I'll get 46+12 = 58% TP, which is enough to do a Curing Waltz IV after I do a WS assuming I get at least 7% TP return.

For the last two upgrades, I'm thinking of putting them both into Step Accuracy to gain +6 accuracy on Steps. The effect should be more noticable compared to another 1% in Haste Samba, or an extra 3% TP return.

Well, that's it for Dancer right now... comments welcome as always!