http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3173796&p=1
Love it... "F" rating.
Only other thing I have to say: Good trick asking us to pre-order this expansion. It worked. Not only did you get money one billing period before you released the content, you also successfully tricked people into buying something they would never have bought had they read the reviews.
Weekend of fail
So, weekend of fail continues with a Limbus failure... 2nd failure in a row... or is it 3rd? I'm losing count. I do remember that the last time we succeeded we got crappy drops that almost went to the floor. Of course we get another chip drop from a pod bringing us to 3/4 for another attempt, though I'm wondering what's the point if we can't win.
I'm *hoping* that this failure was due to the whole enfeebling nerf that SE introduced with the last patch... From what I'm reading, enfeebles(Para, slow, sleep) aren't lasting as long as they used to... I'm guessing that they're half as effective too?
Up to the Fei'Yin BS run-around and fight for ACP, so... who knows, maybe that will get done eventually.
Tonight is supposed to be the Tinnin ZNM... I'm predicting one of the following will occur:
1. Enough people do not have 500 zeni so we can't do the event
2. Wipe to Tinnin
3. Tinnin's drops consist of Shusui and nothing of value
Would be an appropriate way to continue the week of fail.
Tanking
So I've pretty much decided to abandon PLD again due to the huge amount of idiots out there, as well as the annoyances and frustrations of FFXI taking the toll on me. My chainmail armor is in storage, but I'm still holding onto my PLD27 gear since I have a ton of storage now with that Mog Satchel in case someone decides to put together a lowbie party. I'm sure there's someone else out there who will tank if necessary on PLD :P Instead, I'm looking again at the possibility of Dancer as a tank from a different angle. Also, this might be a good enough distraction from the annoyances that are pissing me off to keep at least some interest in FFXI.
The main reason the idea of a DNC tank came about due to the group 2 merit "Fan Dance" that had a description of "increases enmity". Also, the Etoile Bangles have +2 enmity, very strange compared to the -5 total from the Dancer's attire set. Add to that a Dancer's naturally high evasion and high amount of hate from curing, there is a possibility that suitably equipped and played, a Dancer could tank.
Previous testing has lead to some success... I know I can solo a large number of mobs that most jobs would simply run away from. Now the question is can I maintain the attention of a mob in anything other than a solo/low-man situation? I've gotten a lot of practice with soloing and using the full abilities of a Dancer since the last time I tried this. I already know that Dancers aren't suitable for mobs that have magical attacks that can one-shot me (use a PLD)
Most people know about the enmity research done by someone else banned from the game about Cumulative Enmity (CE) and Volatile Enmity (VE). The research pretty much quantifies how NIN/DRK and RDM/NIN tanks work, and why PLD/NIN is better compared to PLD/WAR. Let's see how this research can be applied to a potential Dancer tank.
Curing enmity gain
The #1 reason any Dancer gets hate in the first place is through curing. That's one reason why most Dancers sub NIN in the first place... we can and do cure that much.
So, let's take a simple example of a DNC 75 curing 400 damage (either to herself or someone else). Using the formulas at http://kanican.livejournal.com/30142.html, we get:
CE = [CE modifier] x [HP cured]
VE = [VE modifier] x [HP cured]
At level 75, the modifiers are 0.727 & 4.36 respectively, so:
CE = [0.727] x [400] = 290
VE = [4.36] x [400] = 1745
Damage taken enmity loss
At some point, a tank will take damage, even subbing NIN. Let's see how badly that affects the amount of enmity you have. Now we're using the damage taken formula from http://kanican.livejournal.com/31613.html
For comparison to the curing section above, I'm using the same 400 damage taken
CE Loss = 1800 x [Damage taken] / [Max HP]
Right now, I have about 1200 HP on Dancer, depending on sub, so we have:
CE Loss = 1800 x 400 / 1200 = 600 CE lost
Cumulative Enmity
The Dancer enmity table at http://kanican.livejournal.com/20722.html shows that the only way a Dancer can obtain CE is through curing. The other way would be through damage, but I'm not going to argue that a Dancer can keep up with a dedicated DD, especially when the focus is curing and holding the attention of a mob. A Dancer with no gear, no merits attempting to tank and cure herself will quickly lose out to other people in terms CE generation since you end up with a net loss of CE over time.
CE Conclusion: The difference in enmity lost vs. gained in curing is too great to be overcome. 290 vs. 600. The most enmity gain through equipment and abilities is +100, which would double the CE gained which is still 20 CE short of the amount lost for curing the same amount. Simply put, pure CE tanking will not work. Getting hit means a net loss of CE. We have to avoid being hit in order to maintain CE at a high level.
However, it is good to know that a single Curing Waltz III is approximately equal to a Provoke in terms of VE.
Volatile Enmity
Now that we've determined that the only way to accumulate CE to hold hate is basically not be hit, let's take a look at VE instead. Just like CE, VE has a cap of 10,000 units. The main difference is that VE decays over time at a rate of -60 VE/sec, or 1,800 VE/30 seconds. This is also the total enmity, and the recast time for Provoke...
Tests have shown that taking damage only affects CE and not VE. The only way to reduce VE is to wait for it to decay (I think?). Still the loss rate of -60VE/sec is quite high and difficult to overcome.
Taking another look at the Dancer enmity table, we can see that the Flourish I category all have the same spike VE at 1,500 VE. These abilities are on the same timer, between 20-30 seconds. Desperate Flourish & Violent Flourish both have 20 second timers, but have a possibility of missing, while Animated Flourish has a 30 second timer, just like Provoke.
One thing that is amusing is that Spectral Jig has 300 VE. This has a recast time of 30s, which means combined with Violent Flourish, we can match the 1,800 VE/30 seconds to counter the decay. Job Abilities are instant, so there isn't really any time lost... Still, it would be amusing to watch your tank disappear every 30 seconds!
Now add on the VE from any cures and we have a high rate of VE gain. If you figure a Dancer using Animated Flourish + Jigs to maintain their VE floor, any form of curing done would be increasing the Dancer's VE. At about 1,800 per Curing Waltz III, a Dancer can get to the 10,000 VE cap in about 5-6 casts. Divine Waltz would do this just even faster, taking only 4 Waltzes hitting 6 people for about 100 HP each to hit the cap.
(This also explains why in Dynamis and Einherjar, I'm always the one who ends up being targeted by mobs when they wake up. I spam Divine Waltz to keep the HP of my party near full, and that generates a ton of VE compared to the 180 CE of Sleepga II, or even the 1,800 VE of a Provoke)
The problem with using Cures to gain VE is that the Dancer has to have someone to cure for it to work. This means that someone, possibly the Dancer or another tank, has to be hit. The best case scenario is fighting a mob with a lot of non-crippling AoE attacks that hit everyone in the party. Spamming Divine Waltz on a lightly damaged party would easily get to cap VE.
VE Conclusion: Keeping VE up is pretty much the only possible way a Dancer can really tank. First, we need to constantly use Animated Flourish (and Spectral Jig) to counter the VE decay rate, then we need to basically cure to increase VE to cap. Once we're at VE cap, we can actually back off from curing as long as we keep "provoking" every 30 seconds to maintain VE. Almost no Dancer that I know of (including me) has attempted to maintain hate in this way... Perhaps it's time to try it out?
Merits + Gear
This entire exercise started due to Fan Dance and it's enmity attributes. So far, when I've been attempting to tank, I've been using Haste Samba, Curing and only switching on Fan Dance when trouble starts. This is not the right approach for a tanking Dancer.
From testing, Fan Dance gives +15 enmity. This means that the 1,500 VE Animated Flourish is bumped up to 1,725, almost matching the VE decay rate. Throw in some extra gear and a Dancer can probably get up to the VE cap significantly faster with Fan Dance up. While Enmity gear that is usable by a Dancer is rare, this is what I've found so far:
- Etoile Bangles - +2
- Warwolf Belt - +3
- Harmonia's Torque OR Ritter Gorget - +3
- Heroic boots - +1
- Eris Earring - +2
- Mermaid's Ring - +2
- High Breath Mantle - +5
For a total of +18 equipment-based +enmity. Add that to Fan Dance and we have a total of 33%. If you customize a Mirke Wardecors for +5 enmity, this bring is to a total of +38%. This would be a significant increase for enmity gain. So, keeping Fan Dance up at all times when a Dancer is trying to tank would help significantly for keeping hate.
Plus, there's the side effect that Fan Dance significantly reduces physical damage (90% reduction, going down by 10% per hit the mob gets) which helps reduce the amount of CE lost :)
Subjob Choice
Not much to talk about here. Subbing NIN means that you can slow down CE decay simply by not taking many hits (-25 CE per shadow compared to the -600 CE for a 400HP hit). SAM sub is really just about having Meditate around for extra TP, but the 60 extra TP every 3 minutes does not counter the CE loss from taking more hits.
WAR sub would be an interesting choice. This would throw in a few extra VE abilities (mainly Provoke & Warcry) making it a lot easier to reach the VE cap. It would also add in the Defender ability to reduce damage taken, though I'm not sure how effective it would be. For shorter fights where spike VE is needed up front, DNC/WAR might be necessary to grab hate during the first few seconds of the fight.
Overall Dancer tank conclusion
So, the best tank that you really want is one that can keep both CE & VE at the capped amounts. If you start a Dancer off as a tank from the beginning, you can end up with a high VE tank, but damage to the Dancer would prevent CE from building too high unless you had other party members in range to take damage and be cured by the Dancer. A co-tank situation might be best, where a Dancer starts off by accumulating CE by being the main healer of the alternate tank. Once enough CE is built up (which from my experience, already happens easily in long fights), the Dancer can actually take over tanking simply by throwing in Animated Flourish + Spectral Jig to stop VE decay. A couple of Waltzes should hit the VE cap and let the Dancer take over.
What next? Well... for starters, I'm going to pick up the +enmity equipment I described above. Except for the Ritter Gorget, all items are available on the AH for fairly reasonable prices. I'll probably hold off on the Mermaid's Ring until I determine that this actually works. Next, I'd have to find a mob to tank with on an experimental basis... For starters, I'm thinking of the Ermine's Tail NM. Connie, Utty and Karou have all helped me for this fight, and for the most part, I'm already the tank for this, but it requires them holding back (or subbing THF to plant hate on me) I'd like to see how different it would be constantly using Animated Flourish (or Violent Flourish)
After that... well, time to take my Dancer to some big fight and play with it there. Preferably a non-critical situation where having me intentionally pulling hate will not result in a wipe. I'm thinking either another Tier III ZNM fight, or possibly a mission somewhere...
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