what type of job is Dancer

[Animeangel77]

I dont know if its a mage or melee and what would be the best sub job? I think /NIN or /WAR if its a melee /WHM or /BLM if its a mage but what do you think the Dancer maybe melee or mage?

[LilithAngel]

We don't know. We'll find out when Wings is released.

[Malacite]

Reverse BRD... unless SE is going for a drastic change from past FFs

[eticket109]

It seems more then likely it will be a debuff/support role. Based on some descriptions though it could very well be a tank. Like Lilith said though, we won't know until Wings is released.

Besides, what SE intends for the job and what we do with it are often two very different things.

[Eiyoko]

We don't know. We'll find out when Wings is released.

See above.

Although we have a good idea of what it may be, I wouldn't count on it quite yet.

[Nuriko]

From the sounds of things, it seems a bit more like Corsair than Bard, in a sense - hybrid melee/support. We'll see about the specifics, of course...

[Lunaryn]

Debuffing and DoT would be in line with what was in FFT certainly. The one worry about a debuffing job is whether it would be seen as having any real viability in higher level parties. At the moment debuffing has its place in really tough boss battles, but in xp it's increasingly seen as obsolete, particularly with the constant bleedthrough of meripo party ethic into lower level parties (I don't mean chaining Ts -- most parties I've been in still insist on IT whenever possible -- but rather the eschewing as not important or worthwhile any practice which isn't used in your average TP burn)...

I'm hoping the job has a lot of really pretty blatant potential. As much as I like the idea of versatility, jack-of-all-trades jobs or jobs with any real subtlety to them fall flat unless they are also the undisputed king of some niche (and then of course players gripe about being reduced to just that niche plus (insert vital party role they can be shoehorned into here)).

As for tanks, the problem here is not really viability. There are a number of "DD" jobs that are capable tanks which almost never ever tank. What really keeps NIN and PLD in this role is that these jobs are both little more than lackluster DDs without that role. You don't normally worry whether the PLD you invite will have def gear/food, or whether that NIN will have Utsusemi and Shihei; it's unthinkable that they would seriously try to xp without them. Compare to WAR, SAM, BLU, or PUP, which may not even know their job can tank at certain levels, or how, let alone have bothered to invest in needed gear/spells/etc. If we're going to see 'more tanks' in a way that is meaningful to most people trying to cope with pickup xp parties, there has to be some reason to actually expect such a job to bring to the table things needed to support tanking. Tanking is going to have to in some way be a part of what this new job is best at, such that the community will actually frown on those who refuse to do so as gimping themselves and the party.

edit: To be completely clear, I am in no way saying a new tank job has to be better than PLD or NIN at tanking. There are various mindsets as to which of these two makes a better tank, but few parties I have been in, no matter how strongly they might prefer one over the other, would presume to suggest that the other cannot be invited for that purpose. What is important is how well the job's tanking role compares to its own other capabilities.

[Malacite]

I still think an overhaul of DEF and VIT is needed. A few other ideas of mine are

1) Change "Defense Bonus" from +def to straight damage reduction

2) Freaking make counter and parrying more viable like they did with shields.

[Telera]

I'm hoping for a debuff/support style job.

1. Because I hate ninja, I do not want to level ninja, I do not want to burn gil as a tank for 37 levels... and then some more all the way to 75 because people are so hung on shadows. (pet peeve -_-)

2. I prefer playing a support/healer at needs type of role (clearly).

[jenova_9]

yeah I had my fill of tanking, hopefully Dancer is a fun and affordable support job that's great with debuff, and some dd on the side. Ya some people expect it to be opposite of Bard, but maybe it will have some party-based abilities to improves everyone's offensive stats and stuff, like imagine a TP version of regen that affects all party members and gradually raises their TP over time. That could lead to some serious mob whooping. ya debuffing becomes not as important for high levels, that's why I feel Dancer really needs some effective dd capabilities and support abilities that help keel a mob faster. and if they do aim on making Dancer a potential tank, then Dancer will need something similiar to blink, maybe something that instead of shadows taking hits, and aura would absorb the hits and covert it into HP?