[Balfree]

Dirty dancing? Dancing in the dark? Private dancer? You decide.


The Dancer was designed -- and this comes from the mouths of the job class director, Mitsutoshi Gondai -- to be a front-line healer. Anyone who would debate this probably hasn't heard that the gross majority of the Dancer's moves require TP, but not as much as you probably thought. If you didn't know, you might have thought that for every major spell a Dancer uses in its support role, a 100% TP (or more) might be needed. That's not the case. Some moves (usually Tier I versions of DNC spells) require as little as 10TP to activate, while more powerful versions of these moves (like a Bard's II, III, IV songs) require greater amounts of TP. Some moves, though, don't cost any TP whatsoever, making them free. But Dancer abilities are organized by styles, like Sambas, Waltzes, Jigs and Steps, each with their own inherent abilities, like a Red Mage's spells, which are grouped into enhancing magic, enfeebling magic, etc. Let's take a look at what makes Dancers so fleet of foot.


Trance -- This is the Dancer's two-hour move; it lowers the TP cost of dances, and reduces the number of 'steps' needed to zero.

Sambas -- These dances imbue melee attacks with special enhancements. Here we will list the Samba moves and their effects.

• Drain Samba: (TP cost, 10) Casts Drain Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle drains the enemy's HP. Drain Samba II costs 25TP.
• Aspir Samba: (TP cost, 10) Casts Aspir Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle drains the enemy's MP. Aspir Samba II costs 25TP.
• Haste Samba: (TP cost, 35) Casts Haste Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle gain Haste. There is no tier II version of this spell.

Waltzes -- These dance moves cure and remove ailments from party members. Here we will list the Waltz moves and their effects.

• Curing Waltz: (TP cost, 20) Restore a party member's HP. Curing Waltz II costs 35TP. Curing Waltz III costs 50TP.
• Healing Waltz: (TP cost, 20) Removes one magic-induced ailment from a party member. This is most similar to the White Mage spell, Erase, but since it's specific to a 'magic-induced ailment,' it probably won't remove physically-inflicted enfeebles, like Slow. There is no tier II version of this dance.
• Divine Waltz: (TP cost, 40) This Waltz heals party members HP, essentially a Curaga spell. It is unknown how much enmity using any of these curative oves generates.

Jigs -- These dances enhances your own abilities. Here we will list the Jigs dances and their effects.

• Spectral Jig: (TP cost, 0) Allows you to evade detection by enemies that detect by either sight or sound. Essentially this casts both Sneak and Invisible on yourself, at zero MP or TP cost. Unlikely to be effective in avoiding detection by mobs with True Sight, however.
• Chocobo Jig: (TP cost, 0) Increases the Dancer's movement speed (as in running, not attacking). When questioned about the actual speed increase, Mitsutoshi Gondai informed us that Chocobo Jig has the same speed effect (on the player alone) as Chocobo Mazurka, and not Raptor Mazurka as we originally suspected.

The Dancer's weapon proficiency lies with the dagger, which is appropriate since these weapons have the lowest delay, making for relatively quick TP build-up, especially if a Ninja sub isn't used (in favor of, say, a White Mage sub). As the Dancer's moves don't use any MP to cast -- by design -- the dev team sees this as a solution to the number of dwindling healers, since a good majority of the players out there have by now leveled WHM to at least 37 for support job purposes. Now low-level parties in the Valkurm Dunes (or in the Wings of the Goddess expansion) that can't find a WHM can just invite a Dancer, who will change the dynamic of leveling parties significantly. Instead of the usual melee up front while the WHM lingers in the back setup, now a party of six damage dealers can all be fighting at once, Dancer right in the thick of things, keeping Curaga-like moves activating when necessary.

credits: 1up.com

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I love the Brady Guide moment 1up threw in:

The Dancer's weapon proficiency lies with the dagger, which is appropriate since these weapons have the lowest delay, making for relatively quick TP build-up, especially if a Ninja sub isn't used (in favor of, say, a White Mage sub).

Because when I think of building TP, I think of anchoring myself down to rest for MP with a sub that gives no melee traits. I don't see /WHM happening past 30 if the cures are strong enough on their own. Actually, scratch that, I do see it because people are still that stupid with COR.

/SAM looks like a lock for 60+ barring there are no Store TP traits and the Flourishes restore good amounts of TP.

The only issues I seem to see with Dancer so far is its getting slapped with a penalty right away for content like CoP BCNMs where buffs are wiped on entry and there's no chance to gain TP prior. Additionally it seems like items such as Icarus Wings would be useful for such a situation, if the penalty for using one wasn't so ridiculously harsh.

By the way, the information seems a little jumbled up. Were the "Steps" not given?

[Balfree]

Wow that post was SCREWED up.

Just fixed it.

Kitten I thought of you when I saw that Haste Samba.

[tdh]

I dunno, when you think about it, Dagger really does fight great here, even with TP build. 1 hit does 5~7% TP depending on delay, so you're looking at 2 hits for a lot of the spells listed there, 5 for others. I think another post mentioned that they only had a B rating in Dagger, and that's what surprises me. At least an A- would seem appropriate, or hell. Make it A+ since nobody in the game has an A+ rating in Dagger. Don't give them hell trying to build that TP. I see BBQ's thought for /SAM. That would seem to make a lot of sense with Store TP and Meditate to help keep them in plenty of TP. I wonder if they'll ever WS though.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I think the talk about a B rating was wistful speculation out of respect for THF. Honestly, I don't see why any respect for THF is needed as this is built to be a frontline healer/enfeebler/buffer more than a frontline melee.

We likely won't know skill ratings until the DATs are found or someone unlocks the job, I don't think the data on skill rating is out there right now.

I have to say Aspir Samba may just be what the doctor ordered for those troublesome DRK, PLD and BLUs, this would make Dancer a godsend to PTs with BRDs and CORs with both mages and melee. IT could also ease up PLDs preferential treatment of RDMs over BRDs and CORs.

[Malacite]

Wow, Dancer is going to seriously kick ass!


... kinda bummed out at the confirmation of no 3rd job though. God damn I was hoping I'd finally get Spellblade this time > <


SE lets me down once again. Good to see Trance is back XD

[Karinya]

You might not be able to stack multiple sambas on the same mob at once, though. So if you're going to Aspir Samba you might as well sub something with MP to take advantage of it yourself... (IIRC that's similar reasoning to what led to BRD/WHM, if they're going to ballad anyone they'll also ballad themselves, might as well do something with it.)

Aspir Samba might only work on targets that actually have MP, though.

If those Jigs can be obtained at subjob levels, DNC will be a *really* popular sub for fetch quests and so on.

Oh btw: healing a party member (which can probably be yourself if you want) for 20 tp = easier soloing for melee jobs. And a possible solution for WAR - or SAM - to tank with less outside healing (if it also generates a lot of hate, great, if not, you still don't need as much healing from other party members).

[Balfree]

The Drain Samba.. it has potential... does more damage and gives everyone HP... :O... its crazy.

[Ketsum]

drain samba may not add damage it could just e that what damage you do is also health that you get back... either way would be good...

I'm looking forward to playing DNC even more now..

[Balfree]

Drain is Drain...

[Omni]

MK or KClub DNC anyone? unlimited, tireless healing?

[Saren]

Damn you Balfree, this post is making me like Dancer >< It sounds like it could be a fun healer.

[Balfree]

Originally Posted by Omni

MK or KClub DNC anyone? unlimited, tireless healing?

Can the latest jobs use Kclub already?

[Omni]

Hmm, now that I think of it... maybe not. Even though club would seem like a reasonable weapon class to allow a job like dnc to use, they also didnt let any of the TouA jobs use k.club. So perhaps not...

MK though... they gotta let dnc use MK.

[Karinya]

You guys are forgetting the effectiveness of existing drain weapons, I see. Don't expect drain samba to be perpetual aoe blood weapon... Oh, and the amount drained may be a fraction of damage so that monks don't get 4x as much benefit as dark knights (and soboro and kclub don't become totally broken with it).

Another idea I just had: DRG/DNC. If dances can set off healing breath then you can solo with no need for MP whatsoever... even if the HP a /DNC gets from healing dances is small, HB would still give you several hundred HP for a small amount of TP (which you can easily regain).

Actually, DNC/DRG might not suck either... acc bonus from 20 and jumps for (a little, but better than nothing until /SAM starts paying off) extra tp.