DNC Merit Speculation

[Malacite]

Doing a two-part thread here (the other is for SCH and as such in that forum) for fun. SE has not said anything about merits for the new jobs, but why not speculate? Note that these are just some likely possibilities I came up with, and I'd like to see what the rest of you think.

Group I

~ Waltz Recast
~ Jig Recast
~ Steps Accuracy // Duration
~ Drain Samba Potency
~ Aspir Samba Potency


Group II

Job Abilities

~ Aspir Samba III
~ Haste Samba II
~ Free Dance (No TP used for next samba/step/waltz) 15:00 (2:30 upgrade)
~ Extend next Jig // Waltz to all party members
~ "Divine Seal" for Curing Waltzes

Job Traits

~ Conserve TP (Chance your next JA will use no TP, or a reduced amount of TP)
~ Auto-Regain (Seriously doubt this would ever happen but what the hell)


Can't think of anything else at the moment.

[LilithAngel]

I'd replace the Jig recast with Samba recast, honestly, because the Jigs pretty much outlast their own recast, so there'd be no point.

Most everything else looks like it'd actually be nice to have. Can't let Conserve TP or Auto-Regain fly, though (as much as I'd love to have them); Samurai would QQ too much, and I don't wanna deal with any more whining from people than what is needed.

[Zempten]

Group 1 looks good to me, SE is probably going to throw in Jig Recast just b/c they do random/useless stuff like that.

For Group 2, I'd like the following

Job Trait wise for group 2:

Step Up - "chance your next step will grant an extra finishing move" or "increases stored finishing moves by 1 per upgrade"

Ambidexterity - "Dual Wield - each upgrade decreases delay between weapons by 3%"

Job Ability wise for Group 2:

Vanishing Step - "Dispels target - increase accuracy per upgrade"

Tactical Samba - "Grants extra TP per hit - increase TP recieved by 1% per upgrade"

I throw in Tactical Samba in there b/c it's the only thing left for Samba wise (HP, MP, and Haste already covered). I guess you might say "Why Tactical Samba when there is already Haste Samba?". Well personally I believe Haste Samba works outside the norm meaning it works for PTs that have members that have their haste already capped through gear. Otherwise, I don't see how it benefits the players that don't have it at all. I also see this as a way to throw DNC into say the meele PT for some endgame stuff in that your more effective in a smaller setting. By this I mean, a 18 person Dynamis run vs a 36 person Dynamis run. DNC is just useless in 36 - everything dies too fast for you to accumulate TP to be usable. In a 18 person, your more valuable and can be more useful by increasing your TP gain and maintaining your duties while the meeles can kill a bit faster. This is just one example.

I also decided on Dual Wield just for fun and decided 3% would make it decent enough to be interesting but not broken.

Vanishing Step would be something along the lines of what traditional Dispel DOESN"T work on (most commonly Cerb's stoneskin/Troll's stoneskin). I figured it would be a good way to push DNC in for some endgame stuff but not all. I realize not everything follows this trend in endgame and it's rather selective, but I think we're going to see stuff like this more and more in WOTG endgame stuff as things from TOAU might carry onto WOTG.

Finally, I wanted Step Up b/c you would need alot more TP to keep up with some endgame stuff.

Simply put, I made these up as a way to push DNC in for more endgame scenario. I was thinking about a JT that would allow your Samba/Waltz to carry over to alliance, but I figured BRD's songs don't carry over so why should Sambas. Also I think Waltz should be changed automatically to include your alliance (this shouldn't be meritted at all).

[VZX]

Job Trait wise for group 2:
Step Up - "chance your next step will grant an extra finishing move" or "increases stored finishing moves by 1 per upgrade"

This is too powerful, 60TP charged with 10TP cost? so in 30 seconds you're guaranteed to get 100TP without any form of melee hit. Not to mention it's 3 times faster than SAM normal meditate.

But I can see if they'll reduce step TP cost through merit (-1%TP required per upgrade)

[Zempten]

This is too powerful, 60TP charged with 10TP cost? so in 30 seconds you're guaranteed to get 100TP without any form of melee hit. Not to mention it's 3 times faster than SAM normal meditate.
But I can see if they'll reduce step TP cost through merit (-1%TP required per upgrade)

60 TP for 10 TP? I don't know how that came about. I didn't mean you'll hit 5 FM with just one step.

If your talking about the first version it would just mean 3 FM with one step (even then this is just a chance, it's not always going to happen and therefore not guarenteed).

If your talking about the 2nd version it would just mean you could store up to 6,7, or 8 FM (Reverse Flourish doesn't have to consume all 8 FMs, it could just cap at 5).

[Electricity Gone Human]

Entrainment: Reduces casting time for Sambas by 20% (with full merits).

...it's a start.

[LilithAngel]

I could see storing extra FMs being a popular merit choice, as would be anything that'd reduce TP costs, even if ever so slightly. Unlike mages, all of our abilities must fit within the same pool our potential WSs come from, and 300% is the absolute limit. Either chip away at that pool and build it up slowly with JAs, or blow it all in one shot and start FMing by hitting that Dancing Edge/Eviceration.

Maybe Dancer G2 merits could introduce some trait that could actually allow a job for the first time to literally break the 300% cap? Azure Lore for Blue Mage gives a physical blue spell a "virtual" 350% TP modifier, but Dancer could actually break 300% (would have no effect on WS, of course, but just for the purpose of having extra TP for dances). I dunno, it seems to me that I'm doing just fine as it is, but it's something that could be a possibility.

Something outside the norm. The last two expansions have given us a total of 5 jobs that fit that bill.

[Zempten]

Hm . .. . that's very intereasting. I never thought of breaking the 300% cap.

[LilithAngel]

Probably because nobody has ever had a use for TP other than Weapon Skills. Dancer is already breaking tradition by putting TP to use outside of Weapon Skills, Blue Mage started the trend, but still kinda stayed within a familiar realm by making Physical Blue Magics similar to Weapon Skills via Chain Affinity. Dancer actually follows through by actually using the TP for its JAs, a piece here, a bit there, instead of the whole shebang in one shot. I figured since we're stuck to the number 300 for 75 whole levels, while TP costs for JAs goes up bit by bit, why not break 300% for some G2 merit abilities?

[Example] G2 Merit Job Traits

Rapture
Become capable of storing more than 300% TP. TP ceiling goes up by [10/20/30/pick a number] for each merit, for a maximum of [30/60/90/multiply picked number by 3] at capped merits.

Conserve TP
Has a chance to reduce TP costs of dances. Increase proc rate by [1%/3%/10%/pick a percentage] per merit, for a maximum of [3%/9%/30%/multiply picked percentage by 3] at capped merits.

This, of course, only applies when Dancer is main, and only for the purpose of using the extra TP for dances. It would have no effect on any Weapon Skill used while over 300% TP (it would register as you only having 300% when calculating mods). It would help relieve some of the TP requirements of dances since the pool we pull our abilities from never changes from levels 1 to 75.

[Malacite]

What about Flourishes III ?

Like one that will make any spell cast in the next 10s automatically MB! (this would be HUGE! Should cost minimum 3 FM) and another "WS" move, but instead of acting as a lv 1 WS, should act as a lv 3 (again using at least 3 FM) effectively reading the mob for a Light or Darkness SC.

[LilithAngel]

Well, considering the fact that the recast on just about every Dancer JA is retardedly small to begin with, I'd say G1 can easily do w/o any recast lowering merits, and instead focus on modifying them in other ways. Perhaps merits to increase the accuracy of Flourishes, or strengthen the effects they give? Animated Flourish, even when it soaks 2 FMs, is a joke...

What would Flourishes III even add? Only thing I could think of is a Dispel-type move.

On a side note, I just made 49, and I'll prolly stop at 50 until the AF goes street. I'd like to know if the pieces are decent/good enough to warrant using them instead of stuff off the AH, cuz as it stands, the selection is rather bare-bones atm, and the prices are going up cuz people are realizing that. When your weapon selection goes from Specific Weapon A to Specific Weapon B, and that trend continues for many levels, people are gonna take notice, and try to capitalize on that just to make a quick gil. I wanna see if SE widens Dancer's selections any before moving on much more, to try to break the grip the AH has on new jobs.

EDIT: You added the answer to my question as I posted it. LOL Anyways, yeah, I could see that, but I'm not sure SE would give us the power to just force a MB. Even Wild Flourish is just another form of self-SC, albeit a bit more limited, but that's the same thing Blue Mages have been doing since lvl 40 anyways.

[VZX]

Entrainment: Reduces casting time for Sambas by 20% (with full merits).
...it's a start.

Sambas are JA, hence instant casting time.

[Malacite]

Yeah I couldn't tell if that was sarcasm or just misinformed.

The recast time on most of the individual dances is small, but some of the categories (like Sambas) are annoying (1 minute before you can even pick a different samba) so being able to lower those might help in situations where you're swapping on the fly.

[Lmnop]

Wouldn't upping TP cap (over 300) be the same as universally lowering the cost of dances...? And a lot easier to implement as well.

[Armando]

Malacite: I can't tell if VZX was being sarcastic, but his point was that EGH wrote "casting time" when he probably meant "recast time."

Lmnop: In practice, not quite, because a DNC starts with 0 TP. Increasing max TP would allow a DNC to use more dances with that TP if he hoards that much, but reducing the cost of dances accross the board allows the DNC to constantly use more dances. Basically, the DNC is going to be gaining a certain amount of TP/minute, and lowering the cost of dances lowers the amount of TP/minute the DNC uses up, which allows for building up more TP over time.