The Solo Dancer?

[Eiyoko]

Well, I got Dancer to 15 today (I'm subbing Warrior...yeah yeah, I know...) and I'm using hand-to-hand right now. Here's the story: My friend logs in and says "entertain me" so I'm like, "Lemme go over there and dance for you" (he doesn't have the expansion just yet) so I show off a bit in Ronfaure, then he decides to follow me and I have to go to La Theine since he can't go to past Ronfaure with me.

Reluctantly I go, and I see an orc RNG. It cons tough, but my friend subbed WHM so we're like, "Dancer kills it, friend heals and watches more dancing. Yay!"

So I fight the T orc. Friend runs off to kill what might link. I'm stuck fighting this thing on my own, so I'm using Curing Waltz to stall until he stops beating on the other orc.

He doesn't even help me with it (he casted protect and shell earlier but that wasn't really much if you think about it) and I killed the orc all on my own.

"...O.O Holy shit, I solo'd a T orc!"

I filmed myself killing another one. I'll post the video up in just a moment. Has anyone else pulled this off?

[Taskmage]

Some people in my linkshell were whooping about chaining Ts at around that level. Then somebody chained two VTs I think. Pretty darn impressive. With endrain and a virtually bottomless pool of curative dances, dnc seems to have crazy stamina at low levels.

Everything has their ranges though. Some other shellmates were quick to point out how absolutely uber pup was when it was introduced at low-mid levels. We'll just have to see how things pan out at higher levels.

[Eiyoko]

Video uploaded:

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My gear was rather crappy and I forgot to replace Sigil with Signet, as you will probably notice. I also loaded up on TP beforehand just in case.

Taskmage: I'm pretty sure soloing as DNC indeed will get harder as levels go up. TP cost goes up quite a bit, so it will have to.

[KoukiRyu]

This is great and all, but that's really not that amazing to be honest. ._. I'm not trying to burst your bubble or anything here, but if I loaded up on TP first, I could solo a T Orc on 15 MNK/7 WAR. DNC should be capapble of more, but with a slight problem being damage output. They have great solo skills, especially early on, but then again, theirs isn't even close to a BLU's solo capability, at least from what I've seen.

Just kinda confused why you're so suprised that you could solo a T Orc. :x

[Zempten]

Yes, if you were any other job who uploaded on TP you could solo a T.

For DNC, you upload on TP as a buffer to keep chaining Toughs with ZERO downtime. Mainly b/c of en-drain and the 70HP Curing Waltz.

It's fun. It's simple. And it sure as hell beats seeking for a PT against a horde of other DNCs and SCHs. I was pretty excited myself ^ ^

[EDIT] I noticed you didn't use food. You may find it a bit helpful, even cheap mithkabobs helps alot overtime against evens/toughs. Just a thought

[Malacite]

You're also using H2H...

Idk, personally I prefer to stick to Dagger and eat Meat for +attack.

That way I'm constantly draining and hitting for decent dmg. Holy crap though o. O

Also, that's a RDM not a RNG.

[Zempten]

RDM? I thought it was a DRK all this time O.o

[KoukiRyu]

That one was a DRK, but she was just showing a T orc at the time, she said she solo'd a RNG before, and she just found another orc to kill.

It is a DRK right...? I didn't even know Orcs had RDM's.

[Eiyoko]

That one was a DRK, but she was just showing a T orc at the time, she said she solo'd a RNG before, and she just found another orc to kill.
It is a DRK right...? I didn't even know Orcs had RDM's.

That one was a DRK. I solo'd a RNG orc earlier without recording it so I went and filmed myself killing another one.

I personally never solo'd anything tough (no pun intended) up front like that before. I never knew this was as "normal" as you folks are saying. */embarrassed* It still surprised me though, since I've never done it before. O.o I also loaded up on TP for Curing Waltz in case things got sticky and I had to spam it or something.

Also, I use Hand to Hand because I don't have any decent daggers atm (haven't been shopping and I only have that silly level 1 knife) x.x I didn't use food 'cause I was just showing my friend dancer when I suddenly solo'd a T o.o;;;

[Balfree]

At higher levels, try duoing with another dancer, or a nin.

Duoed with a DNC in delkfutt tower at level 27... ... CAKE.

[Malacite]

o O oh yeah they are DRK. Idk why I've thought they were RDM for so long...

Probably 'cause I saw 1 with a sword and shield casting black magic (DRK tend to use 2 handers so yah >_>)

[DakAttack]

o O oh yeah they are DRK. Idk why I've thought they were RDM for so long...

Probably 'cause I saw 1 with a sword and shield casting black magic (DRK tend to use 2 handers so yah >_>)

I think at their size two-handers look a lot like one-handers.

[Ziero]

A lot of orc Drks use Sword/Shield, Rdm orcs usually use different swords though. I don't even think Orcs use Gswords.

Also, yea, lots of jobs can solo Ts pre- 20. I was doing that on both Drk/whm and Nin/whm for exp between/instead of pts. A decently geared Drk with a strong weapon and 100 tp can pretty much one-shot EM-T mobs. Hell, I was even chaining T mandies with my NPC set as healer in Yuhtunga at 27 sam.

Dnc is great for solo/small group settings, especially against T-ish mobs. Only things I would suggest would be subbing Mnk, eating cheap att food and using Au Laits.

[Armando]

I soloed T mobs on BLU. I can do it on WAR too at that level if I have Shield Break on my side. Not really an unheard of feat these days but it's good to see DNC has strong soloability early on.

Tip: Don't use H2H without /MNK. It sucks. And even with /MNK, H2H is only good 'til 20. Daggers suck 'til 25, I know. That's what swords are for. Oh, and /WAR sucks unless you're tanking. Doesn't offer anything 'til 20 and that's Defense Bonus. Aside from that it doesn't offer anything 'til 30 for Berserk. Not trying to be offensive or anything, but any other sub would most likely serve you better.

And don't use mithkabobs at this level. It makes me want to punch people. 100g Meat Jerky will do just as well. It'll save you a lot of gil.

EDIT: For your benefit, here's a somewhat thorough comparison between swords and H2H (with /MNK) from 13-25.

Bilbo (Lv.13)
DMG: 11 | Delay: 226 | DPS: 2.92

Legionnaire's Knuckles (H2H skill for Lv.13)
DMG: 10 | Delay (per hand): 248 | DPS: 2.41
Acc +2, Atk+3

Republic Knuckles (H2H skill for Lv.14-16)
DMG: 13 | Delay (per hand): 238 | DPS: 3.27

Small Sword (Lv.18)
DMG: 13 | Delay: 226 | DPS: 3.45
DEX+2

Republic Knuckles (H2H skill for Lv.17-19)
DMG: 14 | Delay (per hand): 238 | DPS: 3.52
Acc +2, Atk +3

Degen (Lv.20)
DMG: 14 | Delay: 224 | DPS: 3.75

Tuck (Lv.23)
DMG: 15 | Delay: 226 | DPS: 3.98

Tuck +1 (Lv.23)
DMG: 16 | Delay: 220 | DPS: 4.36

Republic Knuckles (H2H skill for Lv.20-23)
DMG: 15 | Delay (per hand): 238 | DPS: 3.78

Cougar Baghnakhs (H2H skill for Lv.20-23)
DMG: 15 | Delay (Per hand): 230 | DPS: 3.91

Federation Knife (Lv.25)
DMG: 13 | Delay: 180 | DPS: 4.33
Acc +2, Atk +5

Without /MNK, your base Delay goes from 400 to 480, which means a base Delay of 240 per hand as opposed to 200 with Martial Arts. Slap on a weapon and you're looking at 270-something Delay per hand (for reference, the standard axe has 276 Delay) and only sporting the DMG of a weak sword. Not good. At all.

[Ziero]

And don't use mithkabobs at this level. It makes me want to punch people. 100g Meat Jerky will do just as well. It'll save you a lot of gil.

It's amazing how effective, and cheap, going 1-10 on jerky and selby milk can be. It's an awesome combo and I wish I knew about it when I started the game.

[Zempten]

I agree. Selbina milk is amazing and calling out your NPC helps too ^ ^

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Sausage (+3 STR, +27% atk with 30 cap) is even slightly better than Meat Jerky (+3 STR, +22% atk with 30 cap), but it can only be bought in Bastok.

[Omni]

I saw a nin/dnc soloing clots yesterday in mount zhylom.

nin's biggest problem when soloing is being able to recover hp. /dnc solves that problem.

in addition, /dnc adds a few nice traits too: evasion bonus (15) and acc. bonus (30).

for that, i will take dnc to 37 just to be an efficient solo on nin.

[Cyle]

This is great and all, but that's really not that amazing to be honest. ._. I'm not trying to burst your bubble or anything here, but if I loaded up on TP first, I could solo a T Orc on 15 MNK/7 WAR. DNC should be capapble of more, but with a slight problem being damage output. They have great solo skills, especially early on, but then again, theirs isn't even close to a BLU's solo capability, at least from what I've seen.

Just kinda confused why you're so suprised that you could solo a T Orc. :x
But on your 15 mnk can you do it with no downtime? I am 17 now and in the dunes (going to try soloing in West Saru [S] tonight) but I am soloing toughs with no problem. I was running through the cave area where the sand bats are and a guy died by them so I was shouting for a raise for him, and I decided to take on a tough lizard while I waited with him, then another lizard popped while I was fighting the tough and it conned EM and linked so it started on me as well, then another one popped and it was DC. So I had 3 lizards beating on me, and I killed them all. I never dropped below 260 tp. The guy that was dead said he was going to go unlock the job after seeing what I did. lol

[Karinya]

Daggers don't suck for dancer, IMO. The main reason THFs try to avoid daggers at low levels is that they have lousy WS, which means they have lousy SA+WS. Fast Blade and Combo are both quite nice with SA, which is why many THFs use those weapons pre-VB.

Actually, Gust Slash isn't really *bad* - it's just bad *for THF*, because it's elemental and doesn't benefit from SA. For a dancer it might actually work just as well as non-SA'd physical WS from another weapon category. (I won't attempt to defend Wasp Sting, but you don't have to put up with it for long, anyway.)

...But wait, you're a dancer, who cares about WS when you're using your TP to dance? With WS out the window, daggers don't look any worse than any other weapon category for DoT - low damage, sure, but also low delay.

And even if you *do* do less DoT with daggers, you unquestionably have better accuracy and thus, better TP gain over time than you would with a lower skilled weapon (even if it's high DMG) - meaning more dances.

Giving up your most accurate way to keep Samba effects on and gain TP for a higher damage, but higher delay *and* lower accuracy weapon seems like a losing trade to me.

If the stick rate of Steps (and thus your ability to generate finishing moves) is affected by your accuracy, that's yet another reason to keep to your highest-skill weapon.


Finally, if you don't have dagger preskilled from another job - you WILL need it once skill gaps start to open up. D skill is not going to produce anywhere near competitive TP gain rates (or Step success rates, if melee acc affects that too) in the 50s and beyond. So you'd better at least cap it every couple levels, even if you choose not to use it full time.