Dancer role in Exp Party

[Effedup]

I've been playing around with DNC lately and just finished duoing it to 16 tonight with an ls-mate who's been working on his BLU. From lvl 1 to present, we've both been /WHM for survivability reasons, but now that I have Curing Waltz, I've found that I hardly ever use my MP outside of Protectra and Poisona, so I've decided to sub WAR and attempt to go the tank route in the Dunes and possibly through Quifim depending on what we can find when building parties.

In thinking about future plans with these jobs, the BLU is probably going to /NIN, and as I don't yet have NIN unlocked myself, I'm going to be subbing WAR for a while (barring me getting NIN anytime in the near future; I've still got a lot of work to do on my Norg fame). My main question is what is the feasibility of DNC and BLU together covering Main Heal? I figure, with Drain Samba up at all times, and Curing Waltz to cover people individually, while BLU uses Healing Breeze where appropriate, we should be able to keep people alive.

On paper this seems to work out for us, but I'm wondering if there is something I may not be taking into consideration. As I've yet to have any of my dances interupted (outside of being paralyzed), it seems to me that playing DNC as tank and spot healing where necessary is feasible. Of course, when fighting mobs that have the ability to Paralyze I'm going to need paralyna from somebody, which is the only fly in the ointment as far as I see, which I suppose I could take care of myself with remedies...though honestly I am loathe to, as they aren't cheap and pissing one away because the paralyze eats it is going to drive me insane.

Also, what's good food for DNC? If tanking, I'm thinking defense primarily, followed by accuracy to make sure I'm getting TP quickly, but if I'm missing the benefits of going another route, please elaborate. Actually, any suggestions at all towards playing this class is much appreciated, as I'm currently the only one in my ls playing DNC at the moment...Thanks! ^^

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

DNC should be able to main heal, or at least contribute 50%+ of the curing. Same for BLU, too. If tanking on DNC, less TP by using defense food is somewhat compensated by getting TP from the hits taken. I'm not sure if DNC has tanking gear, however--but, I don't know anything about DNC gears, so someone else will have to chime in on that issue.

Somewhat outdated, but still useful:
http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/food.php

[Effedup]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

Thanks for the link; that'll help a lot with picking out food for the 8 jobs on working on right now ^^

Gear-wise, since I'm tanking and ditching the WHM sub, I've got the Bone +1 set, STR rings (although now I'm thinking +ACC may be more useful since I'm Elvaan and my accuracy blows; I've always used +ACC food but now I'm torn), and various other tanking pieces I have laying around from when I was working on MNK/WAR. Since I'm using Daggers (working on skilling up so I can jump right into THF down the road; I need TH2 badly ^^), my main concern is that holding hate will be difficult, especially if we have heavy hitters in our party. I'll be spamming voke every 30 as usual, and coupled with Curing Waltz I'm hoping that'll negate my relatively weak damage output.

I'm planning on exping for a few hours tonight in the Dunes with the BLU (depending on if there's enough people to put a solid group together), so I guess I'll find out soon enough... ^^

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

If you have trouble keeping critters in line while tanking, consider getting a Breath Mantel (Lv.18 HP+18 Enmity+3). Vision Ring can help with accuracy a bit, if you can get hold of one. Optical Earring is another, and that's free.

Keep in mind that you won't get TP unless you're hitting, and hitting for more than 0 damage, and low level parties tend to fight Crabs and Pupils, and both have defense buffs. (Pugil has an evasion buff, to boot.)

* * *

BLU can main heal very nicely with MND gear. But, with DNC in party, that'd be a waste, I think. If your BLU friend has /WAR ready, he may actually make the better tank. My journal has some entries on low level BLU tanking (and main healing), if you're interested.

[Karinya]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

Spaghetti pescatora and spaghetti vongole rosso will give you more defense *and* more TP (and more HP, which won't suck). They may be a bit pricy though.

For the non-tanking DNC, spaghetti nero di seppia offers store TP and double attack; carbonara and arrabbiato give you store TP and attack.

At higher levels, when sushi becomes useful, it might or might not outperform Store TP foods depending on how your accuracy is without food.

[Sabaron]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

Spaghetti pescatora and spaghetti vongole rosso will give you more defense *and* more TP (and more HP, which won't suck). They may be a bit pricy though.

For the non-tanking DNC, spaghetti nero di seppia offers store TP and double attack; carbonara and arrabbiato give you store TP and attack.

At higher levels, when sushi becomes useful, it might or might not outperform Store TP foods depending on how your accuracy is without food.

In general, 5% TP gain isn't going to net you more than 15% Accuracy in an XP situation. That 15% Accuracy translates to 7.5% hit rate or 7.5% more TP. If you're accuracy is gear-capped though, yes, eat noodle dishes.

[Karinya]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

I dunno about that. "15% Accuracy" doesn't mean "you hit 15% more of the time" - it increases your accuracy *hidden stat* by 15%, which then goes into some formula with your level and the monster's level that I can't remember right now.

5% more TP really is 5% more TP, though. Guaranteed. That's in addition to any other benefits of the store TP food (like attack or defense), and it works even at low levels where sushi's 15% more accuracy gives you only a few points of accuracy.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

15% more accuracy is 7.5% better hit rate at any level, which is 7.5% more TP, if I understand Armando's sticky on the subject correctly.

The down side of using sushi at lower levels is that dagger often hit for 0, and sushi doesn't do a thing to stop that. Hitting for 0 damage 7.5% more often is... Well, 7.5% more sad. I would bring several different types of food, and decide which to use after a fight or two. (Heck, I still do that on my PLD68.)

[Armando]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

15% more accuracy is 7.5% better hit rate at any level, which is 7.5% more TP, if I understand Armando's sticky on the subject correctly.

Actually, +15% Accuracy means your hit rate improves by half of whatever number 15% of your Acc is. If your Accuracy is 100, then Sushi would get you an extra 15 which would translate into +7.5% hit rate. But if your Acc is 200, then you'd get +30 Acc, which is +15% hit rate. And so on. If your level is very low, then you'd get very little Accuracy out of it and thus very little improvement to your hit rate.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

Er? Blah. I totally screwed that up, then. >_>;

Do I have to start calling sushi broken?

[Ziero]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

Rice Dumplings are one of my prefered pre-40 foods as it gives +att% and +5 Acc, which is huge at that lvl. I also think that if you and the Blu will be the only ones healing, the Blu should sub whm for status cures and Protect as well as extra 'spot' cures (Heeling Breeze will eat MP). I also don't know how long a Dnc can effectively tank, but my guess is that they'd do better with more Eva then anything. But if they're anything like Blu, their tanking skills would most likely start waining post 30-40.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

Rice Dumplings are one of my prefered pre-40 foods as it gives +att% and +5 Acc, which is huge at that lvl.

A Ranked skill hits 100 at Lv.33, I think, and that's 100 base accuracy. Sushi gives 15%, so that's Acc+15. If Acc+5 is huge, why not use the triple huge sushi?

[Nuriko]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

Probably because a bonus to BOTH att and acc can beat a bonus to one, especially if it helps keep your weapon from bouncing off too often.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

I do like Rice Dumpling a lot as a melee DD, but DNC is not a DD. Shouldn't be hitting for 0's in mid Lv.30's, so I would lean toward pure accuracy food.

Edit:
Don't know why I used rank A weapon as example earlier; Dancer is B in Dagger. That means it hits 100 skill at Lv.34. Not that Viper Bite would do much for a Dancer... Oh well.

[Ziero]

Re: Dancer role in Exp Party

A Ranked skill hits 100 at Lv.33, I think, and that's 100 base accuracy. Sushi gives 15%, so that's Acc+15. If Acc+5 is huge, why not use the triple huge sushi?

Simple put, it's not a 1:1 ratio as far as skill is involved, so you're not getting an actual +15 acc. Infact I don't think Sushi reaches it's full potential as a great Acc food until mid 50-ish, or unless you're fighting IT++ mobs...which is just a bad idea for EXP anyway. Meanwhile, no matter what class you are, if you want to hit for any sort of decent dmg, you will need att. And I've seen many Thfs at that lvl hit for 0, so I know it's feasible for a poorly geared Dnc to do the same.

So 5 Acc in the dunes, on top of Vision Ring + Optical Earring + anyotheraccgear while gaining a hefty Att boost is the best bet imo.