Dancer at 75 ....or …. How to bust a move and not get arrested.

[ShepardG]

Dancer Rolls at 75 ....or …. How to bust a move and not get arrested.

This is just a guide to give players (dancers and non-dancers alike) an Idea of Dancers capabilities and what one can strive for and expect from, a dedicated Dancer.
Dancer @ 75 isn’t quite a Damage Dealer, Not quite a supporter, healer or tank. It’s actually a hybrid of all of these types of rolls, and like it’s sister job; scholar, a good dancer can fill in where needed and adapt on the fly using various job abilities in conjunction with various gear sets.
This guide understands that not everyone has the kind of funding that some folks have, but if you’ve done any other research or better still, played the job, you’ll be able to understand what items to substitute for the Higher priced items.
*NOTE* This guide is a work in progress, and is tailored to endgame situations(focused on the current 75 cap)
1. Dancers 3 major environments:
Dancers have 3 areas that I’m going to focus on in this guide. 1. Endgame events/HNM 2. Merit parties 3. Lowman/Solo(campaign)

A. Endgame Events/ High Notorious Monsters (NM’s that require over 10 Characters to kill, for most LS’s)
-Dynamis/Einherjar
-Limbus/Apollyon/Omega/Ultima
-Salvage/Nyzul/Assault
-Sea/Sea Gods
-Sky/Sky gods
-HNM’s (KB,Fafhog,Turtle,Khimara,Cerberus,Sandworm,Ixion,VNM t3,Yilbegan)
-Misc.
B. Merit Parties
-Bird Camps
-Mammol Ja
-Misc.
C. Lowman/Solo (Aptant NM’s, Capricous Cassie, etc.) And Campaign
-Aptant NM’s
-Serket/Capricous Cassie/KA/etc.
-Solo Tips
-Campaign
2. Merits
If you only ever use your dancer for Merit parties, or if you just use it to campaign, here's your best bet for the right Merit's and why
-Endgame
-Merit
-Lowman
3. Gear sets
Let's just assume you have 8 Gagillion dollars, You'll find that that alot of your gear won't cost you to much money, as dancers Artifact and Relic armor is some of the best Job-to-usefulness ratio of any artifact/relic set for the 20 jobs in FFXI

4. Non-Dancer players, how to employee a dancer, what type of support to provide a dancer
So you got a guy/girl who wants to bring dancer to your Dynamis shell, or your KSNM99, or your Jailor of Love, well here's what you need to understand and what you should expect.

Will update when I get home tonight and can get some more websites that aren’t blocked. ^^

[Soichiro]

Re: Dancer at 75 ....or …. How to bust a move and not get arrested.

Will update when I get home tonight and can get some more websites that aren’t blocked. ^^

I look forward to it. I myself am stuck at work with this being the only FFXI site I can access.

[Takelli]

Re: Dancer at 75 ....or …. How to bust a move and not get arrested.

I was actually expecting another Armando guide when I saw the tittle of the thread. XD

[Ufgt]

Re: Dancer at 75 ....or …. How to bust a move and not get arrested.

Looking forward to this. My dnc is 63 now, getting to the point where I should be scoping out an LS or something.

[Durahansolo]

Re: Dancer at 75 ....or …. How to bust a move and not get arrested.

Best title for a topic ever!!!!

[ShepardG]

Re: Dancer at 75 ....or …. How to bust a move and not get arrested.

222. Merits
Your Group one merits look like this:
Step Accuracy
Haste Samba Effect
Reverse Flourish Effect
Building Flourish Effect

And Group 2:

Saber Dance
Fan Dance
No Foot Rise(NFR)
Closed Position(CP)

Now depending on which of the 3 environments you mainly use dancer for, will determine what merits go where. I also have a basic all around build that I work towards, as I like to be versatile when playing my jobs.

2A. Events
If you only ever use your dancer for Events (‘namis, Einherjar, Assaults, Etc.) I would merit the following based on how useful you can be for these.
Tier1:
Step acc. >> 2/5
Haste Samba >> 5/5 (I can honestly say taking this 5/5 will never do you wrong)
Reverse Flourish >>3/5
Building Flourish >>0/5
Tier2:
Saber >>>1/5
Fan >>>5/5
NFR >>>3/5
Closed Pos. >>>1/5

This is very Defensive centric (fan dance 5/5) but event mobs should be going down so quick with 10 DD’s going all out them that you basically aren’t trying to DD them, your focus is to get as much TP as possible in the shortest amount of time. Your there for support, and your cure’s are instant, if not as spamable (prey SE changes this through an update, or some piece of gear)

2B. Merits
If you only bring DNC out when it’s time to kill flamingo’s focus your merits on this, Dancers in merit parties are one of the most underated job a 6 man team could take with them. This is straight DD build where TP will be flowing in constantly and Weapon skilling at 100% is more sought after than holding TP to cure someone.
Tier1:
Step acc. >> (any Acc you’d need otherwise can be made up for in gear)
Haste samba >> 5/5 (again, should be the first thing you complete to be the most beneficial to all parties involved)
Reverse Flourish >>(not needed, you’ll be so going all out on the haste and acc. That you won’t ever be hurting for TP)
Building Floursih >>5/5 (These merits basically equate to pure damgage)
Tier2:
Saber>>>5/5
Fan>>>1/5
NFR>>>1/5
CP>>>3/5
Here we have a counter Balance to the event based Defensive Build . You for sake the self-TP generation for more Damage output in the tier 1 category, and Fan dance becomes an Ohshi!t tool used to get a group out of a tight spot when they get a bad link, basically there, but not to be used) You want to employee those Closed Position merits, so face the mob as much as possible, and you should be fine with Joyeuse|Magian weapon in your off hand.

2C. lowman/solo play

This is a merit build for the player who likes to go hunting by himself or with a few friends. It’s focused mainly on TP generation

Tier1:
Step acc. >> 2/5
Haste Samba >> 3/5
Reverse Flourish >>5/5
Building Flourish >>0/5
Tier2:
Saber >>>1/5
Fan >>>1/5
NFR >>>3/5
Closed Pos. >>>5/5

You’re going to be the focus of the mob at all times, or at least sharing the focus with a friend. Your Reverse flourish is generating 75TP with 5/5 Finish moves. You can step for 2 finishing moves once every 10 seconds, and NFR for another 3 finish moves once every 3 minutes. Ask a samurai how much TP they can generate with fully merited Meditate. It doesn’t even come close to a dancers abilities. Your sacrificing some Haste (2% actually) but gaining a lot of TP and some Step accuracy (if you have all the step accuracy gear, replace those merits with either 5/5 Haste or 2/5 Building Flourish)

2D All Around build:

If your like me, and like to be able to work and function where ever you are, then Go with this build: It's a bit from each Without making any major sacrifices

I]Tier1:[/I]
Step acc. >> 0/5 (I have the gear to support this)
Haste Samba >> 5/5
Reverse Flourish >>2/5
Building Flourish >>3/5
Tier2:
Saber >>>2/5
Fan >>>2/5
NFR >>>3/5
Closed Pos. >>>3/5

[ShepardG]

Re: Dancer at 75 ....or …. How to bust a move and not get arrested.

111. 3 Major Enviroments
111A.
Dynamis/Einherjar :
Well here’s where your most likely to get to shine. I try to get into the main DD party whenever I come DNC. When you are in a party with 2-3 other 2handers, your haste samba really starts to shine. Not to mention when one pulls hate and their 3rd eye is down, you can drop a 600HP Waltz on them, instantly. Depending on how your shell structures their parties assume you have 2 full alliances Ideally you’d have 3 dancers atleast, but if It’s just you, try to get into the party with the 2 best DD’s your shell has. 15+20+10 is a lot of haste, and you’re going to see amazing results in your kill time, even when you’re only giving Haste samba to 2 other DD’s.

Ideal party setup ||WHM,BRD,COR,DNC, 2xDD||

Advanced party setup ||COR,BRD,DNC,3xDD’s outside haste/heal||

-Your priorities (in order from Highest to Lowest) >> Cure, >Haste samba, >DEF down Step each mob at least once,> Erase, > All others
-Dancers are actually great Main “/assist’s”, as Steps don’t wake sleeping mobs and you can turn your attention to the next mob @ 50% of the current mobs HP and set that Mob up for DEF/EVASION down before the rest of the Alliance engages it.
-Talk to your main Healer/Haster. If their outside party (as in the Advanced setup) let them know who’s pulling hate after the first few mobs, let them know you’ll handle any damage in orange, etc. Communication is what will make everyone shine in this situation

Limbus/Apollyon/Omega/Ultima:
Dancers work great in these smaller group situations, key’s to good output efficiency:
-Bring some H2H, a lot of the mobs in these zones have immunities and/or weakness’s to certain types of dmg. Pots take 125% dmg vs. blunt I think? That’s a major advantage when your main DD’s are carrying around Slashing and Piercing weapons.
-You can focus on the DD part of Dancer more so than in ‘namis/’jar, and if you have merits in CP, stick next the sam’s as they’ll be using their overwhelm merits as much as possible.
-Omega/Ultima are fought 99% of the time, the same way across all servers, by all groups. Omega is usually farmed while below 5%, and Ultima is usually killed ASAP. Dancers should focus on build and maintaining 5/5 Stutter Step, Letting the RDM’s enfeebles land more effectively, as well as the BLM’s nukes for less resists. You’ll probably wanna stay under the protection of Fan Dance as they both have some Conal, and AOE moves that can drop tanks, let alone a dancer.
Salvage/Nyzul/Assault:
-Salvage…ah salvage… This is an easy event, as long as you’re paying attention, the other 5-6 people are paying attention, and you have a decent idea of what your trying to accomplish during each floor/zone. With that said, I haven’t had the opportunity to bring Dancer to salvage. But I can’t see how this isn’t a standard. You give a dancer one opacus cell (abilities) and you just unlocked everything that dancer has to offer.
PROS: Healing,De-buff’s,Haste,H2H skill @ 220
CONS: Lower DMG output… and that’s really it.

I haven’t started salvage enough to warrant experimenting with Dancer but my theorized Ideal setup would be RDM/whm, BRD/whm, THF/nin,MNK/nin,SAM/nin,DNC/nin , Random DD.
I’ll update when I have chance to try it.

-Same goes for Nyzul, after seeing a near full wipe on a level 80 boss, and a Dancer go into Tank mode, and hold Cerberus for 3 Minutes until the party recovered enough to continue dmg, I knew this job wasn’t getting the credit it deserved.
-Assaults often times, are greatly benefited by enhanced movement speed, Dancer get’s 25% movement speed whenever they want. Yeah it’s like that.
Sea/Sky (gods):
On a lot of these higher mobs, you’re going to have problems hitting , or when you do hit, hitting for zero. It’s the nature of the beast, with only a B+ in Dagger, and Little to no options in the attack department you’re going to need to focus on making your hits land, and land for more than zero.
Subbing /WAR is a great way to do this, along with SAM. Always equip your highest dmg weapon in the main hand, as it’s going to affect your dmg output the most. If you have the funds/luck to acquire an Airy buckler you’re going to appreciate the all around stat bonus’s in a slot that would normally go to waste, when subbing something without Dual wield.
I would eat either Pizza +1, Sole +1, or Carbonara, depending on how your other gear is, merits, etc. If you have plenty of acc, (8/8 Dagger merits, 3/5 CP, great gear) you might be better off eating some attack food (I mentioned carbonara cause I usually have some on me for pld and dragoon) with STR to help deal actual damage.

JoL/Kirin are, next to AV, the most defensive Mob you’ll come across in Sea/Sky. Dancer isn’t alone when it comes to having problems with these guys, that’s the nature of the beast.

For JoL, I went DNC/WAR, grabbed any gear I could with STR,ATK,ACC and spammed Box Step (DEF) to keep myself hitting (see “generating TP”) for more than 0. I left myself open, and somewhat defenseless, but with Saber dance up, I was able to churn out a good amount of TP enough that I could de-buff JoL with 5/5 Box and 5/5 Stutter as well as have a reserver incase someone in the party caught random enmity and took dmg.