Originally Posted by
Asymptotic
Support DNC is basically dead right now, and Square-Enix has the biggest hand in killing it.
1.) Haste Samba merits almost go wasted now, because with 2 capped marches and Haste, you're getting only a fraction of the attack speed increase from Haste Samba. Let's not even talk about the other sambas...
2.) Cure VI. Do I really need to say much more about this?
3.) Status ailments? Lol healing waltz.
4.) Recast timers. SE has had years to split up waltzes, and they haven't done it. I could end up eating these words, but I think they're more likely to give DNC an instant-KO flourish than they are to split up the main (curing) waltzes. I could see them splitting divine/healing into a separate category, though.
5.) Weak Steps: while they do stack with other enfeebling effects, steps are pretty weak even at 5/5 and require significantly much more effort to maintain than similar debuffs from other jobs.
That, and look at what SE has given DNC recently. The set bonus on our AF3 is "Occasional double damage under sambas," not "Augments Waltz" or something like that. There's no waltz potency or waltz recast on our AF3. There's an enhancement to our ability to get a better critical hit rate for ourselves (and everyone, but still). There's an enhancement to our ability to do more damage after skillchains. There's an enhancement to our critical hit damage, and lots of enhancements to our attack speed. Every single stat on our AF3 is a DD stat. The only "support" DNC item that has come out in a long time is Phurba, and well, to be honest, it's not really your best option in most scenarios, because if you're going to play support DNC, you might as well have come another job.
Look at the job traits we've been given. Conserve TP, which procs only on WS. Skillchain Bonus (More tiers than anyone else). Critical Attack Bonus II. Job abilities too: Climactic Flourish, Striking Flourish -- both tools for dealing more damage.
At some point, you're going to have to wake up and face the facts: "My playstyle" doesn't mean anything - maybe "my playstyle" is going BLU/WHM and main healing, but a WHM will still blow me out of the water. Square-Enix has ultimate control over the direction of jobs, and they seem to be doing everything they can to give support DNC a hard time.
I personally suspect that enhancements to the Dancer's ability to support/heal a party have been knocked to the floor by worries that it would overpower DNC solo play. To be honest, if this is truly something they're worried about, they're probably completely founded in this. This is probably why we get no defensive debuffs (slow, dispel, etc.), are forced to bide our time and wait on recast timers, and have trouble removing debuffs. It limits our solo capacity, and unfortunately, it pigeonholes DNC into its only current effective role: stabbing things while speeding up underbuffed parties and keeping ourselves alive so the mages can focus on doing other things.
It sucks, because support DNC has so much potential. But it really isn't a viable option right now, due to the strengths of other jobs in areas we used to excel at.