Dancer play style

[Whippet]

Hi everyone i am currently Dancer 90 and like some people it bruned threw Abyssea.

I am currently capped on DNC merits and Combat skill (8daggers 4 evasion 4 parry)

But now i feel i dont play DNC like i should be and i need tips

First i wont talk about my gear cuz it's gimp and i'm working on it (following certain guides)

But when i play usually i do presto + Step when rdy and Reverse flourish.

Put Haste Samba and Saber Dance when rdy and just wack away. Repeat with No foot rise for some Finishing moves but simple using Reverse flourish.

Using WS when i get TP and Put down saber dance if i need to cure myself.

What i am doing wrong, i feel i am not using this job at full potency.

Thanjks

[Dijana]

Well, what do you want to get out of the job? A haste set is essential for anything you do. If you like to use saber dance then maybe you like to play it as a DD more? Personally I like to play dnc as a tank and built up a heavy eva set. But in aby with a single eva atma and an agi kila I can get away with just that and evade fine.

If you dont have evisceration, work on that. If you do and dont have pyrrhic kleos, you can try to get that so you can evis-reverse flourish-darkness (In aby the other week when a friend linked flame skimmer, I managed to do a 4.5k darkness on top of the 2-3k ws's)

The actions you describe seem to be fine, if you feel you arent at your full potential then maybe it is just your gear (which you say you are working on so that is good). DNC can be very gear intensive. I would suggest definitely working on a good haste/tp set, eva set and a ws set. You should also work on getting the gears that are good for macroing in if you havent (such as etoile casaque for violent flourish, dancer's casaque for waltz, dancer's tiara for samba etc)

The other thing though, mind telling what your merits are?

[Deathrose]

The job also takes lots and lots of practice to be good at it. There are a lot of ways in which you can manipulate DNCs abilities to fit just about any situation. As said above dnc can indeed be quite gear heavy, as the vast majority of my space is dedicated to dnc. As far as gear is concerned first start with a good haste set up, ws and eva set. Once you have these three sets you can move into more advanced set categories such as mdt- sets and even hybrid sets, which combine 2 diffrent sets to fit even the hardest of fights. Besides all this as I have said practice makes perfect on this job. Learn how to really manipulate those finishing moves and your tp to suit the situation at hand.

[Urthdigger]

As mentioned before, one thing that helps DNC's DD potential is our ability to self-skillchain. With a good haste set and haste samba up, you can get 100% TP in the 30 seconds it takes you to get 5 finishing moves (One step with presto, one step without). Then you do Pyrhhic Kleos, reverse flourish, Evisceration, and repeat. You can knock out some good damage that way.

Another thing to keep in mind is that DNC has other purposes besides damage. It functions as a tank in a pinch, fan dances is quite handy as a source of constant -20% PDT. You also have access to the fastest cures in the game, making DNC helpful for situations like where a TP move drops the tank to 10%. Combined with their tanking ability, this makes DNC useful when a mob resets hate. If the DNC is the one to cure the tank, instead of the WHM, the mob will be attacking someone more capable of taking a hit. Of course, for this to work, the DNC has to have a decent amount of hate on the mob to begin with, unless it removes everyone's hate.

Another oddball use for DNC is using Aeolian Edge to burn down large numbers of mobs in Abyssea. You'll want "Atma of Gales" to boost damage, as well as any MAB atma you can get your hands on. Then have someone pull the mobs, and essentially play as if you're trying to deal damage, except you're using Aeolian Edge twice in a row rather than doing darkness skillchains (Sadly, you'll only skillchain on the mob you're targetting, not every mob). You will probably need Fan Dance to survive this by the way.

[browolf]

parazonium oat2-4 will change your dnc life. It's like having permanent sabre dance. With the right atma, you can tank with full evasion gear and still whup out enough damage to keep the mob on you. I mostly use steps to power wild flourish.

[Byrth]

parazonium oat2-4 will change your dnc life. It's like having permanent sabre dance. With the right atma, you can tank with full evasion gear and still whup out enough damage to keep the mob on you. I mostly use steps to power wild flourish.

Browolf is an appropriate name. You're also wrong.

[Asymptotic]

parazonium oat2-4 will change your dnc life. It's like having permanent sabre dance. With the right atma, you can tank with full evasion gear and still whup out enough damage to keep the mob on you. I mostly use steps to power wild flourish.

I'm with Byrth. This is some of the worst advice on DNC I've seen anywhere, ever.

[FrankReynolds]

parazonium oat2-4 will change your dnc life. It's like having permanent sabre dance. With the right atma, you can tank with full evasion gear and still whup out enough damage to keep the mob on you. I mostly use steps to power wild flourish.

I'm gonna have to go with byrth as well. That is really bad advice.

[Eri]

I'm not takeing any side on that OaT Part.
But i give you my opinion.

I have the Oat 2-4. Its IS really a toy thing (to me!) and mostly used for AoE Edge Burning. ( Or Toying in Exp.)

I Have a Centovente (STP) which is my normal Offhand. I love it.

Ocasionally offhanding Phurba in Events where Landing Steps counts.

[Asymptotic]

Ocasionally offhanding Phurba in Events where Landing Steps counts.

Just as an FYI, you can remove Flash with Healing Waltz, and even then, it only lasts a few seconds. You don't need to use an inferior dagger to land Steps.

[Asymptotic]

Also, Whippet, my best advice to you would be to follow my work in progress here:

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/27566/the-last-dance-gearing-paradigms-for-a-new-age

[Aezelas]

I'm with Byrth. This is some of the worst advice on DNC I've seen anywhere, ever.

Many agreed on this being a bad advice, but still i dont understand why.
Oat 2-4 sounds like a good offhand for dnc, as it would help with building tp a lot faster. I'm working on this trial and those posts make me feel like i'm wasting my time.

Can anyone explain why oat2-4 is useless?
If it really is, maybe i'll switch to DA+10 trial, but i bet it's not any better.

I've read that str-Kila is the offhand of choice. Is it still true now that this new ws has been released?
Since this ws has agi modifiers, wouldn't we (non Rudra users) benefit more from agi-Kilas than str-Kilas?

Thanks for your answers.

[Eri]

Many agreed on this being a bad advice, but still i dont understand why.
Oat 2-4 sounds like a good offhand for dnc, as it would help with building tp a lot faster. I'm working on this trial and those posts make me feel like i'm wasting my time.

Can anyone explain why oat2-4 is useless?
If it really is, maybe i'll switch to DA+10 trial, but i bet it's not any better.

I've read that str-Kila is the offhand of choice. Is it still true now that this new ws has been released?
Since this ws has agi modifiers, wouldn't we (non Rudra users) benefit more from agi-Kilas than str-Kilas?

Thanks for your answers.

Giving you my perspective on the Oat

With a solid haste built (20%+) you can stack up on Double Attack. You can get 100 under 8 Secs (Thats a Max not a Min) allowing ws spamm...

In my experieance Oat 2-4 will speed up the tp gained minimal while disturbing the Damage over time significantly.
I'd say it not a horrible offhand but by no means awsome.

If you use Saber Dance OaT 2-4 will Disturb DoT even more due to haveing a low dmg dagger in one hand.

If your in a healing situation it will not help either since you can build TP faster then spend anyway.

.Also the OaT is Tp feed.
-Its cool to Singleweild to Proc since dmg will not matter.

[Asymptotic]

OA2-4: Low damage, high delay. It's crap, except for support situations - situations in which DNC does not excel and you should probably come as a different job that does it better. Saber Dance marginalizes the dagger even further, when you can put it up.

AGI dagger: Useful for evading things, but if you have a mage with you, who cares. AGI is a modifier on the WS, but STR+11 Attack+22 will increase the damage of every melee hit and affects all of your WS as well.