Dancer tank gear? Help Me Out!

[Tsukino_Kaji]

I like 5/5 Saber Dance, 2/5 No Foot Rise, 2/5 Closed Position, 1/5 Fan Dance, but I'm used to having good enough support that Fan Dance is genuinely only for very severe situations where my party basically needs a break in the middle of an NM (maybe I need to backwards tank and wait for them to unweaken, etc).

I end the one tanking ironclad whatever while everyone else is... well, dead. So I need fan to be always up.

[Byrth]

I end the one tanking ironclad whatever while everyone else is... well, dead. So I need fan to be always up.

Yeah... I'm not! If we're fighting Ironclads, generally my group is doing it for Red !! proc anyway, so I go WAR. I'm not sure I've ever fought an Ironclad on Dancer. I'm minorly interested in trying to solo Alfard on DNC. But . . . . lazzyyyy

[Kaeoni]

Again i never said Closed position was worthless, i said it was limited. therein lies the difference.

No foot Rise has a lot to do with TP gain being the only Flourish worth spending your steps on besides Violent Flourish and Reverse Flourish.
Presto/step/14sec/Evisceration/step/reverse/Evisceration/presto/step ect ect. Is generally how mine works, Though when i use anything with an animation i pair it with something else so as to maximize my Output of dmg.
Animation delay is reduced. Keep them in pairs, any higher it counts as 2 ie. 3 animations in a row.
It's also on a 3 minute timer so you can't keep that rotation up. Standing around with no mob with no finishing moves? if you took a break from exp or something why can't you keep the same rotation i just specified? why is it you're in dire need of these finishing moves exactly, you should have some TP and can get 5 finishing moves in 15 seconds once you engage a mob.

[Yoku]

Eva and DD gear is not all to be a good tank.

[Alkalinehoe]

Eva and DD gear is not all to be a good tank.

And you can gauge this through my gear? r u a wizard?

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Speaking of which. WHat is your guys' WS sets?

[Byrth]

Evisceration in Abyssea: http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/169187
Rudra's in Abyssea: http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/194288 (Earring is TP Bonus +25/Atk+4)

I'm fairly sure those are current and optimal with Red Curry Buns as a Taru DNC/NIN. My offhand dagger varies based on what I'm doing and where I am.

Also, I use No Foot Rise to replace my Finishing moves so I can go Evisceration -> Striking Flourish -> NFR -> RF -> Rudra's Storm and close with the better WS.

[Jesterking]

It seems people are overlooking the positional requirement of Closed Position... But Anyways, I did 5/5 NFR because I like to have the freedom to burn through my FMs whenever I want. It's not about TP gain, although I do use it for that when I'm running around pre-fights and such. I don't use Regain Atmas anymore so I like to have TP before the fights start. But you can't deny the utility of using your FMs and TP on a WS and then getting hit with a lot of damage and being able to instantly pop NFR->RF for 87 TP (AF3+1 Gloves) and cure yourself, and with that amount of TP you can use any of the 5 Waltzes. I WS when I solo stuff, cuz I'm sick of things taking forever so I like being able to pop FMs on whatever. It's easy to get them and easier to spend them. My ACC is fine, my EVA is fine. I'd rather having something with more utility then Closed Position. I never have problems hitting things, honestly most people shouldn't at this stage in the game. I evade like crazy as it is, I have a nice evasion set that also has a lot of accuracy on it. 2 more points into Closed Position is hardly going to make a difference. You can cap out evasion and accuracy with just gear, so there's really no reason for 5/5 CP. If things really go awry, I have a -PDT/MDT set as well as Fan Dance to fall back on. Nothing wrong with blood tanking on DNC, with all the ways we have to mitigate damage.

There was more I had to say but I got distracted and forgot, I'll amend this post if I remember or post a reply if somebody reminds me.

EDIT: Here's my WS Set Currently: http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/199717 the Etoile Mantle switches with Nifty Mantle for Evisceration. DNC is what I consider my main, so I'm working on fixing my gear constantly.

[Frost]

STARTING THE POST with the TL/DR part: Evasion is mostly useless for Dancer tanking.

Read the post fully, don't skim, for the rest of the info. I know it's daunting, but I tried to keep it simple.

__________________
For TP I typically go Charis +2 for everything but gloves, which are Ocelot.
Weapons are Phurba and Kila +2 (Evasion (Irony sure to follow)) And Charis Feather in ranged.
Filling in the gaps is pretty obvious, Rajas, Epona's, Twilight belt, Charis Neck, Suppa, Brutal, and Atheling.

I pop on a hunk of Evasion/fastcast/haste for casting/recasts, usually Mini Expansion Gear with Fastcast/Evasion Augs. Stuff like that.

Weaponskills are pretty straight forward too. Start with the relevant Weapnskill Gorget & Belt, and go from there for dex.

Aias Bonnet, Soil Gorget, Pixie Earring(lazy atm to get anything better), Brutal, Loki's, Charis Hands+2, Rajas, Eponas, Vigilance Mantle, Soil Belt, Tumbler Trunks, Charis+2 Feet.

I been thinking of using the Issen Hachimaki over the Aias Bonnet while in Abyssea, just because Conserve TP seems a lot more noticeable in there than 8 Str and 8 Dex... But I just can't seem to bring myself to do that yet.

___________________
I merited 5/5 Haste Samba, Reverse Flourish Effect, Fan Dance, and No Foot Rise.
Of those only Fan Dance and No Foot Rise have really proven to be useful to me. (Being honest here..)
I always got Fan Dance up while tanking, I'm always tanking; so Haste Samba provides little benefit to me. I use Wild Flourish every 60 seconds, which makes Reverse Flourish nearly useless to me(while fighting).

But the merits I got keep me versatile. So If I am in a party, and before I pull hate(lol) I can do other stuff.

__________________
I guess the good marker of success is what I've killed right? And normally I'd agree, but Dnc is such an annoying job, it CAN solo stuff, but there's a massive difference between 'soloing something' and 'boring something to death'... Killing Div-e Sepid is one thing... But taking 30 minutes to do so is another. I tend to gear towards the killing end of the spectrum... I usually see these 'Pink Dancers' boring things to death in way too much evasion and not enough haste(insert obvious haste bias joke here).

So what should you gear for?

When gearing to "tank" or "solo", it's really easy to lose sight of what you NEED versus what you think you need. I am reading the build people are posting here, and not to start any fires, there's a few flaws I see. All pointing to Evasion.

Outside or inside Abyssea, how much evasion you need weighs heavily on what you're fighting. If it's Tough or higher, you're dealing with a level correction that typically makes added evasion useless, as there's generally a minimum you can evade, and usually most players are already there with basic gear/buffs/job traits. It it's not tough or higher, you're fighting stuff that's EM or lower in which case you're capped on evasion practically nude. Inside Abyssea is pretty much the same story, only you add +60 Agi minimum from Crour buffs typically, and considering the mobs are VT-ish, both scales slide, but in opposition to one another.

In either case, Evasion Gear is not really needed; it DOES help, but not as much as folks think it does. a TW mob is guaranteed a 5% chance at hitting you, a Tough typically 10 - 20%, Very Tough to Incredibly Tough you're talking in the range of 30 - 60% accuracy; whether you have +5 evasion or + 3,000 evasion. It's just how the game is coded.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Read the post fully, don't skim, for the rest of the info. I know it's daunting, but I tried to keep it simple.

Can I get an abridged version or a book an tape?