Thoughts from a loyal Dancer

[Sixtythree]

Hello Dancer community (and devs if the messages reaches across).
I wanted to share some thoughts based mostly on experience playing Dancer in high level endgame content.

With that said....

► Being that I am front line class, I am exposed to a great deal of damage and a host of crippling status effects. I find myself more often using my own tools to support myself competing to stay alive instead of fulfilling my role as a capable and flexible support class. The question of worth and value is raised as party slots are limited.

As it is, Negative status effects simply reduce Dancer to nothing at times. What I mean is AoE knockback + Blind + Plague + Paralysis every 15 seconds, as one example.

I'm not suggesting immunity, simply that in exchange we should be given shining abilities that give us a reason to exist in organized endgame content.

► Steps have the great benefit of never facing resists. They are consistent and we have sufficient gear to ensure accuracy. Thank you, I feel this is a highlight of the job. Can new Steps be introduced?

► The following abilities greatly under-perform:
+ Aspir Samba
+ Desperate Flourish
+ Violent Flourish

► Wild Flourish is fun! Can it be moved outside of Flourishes II?

► I don't understand the entire Flourishes III category. If anyone would be willing to explain the benefits over other abilities that consume finishing moves I would genuinely appreciate it. As it stands I question the value of these abilities over something like Reverse Flourish, unless you have Terpsichore and endless finishing moves at your disposal.

► More of what's commonly used as Dancer is available to /DNC. I'm not suggesting taking away from /DNC but instead adding more unique abilities to Dancer as a main job.

► Fan Dance & Saber Dance are highlights, I immediately notice a drastic change in the way I perform despite the opposite drawback (Samba / Waltzes). I would welcome other abilities of this nature. Part of being flexible is finding a new purpose and a new role in an instant. Fan Dance improves survivability and Saber Dance greatly increases TP gain and output. I enjoy this style of switching roles.

I understand job adjustments are an ongoing effort and we do see improvements from time to time.
Dancer is built right from the ground up, however I feel too few of what it can do in practice show enough value to be welcomed in high level content.

[Camate]

Hello,

I’d like to give you an update on the current status on the future dancer adjustments that were mentioned previously.

In the version update that took place yesterday, adjustments were made so that the attack capabilities of dagger wielding jobs such as dancer could keep up with other damage dealing jobs. We’d first like to monitor the effects of this for a bit.

The step adjustments that were mentioned in my other post are currently on the development team’s task list; however, the will need some time to work on this.

In regards to samba, we’ve made it possible to extend its effect duration with job points, and by increasing the ways in which you can earn job points as we move forward I believe it will be easier to receive boons from this.

I apologize for keeping you waiting for so long since we announced these plans!

[Olor]

In the version update that took place yesterday, adjustments were made so that the attack capabilities of dagger wielding jobs such as dancer could keep up with other damage dealing jobs. We’d first like to monitor the effects of this for a bit.

How did changes which give SAM 13K weaponskills that they can essentially spam... help dagger jobs keep up? What a joke. Seriously.

[Sixtythree]

Thanks for the reply Camate; a band-aid post but a dev stamp on the thread nonetheless. I'm happy to see Steps are expecting adjustments.

[Ataraxia]

Hello,

I’d like to give you an update on the current status on the future dancer adjustments that were mentioned previously.

In the version update that took place yesterday, adjustments were made so that the attack capabilities of dagger wielding jobs such as dancer could keep up with other damage dealing jobs. We’d first like to monitor the effects of this for a bit.

The step adjustments that were mentioned in my other post are currently on the development team’s task list; however, the will need some time to work on this.

In regards to samba, we’ve made it possible to extend its effect duration with job points, and by increasing the ways in which you can earn job points as we move forward I believe it will be easier to receive boons from this.

I apologize for keeping you waiting for so long since we announced these plans!

Hello Camate I'm very happy to hear this about DNC. Dnc job are focus mainly on Piercing just like a dragoon or ranger and It would be nice if they have option to use club, axe or even sword. In the end, I think people will prefer dragoon or ranger than DNC over doing delve.

Camate "as we move forward I believe it will be easier to receive boons from this" I do not understand what it said here but are you making samba be like than aura effect? If that is the case i think it be probably be good but anyways looking forward on what you got cook up for us on DNC and THF in future update =).

[Sixtythree]

Hello Camate I'm very happy to hear this about DNC. Dnc job are focus mainly on Piercing just like a dragoon or ranger and It would be nice if they have option to use club, axe or even sword. In the end, I think people will prefer dragoon or ranger than DNC over doing delve.

Camate "as we move forward I believe it will be easier to receive boons from this" I do not understand what it said here but are you making samba be like than aura effect? If that is the case i think it be probably be good but anyways looking forward on what you got cook up for us on DNC and THF in future update =).

He means you will gain more benefit from Sambas because you can extend the duration; each samba will last longer when you invest Job Points into it.

It does not address the fact that as a flexible/support class our ability to give another player MP completely falls short. Especially compared to Corsair or Bard. Aspir Samba doesn't have the potency to be worthwhile and even then you're limited to front line jobs and even then you are limited to enemy types that actually have MP.

[Byrth]

More than anything else, Dancer needs a reduction in Job Ability and Weapon Skill delays.

[Camate]

Greetings,

When it comes to both dancer and thief, neither were designed as jobs that were meant to be straight-up damage dealers. While we will not be making adjustments to give them the damage dealing capabilities that monk and samurai possess, we will be looking into the following adjustments for each job.

• Dancer
  Just as I mentioned previously, we will be looking into making adjustments to Step effects as well as the Finishing Move system. The development team anticipates that it will take them a bit of time to work on this, and once there are more details we’ll be sure to share.
  
  
• Thief
  The development team feels that thief is a job that is need of adjustments, but as there are other job adjustments that are being prioritized it will take them a bit to shift their focus to thief. Though the adjustments for thief are still a ways out and still in the idea stage, which means they could largely change, I’d like to give a bit of insight as to what the team is thinking.
  
  The development team feels that enhancements to thief’s specialty, enmity control, as well as a slight bump to their attack capability is needed. Currently, thief possesses the means to collect hate on themselves, but is lacking means for diffusing it. This creates a dilemma where they can reduce the hate of other players, but are unable to deal damage.
  
  In order to solve this issue, we’re looking into adding a new ability that transfers hate stolen from players into attack power that can be unleashed on enemies.
  
  Instead of focusing on simply increasing thief’s damage dealing capabilities, we’d like to give them a role that allows for more damage output from the party as a whole by helping party members with hate control.

[Byrth]

I look forward to the Dancer changes. If I was going to suggest two things:
1) Increase step potency.
2) Allow us to get full Finishing Moves from steps even if the monster already has level 5 Daze.

If I was going to suggest a third thing:
3) Reduce or eliminate job ability delay at least for Steps.

[Ataraxia]

Greetings,

When it comes to both dancer and thief, neither were designed as jobs that were meant to be straight-up damage dealers. While we will not be making adjustments to give them the damage dealing capabilities that monk and samurai possess, we will be looking into the following adjustments for each job.

• Dancer
  Just as I mentioned previously, we will be looking into making adjustments to Step effects as well as the Finishing Move system. The development team anticipates that it will take them a bit of time to work on this, and once there are more details we’ll be sure to share.
  
  
• Thief
  The development team feels that thief is a job that is need of adjustments, but as there are other job adjustments that are being prioritized it will take them a bit to shift their focus to thief. Though the adjustments for thief are still a ways out and still in the idea stage, which means they could largely change, I’d like to give a bit of insight as to what the team is thinking.
  
  The development team feels that enhancements to thief’s specialty, enmity control, as well as a slight bump to their attack capability is needed. Currently, thief possesses the means to collect hate on themselves, but is lacking means for diffusing it. This creates a dilemma where they can reduce the hate of other players, but are unable to deal damage.
  
  In order to solve this issue, we’re looking into adding a new ability that transfers hate stolen from players into attack power that can be unleashed on enemies.
  
  Instead of focusing on simply increasing thief’s damage dealing capabilities, we’d like to give them a role that allows for more damage output from the party as a whole by helping party members with hate control.

Hello Camate thank you for updating us on Dancer and Thief. I really appreciate the Community Team for taking the time to make adjustment to DNC. In addition, as for Thief Adjustment i think you are going in the right direction for that job =). Hate Control will allow Thief to shine more in a PT full of powerful DD like sam, monk, war, drk.

I have a 2 suggestion for Dancer job. If you give them 2 news steps that have 2 or 3 aliment in them like evasion down, defense down, attack down or magic defense down, magic evasion down, magic attack down it might help Dancer become a very good supporter roll. That was just an example on what can be done with DNC.

My 2nd suggestion is allow Samba to be an Aura effect like a Geomancer. Aspir Samba and Drain Samba is useless because it doesn't work on undead while geomancer work on everything as for regen spell as well and many DNC i see always favor Haste Samba overall. More importantly Dancer really need something like Sentinel's Scherzo song in order for them to be useful in High-Tier Mission Battlefields Difficult or Very Difficult where NM TP more one shot. Right now I think Dnc is useless in new delve like Yorcia Weald, Marjami Ravine, and Kamihr Drifts. Finally, without a bard singing a Sentinel's Scherzo or smn doing a Earthen's Armor you are as good as dead one shot . I do not want dnc to take the roll of a monk, war, drk or sam as damage dealer but i do prefer they can be a strong supporter for them to do damage and withstand against NM strong TP attack so that way a bard don't have to give Sentinel's Scherzo all the time but give more accuracy bonus or attack bonus song. In conclusion, if there wasn't a bard around in shout people can rely on Cor, Geo or Rdm to support. But whatever the adjustment is made by Community Team I welcome it and I'm thankful that adjustment were made to Dancer up to this point =).