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Newly returned player, trying out dancer.
I only see fourfold feathers being used for fandance. But that ability seems weaker than other choices. Even cascade our opener gives 200 and fandance only gives 150. Fandance can open up fandance 2 which opens up fandance 3, but 2/3 also seem weaker than other aoe's we could use.
Why would you use the fandances rather than other skills, and if you dont use fandance then what use is fourfold feathers?
The Fan Dances are oGCD as far as I remember, you use them inbetween skills for additional damage.
They are not on the GCD.
Edit: Beat me to it! :P
Fan dance 1 is single target higher potency, Fan dance 2 is lower potency point blank aoe, both of these have a chance to proc Fan dance 3 which is a targeted aoe with higher potency and damage fall off. They are all OGCD skills.
Ideally you hoard 4 feathers to release while having both Technical step and Devilment up (Burst Window).
In the same amount of time that it takes to do
Cascade-Fountain
you can do
Cascade-FanDance3-FanDance-Fountain-FanDance3-FanDance.
If its still not clear... your main abilities trigger a GCD (global cooldown), which is about 2.4 seconds long generally. During this time you cannot use any other ability that is tied to the GCD, which is most of them.
The Fan Dances, though, are what we call oGCDs (off global cooldowns). These, as the name suggests, are not attached to the GCD and thus are able to be used at nearly any time.
What this means is you can actually use Fan Dance in that duration of time when you can't use anything else. In fact, due to the speed of Fan Dance, you can use it *twice* during the GCD of your other abilities.
They might not be as strong as your main attacks but since they can be freely used between your other attacks when the GCD is locking you out of your rotation, its basically free damage.
Thats the basics of Fan Dance. The idea becomes a little more complicated when you take into account how you can hold up to 4 charges indefinitely, and how Fan Dances 1, 2 and 3 work. As you get better at Dancer you can work on managing your feathers by only using them either when you have 4 feathers (so that you don't lose free damage by generating a feather when you are already at your maximum, thus losing it) or when you have your big damage boosting cooldowns ready, at which point you unload everything.
Fan Dance 1 is a single target attack on your current target, and should be used in single target situations. Fan Dance 2 is weaker, but hits everything in a short range around you, and so should be used when there are multiple targets to hit. Both Fan Dances 1 and 2 have a chance of activating Fan Dance 3, which functionally acts like Fan Dance 1, but is a lot stronger and will burst to hit everything around your target. Fan Dance 3 does not use a feather, and has a limited time to use it, so it should always be used when you have it, and always before using another 1 or 2, as if they trigger the Fan Dance 3 activation again when its already ready to use, its lost, and so that is lost damage.
And, of course, all this should be done *between* uses of your main attacks. All said and done it adds a fair amount of complexity and speed to the job, but don't be dismayed. It sounds more complicated than it actually is. Once you get used to it it becomes like a natural flow. Sort of like actual dancing, actually. Initially you may shamble around, tripping over your own feet, but with a little practice it'll be as if it were a second nature to you.