To FFXI players: what did you love about Dancer?

[Jkap_Goat]

I love Dancer but I was never able to play ffxi in it's prime ( internet too expensive at the time) so I missed out. I've been looking at videos on Dancer and I'm so in love with it right now ( also geomancer looks fun) especially the AF gear and the Dances!so what made it so great? What fond memories do you have? Let's hope we get it in ffxiv also I want to get ffxi soon and play the whole game with dnc.

[Brightamethyst]

Oh man, I loved DNC in XI. The gameplay, the aesthetic, everything. Used TP in a new and interesting ways, decent solo ability (rare in old times XI), let me melee as a healer the way RDM never could, and the AF looked awesome (IMPORTANT!). It was just plain fun. Waltz CD (why did healing and curing share a CD anyway?) and TP gain meant it could rarely main heal on its own -at least in the 75 era- but was a great support. It also just let you do weird stuff like solo SC Darkness with Evisceration > Reverse Flourish > Phyrric Kleos. I would play XIV dancer in a heartbeat if they could make it as fun as the XI version.

[Enkidoh]

Personally it was one of those Jobs that actually worked better as a sub job than as a main - it finally made my WAR able to solo-play with it's TP-based healing, plus with Animated Flourish I got a second Provoke effectively. I loved it's AF though, especially it's AF3 set.

The fact is though, if DNC is ever added to FFXIV it will most definitely not play like that, for obvious reasons. FFXIV has a completely different battle system and thus is probably more likely to be a straight up DPS/debuffing class like it was in FF Tactics - TP healing would be too overpowered given TP natively regenerates in FFXIV (which it doesn't in FFXI, although DNC's Reverse Flourish regenerates TP).

[Driskus]

I'd say it definitely worked better as a sub too. I used it as SAM/DNC a lot, combining it with multi-hit weapons so I could spam skillchains and heal myself through tough fights. Fun times. Here it'd probably be a DPS most likely, unless they changed things around a bit to make it work as a healer.

[ty_taurus]

Personally it was one of those Jobs that actually worked better as a sub job than as a main - it finally made my WAR able to solo-play with it's TP-based healing, plus with Animated Flourish I got a second Provoke effectively. I loved it's AF though, especially it's AF3 set.

The fact is though, if DNC is ever added to FFXIV it will most definitely not play like that, for obvious reasons. FFXIV has a completely different battle system and thus is probably more likely to be a straight up DPS/debuffing class like it was in FF Tactics - TP healing would be too overpowered given TP natively regenerates in FFXIV (which it doesn't in FFXI, although DNC's Reverse Flourish regenerates TP).

I disagree, I think Dancer could be a TP based Healer. First of all, we need to stop treating Tanks and Healers like they have to be carbon copies of one another. Just like how DPS players have Melee, Ranged, and Caster to choose from, Tanks and Healers should also have another 'style' of play. Dancer could introduce melee healing as a new style of Healer. The MP/TP thing has a really simple solution-Dancer TP actions need to be expensive, but have access to low-cooldown tools that drain MP to restore TP. It could work any number of ways.

[SmokeyTheSequel]

Personally it was one of those Jobs that actually worked better as a sub job than as a main

This right here.

[Jonnycbad]

FFXIV 1.0 Lancer was very similar to FFXI Dancer/Thief.

Speed Surge: Hitting the target inflicts an enfeebling status which grants attacking party members the ability to absorb HP.

Comrade In Arms: Hitting the target inflicts the target with an enfeebling effect which grants attacking party members enhanced TP generation.

Fleet of Foot: Increases your movement speed by 20% while in active mode.

Collusion: Transfers the enmity generated by your next successful attack to an ally positioned between you and the target.

[Gumbercules]

Honestly for me personally, overall dancer can go die in a fire alongside NIN as subs in ff 11 lol. As a main job though dancer had very neat mechanics to it as a support role that could potentially lend themselves into interesting gameplay designs for a tank or healer in ff 14. (for example in ff 14 the SAM job reminds me of being a ff 11 sam with 2 hour perma on and on steroids :P)

[Maeka]

Dancer in FFXI was a breath of fresh air to a game that was getting really stale gameplay wise.

Back when DNC was added to the game, solo as most jobs was nearly impossible as there were no reliable ways to heal yourself and enemies did far too much damage. Also, most melee jobs were boring as crap as you had a few abilities, usually with 10-15 minute cooldowns and otherwise you had what... Weaponskill when you got enough TP which took upwards of 10-12 seconds, maybe even more than that.

So, for 10-12 seconds at a time you were doing absolutely nothing watching your character swinging at something. It was incredibly boring.

Then Dancer came along and showed us that TP could be used in smaller increments to do other things! Oh I wish they had done this on other jobs, instead of ridonkulous cooldowns on everything, they could have instead slapped a TP cost on stuff. Anyways, dancers could actually do stuff more often than once every few seconds, and unlike a mage, this doing stuff didn't involve plunking their butt on the ground to regenerate MP at 12MP +1 per tick (which was later improved, but still) afterwards.

It was a job that one could actually play without falling asleep at the keyboard, AND it actually allowed Melee jobs to solo a lot better. A Lot Better. It also allowed easier low-manning if solo wasn't possible, and it gave us Spectral Jig for all of those times where there were magic-detecting enemies around and you didn't want to waste tens of thousands of gil on oils and powders.

It was a very versatile job that worked very nice as a subjob, and I don't think FFXI would have been anywhere near as good without it.

[Mimilu]

What I like about XI's Dancer:
-It was a hybrid job with a lot of options. It fought on the front-lines with dual daggers to gain TP so that it could do big DPS with Weaponskills, support themselves and their party with Waltz and Samba skills, or enfeeble enemies with Step skills. Then they could use Flourish Skills, which had a variety of effects (like Provoking, Stunning, Converting stacks into TP, reading skillchains, etc). It also had skills that boosted its defense and enmity generating(Fan Dance), its offense (Saber Dance), and its healing (Contradance).
-The Aesthetic. It's elegant and pretty but also active, fighting and getting dirty with the other front-line jobs with its daggers.
-It was a nice side-job. If you had Dancer leveled up enough, it made leveling other jobs a bit easier.

Talking about Dancer makes me want to make another Dancer Job Idea... >w>()