Opinions on Dancer?

[Kolsykol]

I was a bit disappointed tbh, I stopped at 70 it just wasn't all that fun to me.
Something that really bothered me tho was how the animations are cancelled when you move in certain direction o_o.
You have all of these great looking animations but then you move and they just end immediately, it really bothered me.
Especially since they're supposed to be dancers so the animations actually playing out is a lot more important imo.

[HyoMinPark]

I did get DNC to lvl 80 though still I think there are one too many processes, perhaps at least Fan Dance III could be guaranteed or maybe something else (without resorting to Flourish). Rising Windmill and Bloodshower also require you to have targets around you (to proc) so sometimes you have to time these to avoid aoes and whatnot. We get Flourish every 60secs which is all good, and yeah we can end with a lot of Espirit being generated at times but there is a lot of RNG without a doubt and RDM at least has reliable burst damage when you get it.

DNC has reliable burst as well if you know how to manage your Feathers and line up everything into a Technical Finish/Devilment window. Ideally, you hold 3 feathers for then and Flourish, meaning you're guaranteed at least 3 Fan Dance Is and all 5 Flourished procs in that 20 second window (it's also very likely you'll get more Feathers simply from using your Flourished procs. You also hold Saber Dance until 80 Esprit, and you will always be guaranteed at least 2 or 3 Saber Dances within TF+Devilment simply due to the amount you're getting from your party. If a person is failing to manage their resources and line things up with their burst window, of course everything will fall flat. That is true for any job.

Rising Windmill and Bloodshower are easy enough to manage once you get used to content and knowing where you can move to safely avoid AOEs. Sometimes they may not hit every mob in a trash pack if you're required to move, but as long as they hit one you'll keep your proc chance.

The RNG doesn't bother me. But, again, I mained BRD in Stormblood, which was fairly RNG heavy. They didn't even have a reliable burst that could be controlled like DNC with force proccing - we either had super amazing opener with 2~3 Pitch Perfects and a Barrage Refulgent or super trash opener with 1 Pitch Perfect and a Barrage Empyreal. DNC has more control over its burst by comparison, in my opinion, and DNC's proc rate (50%) is the same as RDM's VerRNG, if I'm not mistaken.

[Nexxus]

You can stack 3-4 stacks of proc between Technical Step, so it is a good things to keep them until your burst time, to bad tho is that you still have to rely on RNG for the last feather to proc during that phase.
So your DPS rely mostly on this, you can deal massive amount of damage in less than 10s but you can also do crappy amount of damage too.
it can get messy when you have to keep an eye on proc, while keeping an eye on the battlefield, while keeping an add on your buff timer...

[Saefinn]

Lets put things into perspective. Back in the days when DRK absolutely sucked monkey marble a player that got worlds first clear was asked why they played Dark. Thier response was simply. "I like playing Dark Knight it's fun." world first kill with a job that before that had been ridiculed. Dancer is absolutely a class that will not be a bench warmer and it's amazingly fun to play.

I think this is always an important thing to remember and kinda why I don't like the "meta" mentality. If you're going to pure optimisation at the top percentile, maybe it works, but the majority of the player base does not fit into that category. I see more value in people who love and are really into the job they play and get the most out of it than one who has picked it because it's "meta". Generally when somebody loves their job and dedicated to the roll, then they will find ways to maximise it and make up for its shortcomings. I was like this with ARR SCH, I know somebody who was like this with HW MCH (when they were rejected for MCH's low DPS), I've known a couple of MNK's like this and so on.


Personally, I love playing DNC and will be pushing to try and maximise my own DPS out of it and the group DPS. The only problem I have at the moment is if there is a dip in latency, it can interrupt the flow, but that's the same with similar jobs. I don't mind the RNG, because it's not infrequent enough to make me hate it but more procs wouldn't go amiss, it does play a little bit like HW MCH, but I also liked HW MCH. The latency may have something to do with being in the UK whilst being on a US server, however, I'm one of those RP weirdos and that's where the RP community at. There are a couple of VPN's claiming they'll improve latency, so I might try them, see how they do.

[Hezzlocks]

I think this is always an important thing to remember and kinda why I don't like the "meta" mentality. If you're going to pure optimisation at the top percentile, maybe it works, but the majority of the player base does not fit into that category. I see more value in people who love and are really into the job they play and get the most out of it than one who has picked it because it's "meta". Generally when somebody loves their job and dedicated to the roll, then they will find ways to maximise it and make up for its shortcomings. I was like this with ARR SCH, I know somebody who was like this with HW MCH (when they were rejected for MCH's low DPS), I've known a couple of MNK's like this and so on.


Personally, I love playing DNC and will be pushing to try and maximise my own DPS out of it and the group DPS. The only problem I have at the moment is if there is a dip in latency, it can interrupt the flow, but that's the same with similar jobs. I don't mind the RNG, because it's not infrequent enough to make me hate it but more procs wouldn't go amiss, it does play a little bit like HW MCH, but I also liked HW MCH. The latency may have something to do with being in the UK whilst being on a US server, however, I'm one of those RP weirdos and that's where the RP community at. There are a couple of VPN's claiming they'll improve latency, so I might try them, see how they do.

Absolutely agreed. I've always been of the opinion that you should play what you find *fun*, not what you hear is the meta. The meta has only ever mattered in absolute highest level of play, where every % matters. Anywhere below that, and it no longer matters, because not only are you probably not really good enough to make that % count, but also you're probably at the skill level where you're going to perform better with something you enjoy, rather than whatever is the "best".

[Crushnight]

I find it absolutely fun to play, yea rng is rng but i had fun with brd/mch in SB so rng doesn't bother me much.

What i love most is i feel like i actually benefit my party like any support job should, this is my preferred playstyle, it is why it resonates with me, why i love ast as my hlr, i guess it is just how i am i'd rather be able to buff my friends up than deal huge damage :P

[Connor]

I’ve absolutely loved Dancer. The weaponskills look great, there are so many ways to support the party, and RNG procs don’t bother me, maybe since I was previously Bard main.

Speaking of Bard, compared to Dancer it feels like a hot mess. There’s barely anything to do outside of waiting for procs and spamming Quick Knock, you have very limited support options, and you don’t even get a job gauge until level 80. Plus the vast majority of your animations still clip into each other, resulting in things like shooting an arrow the enemy mid spin while facing away from them, or no arrow being present during the shooting animation (minor complain I know lol, but the point is that Dancer animations all flow pretty well together)

As a Dancer I can save up my procs for a burst, use them immediately if I have Flourish ready or ws procs. When Flourish is on cooldown, I still have steps to support the party with, Samba and Waltz for utility, Devilment for the damage boost. I never feel like I’m locked out of my support options by cooldowns or redundancy (not having a reason to use them), which I think really make it feel like both a ranged DPS and a support.

The way I see, Dancer is the job for ranged who want to play as support. Machinist is the job for ranged who would prefer more of a focus on damage.

Bard is the job for...people who like archers I guess? Dancer offers so much, as does Machinist (not that I can speak from personal experience).

Tl;dr: if you want to see how good Dancer is, just look at how lame Bard is right now

[thrashette]

Speaking of Bard, compared to Dancer it feels like a hot mess.

I have the complete opposite opinion. BRD feels really smooth and easy to play this expansion. I love the added emphasis on not wasting procs in order to use Apex Arrow, as well as the small optimizations you can do with that skill, like during AoE phases or planning for periods of invulnerability or being out of range. The proc rate feels extremely consistent compared to how it was before, where if you were gearing for iLvl only or were level synced, you had nothing to do. Then again, I raided without a DRG... so I'm getting a lot more procs than I was before. And the AoE feels great to use in dungeons, whereas before I'd run out of TP really quick when the other party members weren't AoEing, and the DPS was trash outside of Mage's.

DNC, on the other hand, is deceptively difficult. I practiced a ton on the SSS dummy (funnily enough, I'd sometimes clear with 30 sec remaining, and sometimes I'd fail to kill it at all.) But that doesn't prepare you for playing in a "live" environment at all due to how fast Esprit generates, and how it takes priority over other GCDs. In a solo situation, you become accustomed to maybe sometimes using SD during a Technical Window. But it's pretty much always ready to use once, if not multiple times, in a group, so it gets hectic with everything lit up on your bars and trying to dump your feathers and not miss FD3s. Also, the separate GCD timer for the dances is a little awkward considering how much of a potency loss it is for not drifting or clipping it based on your skill speed. I feel like both BRD and DNC rotations are pretty easy to learn, but the impact of playing suboptimally on DNC is much larger than it is for BRD, especially because your pDPS is so low to begin with.

[RyoXander]

Just level it if you find it fun. Who the hell cares what anyone else has to say. Right now it's very popular and SE will tweak it as needed in the near future.

[YanderePrincess]

I was a bit disappointed tbh, I stopped at 70 it just wasn't all that fun to me.
Something that really bothered me tho was how the animations are cancelled when you move in certain direction o_o.
You have all of these great looking animations but then you move and they just end immediately, it really bothered me.
Especially since they're supposed to be dancers so the animations actually playing out is a lot more important imo.

The only animation I've seen get cancelled by movement is, ironically, Peloton.