New Dancer ability in the benchmark

[Burningskull]

What if it's just a single button ability like Shield Samba that gives haste or life leech?

I could also see them giving you a trait/s that upgrades Standard / Technical Step into new dances with 1 extra step in them. So 3 and 5 respectfully.

[ty_taurus]

What if it's just a single button ability like Shield Samba that gives haste or life leech?

I could also see them giving you a trait/s that upgrades Standard / Technical Step into new dances with 1 extra step in them. So 3 and 5 respectfully.

Well haste is the bane of Dancer's existence so I doubt it will be something like that, besides it pretty clearly uses an animation similar to that of Standard/Technical so it probably will have steps to some degree. I'm not really sure what the point of adding to the step count would be for extra potency. What does that really add to dancer's playstyle?

[Rongway]

What does that really add to dancer's playstyle?

Most jobs don't need changes to their playstyles. There are only two or three jobs that need changes and I wouldn't consider DNC one of them. We don't have to change every job's rotation or playstyle every expansion. Just update action potencies via upgrade or trait.

[ty_taurus]

Most jobs don't need changes to their playstyles. There are only two or three jobs that need changes and I wouldn't consider DNC one of them. We don't have to change every job's rotation or playstyle every expansion. Just update action potencies via upgrade or trait.

I disagree. I think Dancer is in a great spot, but it also needs a bit of spice to give it a smidge more depth. We have the technical step phase, which is mostly great. Only real area that needs a dash of QoL improvement if when you generate so much Esprit that you lose Flourish procs. Just a little something to resolve that issue would be fantastic.

Proc generation is pretty agreed upon that it would greatly benefit from a bit more ways to control the RNG. Some suggestions I've seen include decreasing Flourish's CD to 30 seconds so you have more opportunities to force procs, or some alternative tools that could increase the rate at which you gain procs to some degree. Something to shorten the gap between high luck and low luck proc RNG.

Outside of technical windows, Dancer slows down a lot and could use a bit more activity between those windows, though I've already brought up how the benchmark dance could actually be something added to create that extra bit of oomph, and if the proc generation point gets addressed, then that would also contribute to more active 'downtime' between technical windows (it's not really 'downtime' by definition, but you get what I'm trying to say).

A lot of us would appreciate some more Esprit actions to give us a bit more decision-making with that resource. We will probably get a single target saber dance. It seems pretty inevitable at this point, but something else to spend Esprit on that has a bit of a different use to make you have to decide when to use that would be really nice. Also, I'd love to see Confuse get added to something for dungeon trash. Yeah, it doesn't actually add anything either, but it's nice thematically since that was Dancer's original go-to status effect and would be a cool form of utility for trash enemies. As long as it's attached to something that has an actual primary function, I think it'd be fine.

Depending on the fight, Improvisation is either entirely useless or almost entirely useless. Let's kill it or change it.

Some other small changes I'd include: A trait that increases Esprit generation when not in a party (for instance battles and MSQ content). Lower Flourish's acquisition down to level 54. There's an empty space at that level in Dancer's kit and Dancer's kinda bland when synched. This won't fix all synched content but it would make a chunk more of content a little more entertaining when doing roulettes and whatnot

All-in-all, Dancer's really great right now and doesn't need any dramatic changes, but there are plenty of nooks and crannies in its kit that could benefit from a bit more depth getting added or QoL improvements. I don't think increasing the step count on standard or technical do anything though. It's not really addressing any issues with the kit (big or small) and it could actually be damaging to the current rotation. If you're using your GCD on time, your standard steps will come off cooldown exactly as you finish other GCD actions, which is a small but nice little area of mastery that we dancers get to experience, but if there are extra steps to standard and technical step, that would slightly offset that very clean synchronization and take away that bit of mastery.

[AvenoMatt]

Well haste is the bane of Dancer's existence so I doubt it will be something like that

Not a DNC main so I don't know what stats are best for DNC but wouldn't a lower GCD be good since it means more procs so more dmg. I know melding for SkS is bad because you sacrifice melding crit, dir or even det but if DNC had a self haste buff to lower their GCD without having to meld SkS wouldn't that be good for them. A DNC also doesn't have much of a strict rotation that requires their actions fall within buff windows.

[Rongway]

The other issue with Skill Speed is that, because Standard and Technical Step are both GCD actions with elongated cooldowns, they also have their recasts reduced by Skill Speed.

Steps trigger the GCD but they are not GCD actions. They are Abilities and their recast timers are fixed.

[Burningskull]

I disagree. I think Dancer is in a great spot, but it also needs a bit of spice to give it a smidge more depth. We have the technical step phase, which is mostly great. Only real area that needs a dash of QoL improvement if when you generate so much Esprit that you lose Flourish procs. Just a little something to resolve that issue would be fantastic.

This could easily be handled by give a trait, or preferably just make Saber Dance do it by default, where when you use Saber Dance it refreshes any procs you currently have up for your weapon skills.

Proc generation is pretty agreed upon that it would greatly benefit from a bit more ways to control the RNG. Some suggestions I've seen include decreasing Flourish's CD to 30 seconds so you have more opportunities to force procs, or some alternative tools that could increase the rate at which you gain procs to some degree. Something to shorten the gap between high luck and low luck proc RNG.

Or they could just go the MCH route and remove RNG altogether. No job should ever really have to depend on RNG to be good or playable imo.

Outside of technical windows, Dancer slows down a lot and could use a bit more activity between those windows, though I've already brought up how the benchmark dance could actually be something added to create that extra bit of oomph, and if the proc generation point gets addressed, then that would also contribute to more active 'downtime' between technical windows (it's not really 'downtime' by definition, but you get what I'm trying to say).

A lot of us would appreciate some more Esprit actions to give us a bit more decision-making with that resource. We will probably get a single target saber dance. It seems pretty inevitable at this point, but something else to spend Esprit on that has a bit of a different use to make you have to decide when to use that would be really nice. Also, I'd love to see Confuse get added to something for dungeon trash. Yeah, it doesn't actually add anything either, but it's nice thematically since that was Dancer's original go-to status effect and would be a cool form of utility for trash enemies. As long as it's attached to something that has an actual primary function, I think it'd be fine.

I'm actually fine with just Saber Dance. Matter of fact I don't want them to give a single target version of it like I'm sure they will. Just make Saber Dance do full damage to a single target then divide that damage among all the ones hit. I personally think, if they keep the RNG aspect of dancer, that Saber Dance should have a 50% chance of procing a phoenix feather, basically and upgraded fan dance move that you can store for later for people that do that.

Depending on the fight, Improvisation is either entirely useless or almost entirely useless. Let's kill it or change it.

Improv really just needs to not need other players. You'd probably see a lot more DNCs use it during downtime like SAMs do with Meditation. The fact you can't always get all 8 party members to stand together really hurts it.

Some other small changes I'd include: A trait that increases Esprit generation when not in a party (for instance battles and MSQ content). Lower Flourish's acquisition down to level 54. There's an empty space at that level in Dancer's kit and Dancer's kinda bland when synched. This won't fix all synched content but it would make a chunk more of content a little more entertaining when doing roulettes and whatnot

I think the only thing DNC really needs to learn earlier is Closed Position.

All-in-all, Dancer's really great right now and doesn't need any dramatic changes, but there are plenty of nooks and crannies in its kit that could benefit from a bit more depth getting added or QoL improvements. I don't think increasing the step count on standard or technical do anything though. It's not really addressing any issues with the kit (big or small) and it could actually be damaging to the current rotation. If you're using your GCD on time, your standard steps will come off cooldown exactly as you finish other GCD actions, which is a small but nice little area of mastery that we dancers get to experience, but if there are extra steps to standard and technical step, that would slightly offset that very clean synchronization and take away that bit of mastery.

[Voidedge_Ragna]

I dont think we will see "haste" ever because balancing it could be a pain, the only "haste" we have is on Bozja and Eureka which is side content.

Its just going to be a straight buff to what we know Crit/Dmg/Direct or a big aoe, SE stepped away from mp restoration outside of healers own kit so i dont see that coming back. If they add it as a heal ... its going to be virtually pointless and only cause overheal ... your healer would not expect you to use it and just do his normal healing.

it could be a straight upgrade to standart finish? 5% for whole team, the gauge thingy would still only be on your dance partner on standart though.

[ElysiumDragon]

What about maybe a 30 second DoT effect? If memory serves me correctly, DNC is the only Ranged class without a DoT effect, and it'd free up the extra 30 seconds in the Level 80 rotation. Maybe 3 steps?