Overall, I'm glad that Dancer is staying largely the same as it really didn't need much of a change. Initially, I was a bit disappointed that we would no longer be needing Rising Windmill and Bloodshower during Flourish windows, but it seems Fan Dance IV is really covering for that loss pretty well. It's compensating for the lost damage, and it's a point-blank cone AoE, meaning there will still be that subtle melee element where you'll want to move in during those windows to land the attack. That said, it actually makes Flourish less exciting for ShB content because we won't have Fan Dance IV until after that. I think there were simpler ways to address the proc situation than this as well, so while I like how it will play at 90, I'm a bit bummed that we have to lose that aspect of Flourish when synched.
Tillana and Starfall Dance are nice, though also a bit odd in a sense. Technical Windows were already very busy and fun, and since both of these actions are exclusive to those windows, they don't really address one of the few real cons to Dancer's gameplay which is pretty slow gameplay between steps. I also don't really understand why they made Tillana grant you and your dance partner Standard Step. You're going to have Standard up going into every Technical Window anyway, and it's not like we've ever been afraid of letting that buff fall off. None of this is bad necessarily, but I'm just a little curious about why these actions were chosen specifically is all.
New Improvisation is still a bit awkward, but at least it seems far more usable. It reminds me a bit of AST's Collective Unconscious now actually. I wonder if you'll be able to double weave it with Improvised Finish and actually get off both the regen and the 5% max HP barrier smoothly, though I don't know why they didn't just change this from a channel into a normal OGCD. Oh well, at least it's a step forward.
My thoughts:
Overall I'm pretty pleased with Dancer. I have some nitpicks, but none of them are particularly game-changing. As mentioned before, the progression isn't anything drastic, but that's perfectly fine. There are some cool new power spikes we got, and Dancer's gameplay will continue to be pretty fun in my opinion.
If I could say anything negatively, I'd say that we didn't really address Dancer being a more boring job to play synched and in fact even made that a little worse by simplifying Flourish between level 72 and 86. I really think there are some actions we could bump down to earlier levels to help make Dancer a bit more fun at those lower levels, but alas, that may not happen anytime soon.