Dancer? (spoilers)

[Amiaze]

Be warned -- ARR 2.55 and Heavensward spoilers below.

Also, lots of assumptions and theorizing inbound. These are only musings and theories, nothing more.

As of the conclusion of Heavensward, I think it's safe to say that most of the Scions will be returning in some capacity. Alphinaud seemed very certain they'd all survived; Thancred is probably dealing with his wounded knee (hinting at a possible future job change, perhaps?), and I'm fairly certain that Minfilia is dealing with whatever Hydalaen told her.

Now, assuming this is all true, and knowing that we likely won't be getting anymore tank or healer classes until 4.0, does anyone think that it's possible that Minfilia will represent the Dancer class as a healer?

I don't have a lot of strong evidence outside of possible cultural clues. Minfilia is partly Ala Mhigan, and I think it's safe to say that every culture has its DPS, tank and healing roles. Given her clothing and what we know of Ala Mhigan culture (which reminds me of Native Americans, being forced from their homes and having nobody to support them), would it be a stretch to say that dancing and other "exotic" roles would be a part of their culture?

Throughout ARR, we see Minfilia get attacked several times and not really try to fight back, and this is specific to her -- all other Scions are ready to fight. Could this be because she represents a healer class and not a combat-oriented class?

Y'shtola did participate in fighting at the end of 2.55, but we all know White Mage to have very good offensive capabilities. The lore behind black/white magic supports this. Could Dancer be a more "natural" healer that doesn't rely so much on manipulating aether, but possibly on casting debuffs on enemies (such as poison darts, needles with paralysis) while using more natural methods of healing (more or less, using medicines)? This would help differentiate it from other healers, especially AST, given that it would literally be doing the exact opposite.

So, my questions would be:

-Do you think Minfilia will play the Dancer class?

-Do you think Dancer will be a healing class?

-If so, how do you think it will function?

[mp-please]

We might see the scions have some growth from a class to a job. It's not confirmed but it seems yshtola is a white mage now due to her conjurer branch wand thing to the new 2 handed scepter which is iconic to white mage.
We might see the same growth for the rest of the scions, thancred going ninja, yda going monk, papalymo going blm, etc.

Minfilia wise, she never really had a class since 1.0 and nothing to point on that direction aside the small dagger she carries on her clothes. As far as we can tell she might go from linkshell nagger to linkshell mega nagger.

In A Realm Reborn, Minfilia wears a midriff-less dress, and her attire is more decorated. During a trip to the snowy Coerthas, she wears a purple highlander coat. Perhaps due to having matured five years, Minfilia's bust has increased in size, surpassing the maximum size players can have with their female Midlander Hyur characters.

I guess her job is on the dairy sector. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Dalvy]

How would Dancer play out? I can only see it being a pure buff class, like it was in Ragnarok Online. Which in the right hands was pretty good back then ...

[Amiaze]

We might see the scions have some growth from a class to a job. It's not confirmed but it seems yshtola is a white mage now due to her conjurer branch wand thing to the new 2 handed scepter which is iconic to white mage.

Minfilia wise, she never really had a class since 1.0 and nothing to point on that direction aside the small dagger she carries on her clothes. As far as we can tell she might go from linkshell nagger to linkshell mega nagger.

That's true, I did forget that Y'shtola was a Conjurer, not a White Mage. And Lord, I hope Minfilia stays out of my ear.

How would Dancer play out? I can only see it being a pure buff class, like it was in Ragnarok Online. Which in the right hands was pretty good back then ...

And I think it would play out as an actual Saboteur class. Whereas Astrologian focuses on buffing the party, I think Dancer will do the opposite. Its main way of keeping party members alive may be more akin to Scholar in that it's attempting to mitigate damage somehow, possibly using paralysis/stuns more often, or even using purely offensive abilities in conjunction with healing. It would certainly fit with the dev team's stance that healers should also be DPSing and contributing to combat and not just healing. Heavensward seemed to focus a lot more on allowing you to cast debuffs on enemies, whereas enemies were more or less immune to everything once you hit level 50.

As far as its healing goes, I believe the dev team was messing around with the idea of using potions and remedies as main tools for a healer class before deciding that it was better to just go with AST. I'll have to look for a source since I heard it from another player, or ask them when that was said...I could imagine that you'd use some sort of alchemy to douse people in. Alternatively, they might focus on "chants" to heal people, incorporating healing songs into their debuffing dances.

[File2ish]

I'm curious as to what Minfillia will end up doing, and i certainly wouldnt mind a Dancer Minfillia ;P

Dancer would be nice as a healer. In the anniversary event it was hinted that we're gonna see Samurai and Red Mage. Blue Mage was also referenced in a chat bubble. All 3 of those could arguably fit in tank or dps role, red mage being the only one with a chance to be a healer if blue magic stays traditional-ish.

And since we got 4 jobs with HW (ninja counts), 4 in 4.0 would make sense.



Next portion, there will be balance issues. I know. Hastily typing this up on phone on lunch break.

Dancer could either be healer or DPS if implemented, and i'd base it off of a combo of XI and fft dancers and be front lines.

For a healer dancer, it xould obviously have Curing Waltz from FFXI. Same range as cures/physicks/benefics. Divine waltz would be the AoE heal. If healer, maybe like Mincing Minuet and others from FFT.

Then Sambas would be viable for both dps or healer. Drain samba would be like a regen for anyone attacking (like mrds bloodbath, would probably weaker), aspir samba for mp refresh per hit, and regain samba, maybe, for tp regain (or haste samba? Give it the utility Selene has or the same as AST expanded arrow :P).

I'd give Dancer a knife, as daggers were primary in XI, and in FFT they could use them too. Plus if Minfillia would be a dancer, she carries one.

So instead of casting magic traditionally, they do knife skills. Probably steps from ffxi could be a good fit (quick step, box step, stutter step could be a combo, feather step a DoT and rename pugilist's evasion up ability). Doing the combo will grant a stack of finishing moves. Stacks could make it more fun to play, ya? :P idk how wrath works for warrior but yeah.

And self buffs like xi dnc flourishes to use said finishing moves. Building flourish to make the next dances more potent (like Divine seal). Reverse flourish as their main source of mp refresh (like aetherflow sorta). Potencies up in the air of course.

Yeah. I liked ffxi dancer. Shoot me. Lol

[Enkidoh]

I don't have a lot of strong evidence outside of possible cultural clues. Minfilia is partly Ala Mhigan, and I think it's safe to say that every culture has its DPS, tank and healing roles. Given her clothing and what we know of Ala Mhigan culture (which reminds me of Native Americans, being forced from their homes and having nobody to support them), would it be a stretch to say that dancing and other "exotic" roles would be a part of their culture?

Well, we already know quite a bit about Ala Mhigan culture, and it wasn't actually based on 'Native American' culture, especially from 1.0, it was stated that the citystate was actually an autocratic kingdom, who had a long history of belligerence with the other Eorzean citystates (a century before ARR they attempted to invade the Black Shroud, which resulted in Gridania allying with Ul'dah and Ishgard to drive the Ala Mhigans out, an event known as the Autumn War), and, more so, was actually stated as being prior to the Garlean invasion and annexation, the 'most technologically advanced of the six Eorzean citystates' - yes, even more than the Sharalyan colony). Their military consisted of ARCs, LNCs, GLAs (knights), CNJs and THMs, but also the elite MNKs of the semi-theocratic order of the Fists of Rhalgr. In fact, the only reason Garlemald even managed to invade them was because their final king descended into tyranny, purged the MNKs and so weakened his hold on power his own people overthrew him, which when Gaius and the XIVth Legion showed up, there was little the beleaguered nation could do but watch helplessly as the Empire annexed them.

Throughout ARR, we see Minfilia get attacked several times and not really try to fight back, and this is specific to her -- all other Scions are ready to fight. Could this be because she represents a healer class and not a combat-oriented class?

Minfilia is not a fighter, even in 1.0 she was a pacifist who actually preferred diplomacy and negotiation over direct conflict. In fact, there was one point in 1.0 where she actually tells you off for putting yourself in danger and resorting to violence instead of 'playing it safe' and researching information peacefully.

It's why she's the Antecedent, the head of the Path of the Twelve/Scions of the Seventh Dawn. She's their director, who sits in an office pushing papers or making business deals instead of going out into the wilds and killing stuff. As much as I would love to see the DNC Job added to FFXIV (it being one of my favourite Jobs), Minfilia does not fit the idea or image of the Job, as she doesn't even need one.

[Cynfael]

Throughout ARR, we see Minfilia get attacked several times and not really try to fight back, and this is specific to her -- all other Scions are ready to fight. Could this be because she represents a healer class and not a combat-oriented class?

That would just make her a bad healer. All DoW/DoM classes and Jobs are combat-oriented in this game, so please don't let her be representative of a new class that apparently does nothing at all in a fight.

I'm more of the opinion that Minfilia's official Job is "Distressed Damsel" or perhaps "Ineffectual Bureaucrat."

[Lollie]

I highly doubt they will make a main storyline charater a job trainer, it just makes things too messy planning wise. The closest you may see for dancer is F'lhaminn and that is still pushing it.

[Aamalthea]

*snip*
Minfilia is not a fighter. She's their director, who sits in an office pushing papers or making business deals instead of going out into the wilds and killing stuff. As much as I would love to see the DNC Job added to FFXIV (it being one of my favourite Jobs), Minfilia does not fit the idea or image of the Job, as she doesn't even need one.

I would lose my mind if Dancer and Red Mage came to ffxiv as RDM is what I was in ffxi and then Dancer came and omg win. However I have zero desire for Minfilia to be a Dancer. Let her keep her pacifist stance (and let her quit whining at me).BUT I worry what those dances would look like. Not a fan of the current dances in the game. Not a fan at all. Them being a healer, debuffer, or another support...all of these work for me. Seriously don't make the dances suck. Also don't want them to copy wow with whatever dances YouTube thinks are popular or funny.