Let’s discuss Dancer

[CryBloodwing]

I played a MMO once where the dancer used a floating orb to attack. It would move around and dance with the character.

[Seraphor]

I think whips and ribbons sounds most apt, theres room for crossover there and I doubt we'll be getting whips on any DPS class.

I like the idea of dancer being a quick rhythmic pure healer with lots of buffing and debuffing techniques.
They could apply their mitigation via damage down debuffs instead of shields, and their cheap quick heals would substitute for HoTs.
This would akso fit the curtent dynamic quite well, as we'd then have three healing roles, HoT, Shield and Buffer, with AST still being the versatile jack of all trades option.
Could even give AST a third sect that increases spellspeed and mp regen, plus doubles card potencies and/or reduces card cooldowns at the expense of Aspected heals, in order to cement that third healing mode.

[Seraphor]

I think whips and ribbons sounds most apt, theres room for crossover there and I doubt we'll be getting whips on any DPS class.

Unles... like SMN and SCH both use books, and WHM and BLM both use rods/staves, perhaps DNC and BLU will have some lore based link and use similar weapons, ribbons for DNC and whips for BLU.

[Gemina]

In terms of gear, for practicality purposes I suppose what really matters most is the AF gear. As was pointed out, RDM suffers from this and in no way could perform their functions if real world physics applied to the game wearing caster robes. There is no getting around the job sharing gear with the other healers, so it's really up to the player to glamour their DNC in a way that makes sense for them to perform in the real world. Plenty of options already out there for that, but if it is brought in, I am very much interested in its AF design.

As for the weapon, I've already envisioned the job moving very much like rhythmic gymnasts and using a weaponized/magical ribbon. I feel this combination would give it most elegance and flexibility with things like animations, allowing for multiple combinations of maneuvers to be performed while keeping the grace intact.

I really need to be careful how much I invest into this job knowing the very little amount we do.

[SweetPete]

Wow you guys have some amazing ideas. I am really loving a magical ribbon as their weapon. It would make the job feel more like an actual dancer. I also really like the chakram and fans of course. I would hate if the job was a melee healer... I would still play it but still. Lore wise I know that dancers were in the front line but I am sure SE can easily change that. As far as gear yeah we can always glamour as I feel they will not create new gear just for dancer. That is what their personal AF gear is for.

How do you guys feel about throwing knives as their main weapon? I know some might think of ninja but I feel SE can pull it off with dancer. Throwing knives can be seen as very acrobatic. So far the weapons I am loving is the magical ribbon, throwing knives, a fan, and chakram. They are in order of most desirable to least desirable.

[Gemina]

I know knives/daggers were the main weapon of FFXI dancers, but I am not sure if it is the traditional weapon, or if the job even really has particular weapon type to call their own. Ultimately, the weapon of choice should be one that complements the way the job is played. Pretty much all the suggested weapons mentioned thus far could be viable, but some like the daggers or ribbons would likely be specific to melee or ranged fighting styles respectively. Other weapons such as tessens (weapon/war fans) and chakrams could be integrated into both styles of combat.

Something else I thought of was this healer actually using the off-hand slot. At first I thought this might be a problem but then remembered that PLDs utilize their off-hand slot and have shield specific traits that are unavailable if it is not equipped iirc. I think SE could actually just pop it right in there without having to restructure coding, or have to do very little of it.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

It's probably bad that I can't get hyped for dancer because of the absolute chaos that will definitely ensue once they're introduced as far as healer balance goes.
I can't really see dancer being anything but a high damage/support type healer that can, of course, heal all content in the game still. It's going to be interesting to see what happens to WHM once Dancer is introduced...

[Seraphor]

It's probably bad that I can't get hyped for dancer because of the absolute chaos that will definitely ensue once they're introduced as far as healer balance goes.
I can't really see dancer being anything but a high damage/support type healer that can, of course, heal all content in the game still. It's going to be interesting to see what happens to WHM once Dancer is introduced...

I think you could add in a new job and balance it just fine, the issues come about when adding a new job plus reworking the others, so you dont have a benchmark to base it on.

Dancer doesnt necessarily have to be a high damage healer, just like how AST isnt really a time mage in any way but flavour beyond their one time skill lightspeed.
As i said earlier, i think they could easily introduce Dancer as a third healer mode with AST keeping its place as a role filler.
Capitalize on buffs more than ASTs cards, or even have the same effects but limited only by cooldown and not RNG, have short cast times, like 0.5s, on their GCD heals, which can combo with oGCD buffs, then have their dps skills combo with debuffs, make those predominantly damage down debuffs, 10%, maybe 20% single target on shorter duration, then you have your DPS healer without requiring high pDPS.

[Limonia]

If they put in Dancer as a healer, I don't think it would have melee attacks though. How would that even work? Most fights are made with casting healers in mind that can stand farther away from the boss, especially for specific mechanics. They would have to make the new fights different if one healer job always has to be in melee range. Would they even do that?

Also, we would have all those Dancers that dance far away from the boss because they are 0 dps healers anyway.

[IanFrench]

My concern is for male dancers, that would be hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm