LF New Job

[Tulzscha]

Hi peoples o/

I’ve pretty much only played a SMN since I started this game, and a little bit of SCH. I like my SMN, it’s fun but I’d like to try something else without leveling every job to max (yet), maybe even a different role.

None of the jobs really grab my attention so I’ll just ask you all, what do you like/hate about your job(s)? The main thing I think I’d like to see is some kind of flexible resource system that lets me hold back my powerful stuff without missing out. Kinda like aetherflow or a charge system. Not so dependent on cooldowns. Some amount of utility is always nice as well. ^^

[Chrallmal]

If I can opine for a bit: Dancer
- Very proc based, so when Lady Luck is on your side, you feel incredible. When she's giving you the cold shoulder, it can feel abysmal.

- A solid single-target and AoE rotation, and a ton of support. The Four-Fold Feather system works kind of like Aetherflow. It allows you to bank charges while you go through your main rotation, then dump them all during a burst phase.

- Dancer has a ton of utility, as that is it's strength. The cost of this strength is that it has the lowest personal DPS of all the DPS classes. Dancer works best in groups. It can make soloing things a bit difficult depending on the content. There is content that I can massacre as a level 70 BRD or RDM that I struggle with as a level 80 DNC (solo).

- Their dash ability is so incredibly fun to use, and universally useful. It makes you feel like a real ranged threat.

- I personally don't like that Saber Dance isn't oGCD. I'd take a potency hit to make it oGCD.

- I don't like that Saber Dance is the ONLY skill you can spend Espirit on. Options are never a bad thing.

- I don't like that Improvisation grants you Espirit in increments that is NOT 10. If your only Espirit spender is 50 Espirit, and Improvisation gives you less than 10, you end up with having a strange number that is pointless. I see this probably being resolved at some point. Or, at least, some kind of improvement to Improvisation.

- I find myself spending a large amount of time looking at my hotbar and not the fight, because I'm so reliant on procs. As well, the dances (Standard Step and Technical Step) are randomized button presses out of a pool of up to 4 different buttons. You can't muscle memory it. You can only muscle memory where the buttons are, but not the order they are going to be pressed in. Depending on how your multitasking skills are, this can take you completely out of the fight. I've seen many dancers, when dancing, completely forget to pay attention to the fight itself because they are so preoccupied with the dance.

- Dancer starts at Level 60, which is great. If you have access to Heaven on High, you can have Dancer up to ShadowBringers-ready (Level 70+) within a few hours.

- I don't like the fact (for females) that the AF armor pretty much looks like a slight modification of the Thavanarian glam armor.

- I sometimes have to turn off battle effects for intense fights, or 8+ man content. It can get so insanely cluttered that I can't see the floor to watch for AoE's. Dancer is flashy, and that can sometimes be a really distracting thing. Especially when there is more than 1 dancer.

[Tulzscha]

That sounds pretty fun, I do enjoy multitasking quite a lot. Thanks for the thorough reply! I’m guessing the complexity is in reacting to procs? I found a trick which could help with that, since the game doesn’t have addons - you can put an extra hotbar towards the middle of the screen with any abilities you really need to watch so your eyes don’t move too far from the action. You could even stretch them out so there’s one ability in each quadrant of the screen around your character so you can just use your peripheral vision. Makes it look messy but it helps.

[Chrallmal]

I would say the complexity comes by means of how fast you need to make decisions based on procs. Some jobs have very predictable rotations - or their procs may simply be a matter of "when it comes up, use it immediately and move on." For Dancer, it is very much a prioritization system that changes every, single second based on a dozen different internal and external variables. This isn't unique to Dancer, but it very much is the heart and soul of Dancer.

One of the greatest things about dancer is that its combo chain can only be broken by either dying, teleporting, or letting the timers run out for that proc - and they tend to be pretty long timers. This means you have incredible flexibility to deal with situations in the way you see fit, and you're not punished for temporarily stopping your combo to do something else. You can start a combo chain, pause it to do something else real quick, and then pick up where you left off. This means optimization is monstrous because the options are near endless. I think this will mostly fix itself as a player spends more and more time with Dancer. However, it can be a bit overwhelming at first.

[Raldo]

I would say the complexity comes by means of how fast you need to make decisions based on procs. Some jobs have very predictable rotations - or their procs may simply be a matter of "when it comes up, use it immediately and move on." For Dancer, it is very much a prioritization system that changes every, single second based on a dozen different internal and external variables. This isn't unique to Dancer, but it very much is the heart and soul of Dancer.

I feel like you're overselling DNC. Generally speaking, you hit Cascade, and then hit any other buttons that light up with little regard to the order in which you press them. By all means, everyone should try whatever job, but personally, I find the job to be quite dull.

You could go on about saving certain things for buff windows or whatever, but lets be real here, we're in the "New Player" subforum.

[Chrallmal]

I feel like you're overselling DNC. Generally speaking, you hit Cascade, and then hit any other buttons that light up with little regard to the order in which you press them. By all means, everyone should try whatever job, but personally, I find the job to be quite dull.

You could go on about saving certain things for buff windows or whatever, but lets be real here, we're in the "New Player" subforum.

Fair enough, and I understand your meaning. However, the OP asked for our opinions of what we love/hate about a given job. The only one I am currently qualified to speak of at the current end-game level is Dancer. At this point, I'm trying to sell Dancer to them. I will concede that the job is as dull as dishwater prior to level 72 when you get Flourish. Even then, there can be some rough stints of bad proc luck that can really take the wind out of your sails. I'm actually more partial to MCH right now than Dancer, but I am not qualified to speak to how it plays at 80.

As well, the OP asked if there were any jobs out there that have a "charge" system similar to Aetherflow with a preference towards utility. Dancer was the first thing to pop in my head.

[Tulzscha]

You could go on about saving certain things for buff windows or whatever, but lets be real here, we're in the "New Player" subforum.

I’m not new to MMOs, just the jobs in this game. I didn’t want to limit this topic to the role forums and didn’t know where else to put it. Other than copying it in each of those. Meh. I appreciate any info I can get.

I'm actually more partial to MCH right now than Dancer, but I am not qualified to speak to how it plays at 80.

Ah cool what do you like about MCH?

[Chrallmal]

Ah cool what do you like about MCH?

I tend to favor jobs that have a very high Actions-Per-Minute style as an average over time. It keeps my mind busy. MCH feeds that need for me. I'm also a bit jazzed about MCH because I know what it was like back in Stormblood, where I detested it. Most importantly, lots of things to do oGCD. Hypercharge -> Heat Blast -> oGCD spam, etc. It happens so often that it keeps me busy, but it doesn't feel like it is all that I am doing. I do miss the utility of DNC, but that is supposed to be the spectrum. MCH has the best damage output of the ranged physical DPS, but the worst utility. DNC is on the other end of said spectrum.

Raldo said (paraphrase) DNC is essentially clicking on Cascade and then clicking whatever subsequent button has a dotted outline around it. Keep doing that until you're out of things with dotted lines, and click Cascade again. The order is really irrelevant. He isn't wrong. I'm not saying it's child's play, because there is a nuance to it all. However, it does feel like all you're doing is fishing for Four-Fold Feathers so you can actually have an oGCD ability to weave and keep yourself busy. Kind of like the old AST where all you were really doing was fishing for a Balance card. The rest of the card system was pointless other than modifying your card effect once you found a Balance (or maybe Arrows).

With MCH, I stay busy, and I stay mobile. If I had to pick a favorite between DNC and MCH, I really couldn't. I love them both for completely different reasons. I play MCH for the feel of the job, and the sense that I'm playing something that has a high skill-ceiling (that might be my low skill making a mountain out of a molehill). I play DNC because I want to be useful for more than just my personal damage output - and I cannot say enough good things about their dash ability. It's so fun.

[HyoMinPark]

If you’re interested in something where you shove all your stuff into burst windows, DNC would actually work well for you.

At level 70, it learns a skill called Technical Step, which allows you to provide your party with a 20s 5% damage boost called Technical Finish and Esprit gain. At level 76, your Esprit gets put to use when you learn Saber Dance, which costs 50 Esprit gauge to use.

Ideally, DNCs hold up to 3 Feathers for Fan Dances, Flourish, and Esprit to cram a bunch of GCDs/oGCDs into this 20s window. So you’ll be juggling 5 Flourished procs, your other Fan Dance (I in single-target, II in AOE), and Saber Dance at 50 Esprit within this small window. It can get quite hectic, especially with Saber Dance as you want to try and get in as many of them as possible during the window, since it’s a 600 potency attack. You can kind of think of it like a Bahamut window, except you’re doing most of the damage as opposed to Demi-Bahamut.

I feel like you're overselling DNC. Generally speaking, you hit Cascade, and then hit any other buttons that light up with little regard to the order in which you press them. By all means, everyone should try whatever job, but personally, I find the job to be quite dull.

You could go on about saving certain things for buff windows or whatever, but lets be real here, we're in the "New Player" subforum.

Honestly, DNC is a lot more busy once you get to level 80 and you’re juggling Flourish procs, Saber Dance procs, and Feather procs. Definitely not dull by any stretch, in my opinion. I find it busier than BRD could be even in its burst windows with double/triple critical hit buffs up. It’s far more than just Cascade > Fountain > maybe Reverse Cascade/Fountainfall.

[Raldo]

Well, I'm glad I shat on DNC in here, because after the various "it gets better later" comments, I'll give it a second chance. I'd only made it to 66 so far and was just... ugh. I'll be sure to take it further and see if it gets better for me, thanks!