Dancer improvisation

[BasicBlake]

I know boss jump is the only occasion you can use it to gain esprit... But it's an ability you ll never use in dungeons for instance unlike any other job...

Not everything in this game is designed around expert roulette.

[HyoMinPark]

Personally, I’ve always disliked Improvisation as a level 80 ability. It’s not the greatest thing to have, compared to getting things like Technical Finish at level 70. That felt more like a “level cap” skill as opposed to Improv.

If it wasn’t tied to Esprit generation, I would likely not hate it as much as I do. But it bothers my OCD way too much to use Esprit during downtime—and people move out of it, thereby jacking up my Esprit gain. You can’t do anything with 1~9 points of Esprit, and it irritates me so much. It is possible to weave it in for a quick healing boost, since the buff does linger for a few seconds after it deactivates—but then again, if people aren’t stacked, your Esprit gain is messed up. And, honestly, for most content, it’s overkill because healers are already extremely powerful.

Honestly, I’d almost be happy with the Esprit generation being removed entirely. Even my statics in the past have had members that refuse to stand in it, and then they get mad when I tell them to stand in it because they’re screwing me over. I don’t care if you don’t need the healing buff but I want Esprit generation, and we aren’t doing anything else during transition phases/downtime. The tank in the group I was in for Eden’s Verse was really bad about moving out of it during the transition to Titan Maximum, so I’d go into him with 59 Esprit and be mad about it.

[SpeckledBurd]

I know boss jump is the only occasion you can use it to gain esprit... But it's an ability you ll never use in dungeons for instance unlike any other job...

Improvisation is your downtime damage loss mitigation skill. Quite a few jobs have one, and the only reason Dancer has theirs at level 80 is because they don't unlock Espirit until level 76. Samurai for example has Meditate, while Monk has Meditation, Anatman, Six Sided Star, Tornado Kick... way too many of these really.

Besides there's plenty of abilities that are for Trials rather than Dungeons.

[HyperiusUltima]

They seriously just need to make it just like Meditate. Every tick, you get 10 Esprit instead of reliance on your party for the whole 10. No more reliance on party(we already have that with abusing Tech Windows, as well as Partner). Just let it be static and the ability will feel a bit better and DNC won't be butthurt about Tanklander walking out of their 'social circle'.

[Burningskull]

I never use Improvisation. Mostly cause I can't stand my numbers not being even cause everyone doesn't always stand together.

Eidt: Also please don't give DNC a DoT. I personally hate keeping track of DoTs and BRD already fulfills that role anyway.

[Rai_Takara]

You can weave it between GCDs if the party is stacked (usually for heals or a shared damage mechanic). Otherwise during downtime when you have nothing else you can do.

Personally, I wish the people requirement was removed from Improv so you can weave it more freely during uptime.

I never use Improvisation. Mostly cause I can't stand my numbers not being even cause everyone doesn't always stand together.

Eidt: Also please don't give DNC a DoT. I personally hate keeping track of DoTs and BRD already fulfills that role anyway.

While I think a DoT would be neat, I'm not sure which ability they'd tie it too since a good chunk of them are RNG based.

[Kabooa]

I'll maintain it should be a low cost Espirit damage ability so you can better manage Espirit for your Devilment windows.

Given that it's called Improvisation and all.

[Anya_Synia]

I use it during down time then I find Saber Dance is normally nearly ready to go once I stop, plus it helps the healers out.

[ty_taurus]

I think the problem stems from Dancer not really needing this kind of skill. For the Monk, for example, having a way to put your Greased Lightning on pause for a boss's cinematic attacks makes sense because there are now many fights where they can hold on to their GL rather than lose it and need to get it back from scratch, which is a notable DPS loss (not to mention it feels crappy).

For Dancer, we don't really have anything like that. Improvisation's biggest and most frequent benefit is that you can get an extra Saber Dance out of it after a pause in a raid, which is nice, but it's such a small benefit for something that takes up a space on your hot bar. The added healing potency increase is, in the cases of a pause, frankly useless. Healers don't need more healing potency during the most stagnant parts of a fight where the damage is at its most controllable state and with loads of time to rest and let your MP recover. It's the illusion of helping without actually doing anything that improves the experience for your healers.

Being able to pop the buff in the middle of a fight when the team is getting chewed up would be significantly more beneficial, but not at the cost of the Dancer's DPS. The only time where it would be worth the sacrifice is if you'd otherwise wipe as a result. Those kind of wipes only occur when the healers are struggling to stay alive and thus cannot keep up with keeping the team healthy, which are honestly quite rare. Wipes are more commonly caused by not enough people knowing mechanics and you either fail a DPS check, or not enough people are surviving mechanics for it to matter anyway. As long as one healer is staying alive, this problem isn't that prominent, and even when both have been revived, it's still not necessarily wipe material.

It just doesn't feel great to have an action, especially a level 80 capstone action, be designated for such niche circumstances and to be used as fluff between a pause in a raid that doesn't really feel like it's helping you keep your momentum. Dancer just doesn't really have a need for this and it feels superfluous.

What if Improvisation was changed to augment your next Standard Finish or Technical Finish? Here's a random example:

Improvisation - Cooldown is 180 seconds.
Grants the user Improvisation for 20 seconds.
If Standard Step is used, Improvisation is consumed and all enemies hit by Standard Finish will have their damage output decreased by 10% for 8 seconds.
If Technical Step is used, Improvisation is consumed and all allies affected by Technical Finish will receive an 80 Potency HoT for 15 seconds.

This is just an example of what I mean, but you get the point--have Improvisation be an augment of your next dance to provide some kind of utility or survivability aspect. It would be far more usable than the current Improvisation and feel satisfying.

[Morningstar1337]

I always did figure that with a name like that, it would affect the Steps in some fashion (like if we're taking literally, being able to use any combination of steps for the full effect)