Are there so few Dancers that nobody's giving feedback?

[Sililos]

I almost never see topics about issue's with Dancer coming up on here which has me wondering just what kind of pop Dancers have?
If they are so low they aren't being represented.... isn't that a sign something is wrong with the job and its design?

Not going to pretend I have any answers to that, this topic isn't even about one specific issue of any kind with the Job.

I'm just wondering what kind of population we have and why its so low compared to most other jobs?
Or are its players just the quiet type? (Despite playing a flashy Job)

[Quor]

I almost never see topics about issue's with Dancer coming up on here which has me wondering just what kind of pop Dancers have?
If they are so low they aren't being represented.... isn't that a sign something is wrong with the job and its design?

Not going to pretend I have any answers to that, this topic isn't even about one specific issue of any kind with the Job.

I'm just wondering what kind of population we have and why its so low compared to most other jobs?
Or are its players just the quiet type? (Despite playing a flashy Job)

I think this is a case of "it's not broke so no news is good news." This isn't to say DNC doesn't have issues, it's just that overall the kit is put-together and feels good outside of a few questionable decisions from 6.0, mostly relating to "why is this a separate button instead of an existing button changing?" The biggest issue with DNC right now is that SAM got nerfed and DNC+SAM was like the dream combo; a good SAM really put DNC's buffs to best use while a good DNC elevated a SAM from good to great. With the recent SAM "balancing" (aka nerfs) that synergy has been destroyed.

I do know that a good DNC is pretty clutch in the new ultimate. The way they can hit some or all of the meteors as needed during P5 has been attributed to a lot of team success in that phase. As a semi-casual DNC player I rather enjoy how things are now, for the most part. Again, a handful of odd decisions in regards to new skills and changes to stuff like Flourish have me confused but the core of DNC is solid and some of the new stuff has been pretty nice imo.

[Nizzi]

I almost never see topics about issue's with Dancer coming up on here which has me wondering just what kind of pop Dancers have?
If they are so low they aren't being represented.... isn't that a sign something is wrong with the job and its design?

Not going to pretend I have any answers to that, this topic isn't even about one specific issue of any kind with the Job.

I'm just wondering what kind of population we have and why its so low compared to most other jobs?
Or are its players just the quiet type? (Despite playing a flashy Job)

I think it's just the opposite, it's a sign that there's basically nothing wrong with the job and design. Similarly, we're not seeing many if any threads about BLM or RDM because these are two jobs that also are in a good state. There are some things I didn't like about 6.0 DNC changes, but over all I think it's in a much better state than a lot of jobs at the moment. As with most jobs in this game, flying under the radar is best for the long term health of your job.

[cjbeagle]

The only 2 changes I'd like to see for dancer:

- Extend the combo chain to 4 - have the enhanced versions of the skills just evolve the same button.

- Change the visualization of Starfall dance to be circular or a spiral or something - shooting a bunch of chakrams in a straight line is weird and goes against every other visual in the entire kit.

[Sililos]

Thanks everyone, some good replies here.

Im not a fan of how much i have to watch my hotbars instead of boss mechanics or my DPS gets tanked BUT I still choose to main it and enjoy it more than any other I have played.

My primary gripe with dancer, THERE ARE JUST NO GOOD GLAMS!
Everything's for Mech or Bard, even our Late Allagan gear shares the tank appearance when id love it was the Ninja/DRG one instead XD

Anyway ty all for the replies. Was a good read.

[cjbeagle]

Im not a fan of how much i have to watch my hotbars

I have to watch my hotbars as a dancer less than almost any other job - that's one of the main things I like about it - I just keep an eye on the buff feed to know when I proc the combo skills, Fan Dance is bright enough that I see it without actively checking, and I just hit Fan Dance III every time I use Fan Dance just in case.

[Duskane]

I think its a little annoying flourished can't be used out of combat like in ShB but outside of that DNC is pretty alright
BRD and MCH need bit more help right now

[Soge01]

The only problem I have with Dancer, like Bard, is that for "Range Support DPS" they do far more damage than Machinst, whom is essentially supposed to be the "selfish DPS" of the three.

Other than that, it's fine. Its party wide healing is basically useless to me and I wish the thing was converted to party wide regan that boosts in healing potancy when combined with Improvisation, but other than those two things, it's fine.:3

[CKNovel]

Im not a fan of how much i have to watch my hotbars instead of boss mechanics or my DPS gets tanked BUT I still choose to main it and enjoy it more than any other I have played.

My primary gripe with dancer, THERE ARE JUST NO GOOD GLAMS!
Everything's for Mech or Bard, even our Late Allagan gear shares the tank appearance when id love it was the Ninja/DRG one instead XD

Every jobs needs to watch their hotbar, DNC just needs to watch their procs.
As for the glams, it's another topic. I can say for sure there was much more for BRD/DNC than for MCH during Shadowbringer.

Beyond their rDPS because of the ranged role, there is no problem with DNC.
It has great utility, among the best mobility and even rDPS wise, it's one of the best choices.

[Eorzean_username]

Personally, I just don't have much to complain about with Dancer.

• The low personal DPS annoys me immensely, because the vast majority of the game is not about tightly-coordinated teamwork, but instead just running around with your hair on fire in a room full of panicking cats. In these situations, the vaunted "party DPS contribution" that's supposed to compensate being a few notches above a Dark Knight in personal output just isn't really there.

However, this is not a Dancer-specific problem, it's a "Support Tax" problem that broadly affects FFXIV's Job balancing.

———

• The unification of ST and AOE procs cleaned up keybinds a little, but came at the cost of making combat feel a little more stale. It was sometimes burdensome to get into melee range during burst windows, but it also just felt... idk... "Dancer-y" to be gliding in and out of melee range constantly, and to gain DPS on ST by whirling around with AOE actions.

———

• The EW action additions seem really, really "phoned in". Like "working through your lunch break, eating at your desk, trying to finish Dancer's action ideas before your lunch break ends" kind of phoned-in. They're all borderline-pointless and add nearly nothing to the Job's preexisting flow from ShB.

"Fan Dance IV" is a button that doesn't even need to exist, and it also didn't really need to be a cone, so it could have just passively upgraded or replaced Fan Dance or Fan Dance III while the effect was active. This isn't really unique to Dancer though, this kind of superfluous "button just to have another button" stuff is everywhere in FFXIV design since Stormblood.

"Tillana" seems... not entirely thought-out? It's cool that it lets you sneak an extra GCD into Devilment / Tech Step windows, but that doesn't feel worth the subsequent clunk it adds to the rest of the rotation loop. It's like having a rough spot on a tooth that keeps snagging your tongue. But this is kind of a broader problem with Tech Step in general and its 7.0s sequence... turning it into an 8.5s sequence doesn't do anything to help these weird "snags" in the Dancer loop.

And Tillana's potential benefits for partner-swapping in niche scenarios are so contrived and awkward to benefit from that I don't personally consider it to be a meaningful feature of the action in the vast majority of situations.

"Starfall Dance"... I just don't understand. It's an automatic Direct Crit, yet it only becomes available while your Direct Crit bonus buff is active, nullifying the effect of that buff for one GCD. Setting aside any numeric calculations, this just feels unintuitive and weird. Automatic Direct Crit was zany and cool when it was Warrior's big gimmick, but at this point, it's being peppered onto so many actions that it's becoming straight-up mundane. Again, though, this is more of a broader problem that's not exactly specific to Dancer.

———

• It's getting a little weird how weak Standard Step is, to the point that... actually dancing... is becoming one of Dancer's lowest-priority actions when faced with rotational clashes due to alignment concerns with Tech Step and lack of Skill Speed scaling.

But I have no idea where to begin even "fixing" this, so I don't bother saying anything.

———

Basically, most of the issues that I could bring up about Dancer are really just broader design issues in FFXIV, and all of them seem really minor compared to the issues that other Jobs have. Dancer mostly feels like "same old ShB Dancer"... a design which was always "eminently adequate", and so I just... don't feel motivated to yell about EW Dancer.

For me, the end result is still comfortable and fun enough to play, so I just direct my energy elsewhere.