Dancer Endgame

[Fingerspitz]

Dear 75 DNCs, where do you use your dancers and how do you use them? What equipment for what stuff and what merits?

Specifically I'm thinking about leveling DNC to play support to salvage. I figure getting a healer with erase and some melee support ability for only one JA cell that can also use h2h before getting a weapon is a pretty good deal for the first floor or two, depending on the zone. I'd also like to try it in Dynamis and Limbus, it seems like the benefits from steps would apply to all melee parties which would be good for big events where a lot of people are hitting the same mob (Presumably this would work well in Ein too but I doubt I could get out of going RDM there).

Please post your gear, merits, and experience w/r/t your 75 DNC \m/ THANX

[Alistaire]

DNC works pretty good for a few endgame mobs...as a sub for your THF. Haven't seen much use of DNC main in endgame.

[Forsakengod]

DNC is like the cheerleader in endgame

[ninjafox]

They're a decent kinda backup healer in Dynamis from what I've seen.

[Hosom]

Would say Shark holder for JoL, but you'd need tp for that.

Honestly, can't think of a use for Dnc end game... mostly an "Anything DNC can do we can do better" world out there.

[Lordwafik]

dnc would have been great support/heal/mini DD if daggers in FFXI weren't such terrible weapons.

But like it was mentioned, they're ok healers in Dynamis when low manning , stick a DNC in a pt of PLD and BLU who would benefit more from aspir samba than the other ones. blahblah, but in a more realistic situation, there is no gap that they fill.

[astrael]

Salvage: Stuns on frog Charmga and spells and gear restoral, also the defense, evasion, and magic resist debuff on chariots which have decently high values of all 3 to begin with

Limbus: normal runs it can match any DD you'd bring along with the bonus of haste samba and self-sufficient curing, on bosses it has debuffs, being able to instantly cure silence on tanks while silenced yourself if in the tank party, stuns (at least on Proto-Omega, haven't tried Proto-Ultima yet, but soon) with a stutter step to increase success rate, didn't have to worry as much about meleeing because subtle blow works very well.

Dynamis: don't use a DNC as a healer, it is another DD buff job with haste samba, defense down debuff (that helps everyone in the event, not just your party), stuns, only use TP on heals when absolutely needed to, relatively good WS output when properly geared. Things die too fast in large dynamis groups to ever get TP to main heal, so I focus on damage output, in smaller dynamis groups the haste samba effect will be more noticeable for the DD party along with a BRD or especially COR (since it has no haste).

New merits help DNC get TP in a huge way, Saber Dance is a godsend with Haste Samba, along with the accuracy boost from Closed Position and the free Finishing Moves from No Foot Rise, but even without these, I was using DNC in a very productive way. A lot of people seem to think DNC is supposed to replace certain jobs (most notably they say it is a healer-only) but it actually was made to work with them, there is no other job like it from what I've seen. Just one more point, DNC is not a weak DD, it is not the best but it is not useless, building flourish helps a lot with that.

Stuns, debuffs, attack speed buff, support healing. All in one package, it just takes effort to learn some timing.

[Bagel]

Limbus: normal runs it can match any DD you'd bring along

๏̯͡๏

IMO it seems like a decent enough job for most events, but chances are it's not your ONLY 75 and chances are your other jobs is gonna be more niche but more useful.

[chapstick]

I'd like to know if DNC in a melee party is worthy of replacing a RDM in, say, city dynamis? I only know one DNC75 and I give him crap for leveling it all the time.

Excellent sig Bagel.

[Talint]

dnc would have been great support/heal/mini DD if daggers in FFXI weren't such terrible weapons.

But like it was mentioned, they're ok healers in Dynamis when low manning , stick a DNC in a pt of PLD and BLU who would benefit more from aspir samba than the other ones. blahblah, but in a more realistic situation, there is no gap that they fill.

And the dagger selection is really the worst of the worst. I offhanded a sword for all of my levels (hurray for 8/8 sword merits!). I can't even figure out what to main-hand, since I don't feel like shilling out 1m gil for a dagger I'm only going to use on 1 job. Behemoth Knife for me, I guess.

As for merits, I would say 5/5 No Footwork is absolutely essential. Any DNC who doesn't have some varying level of this is wasting your time; as this is how a DNC can get TP without having to find some mobs to kill first, or subbing SAM. This single ability means you can drag them to things like sky and sea which require varying degrees of roving depending on your group.

I think that if you're zerging something, DNC would be an acceptable job to bring, since a fully merited Haste Samba will give your melees 10% more haste they would otherwise not get and lowering evasion with Quickstep of the target will make them hit better (though you're probably hitting the accuracy cap anyway if you're doing a standard BRD rotation).

At the end of the day, if you have better supports, bring those instead. DNC is very fun, and I'd like to be able to bring it to more, but they don't shake up a party like other support jobs can. DNC needs more white magey-type abilities (another tier or two of Divine Waltz, Re/Raise Jig, better timers) for it to really start becoming viable as a healer. If they're more supporty, then they need more potent/better/faster steps and better Sambas. If it's more damage dealy (which I seriously doubt), then they need a better weapon selection. Right now, it does a little of each, which isn't good enough.

I'd like to know if DNC in a melee party is worthy of replacing a RDM in, say, city dynamis? I only know one DNC75 and I give him crap for leveling it all the time.

Depends on what the RDM is doing. If they're refreshing, then not really. If they're hasting/healing, then it's possible, since you'd throw down a Haste Samba and have the equivalents to CureIV/V and Erase.

[Fingerspitz]

^^^ you posted while I was quoting :O thanks also please post your stuff if you can!

Salvage: Stuns on frog Charmga and spells and gear restoral, also the defense, evasion, and magic resist debuff on chariots which have decently high values of all 3 to begin with

Limbus: normal runs it can match any DD you'd bring along with the bonus of haste samba and self-sufficient curing, on bosses it has debuffs, being able to instantly cure silence on tanks while silenced yourself if in the tank party, stuns (at least on Proto-Omega, haven't tried Proto-Ultima yet, but soon) with a stutter step to increase success rate, didn't have to worry as much about meleeing because subtle blow works very well.

Dynamis: don't use a DNC as a healer, it is another DD buff job with haste samba, defense down debuff (that helps everyone in the event, not just your party), stuns, only use TP on heals when absolutely needed to, relatively good WS output when properly geared. Things die too fast in large dynamis groups to ever get TP to main heal, so I focus on damage output, in smaller dynamis groups the haste samba effect will be more noticeable for the DD party along with a BRD or especially COR (since it has no haste).

New merits help DNC get TP in a huge way, Saber Dance is a godsend with Haste Samba, along with the accuracy boost from Closed Position and the free Finishing Moves from No Foot Rise, but even without these, I was using DNC in a very productive way. A lot of people seem to think DNC is supposed to replace certain jobs (most notably they say it is a healer-only) but it actually was made to work with them, there is no other job like it from what I've seen. Just one more point, DNC is not a weak DD, it is not the best but it is not useless, building flourish helps a lot with that.

Stuns, debuffs, attack speed buff, support healing. All in one package, it just takes effort to learn some timing.

This, this was the post I wanted. Would you mind posting your gear and merits and food and estimations of your accuracy for steps and flourishes? Also is drain samba at full power in salvage before unlocks? I'd think it would be since the drain is supposedly based on delay but iono.

I'd like to know if DNC in a melee party is worthy of replacing a RDM in, say, city dynamis? I only know one DNC75 and I give him crap for leveling it all the time.

Excellent sig Bagel.

I always figured you'd replace one of the melee with the DNC, and stack brd rdm and dnc buffs.

[Pergo]

while i think the dnc group 2 merits are fun, they designed dnc to be a healer and by focusing on how they can pull them away from healing and fit into more a damage setting or a tank setting is just confusing and makes them overall efficient at nothing.

i feel they could've really helped dnc by giving them a pseudo-formless strikes type JA you can merit from group2. melee hits do non-elemental magic damage (with possibly even an increased subtle blow effect to go along with it). wouldn't even matter if it does alot of damage, point would be to reliably gain tp on mobs with high defense and not give the mob a ton of tp.

[Talint]

^^^ you posted while I was quoting :O thanks also please post your stuff if you can!

Heh, great. Gimp thread, here I come!

http://www.itadakiproject.com/dncgear.png

If I were serious about DNC, I'd change a few things here, with the caveat that DNC relic go where appropriate if you have them:

HQ Behemoth Knife or Azoth.
Replace Chiv Chain with Peacock Charmulet.
Replace Galliard Trousers with Paluwhan Serawheels.
Replace War Hoop with Black Tathlum.

I've started wearing an Assault Jerkin mostly because I don't have a decent DNC body piece yet. But I find the +18 attack to bump up my attack to passable levels. Also my dagger skill is still undercap. I know other DNCs use the Pahluwan Khazagand for more accuracy, I think that would work too. Food of choice is Tuna Sushi though, and I find that I have acceptable levels of accuracy without it.

For steps, simply dump the haste in favor of accuracy. DNC bangles, Life Belt, Optical Hat, and Denali Gamashes. Weaponskill gear as necessary.

[Fingerspitz]

Heh, great. Gimp thread, here I come!

[]http://www.itadakiproject.com/dncgear.png[/]

If I were serious about DNC, I'd change a few things here, with the caveat that DNC relic go where appropriate if you have them:

HQ Behemoth Knife or Azoth.
Replace Chiv Chain with Peacock Charmulet.
Replace Galliard Trousers with Paluwhan Serawheels.
Replace War Hoop with Black Tathlum.

I've started wearing an Assault Jerkin mostly because I don't have a decent DNC body piece yet. But I find the +18 attack to bump up my attack to passable levels. Also my dagger skill is still undercap. I know other DNCs use the Pahluwan Khazagand for more accuracy, I think that would work too. Food of choice is Tuna Sushi though, and I find that I have acceptable levels of accuracy without it.

For steps, simply dump the haste in favor of accuracy. DNC bangles, Life Belt, Optical Hat, and Denali Gamashes. Weaponskill gear as necessary.

Hmm I hadn't thought of tuna sushi. Do you do anything special for waltzes besides af body? Is your acc ok with joy? Does the stun on violent flourish usually go through and if so on what kinda mobs? What are your merits like? Sorry to ask a billion questions, I'm trying to keep myself psyched about this job through some shitty parties by looking ahead to 75;;.

while i think the dnc group 2 merits are fun, they designed dnc to be a healer and by focusing on how they can pull them away from healing and fit into more a damage setting or a tank setting is just confusing and makes them overall efficient at nothing.

i feel they could've really helped dnc by giving them a pseudo-formless strikes type JA you can merit from group2. melee hits do non-elemental magic damage (with possibly even an increased subtle blow effect to go along with it). wouldn't even matter if it does alot of damage, point would be to reliably gain tp on mobs with high defense and not give the mob a ton of tp.

Ya that sounds about right but thread mostly about how dnc works atm rather than how it could be improved that's kind of a different discussion.

[astrael]

Sorry I have no way to post screen caps of my gear atm so please bear with me.

My gear for DNC isn't my ideal yet but here is the list:
Weapons: Azoth/Matron's Knife
Ammo: War Hoop (Tiphia sting in the past, but I'm deciding between the two tathlum)
Head: Denali Bonnet
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Earrings: Brutal/Minuet
Body: Rapparee Harness/Assault Jerkin
Hands: Dusk Gloves
Rings: Rajas/Blood
Back: Forager's Mantle
Waist: Velocious Belt
Legs: Cobra Subligar
Feet: Denali Feet (actually I -just- got relic feet and switched to those for more step accuracy, but this is what I was using)

I was never a fan of Joyeuse on DNC, but that's just me, I think the lower accuracy turns me off even if it attacks fast, probably better for lower level stuff. Tuna sushi is the main food I use when accuracy is an issue, and it seems to help stuns too, but I'll use carbonera a lot more lately, though it is expensive

Drain Samba is at full strength in Salvage with just JA unlocked, it is only affected by delay like you said. Just keep in mind Arrapago Remnants is dominantly undead, so not much use for it there.

Sorry Bagel, I didn't mean to make such a bold statement lol. But I meant to point out it's not a bad DD, it can keep up with them and won't slow the group down. Being able to use Reverse Flourish for 61 TP every 30 seconds is a nice bonus when full DD.

[Talint]

Hmm I hadn't thought of tuna sushi. Do you do anything special for waltzes besides af body? Is your acc ok with joy? Does the stun on violent flourish usually go through and if so on what kinda mobs? What are your merits like? Sorry to ask a billion questions, I'm trying to keep myself psyched about this job through some shitty parties by looking ahead to 75;;.

For Waltzing, macroing in AF body works (and should be done).

Accuracy is just fine with Joyeuse, but I do have 8/8 sword merits and a suppa, which drastically helps the feasibility of off-handing one. If you don't have those things, off-handing a Joyeuse might not be the best idea; going for dagger x2 + Sword Dance merits might be better.

Violent Flourish stuns sometimes, other times it doesn't. It makes me curious about the Etoile Casaque's enhacement for it.

In terms of merits, I'm about to cap off Haste Samba, then working on No Foot Work, then back to Reverse Flourish. I'm laying low on the second group of tier two, but if pressed at this point in time, I'd say Closed Position.

I wonder if at times I have too much haste and should switch off to accuracy, but from the very few, selected events I've been allowed to come on DNC on (read: Dynamis, on a good day), I had no problems with eating Tuna Sushi.

[Seibar]

DNC is like the cheerleader in endgame

This.
I have never used my dnc for anything w/more then 3 people

It's nice for skillup ptys!

[Lordwafik]

After reading this post :

Dynamis: don't use a DNC as a healer, it is another DD buff job with haste samba, defense down debuff (that helps everyone in the event, not just your party), stuns, only use TP on heals when absolutely needed to, relatively good WS output when properly geared. Things die too fast in large dynamis groups to ever get TP to main heal, so I focus on damage output, in smaller dynamis groups the haste samba effect will be more noticeable for the DD party along with a BRD or especially COR (since it has no haste).

I decided "What the hell" as it can't be that bad, and gave DNC in our dynamis a whirl. I gave them the stunlock PT and wowwwwwwww amazing. The pt consisted of BLU BLU BLU DNC BRD , so with ballad2 and Aspir Samba on every other mob, the blus were getting their MP back npnp. After a while we stuck a thf in their pt from shuffling mobs around, and they kept the THF healed npnpnp. We also had our dnc spamming def down, stuns, all the good stuff, and it was amazing.
Box step was a hilight on PLD type mobs, when RDM in dyna don't exactly have time to focus on dia'ing the monsters.

I'm convinced, I'll bring DNC to dyna when I can and put them in PTs like that, or also the PLD/WAR pt even. It's good for pts who are already somehwat efficient, so the DNC just puts them over the top.

[Teorem]

Is this in a low-man Dynamis setting? I'd like to give a couple of our members a legitimate shot at being DNC in a party--more than just a random, one-off trial--but the speed at which Vanguard are dying really seem to cripple the job's effectiveness for us.

I'd also like to know if anyone has any practical experience with DNC in Dynamis-Xarcabard, particularly post-update. Box Step's defense down seems like it could speed things up substantially on certain Kindred if we can stack it with Dia and other defense down effects.

[Lordwafik]

No, that run wasn't a low man setting, but it was in beaucedine so they're not as easily killed as city mobs. I figure in a low man setting it'd be even better.

And yeah, I brought only 1 of our dnc with us, we have 2 ppl with dnc75 in the LS but one of them is an adaberk DRK so he's not allowed to come to anything but that.



PS : Can't 2 DNC stack each other's box steps?