Dancer

[Alistaire]

If it has a charm dance it'll probably be like the charm song BRD has, with no pet commands associated with it.

Unless they want charming to be a larger part of dancer than it is for BRD. They could put a different spin on it altogether too; give them the ability to attempt to make mobs use the dancer's choice of TP moves instead of the semi-random standard.

[deivi]

If it has a charm dance it'll probably be like the charm song BRD has, with no pet commands associated with it.

Unless they want charming to be a larger part of dancer than it is for BRD. They could put a different spin on it altogether too; give them the ability to attempt to make mobs use the dancer's choice of TP moves instead of the semi-random standard.

or even a step further from that: we know it takes fineese and can charm; maybe you somehow actively 'dance' with the mob, like how fishing is but more involved. maybe the goal is to keep the mob 'dancing' with you to keep special debuffs on it that weaken it in ways we havent seen in the game yet.

Or just have to keep the dance going long enough for the effect to take hold, TW mobs would take no effort but IT-NMs may take a large effort to get them to dance with you. And no I dont mean the mob would do a dance animation.

[Charla]

is it explicitly mentioned anywhere that dancer is support? or is it speculation based on previous FF's? just curious because the description makes it sound like it may be closer to a blm that melee's perhaps somewhere between a blm and a bluemage. the dance that yuna does in ffx comes to mind. also the description makes the job sound dark. *imagines kagura doing dance of the dead*

It's not explicitly stated anywhere that it will be support. The only past FF where Dancer was a support job was in Tactics. In the main series FF, it was a DD, and one of its dances could charm enemies.

Dancer was first playable in FF5. I don't remember what it did exactly, but I remember not using it much. So you're probably right. In FFX-2 it was pure support (although you could also say that was closer to bard, but whatever). I'm not sure if there was another dancer job, unless it was in original 2 or 3.

Wikipedia to the rescue as usual; shoved into the paragraph on bard:
A variation of the class, the Dancer, uses special Dances to cause status effects or damage to enemies on a battle field.[5][7] Unlike songs, the result of a dance is usually random. Other variations include Moogles, Songstresses,[7] and members of royalty. Bards in Final Fantasy XI have MP regeneration songs and stat boosting songs. The Bard class is seen in Final Fantasy III,[3] Final Fantasy IV,[10] Final Fantasy V,[36] Final Fantasy XI,[8] and Final Fantasy X-2 as the Songstress.[7] In Final Fantasy Tactics, Bard and Dancer are the only male and female (respectively) unique classes held by generic units.[5] In Final Fantasy V Bard and Dancer are separate classes. The Dancer class also appears in Hataraku Chocobo.

So back in the day it was debuff-based support. They'll probably change something around though.

[Rowe]

FFXI is my first Final fantasy game, I did start before NA PS2 launch. But when I heard about new the job I went to:

http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/jobs/dancer.shtml

straight from there they list the games and abilites

FF5
NAME: Dancer
OVERVIEW: The Red Shoes accessory increases the success rate of Flirt and chance of doing Sword Dance.
WEAPONS: Knives
ABILITIES/MAGIC:
!Flirt - Distract enemy and reset their turn time. High chance of failure.
!Dance - Do a continuous dance at random (default)
Equip Ribbon - Equip Ribbon, Tiara, Rainbow Armor, and/or Red Shoes despite job class
Dances:
Sword Dance - Attack enemy for four times normal damage
Jitterbug - Drain HP from enemy and give to self
Mystery Waltz - Drain MP from enemy and give to self
Tempting Tango - Cast Confuse on enemy
ATTRIBUTES: High strength, low HP, low magic

FFX-2
NAME: Songstress
OVERVIEW: Songstress also includes traits of the Bard. Songstresses cannot attack, unless afflicted with Berserk.
WEAPONS: Microphone
ABILITIES/MAGIC:
Dance:
Darkness Dance - Cast Blind on enemy for length of dance
Samba of Silence - Cast Silence on enemy for length of dance
MP Mambo - MP cost for party is 0 for length of dance
Magical Masque - Party is invulnerable to magic attacks for length of dance
Sleepy Shuffle - Puts all enemies to sleep for length of dance
Carnival Cancan - Party's max HP is doubled for length of dance
Slow Dance - Cast Slow on all enemies for length of dance
Brakedance - Cast Stop on all enemies for length of dance
Jitterbug - Cast Haste on party for length of dance
Dirty Dancing - All allies' attacks are critical hits for length of dance
Sing:
Battle Cry - Raise party's strength for length of song
Cantus Firmus - Raise party's defense for length of song
Esoteric Melody - Raise party's magic power for length of song
Disenchant - Raise party's magic defense for length of song
Perfect Pitch - Raise party's accuracy for length of song
Matador's Song - Raise party's evasion for length of song
SUPPORT ABILITIES: None
ATTRIBUTES: Low HP, low strength, low physical defense, low accuracy, low luck

Tactics
NAME: Dancer
OVERVIEW: Only females can be Dancers. Males become Bards, whose abilities affect only allies.
WEAPONS: Knife, Cloth/Rug
ABILITIES/MAGIC:
Dance:
Witch Hunt - Cause MP damage
Wiznaibus - Cause HP damage
Slow Dance - Lower target speed
Polka Polka - Lower target's attack power
Disillusion - Lower target's magic power
Nameless Dance - Cause various status ailments
Last Dance - Turns target's CT count to 0
Reaction Abilities: A Save (raise physical attack power), Brave Up
Support Abilities: None
Move Abilities: Jump +3, Fly (leap over enemies and obstacles)
ATTRIBUTES: Low evasion, low HP, low MP

That's it, I am looking foward to it and the other 1 or 2 new jobs that are yet to be revealed. Whatever gets people out leveling up is good.

[Khamsin]

So as people can see, due to the FF5 description and the fact that they don't really have any debuffs to speak of, and low magical ability, and that their dances are offensive in nature, that Dancer is most likely going to be the new WAR or SAM.

Unless SE gimps it by giving it less than A+ dagger, and makes the dances not do as much damage as WSs or BPs at the least. But I'm still holding out hope that a well-geared Dancer will parse well against well-geared SAMs and WARs in merits.

So far they've pretty much kept to the spirit of the earlier FFs, and avoided Tactics. Given this trend, I'm still fairly positive Dancer will be the new DD class, not the new support class. As long as they don't make Dancer suck as a DD, as is also FF tradition. The only reason to level Dancer in FF5 was to get the ability to wear the Ribbon accessory. But hey, BRD used to suck as support in all past FFs, too, so you never know.

I know I've said it a million times already, but hey... postcount +1 right? And I-told-you-so rights for after the expansion comes out.

[Sagacious Sundi]

So as people can see, due to the FF5 description and the fact that they don't really have any debuffs to speak of, and low magical ability, and that their dances are offensive in nature, that Dancer is most likely going to be the new WAR or SAM.

WAR and SAM are kinda too pure brute-ish, no? I'm thinking more like DRK or NIN since they said something about forbidden magicks in the official description.

By the way, I just came up with this idea for necromancer in my head... The general idea was that it used its pet to tank, summoned pets using HP instead of MP or whatever, and it sucked.

[Rowe]

I had thought when I heard the possibility of Geomancer that is could be a Tank class if it could use the surrounding enviroment to hold an enemy. If a Geomancer could summon a stone wall between themselves and the enemy, or create a pool of water beneath the enemy, entangle the enemy with vines and so on. Damage done by the enemy would be absorbed by the binding magic and would eat away at the geomancers MP and not HP for the most part.

We all expect at least 1 other and possibly 2 other jobs beside Dancer. Looking at the list of jobs from previous FFs there is a great deal of overlap. Time Mage, Geomancer and Morpher are the jobs I see other than Dancer that could be adapted to stand on their own, in a unique way in FFXI. I can't wait to see what the 2nd and possibly 3rd new job(s) may be.

[nekoshoonen]

It's not explicitly stated anywhere that it will be support. The only past FF where Dancer was a support job was in Tactics. In the main series FF, it was a DD, and one of its dances could charm enemies.

Ok how many times have you gotta say this completely untrue statement...

please check this site out and then explain to me how on earth you think Dancer in FFX-2 is NOT support???
http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/jobs/dancer.shtml
ok songstress was a hybrid job there but it was still a dancer!

let's take a look at the DANCES they do:

# Darkness Dance - Cast Blind on enemy for length of dance (DEBUFF)
# Samba of Silence - Cast Silence on enemy for length of dance (DEBUFF)
# MP Mambo - MP cost for party is 0 for length of dance (BUFF)
# Magical Masque - Party is invulnerable to magic attacks for length of dance (BUFF)
# Sleepy Shuffle - Puts all enemies to sleep for length of dance (DEBUFF)
# Carnival Cancan - Party's max HP is doubled for length of dance (BUFF)
# Slow Dance - Cast Slow on all enemies for length of dance (DEBUFF)
# Brakedance - Cast Stop on all enemies for length of dance (DEBUFF)
# Jitterbug - Cast Haste on party for length of dance (BUFF)
# Dirty Dancing - All allies' attacks are critical hits for length of dance (BUFF)

um.. any of these dances look like they do any damage to you???

Mog in FF6 is really just a geomancer since his dances changed from terrain to terrain
and FF5 Dancer was a DD but well they were just um... plain crap

in Tactics they are also a support with some dd and if you are gonna pull that crap that no Tactics job is like any jobs in FFXI you must give me some of whatever you're taking cause it must be strong...
You know in your world the Bard in Tactics was not a buffer but his songs were heavy DD odes. and Priest was totally different from the WHM of FFXI and didn't know all these spells :
Cure
Cure 2
Cure 3
Cure 4
Raise
Raise 2
Reraise
Protect
Protect 2
Shell
Shell 2
Holy

Next you're gonna tell us that in Tactics SAM and MNK were support? eh?

Edit: doh i should finish reading the thread before replying, sorry for repeating what others just said.. but the guy's rubbish made me reply far too quick XD

[Sagacious Sundi]

He's saying that the main numbered series never picks up anything from the Tactics series (both T and TA[2]). Different tiers of white magic for white mage has been around since... FF1. >_>

[Khamsin]

It's not explicitly stated anywhere that it will be support. The only past FF where Dancer was a support job was in Tactics. In the main series FF, it was a DD, and one of its dances could charm enemies.

Ok how many times have you gotta say this completely untrue statement...

[stuff]

in Tactics they are also a support with some dd and if you are gonna pull that crap that no Tactics job is like any jobs in FFXI you must give me some of whatever you're taking cause it must be strong...
You know in your world the Bard in Tactics was not a buffer but his songs were heavy DD odes. and Priest was totally different from the WHM of FFXI and didn't know all these spells :
[spells]

Next you're gonna tell us that in Tactics SAM and MNK were support? eh?

Edit: doh i should finish reading the thread before replying, sorry for repeating what others just said.. but the guy's rubbish made me reply far too quick XD

I'm saying that any similarities between Tactics and the main FF series was because Tactics took it from FF, not the other way around. Priest = WHM, but WHM was around in the main series first. Same for anything else that's similar between the two. Tactics didn't invent anything that wasn't in the main series first, and for those things it did invent (like Calculator), they've never appeared in the main series.

And I refuse to think of FFX-2's Songstress as the canon FF dancer. lol

All I'm saying is that the Dancer class from the main FF series was a DD. I don't care what Tactics did to it, or what sort of hybrid Dancer/Geomancer/Bard combos were in later games of the series. The traditional, undiluted, canon FF dancer job was a DD.

[Delekii]

This is the song that never ends
Yes it goes on and on my friends
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was
And they'll continue singing it forever just because

[Khamsin]

This is the song that never ends
Yes it goes on and on my friends
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was
And they'll continue singing it forever just because

lol, too true. People need to learn reading comprehension and not start spouting off about Priests and WHMs before understanding the argument, or else it'll always keep coming up.

[Delekii]

This is the song that never ends
Yes it goes on and on my friends
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was
And they'll continue singing it forever just because

lol, too true. People need to learn reading comprehension and not start spouting off about Priests and WHMs before understanding the argument, or else it'll always keep coming up.

No, what people need to learn is that we don't know shit about what SE is going to do, so making the same argument in 22 pages worth of different ways has advanced our knowledge exactly squat At this point you could all be exactly right or exactly wrong or anything in between, and arguing for another 22 pages isn't going to change your opinions.

[nekoshoonen]

which was my point exactly Delekii.. I'm not saying dancer is gonna be a support job all i was saying was that Khamsin's usual logic fails. There have been 4 dancer jobs in FF series what HE personally REGARDS as the canon has got jack all to do with what SE current team will do.

Telling us 200 times that in FF5 dancer was a dd will make it no more or less likely to be the case.

[Lordender]

its going to be a DD+ different kind of enfeebler imo.

[Khamsin]

which was my point exactly Delekii.. I'm not saying dancer is gonna be a support job all i was saying was that Khamsin's usual logic fails. There have been 4 dancer jobs in FF series what HE personally REGARDS as the canon has got jack all to do with what SE current team will do.

Telling us 200 times that in FF5 dancer was a dd will make it no more or less likely to be the case.

Well, its based on past trends, not personal opinion. Or rather, my personal opinion is based on past trends. However you want to look at it.

I'm not saying it'll be one way or the other, either, just that they've never done anything thus far to deviate from that trend. For all we know, they could totally surprise us. In terms of precedent (i.e. FF never having borrowed anything from Tactics, FFXI jobs being most similar to early FF jobs, etc), making Dancer into a support job would be more of a surprise and deviation from the past than making Dancer into a DD. But you're completely right, it could go either way and they don't have to do things the way they've always done them in the past. The addition of PUP and COR proved that.

But I guess that's the point of this thread. People come in here specifically to read pointless speculation, since they already know we can't have concrete facts yet. So... we give them pointless speculation just like they want!

[Charla]

No, what people need to learn is that we don't know shit about what SE is going to do, so making the same argument in 22 pages worth of different ways has advanced our knowledge exactly squat.

Nuh uh! Now we know how Rowe would make geomancer into a tank class, with stone walls and pools of water and stuff!

Jobs in FF5 weren't really divided into DD, support, tank, etc. That distinction became far more important when MMOs started showing up. Dancer in FF5 was a lot like most of the other classes: a gimmick and a few interesting moves, but less powerful than a suppin (or mimic) with a good set of commands or traits. Based on the concept and the movelist from 5, I predict a debuff-based support job for the FFXI incarnation, and that's nothing more than my contribution to the speculation.

[Sera]

it could be more useless than the trifecta of fail combined, and i'd STILL level it

[Rocl]

it could be more useless than the trifecta of fail combined, and i'd STILL level it

Is it still the trifecta after the 2handed weapon buff?

[Epidemic]

I think anyone who levels this job is gay in real life. Not kidding. Gayest shit ever. Go fuck your boyfriends now.