Dancer Guide by Wasa

currently under construction
 * Welcome to my first article. Since Dancer is my favorite job I figure it's a good place to start.


 * I'll try to cover gear, party strategy, and soloing as best as I can.

Gear

 * Current gear info is borrowed from Dancer:_Guide_to_Weapons_and_Armor

Head

 * Lvl 9: Compound Eye Circlet (Great Evasion piece for the level)
 * Lvl 14: Noble's Ribbon (Macro this in for Cures)
 * Lvl 21: Beetle Mask/Beetle Mask +1 (for better defense only)
 * Lvl 24: Emperor Hairpin / Empress Hairpin (DEX+ for added Acc+, Eva+10 for when you pull hate)
 * this is the best piece of head gear for dancer til 70 unless your race has low Str and good Dex
 * Lvl 30: Mercenary Captain's Headgear(If you don't have an Empress/Emperor Hairpin)
 * Lvl 43: Walkure Mask (use only to boost your damage if your hitting for 0 in parties)
 * Lvl 50: Crow Beret / Raven Beret for those times you don't want to pull hate.
 * Lvl 54: Dancer's Tiara AF (macro in for sambas and cures only)
 * Lvl 65: Wivre Mask (this is a good replacement for Emp Pin for Mithra and Taru)
 * Lvl 68: Cobra Cap (use for TP and Acc.)
 * Lvl 70: Optical Hat (this is possibly the best solo head piece for dancer)
 * Lvl 72: Pahluwan Qalansuwa (Good DD piece)
 * Lvl 72: Panther Mask/+1 (arguably better than Walahra Turban for DNC +1 version only)
 * 2% less haste in exchange for 29def, 6chr for curing, and resist paralyze which can be death for dancers
 * Lvl 72: Etoile Tiara Relic
 * Lvl 74:Dancer's Tiara +1
 * Lvl 75: Walahra Turban (combined with Haste and Store TP gear this can help quickly gain you TP when running low)
 * Lvl 75: Denali Bonnet (better than Walahra Turban. Macro in Panther Mask +1 for cures)
 * Lvl 75: Etoile Tiara +1

Party Strategies
In parties there are 3 strategies for dancer, Main Healer (with support), Support and Damage Dealer

Main Healer

 * Your main focus early on is going to be accuracy and charisma but do not ignore attack as you will need enough to deal damage to :generate TP. Haste and Store TP to meet the increasing demand on your TP at higher levels.
 * You will also want gear to reduce hate. (crow and raven are excellent sets for this but are lvl 50)

Advantages of Dancer Main Healer
 * No down time. (unless your party is fighting things way to tough)
 * Can Aspir Drain to help PLD Tank keep MP high.
 * Drain Samba will greatly reduce you need to cure and reduce the amount you will need to cure for.
 * Cannot be silenced. (they can but they just laugh)
 * Can Cure for large amounts in a flash to keep party member from dying.
 * Can Aoe cure party.
 * Can Erase status effects on party members.
 * Can reduce weapon delay for all melee jobs attacking mob.
 * Cures heal for double the previous Waltz with only a 15tp increase in cost (curing waltz iv is the exception curing about 50% more)

Disadvantages of Dancer Main healer
 * All dancer abilities generate a decent amount of hate
 * Paralyze is the dancers silence (avoid mobs with ice spikes)
 * Dancers must hit the mob to gain TP, which adds to your enmity
 * Poorly equipped tanks or tanks that do not maintain hate can quickly drain your TP (same is true of WHM MP)
 * Dancer has a global timer for each type of ability
 * Sambas 1 minute
 * Steps 15 seconds
 * Cures progressively longer starting at 5-6 seconds to 20 seconds
 * Dancer can not recover TP simply by resting like a normal healer

Tips for Dancers filling the role of main healer.
 * Do not Duel Wield even if using NIN sub. this ups your damage but ultimately lowers your TP over time.
 * Keep Drain Samba up (it doesn't have to be your highest one)
 * Stop using abilities if you pull hate unless your party is going to wipe other wise.
 * Carry Icarus Wings for start of party and for those times your support runs out of mp and your TP is low.
 * Only use accuracy food to make sure you hit
 * Use Quickstep if your still having trouble hitting
 * Use Box Step if your not hitting for at least 1 damage
 * Use reverse flourish often, even if you only have 2 finishing moves (4 is optimal TP cost to TP gain)
 * Rotate steps instead of repeating the same steps for 1 finishing move
 * While Ninja sub is great, at 60 you may want to consider Samurai as your sub
 * Store TP II, Meditate and Zanshin all help to maintain high TP

Support

 * The focus of the Dancer in the support role can be compared to Bard and Corsair
 * Assist the Main Healer, and improve party performance while pulling your own weight on damage
 * You may and probably will be asked to pull at some point as a dancer

Advantages of the Support Dancer
 * This is where a dancer really shines, pretty much every ability helps your party

Disadvantages of the Support Dancer
 * Again your main problem is going to be Enmity that your abilities generate

Tips for Support Dancer
 * If you have a Melee Mage heavy party and your fighting mobs that can be Aspired use your Aspir Drain
 * Paladin, Blue Mage, Red Mage and Dark Knight fall into this grouping
 * If you have Haste Samba this is going to help your party Damage the mobs faster for quick kills
 * Drain Samba is great against AoE mobs like Goblins, and Spike mobs like Undead
 * Don't forget about Stutter Step, this helps your Black Mage and Red Mage spells land more successfully

Damage Dealer

 * So you want to turn an awesome support job into yet another damage dealer. Well so do I lol.
 * This is a purely for fun build so don't expect most parties to say oh ok
 * I call this the DDD cause it's kinda retarded but in a fun way

Advantages of the DDD
 * Your abilities don't just help you do more damage, they help your whole party do more damage
 * Self skill chains
 * Fast TP building for Weapon Skills
 * High Accuracy and Evasion bonus for pulling hate and dealing with it
 * Access to 2 weapons with chance to swing twice
 * Saber Dance which grants you Double Attack

Disadvantages of the DDD
 * Daggers do relatively low damage
 * Your other weapon choices are almost nonexistent (you'll need merits to bring them up)
 * Your first Multi-hit weapon skill that takes advantage of your high chr and improved accuracy is at level 60
 * You will need lots of haste and store tp gear while not totally ignoring gear that will bring your damage up

Tips for the DDD
 * Use a sword in your off hand (merits strongly suggested)
 * Wait till 60 to even attempt this
 * H2H is viable with Monk sub and destroyers but you won't have access to Asuran Fists
 * Haste gear can be expensive, fortunately 4 pieces with a combined haste of 16% can be obtained for free
 * Walahra Turban 5%, Rapparee Harness 4%, Swift Belt 4% and Etoile Tights 3% so get these
 * Haste Samba does not count towards the Haste caps and can be merited up to 10% total weapon haste

Shattering Stars
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