How-To Guide: Dancer

de:Vorlage:Leitfaden

Dancing with the Stars
As a fairly new job class in the world of Final Fantasy XI, few things are known about the job. There still isn’t really a classification of the job yet. So far, I’d say it’s within the category of Corsair in that it’s a damage-dealer with support aspects. It’s a very well-rounded job with the ability to deal moderate damage, getting its own Provoke ability, being able to cure/heal, and at the same time, may also enfeeble the target or enhance its own stats. '''Please note: This is all on-the-spot information. As the job is still brand-new, new information must be gathered to make this guide more effective. If anyone wishes to change anything with more correct information than what is given, please do so.'''

Hume

 * While it is still unsure what stats, if any, affect Dancer in any undiscovered way, we all know that Hume plays any and every job with a well-rounded effort. No matter what support job he or she chooses, you know it will work well. What is known about Dancer is it can deal damage and tank, allowing for Hume’s well-rounded strength, agility, vitality, and dexterity to be played well.

Elvaan

 * Elvaan have the highest strength and second-highest vitality in the game, but has the lowest agility and dexterity in the game. That being said, it doesn’t seem possible to be any better or worse than any other race in this setting. Dancer seems to give additional Dexterity when compared to other jobs, allowing elvaans to maintain hits. Additional Dexterity and Accuracy gear can aid in this further. As a note the Strength seems to aid in the amount of steady HP drain, keeping it at the higher end of the drain which seems affected by the amount of damage inflicted on the enemy. Melee damage can be slightly higher as well.

Tarutaru

 * These little guys are on the other end of the spectrum than Elvaan. They have high dexterity and agility, but the lowest strength and vitality in the game. They also unfortunately have low HP. However, they have high MP and intelligence, which opens up the playing field for a more mage-end support job such as White Mage to help the party in a more support-role job.

Mithra

 * Much like their Tarutaru team mates, they have low strength and vitality, but have the highest dexterity and agility in the game, allowing you to maintain steady strikes (as a note Dancers of all jobs seem to get higher dexterity than other jobs). Also like Tarutaru, where they lack in tanking, they make up for in mage support jobs or accuracy for dealing damage over time. Damage tends to be slightly lower per strike when compared to races with higher strength.

Galka

 * Few things are as awesome as a massive Galka twirling around performing Jigs, Waltzes, and Sambas. They definitely take tanking to a whole new level with their highest combined vitality and HP in the game. Strength can also play a role in weapon damage and steady HP drain as long as hits are landed. Galka HP levels help them out-last enemies longer as well.

Weapon

 * Dancers can use hand-to-hand, sword, and dagger. Dagger has the highest skill of the three as a “B”, while the other two are classed under “D”. Using hand-to-hand or sword in the low-to-mid levels can be your best choice. Unfortunately, daggers are quite ineffective until mid-to-high levels (namely after Viper Bite is obtained at level 34). Since it has higher accuracy (due to higher skill), it is the best choice for later parties. Until then, save your TP for Waltzes and Steps.

Armor

 * Not surprisingly, Dancers have a very similar set of armor as Thief. In that, they can wear harness armor, leather armor, and a lot of cloth armor. Also like Thief, they don’t get any access to heavy armor like plate or scale. That being said, they can’t play meat shield nearly as well as a job like Paladin or Warrior, but with harness and leather, they can still do fairly well once they get their first Flourish finish (Lv.20, a Provoke). Since stats aren’t known for dances, take your pick as to how you like playing, though accuracy truly does help for soloing. If attempting to tank, recommend evasion gear first, followed by accuracy. At higher levels haste gear will begin to be top priority.

Advanced Job Quest

 * Talk to the female Hume NPC named Laila in Upper Jeuno G-7. Then, talk to the Mithra NPC, Rhea, dancing beside her. Go to Southern San d’Oria to the tavern near the Mog House and talk to the first NPC on the right, Valderotaux. Choose any of the options provided in any order you'd like, and keep doing so till the cutscene ends.


 * Go back and talk to Rhea in Upper Jeuno. After you've spoken to her, travel to Jugner (S) to the pond at I-5 (this spot is best approached via the Batallia Downs maw, since it's on the east side of an insurmountable fence). Click on the “Glowing Pebbles” and you will receive another cut-scene. Finally, head back to Laila in Upper Jeuno and talk to her. Congratulations! You can now become a Dancer.

Soloing 1-10

 * Your two best choices in terms of support jobs for these levels would be either Monk or White Mage. If you sub Monk, use hand-to-hand weapons as you’ll get a boost in attack speed, which slightly makes up for the lack of base skill. If you choose a White Mage sub, you’ll get longer survivability and overall lower downtime, but less attack speed with hand-to-hand. In that situation, both sword or hand-to-hand would be useful. By level five, you finally get your first dance, Drain Samba. Sambas have a neat effect. How it works is after you dance, you are given an additional effect where the next hit gives your target a negative effect called Drain Daze. This effect has an incredibly short duration of about five seconds, which will reset itself every time you successfully land a hit. Everyone within your party will enjoy the effects of endrain as long as you continue to successfully strike the mob. If you miss too many times in a row, the monster's Drain Daze effect will wear off and will not return until you strike it again while under the effect of Drain Samba.

Valkurm 10-20

 * This is your first real party situation. You should always have a decent setup, and the more party members, the better, especially for Dancer’s Drain Samba. At this point, your best bet would still be to sub either Monk or White Mage and use either hand-to-hand or sword. From 10-14 a Dancer's role in most parties will be as a standard Damage dealer. Level fifteen is when you get your next job-specific ability. A new kind of dance called a Waltz. Curing Waltz heals a target party member for a certain amount of HP (approximately 70) for the small price of 20 TP. Waltz opens up the possibility of being healer or tank for a party. Suggested food would be something along the lines of attack at this level. A lot of monsters have a lot of defense, especially Pugils and Crabs for 13-20. Though hitting for zero damage keeps Samba active, you have a whole party connecting hits, so that isn't a problem. Your main problem is at these levels, accuracy food isn't very effective (Jack-o'-Lanterns give -10 CHR, so they don't work either) unless you're willing to dole out huge amounts of money. I would suggest the oh-so-useful Meat Mithkabobs or the like.


 * After gaining level 15 and healing waltz, a DNC/WAR can be a very effective tank. Using it's naturally high evasion, Provoke, and Curing waltz, A dancer can hold hate pretty easily, while saving a healer a large chunk of MP.


 * Dancer remains a strong soloer during these levels, from 10-14 a dancer can kill very large numbers of EP-DC mobs between rests. Upon achieving 15 and Curing Waltz, a decently equipped DNC/MNK can solo EM-T's without stopping.

Mid-levels 20-40

 * Right at level twenty is when you learn your first Step and Flourish. A Step is basically a mild enfeeble that can be stacked up to five times, each time consuming TP. Another big thing about Steps is they reward you with finishing moves, which aren’t super-powered weapon skills despite what it sounds like. What it means by finishing move is a finishing pose (a flourish). Anyway, you consume finishing moves to perform Flourishes, which are effective (yet sometimes inaccurate) support abilities for your party. For example, the Lv.20 Step is Quickstep which lowers the target’s evasion, and the Lv.20 Flourish is Animated Flourish, which is your Provoke. Level twenty-five is one of Dancer’s favourite levels because it gets something new in all three main dances. A new Samba (Aspir Samba), a new Waltz (Divine Waltz), and your first Jig (Spectral Jig). All Sambas work the same; Aspir just drains MP instead of HP (though it only works on monsters that have MP). Divine Waltz is Dancer’s “Curaga”, in that it heals in an area effect. Spectral Jig is simply a self-targeted Sneak and Invisible. In these mid-levels, you also get one more Samba, one more Waltz, two new Steps, and two new Flourishes.


 * Right around 20 and up is when a Dancer may want to consider the change to daggers, as TP grows in importance, and the D skill in H2H and sword begins to show. Quick Step also has a fairly low accuracy rate based off of your standard melee accuracy, so the boost in accuracy aids a Dancer's abilities.  Using Quickstep and Animated Flourish a Dancer can continue to tank throughout Qufim and Yhoator; however if attempted, Ninja sub, jack O lanterns, and good evasion/accuracy gear are highly recommended.  I have not attempted tanking above 30 yet, will update when I have.

Your AF Weapon

 * …Hasn’t been released yet.

Mid-High Levels 40-60

 * Though there aren’t a lot of people this high level yet, it’s easy to predict Dancer will remain the same throughout these levels as it was through the mid levels. These levels are where you begin and finish the arduous task of getting your AF, however Dancer’s AF will be acquired, and do the ever-so-fun limit break quests (assuming you haven’t done them already). There aren’t a lot of new dances you learn in these levels. However, if you use a dagger (which you should by this level), you’ll be happy to know that you get Cyclone, a half-decent weapon skill finally. The only problem is, it has an area of effect, so it doesn’t work in cramped areas. By these levels too, a Samurai support job might be sufficient, as it gives a nice bonus to TP, and its job ability Meditate would really benefit you as a TP-using job. At level 40 Dancer attains it's most useful Flourish, "Reverse Flourish". Using Reverse Flourish, a Dancer gets all of the TP he or she spent on enfeebling steps back, plus some extra. Dancers should be spamming their steps every 15 seconds at this point, particularly Quick Step, and using Reverse Flourish to aid with TP build.

Your Artifact Armor

 * …Also hasn’t been released yet.

High Levels 60-75

 * When the AF is released, and you collect it all, your life should hopefully be a lot better, since artifact armor helps define every job’s role in the game and gives it stats it both does and doesn’t need. However, as you close your final fifteen, you’ll finish learning all of your dances and get more amazing weapons and weapon skills. Like all jobs, Dancer will probably end-up subbing Ninja at 74 for soloing and survivability reasons.

End-Game

 * (Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

Warrior

 * Could be a viable support job until 20, especially as Galka or Elvaan, since they have the highest possibility of being the better Dancer-tanks. Provoke, Defence Bonus, and its naturally high STR and DEX would always be handy. At level 25 (50, when subbed), Warrior gets the job trait "Double Attack", which activates with an approximately 5% chance to give you a second attack, thus giving you more TP. Even though Ninja's Dual Wield lowers delay, it doesn't increase TP gain, as TP gain is proportional to delay. Having the Double Attack trait is nice for the extra tp gain, when it actually does kick in.

Monk

 * One of the most used support jobs (I’ve seen) for Dancer, at least at lower levels. Since its highest combat skill is dagger, which isn‘t very effective until higher levels, you’re better off using either sword or hand-to-hand. And since hand-to-hand is granted a bonus with a MNK support job even by Lv.1, it’s probably the better of the two. Also, it increases a Dancer’s survivability with its naturally high vitality and HP. Boost and Dodge are a nice bonus too.

White Mage

 * A more support-role support job as it gives the user access to all sorts of cures, enfeebles, enhancements, and other spells like the ever-loved Poisona. If you use Astral Rings or just don’t like sitting there engaged in battle and doing nothing, this sub-job might be a better course of action than Monk.

Thief

 * High accuracy and evasion always benefit Dancer. By Lv.30, you get Sneak Attack, which allows you to deal more damage and get more TP if you’re lucky. This can also be a good means of acquiring money because of Treasure Hunter and Gilfinder. Lv.30 also grants a bonus using a Dagger Belt to add 5 points to your Dagger Skill rating when using this subjob.

Bard

 * Adds to your support-role status. Of course, it doesn’t work quite as effectively when it’s subbed, but it still gets the job done. If used properly, it could even do good in the low levels.

Samurai

 * Store TP and Meditate help the Dancer’s sought-after TP stay at a high level. Unfortunately, Dancer gets no two-handed weapons, so Hasso and Seigan don’t take effect. Samurai as a sub-job is good for those Dancers who rely on either Animated Flourish and/or Waltzes a lot to keep the party in tip-top shape.

Ninja

 * Obviously a possible choice, as it can be for almost any job in the game, especially after level 74 when you get access to Utsusemi:Ni. Dual Wield allows you to stack on two stat-boosting weapons. This is nice because Dancer cannot use most shields, so their second weapon is generally free (with exception of the Lv.30 all-job shields). Keep in mind though that there is a reduction in TP gain per hit with Dual Wield to make up for the delay reduction of 10% .The increase in TP is not 10% overall, so one weapon will be faster. The straight 10% increase in TP that Samurai's Store TP would give would be more helpful if TP was the only consideration.


 * Another consideration for Ninja subjob is the elemental ninjutsu. The damage from the elemental ninjutsu can be resisted, however the resistance down can not.  A highly effective use is to use the ninjutsu to lower the mobs resistance right before a skillchain. You can also aid the mages in nuking by doing so.

Corsair

 * With Phantom Roll at a one-minute recast timer since the recent update, a well-timed Dancer can buff the party with a roll like Hunter’s Roll for accuracy, and then just before the battle is over switch over to Corsair’s Roll which gives an experience point bonus. Though possibly not as effective as other support job choices, it can still work.

Dragoon

 * A support job often overlooked because of its lack of a wyvern compared to it as a main job. However, Dragoon gets the job trait Attack Bonus, which will help for damage dealt with puny daggers, as well as the job ability Jump. Jump can be used effectively to keep TP gain high, especially if the user has high TP. The Wyvern Earring, though expensive, gives a 5% Haste bonus which doesn't reduce TP gain per hit like Dual Wield does. The Wyvern Mantle is a decent back piece for the Dancer who wants to deal extra damage. A wise choice for anyone with Dragoon already leveled to 30+. (Thanks to Miel for this support job idea)

Your Two-Hour Ability

 * Trance is unbelievably useful. What it does is simply takes away all need of TP for dances and steps, meaning you can heal someone or enfeeble the monster for absolutely no cost whatsoever. It’s basically like Black Mage’s Manafont two-hour ability. Though cool-down and casting timers are unaffected, that shouldn’t be too big of a problem. It is definitely very good for getting out of sticky situations and should be saved for such. Since it has a whole one-minute duration, which is longer than most two-hours’ durations, it frees the Dancer up for a lot of Waltzes, Steps, and allows for easy use of Sambas if necessary.

Job Abilities

 * Sambas are first acquired at Lv.5 in the form of Drain Samba I. After it’s used, the next monster you hit will be enfeebled with “Drain Daze” that will allow all party members attacking it to drain a small amount of HP from the target. If the target isn’t hit at least once within five seconds of the last hit, Drain Daze will wear off and it will have to be used again. There are three tiers of Drain Samba, each draining a larger amount of HP per hit. There are two tiers of Aspir Sambas, which activate the same way as Drain Samba, but drain MP instead of HP. Please note that Aspir Samba will only work on monsters that have MP. Also, like all forms of Drain and Aspir, they will not affect undead. A third Samba you acquire is Haste Samba, which gives everyone attacking the monster the effect of Haste+5%. Note that only one Daze can be active on a monster at any given time.
 * Waltzes are Dancer’s healing ‘magic’. They consume TP (instead of MP) to restore a party member’s HP, restore the party’s HP, or remove a harmful effect. Curing Waltz has four tiers, each of which acting as single-target cures. Divine Waltz healing the entire party for a small amount of HP. Healing Waltz removing anything Erase can remove as well as individual effects such as Paralysis or Poison.
 * Steps are single-target enfeebles including Quickstep, which lowers the target’s evasion, Box Step, which lowers the target’s defense, and Stutter Step, which lowers the target’s magic resistance. Starting at Lv.20 with Quickstep, these quick dances can also stack up to five times, each time giving the user “finishing moves” which can then be used for Flourishes.
 * Flourishes come in two sets aptly named “Flourishes I” and “Flourishes II”. There are two sets because they each have their own recast timer. Also, the first set of Flourishes is an additional enfeeble. Animated being a form of “Provoke”, Desperate being an inaccurate form of “Weight”, and Violent being an inaccurate form of “Stun”. The second set activate like enhancements. Reverse restoring TP, Building making your next weapon skill more potent, and Wild preparing the target for a skillchain. Flourishes consume “finishing moves”, which are earned by using Steps.
 * Jigs are fancy dances that directly enhance you and do not use TP. There are only two Jigs so far. One acquired at Lv.25 that gives a Sneak and Invisible effect, and one acquired at Lv.55 that enhances movement speed.

Job Traits

 * Evasion Bonus is first earned at Lv.15. Dancer is evasive enough as it is without a bonus of +10 to evasion, but this just further helps the point. It makes Dancer more capable of keeping the monster’s attention without dying, and thus making Dancer a decent backup tank (especially at Lv.20, when Animated Flourish is usable).
 * Resist Slow is one in the line of ‘Resist’ job traits that allow the player to possibly resist an effect. In this case, slow, and acquired at Lv.20. Be it through a monster’s attack or an opposing spell, you may have the chance to completely resist it. Even if that is not the case, Resist Slow will help to lower the duration of the negative status effect.
 * Subtle Blow allows the Dancer to spend more time engaged battle without worrying about giving the target monster too much TP with his or her weapons, and is attributed at Lv.25. As a player feeding TP to a monster is the fastest way it gets TP, this slows down the process slightly, making up for a Dancer’s slightly lower attack damage by also giving less TP.
 * Accuracy Bonus at Lv.30 will allow the Dancer to stay in the fray and help keep Samba’s Daze effects up with a more frequent stream of hits. Accuracy bonus is a loved job trait by all damage-dealing jobs, since many like to pick higher damaging equipment, which is what you can do with the +10 accuracy under your belt.