Dancer Guide by Carnivor

'''

A Dancers guide by Rafage of Garuda.
''' First off, please consider that Dancer can be played in numerous different ways. I will give a recolection of my experience about the Dancer job as i have chosen to play it. This guide may or may not fit your own playing style. Even so, there are some things that are very important.

Introduction
I choose to write this guide because Dancer is a new job, and one that i found very exciting to level. I havent been bored even once while playing this job. And i have explored many aspects of the job. Things like normal EXP parties, NM hunting; solo and Duo/Trio, God runs, Dynamis, Farming (sky and normal) and Campaign.

There will be no speculations into Math in this guide. I have never liked calculation, even though many parts of it fall easy to me. Instead i will describe Dancer from what i have seen work in different situations.

I hope some will appreciate this guide, and want to level DNC.

Dancer in general
Dancer is, like most of you allready know, a Healer job. Yes i know they engage in combat and that they debuff and have some buffs, but bottom line is, it is a fully fledged spot healer job. This do not however mean that you should disregard or toss the other aspects of the job. I will explain this during the guide.

What is so remarkable about Dancer is that for it to function properly, you have to use the other aspects to its full advantage. you cant do like mages and avoid certain spells to be able to do your job more fluidly. With Dancer, the table is turned. You cant do your job properly if you dont do steps (post reverse flourish) and fight. To be able to do Dancer correctly you will have to use steps, and fighting, which comes directly into advantage to yourself and the rest of your party/alliance.

Finishing Moves
You will get these up to a maximum number of 5, as a reward for each step landed on a mob. Finishing moves is the baseline of a dancers more powerfull and noticeable effects. Gives access to perform Flourishes to yourself or a mob. The cost of each Flourish depends on the type of Flourish. Also the potency of Reverse Flourish, Animated Flourish and Building Flourish is decided upon the number of Finishing Moves

Steps
The baseline of every Dancer, is steps. In the time i have played Dancer i have found it wise to focus on two types of steps max. to pimp each out and to be able to keep them on the longest. Personally i tend to vary between Quickstep and either Box Step or Stutter Step.

Every step can be increased to a level 5 daze effect. With increasing potency with every step landed.

A good rule: Make hits land, then worry about how much they hit for.

Quickstep

Your very first step, gained at level 20. This is, in my opinion the most valuable and versatile step. This is simply because that it lowers evasion. And apart from making you and your party able to hit the mob more, it also makes the following step combinations easier to land.

The Quickstep will do the following:

1st Step:    -10 Evasion.

2nd-5th Step: -5 Evasion each.

Totaling to -30 Evasion

With each step landed, the chance of Desperate Flourish to land is increased. On Kirin with 5 Quicksteps i have yet to see Desperate Flourish not land, and thats saying something.

Box Step

The second Step you get. Amazing on high def mobs. could possibly ruin the mobs deffences if applied correctly. I have used this Step on Kirin to great success (allthough Kirin is a complicated mob to fight, ill get into this later). As i said on Quickstep; Make sure hits land to a certain degree before applying this step.

The Box Step will do the following:

1st step:    -10% Defense

2nd-5th Step: - 5% Defense

Totaling to -30% Defense

Stutter Step

This is the step i use the least. unfortunately maybe, but as it is i feel im more a melee support than a mage support. The only times i use this is when i really need Stun to land, like when dangerous spells are being cast, or if i need to reapply Utsusemi. I have been able to test it somewhat though, and my feedbacks are that it makes magic attacks more potent and debuffs and dispels stands a greater chance of landing.

The Stutter Step will do the following:

1st step:    -10% Magic Defense

2nd-5th Step: -5% Magic Defense

Totaling to -30% Magic Defense

With each step landed, the chance of landing Stun with Violent Flourish increases. Stun has a very high proc rate with 5 Stutter Steps.

My time is up for now, i will continue this page at a later stage.