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Community Dancer Guide
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General Information
This Guide is an amalgamation of various insights from FFXIAH community members who happen to talk passionately about Dancer in this game.
Tis the beatin' of the heart what lays the foundation. Ye embrace it with yer whole body, and then e'er so gently start tappin' out the steps. Yer blood gets t'bubblin' an' ye can hear it percolatin' about in there. An' then ye might stick a twirlin' turn and send it rushin' t'all yer extremities. Shimmies straight up the spine and sends a shudder clean through ye, it does. After that, then she's mine an' no mistakin'. Haven't the faintest where I be or how I got there, I just am. An' everyone around fuels me, each of 'em offerin' up their own—a symphony o' souls. An' that's yer rhythm. Ye cannot help but dance. — 'Laila Brillioth'
Roles
Dancers (DNC) are front-line hybrid class that can benefit the party, enfeeble monsters and deal a lot of DPS if utilized properly. Not only are they competent fighters, but the TP they accumulate is used to fuel their various abilities. They execute Waltzes and Sambas to heal and create beneficial effects, and perform Steps to inflict negative effects upon the enemy. A touch of customization is added with Flourish, which allows a step to be completed with a variety of bonuses to aid the Dancer's party. Obtained by completing the Lakeside Minuet quest.
Abilities and Traits
Job Traits
The following table only lists the Job Traits of a level 99 Dancer and their effects at that level alphabetically. For more information about these Job Traits, e. g. its tiers (if any) and at which level they are attained, they are linked to their BG Wiki pages.
Trait | Effect |
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Accuracy Bonus | Accuracy +35 |
Closed Position | Accuracy +3 and Evasion +3 per merit level when facing the target |
Conserve TP | Cuts down the TP cost of weapon skills 25% of the time |
Critical Attack Bonus | Critical hit damage +11% |
Dual Wield | Combined delay -30% |
Evasion Bonus | Evasion +48 |
Resist Slow | Increases resistance against Slow |
Skillchain Bonus | Skillchain damage +23% |
Subtle Blow | Reduced TP fed to enemies by 20% |
Tactical Parry | 50 TP per parry |
These Job Traits define Dancer's base capabilities: a fast-hitting and evasive front-line job with a lot of accuracy and bonuses to both white damage and weapon skills when you close Skillchains with them.
Gifts from Job Points
Gift | Cumulative Bonus |
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Capacity Point Bonus | 320% |
Physical Defense Bonus | 42 |
Physical Attack Bonus | 42 |
Physical Evasion Bonus | 64 |
Physical Accuracy Bonus | 64 |
Magic Evasion Bonus | 36 |
Magic Accuracy Bonus | 36 |
Subtle Blow Effect | 13% |
Critical Damage Bonus | 8% |
Skillchain Bonus | 6% |
Superior 1 | Enables the player to equip items marked as Superior 1 (Su1) |
Superior 2 | Enables the player to equip items marked as Superior 2 (Su2) |
Superior 3 | Enables the player to equip items marked as Superior 3 (Su3) |
Dual Wield Effect | 5% Delay Reduction |
Maximum Finishing Moves Bonus | 4 added "finishing moves" with a total of 9/9 |
★Master! Grants the designation "Master Headliner."
Decreases the recast time of one-hour abilities by 15 minutes.
Job Abilities
Dancers have a multitude of Job Abilities, many of which can be found in different "groups". Job Abilities within the same group share recast timers, so using an ability will lock out all other abilities in that group.
Steps & Presto
Steps inflict status ailments on the target by applying so-called "Dazes" to them. The first Step of a Daze effect sets its duration to 1 minute and each subsequent Step applying the same Daze effect increase its remaining duration by 30 seconds, capping at 2 minutes. You have to spend 100 TP for each Step you perform and their shared recast timer is 5 seconds for all steps.
Action | Effect | Potency |
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Box Step | Lowers target's defense | 3% + 2% * (Sluggish Daze level) |
Feather Step | Lowers target's critical hit evasion (increases player critical hit rate) | (Maculele Toeshoes +1) gives 4% + 1% * (Bewildered Daze level) for a Total 14% |
Quickstep | Lowers target's evasion | 4 * (Lethargic Daze level + 1) |
Stutter Step | Lowers target's magic evasion | 3 * (Weakened Daze level) |
Presto | Enhances the effect of the next Step and grants an additional Finishing Move. | 15 seconds |
- Unless the Daze effect level has reached the cap (currently level 10) already, each successful Step grants you 2 Finishing Moves and wielding a Terpsichore adds 1 Finishing Move on top of that for a total of up to 3 Finishing Moves per Step. If however the Daze effect level was capped already, you will gain only 1 Finishing Move, no matter what.
- The success rate of Steps depends on the Dancer's physical hit rate and therefore caps at 99%. Each Step gets an innate Accuracy +10 bonus and a level 99+ Terpsichore adds another Accuracy +60 to that. Gear that specifically enhances "Step Accuracy" should not be carried for the sole purpose of increasing Step Accuracy, because there are pieces that give you at least the same increase to accuracy, if not more, in every slot.
- The effect of Steps cannot be resisted, so if you can hit the target, you can apply Dazes. They however can be removed by effects that remove status ailments, e. g. Erase.
- Most of the time, you are going to use either Quickstep and/or Box Step. Having both at level 10 and maintaining that level lowers your target's defense by 23% and evasion by 44, effectively increasing attack by (at least) 29.8% and accuracy by 44 for everyone attacking your target. Especially Box Step is useful for low-man sitautions where accuracy is likely to be capped with attack being far from cap due to lack of buffs and/or debuffs.
- In party situations, the rise of GEO means that you very often have absurd amounts of defense reduction and attack enhancing effects up, so ratio is more likely to be capped. Here, it might be more useful to use Feather Step instead, because critical hit rate is something that often is not affected by buffs. Feather Step also has another use case: For things that are being whacked by many players at the same time, e. g. Wildskeeper Reives, it might more reliable than Box Step or Quickstep for building Finishing Moves. Feather Step is limited to main job Dancers, whereas the other Steps can be used by anyone with a Dancer sub job.
- Over the course of many years, Stutter Step probably only has been used to increase the accuracy of the Stun effect caused by Violent Flourish. Which sounds like a bad strategy to begin with, if you actually need Stun effects, but now that Dancers might see the inside of harder content more often, Stutter Step might be used for a similar purpose in pinch: If your stunners are close to hitting the Stun wall, you can help them a bit and hope that your target goes down before crashing into the Stun wall.
- Using a Step with Presto up gives it an accuracy bonus of +50, as well as adding two levels to the Daze effect associated with the Step, if possible. It will not magically let you break the Daze hard cap of level 10. Presto also grants you an additional Finishing Move, if you get 2 or more normally. You still get only one Finishing Move upon successfully using a Step that is "capped" already.
Proposed Steps Set/ also works as highest Acc Set:
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Waltz
These probably are the defining Job Ability groups for Dancers. "Groups"? I am listening them together, but technically, Waltzes are split into three groups that each have their own recast timer. Similar to Steps, you have to spend TP to use Waltzes, but the exact amount of TP is different for each Waltz.
Ability | Recast | TP cost |
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Curing Waltz | 6 seconds | 200 |
Curing Waltz II | 8 seconds | 350 |
Curing Waltz III | 10 seconds | 500 |
Curing Waltz IV | 12 seconds | 650 |
Curing Waltz V | 16 seconds | 800 |
- Curing Waltzes are single target cures for any target within casting range. You will find that most of the time, you are going to use these ones.
- Due to recent addition by SE for AF +3 upgrades, the following set for Waltz is considered optimal (it can be tweaked however based on obtainability)
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Note that Divine Waltzes and Curing Waltzes do not share the same recast timer, which can help getting your entire party back to healthy HP levels quickly in a pinch.
If Healing Waltz is our Erase, then Contradance is our Divine Seal. It doubles the potency for your next Curing Waltz or Divine Waltz; using Contradance with Healing Waltz lets it remove one status ailment from each party member.
Flourishes I consume Finishing Moves to inflict an effect on your target.
Animated Flourish is a claiming tool at best, because its effect is weaker than Provoke: If you have only one Finishing Move, it will consume that and generate 1000 Volatile Enmity. If you have two or more Finishing Moves, it will consume two and generate 1500 Volatile Enmity. Desperate Flourish will only be used as a Voidwatch proc. If you want to weigh down your target, Rudra's Storm is a lot better at doing that. In fact, I don't even know why you would want to weigh down your target to begin with. Violent Flourish on the other hand comes with a high accuracy bonus, but that's limited to the physical hit. The Stun effect unfortunately is resisted by many targets. Horos Casaque +1 enhance the accuracy of the Stun effect, but even then, the "real" Stun spell from a mage or a Dark Knight will be much more reliable in places where you actually want stuns.
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