The Last Dance: Gearing Paradigms For A New Age

God, Byrth and Sylow, why can't you keep your sets up to date so I don't have to do troubling things like research and think for myself?

Haven't played since before Aldouin came out, so I may be missing something obvious; I've mostly only looked at the 5 visible slots and not too much at accessories.

Here's what I got dicking around on dps sheets as my "relatively obtainable ideal"
ItemSet 305353

And current
ItemSet 208685

Pretty sure Byrth is doing the same thing I'm doing and pretending DNC doesn't exist until they update Terpsichore or alternatively introduce relevant content where DNC can contribute something worthwhile.

Yeah, Dancer is worthless at the moment so I have ditched it.

/hug

Same deal with SMN.

I have to have need to run solo-farm something to be on DNC. It's still good in SalvageII imo if you're still needing stuff from there.

I bought rigors and clear salvage v2 faster and with less effort on my monk with literally 24 pieces of gear, no shijin merits, and no h2h merits.

Least you have PD (if skilled)

I have never really followed everybody else 100% when it comes to gearing dnc. Although some of the guidelines are the same. I don't rely on weaponskills as much to do damage, however I do like to take advantage of the haste samba/dual-wield for damage over time. With that being said As versatile as dancer is, you just have to adapt. Not doing as much damage with weaponskills means you can use haste samba and heal people fairly successful and with that little extra damage that never hurts. Use what you can to do your best and dancer will never be worthless.

There's no relevant content where Dnc sort of shines(or would be invited to) at the moment, or where it can do anything that any other job couldn't do.

The game is 99% Delve at the moment and I can't really see why anyone would choose a Dnc, no matter how well geared, over any other job.
Box step and H.Samba would be all the job really offers, and any job /Dnc could do those(though a bit weaker and slower).
If Dnc's working for you in whatever content you're doing, that's awesome honestly, but "adapting" isn't really an option for the #1 event at the moment. I miss playing the job, but it's not so fun if all I use it for is solo crap.

If it weren't for "solo crap", I'd've had no fun on DNC for the last 5 years.

And we can still shine in worms parties!! :P /cryinginside

We're also still more useful than my RUN....

I love using my dnc for salvage II, but ya i'm just procrastinating over joining the whole 'level mnk and get rigors' bandwagon - salvage bosses would die easier and we'd clear zones faster with 2mnks in our static instead of mnk+dnc.

Oh, I know DNC is all but useless (well, horribly inefficient at least) in the current environment. I know my time would be much better spent gearing up MNK, WAR, SAM and whatever else is the flavor of the month (or flavor of the last 2+ years as some cases may be) right now, but the problem I've run into is that I enjoy my time much less playing those jobs. After 9 years of more-on-than-off playing I'm less concerned about how I can maximize my salvage run efficiency by shaving 10 minutes off the clear time playing a boring job than I am maximizing how much enjoyment I have playing while still managing to fully clear everything I want to do.

But, that's just personal philosophy.

is the difference between DNC and the other jobs in terms of damage so great?

I went to a PUG neo nyzule isle on DNC and chocobo jig was very useful for the whole party. A lot of nyzule is running around, but even if DNC helps with this, this alone is not a reason to bring DNC.

I feel kill speed is not an issue because of how well DNC can do in low buff situations against weak monsters.

Am I delusional? do my groups win despite me and not with me? I guess it isn't even that difficult to win in the first place anymore.

DNC has a lot of good aspects in NNI that separate it from lolnowai jobs. It can heal itself, it can put out an adequate enough amount of damage, it can buff itself to do the first two better. Its also got Stun, which is nice for delaying TP moves on the floor bosses :< I used BLU to get my wins and the ability to have two forms of 5K+ damage + hastega + stuns + other support buffs was awesome for NNI. The only difference may be just the damage from daggers and swords is kinda vastly different sometimes.

Many group uses powder boots or crabs(!), so running around isn't a big deal.

At the moment, the answer to this question depends heavily on your gear access. If you have access to Plasm weapons for any job, then a job like Monk or Dark Knight that wears only one weapon will benefit more than a job like Dancer that wears two. If you have access to Delve Boss weapons, the difference is even more clear.



Nyzul Isle isn't as demanding as it once was, and even when it was demanding it was still possible to win with one weaker DD job. I got most of my Neo-NI wins on Thief before they patched things, for instance. The fundamental strategy in the past was to throw the strongest DDs in the game at the event while making them nearly-unkillable through Embrava, so versatility at the expense of damage (Dancer) was not appreciated. Now (with Plasm weapons) most jobs are as good as the strongest DDs from before, so it doesn't really matter what you bring as long as they're well geared.

The new 188 skill weapons offer a ridiculous amount of Attack/Acc, but apparently only to the hand of the weapon. If you mainhand it, you have a very accurate mainhand. If you offhand it, you have a very accurate offhand. etc.

This basically works out to 1H weapon users getting shafted, even assuming they do eventually update Izhiikoh. Accuracy is one of the only stats in this game that can be used to basically set content difficulty. We can obtain a finite amount of it through buffers/equipment, and current Delve bosses require all of that. If you start throwing 188 skill weapons at people (for instance, Warriors and Dark Knights), then there are two options:
1) They no longer need as much accuracy in gear and can drop it back for more DD options.
2) You can start releasing content that requires 170 more accuracy (85% hit rate). In this content, using DDs with the new weapons will be pretty much the only option.

So yeah, 1H users are eternally screwed unless SE suddenly releases twice as many 1H weapons as 2H weapons and gives them the same ridiculous Acc bonus. For comparison, double Madrigals with +5 Madrigal give 71 accuracy. Hunter's Roll gives 50 Acc on an XI roll. So +188 skill is more potent than SV Double madrigal with G-horn and AF3+2 hat. It gives a little bit less than SV double mad and lucky Hunter's Roll. This is a tremendously huge amount of accuracy.




Here is my Adoulin impression-progression so far:

Beginning: Lots of things to do, cool. Dancer is still as useful as it was before Adoulin. New Skirmish dagger is something to aim for as an offhand.

Release of Fracture: Dev team has a new direction for the game. I think it's a bad idea for multiple reasons, but at least it seems like they have a plan. Dancer is now worthless, but could be useful after the RME update.

The patch yesterday: Dev team is just sort of spiraling out of control without any real plan. Dancer is worthless and looks unsalvagable.

I used to go DNC to everything. It was all I had, apart from DRG - and my DRG is not Mythic, so my LS would choose my DNC as a DD before it. XD We did NNI before and after nerf, and especially with the Delve weapon I was outdamaging some of the other DDs in NNI. That plus Chocobo Jig made me pretty useful.

Then I levelled MNK...

...and now the only time I use DNC is to solo lower-level stuff (although I dual-box now, so I often can do that on Monk too...) or to help groups run super fast through long stretches.

:(

At the moment, I go NIN/WAR to kill and proc Dhorme Khimaira, then warp and change to MNK/THF. on MNK/THF, I kill Apademak and farm another two popsets. Wash, rinse, repeat, become BRD4lyfe.

inb4 8-song harps and bard becoming irrelevant anyway.

I thought BG already determined that the +188 Skill is a brand new stat and it doesn't add to the values in the Skill Window?

It also mentions it at the bottom of this Official post.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/35239

-Addition of items increasing combat skill strength
Some weapons that have displayed item levels have the effect of increasing combat skill strength.

This increase in combat skill strength differs from the effects of attributes such as "Sword skill +X," and are calculated independently for main and sub weapons.
* At present, this increase is added only for a specific subset of equipment. Other equipment will be made compatible with this functionality at a later date.
* This functionality will not be reflected in the combat skill section of the status screen.
* For the hand-to-hand skill, values have been set with consideration given the fact that damage values increase as the skill increases.

It adds 188 Attack in the equipment screen (when in the mainhand) and takes monsters from IT++ to IT-- using /check, which indicates that it's also giving Accuracy. It does not show up in the equipment menu or through /check if it's in the offhand, but that hand still hits well.

It's basically "skill" that only applies to the hand holding the weapon. It doesn't show up in your skills menu because then it would apply to both hands.

So basically unless they add two weapons for each content level, dual wielders will always have, at best, an offhand that's maybe 5 acc/atk (1 ilv) behind the main? :/

Kinda sucks in conjunction with the whole weaker offhand thing that they introduced in this patch.

It is a brand new stat but it also seems to give that much acc / atk.

Update notes strongly suggest that oats and friends will be updated to comply with the new item level system in August and they are higher level than the 188 bunch sooo who knovs!

The only reasonable explanation is that they are trying to ebb the Pink Tide since Daurdabla being almost compulsory for Ieaving town is probably a thorn in the side of their new content structure.

Yeah, unless you are using dagger and do not have a craftable weapon. Then you just would have to deal with a massive disparity between the main and off hands.

This is the sort of thing keeping me away from the game right now.

The idea of even having the lower-tier stuff like rigor baghnakhs just for the sake of *** around and making money while riding an exercise bike is pretty appealing and makes me want to play, but I know that I have most likely missed whatever window I might have had to get the KIs without spending dozens of hours gearing up one or more support jobs I'm not really interested in playing for the sake of one or two, maybe 3, runs total.

Ultimately, I've played FFXI long enough to know I would just end up sitting around with this stuff perpetually juuuust out of reach. It's terribly frustrating and I probably should have just ignored reading about this update entirely.

Sorry. Carry on.

I've already got most of the wins (just need to beat bee in Fracture). The Delve NMs really aren't hard with the currently posted strategies, and getting the KIs for things like Rigors is even easier because you can cherrypick your target. You just need a handful of competent players to take them down.

I'm just making a Harp (already finished G-horn) because it seems like one of the only enduring time investments that I can make. 14 Horns to 99!

I got depressed frustrated and deleted all of my item sets.
I'm going to change this guide into Node format so that multiple people can update it Wiki style.

Even with Izhiikoh now, I don't find myself on DNC :(

Send me a PM if you'd like Node access.

Oh, nodes work so that multiple people can access them? That's pretty neat!

How would you say DNC stacks up as a DD now, anyways?
Is it anywhere near the others?

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Depends, in group situation dnc has some pretty solid DPS output as /thf, SATA is a good way to makeup DPS in low acc situations like delve fighting.

Compared to generic DDs in bayld armor in reives I find myself generally the one with hate. Haste samba + garuda haste + my gear generally puts me at capped -delay. Unlike mnk dnc has super high survivability soloing, making up for its lower DPS.

People, as usual, just underestimate the power of another 10% haste for the party.

Id recommend it for skirmish and reives. Wildskeepers roll dancers in 2 hits though, cor and smn shine better here for sure. For delve I can hold my own well enough, but thats pretty much it.