The Last Dance: Gearing Paradigms For A New Age

hey, i'm coming back from an almost year-long break from the game. i'm looking over the suggested gear sets, and i'm curious about Relic +2. why is it used over, say, Empy +2? i'm not seeing anything on the wiki that explains why it's used.

Well, in the first post it says to check page 83 for the most recent sets, which don't use relic+2.

The reason relic +2 (was) used was because of the augment to saber dance (+1% DA per merit).

It begins!

Ok question regarding the skadi+1 , assuming you have all the base pieces and papers are the primary limiting factor to completing these - what order would you finish them in?

I'm looking at the Skadi+1 body and not sure if its a priority piece to do if AF3 body is still really good for TP and I have a saio for WS'ing in.

my instincts tell me Head/Hands are the first things to go after for those of us without NNI gear. Charis tiara/oce for headslot with brego/charis for hands slot are probably my weakest slots on dnc gear, which is also why i'm leaning towards the papers going for head/hands first. Good/bad?

Yeah, go after Hands first and Head or Legs second. Do Body when the papers fall to you, but it's not very useful for Dancer. Feet are Movement +18%, so that's something.

WS Talk Time! Evisceration!

Evisceration isn't our best weapon skill; but it's essential to our skillchaining activities due to its useful properties (Transfixion / Gravitation). With marches and /SAM we can reasonably aim to Evisceration ---> Exenterator (Fragmentation) ---> Pyrrhic Kleos (Distortion) ---> Evisceration (Darkness); though whether or not something like this would generally be practical is dubious - but it's certainly entertaining.

This one's going to be annoying because the sets diverge depending on whether or not you have Boost-STR, and the non Boost-STR sets involve Khepri, requiring me to post alternatives:

Boost-STR

With Boost-STR, we don't have to worry about anything except that sometimes Cuchulain's Belt is better than Wanion, but I don't think you can really reasonably predict those situations so I don't recommend worrying about it.



Without Boost-STR

Alas, Khepri rears its ugly head (literally). But also, pants. I don't expect that most people will have access to this, but here it is anyway in case you're Byrth or something:



Here's an alternative that doesn't use Khepri and differs by a pretty small amount of damage (~10 dmg).



This set loses another 10 dmg, but it's a bit easier to get and beats the previous set on the right days (Earth/Light//Darksday):

Exenterator

Essentially our easiest WS to gear, you don't really need to make huge changes to accomodate Boost-STR except you will change your necklace from Houyi --> Justiciar when it's down.



This weapon skill has the Fragmentation property which means it closes Fragmentation when used with a WS with Gravitation property (such as Evisceration) and opens Distortion for WS with Distortion property (Pyrrhic Kleos, Rudra's Storm).

You can combine these WS in multiple steps, for example:

Evisceration
Exenterator
(Fragmentation)
Pyrrhic Kleos (Distortion)
Evisceration (Darkness)

Exenterator
Pyrrhic Kleos (Distortion)
Evisceration (Darkness)

Our 3 major weapon skills cover 3/4 of the LV2 properties so if you're teamed up with someone who has a Fusion property weapon skill ...


You can make myriad multi-step skillchains! In particular, this makes DNC and MNK a powerhouse team (as a bonus, both jobs have Skillchain Bonus).

Pyrrhic Kleos

You probably won't care about this WS if you don't have Terpsichore, but I'll cover it nonetheless.

This WS was originally hindered by DNC's lack of decent STR+DEX gear, but that limitation is gone and DMG+30% on the 99 version of Terpsichore makes it a competitive option that usually trumps other weapon skills.

Unfortunately, much of this gear is high-end:



But there are alternatives that still keep the WS above the water line:



If you have Tessera Saio but not Khepri, it's a better option combined with Skadi+1 head than the budget set established above.

This is the second-best PK set that does not incorporate Khepri:



This set is only about 1% behind Khepri, which really calls into question the value of the gear.

I have to say, compiling the WS info made me feel a lot better about not having Khepri.

I dislike doing 3-part skillchains with Exenterator because it forces me to close with Evisceration. That makes a sadtaru sad.

Still, if you figure it like this:
Exenterator = .9 Pyrrhic Kleos
Evisceration = .85 Pyrrhic Kleos

Then the whole Exenterator -> PK (Distortion) -> Evisceration (Darkness) skillchain is:
0.9 PK + PK + 0.6 * PK*1.23 + 0.85 PK + 0.85 PK * 1.5 * 1.23 = 5.05625 PKs worth of damage for 3 WSs

vs. Evisceration -> PK (Darkness):
0.85 PK + PK + 1.23*PK = 3.08 PKs worth of damage for 2 WSs
3.08*3/2 = 4.62 PKs worth of damage for 3 WSs

You get 10% more damage out of the first one, but the odds that you will successfully complete it are obviously lower and missing out on the final skillchain really really hurts its damage overall. Also, few things have that much HP. It's a nice combination for Abyssea, though.

Usually I use multi-steps for generating complicated procedures with a partner (usually MNK). It's not immensely useful, but dropping Khimaira Prideleader in 60 seconds is pretty entertaining.

Khimaira and Cerberus are two monsters that hate multi-step skillchains (for a soro DNC), so they are not ones that I will be using it against. If I'm killing seal monsters in Abyssea for some reason, sure though. It's a good thing to keep in your back pocket for times when the situation calls for it.

Also, it's useful to note that this combination is perfectly possible against a lot of monsters with Haste buffs and no JAs. It can also be continued by another Darkness WS for 1.75 times the closing WS's damage. Who ever said THF and DNC have to be enemies?

If PK does 2k and SATA Mercy Stroke does 4.5k (outside Abyssea numbers), the total skillchain would do 22.5k and would take <40 seconds by definition. Without skillchains, the same TP would do 10.5k. SE makes it so people can double their damage by playing together. People still don't do it.

Also, the main time to think about your multi-steps is when you have Sekkanoki available. It's pretty easy to accidentally go over 30-40 TP. Might as well use Sekkanoki and double skillchain!

It takes a little more luck (and no Dreadstorm/Magma Hoplon/Tenebrous Mist), but it's perfectly possible to self-skillchain with double Marches and a good TP set without using JAs. /SAM's 15 STP makes it easier....... okay, maybe Terpsichore/AM3 required.

Also, Cerberus Seether resists skillchain damage pretty badly. But he seems to be super weak to MB damage or something:



MB'd of my solo Fragmentation (3-step since the opening WS was Shijin from a MNK ... so Shijin --> Evis --> Exen). My mule nukes in PDT and haste because she doesn't have much SCH gear.

need to ws in more macc

Needs moar Taru:
http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/113829-Salvage-II-Slavage-Harder?p=5583680&viewfull=1#post5583680

IIRC, Darkness worked a lot better against him but we stick with our Light multichain because I can MB Kaustra (~1600 dmg) on the initial Gravitation and then Thunder V on the final Light (~5000).

Is it the most effective way to play? Who the *** cares.

Sounds awesome anyway.

Contrary to your resist reports, my light SCs have been doing full damage almost every single time against him for about 6 runs so far(Just started doing SCs, didn't previously have proper WS for it). Lights were actually sometimes doing double WS damage on NQ cerb, since I don't blow formless strikes on him. Just simple Exent>shijin, so not a 3step either.

Well, without doing the math I would have assumed that some of my skillchains were resisting too. As it is, it looks like either one or two of them resisted.

I could just notice resisted SCs more, lol.

Welp, I guess it's back to sitting in Port AFK.

No afterglow still, so get back out there! Srsly though, grats.

Pandemonium Warden and I don't get along :(

Congrats!

Hey Guys, I'm a freshly 99DNC coming back from a 5 year break. I had to make a new character so I'm short on gear and gil, but I'm working on it.

For the time being would Aluh Jambiya + Oynos Knife, be a decent knife set to start with. Lot of changes in this game to wrap my head around.

Those are an excellent pair for soloing pretty much until you have a main-hand better than Aluh Jambiya (which is basically just a 95+ Mythic or Empyrean).

If you're in a group and getting Hasted, you will probably want a different offhand. Which offhand to go for is going to depend on your people-based resources.

Awesome, thanks Byrth. I really appreciate the info that is in this thread, much of it out of my reach for the time being (and over my head), but gives me some ideas to aim for. Thank you!

So Twash 90 ain't worth it and would be better off with Aluh mainhand + Exen?