The Last Dance II: The Show Must Go On

I have a Herc Body with augments DA+4 QA+3 (nothing else relavent). This? or Horos+3? I usually play DNC as dps in an alliance setting with max buffs. Thanks.

If acc doesn't matter, att is capped and the higher Meva/Amnesia/PDT won't make a difference, then your Herc will be better than Horos+1.

(didn't test on the spreadsheet, just throwing a hunch)

It would help to know the TP set youre using and also the daggers.

ammo="Ginsen",
head="Adhemar Bonnet +1", (STR DEX ATT)
neck="Anu Torque",
ear1="Sherida Earring",
ear2="Brutal Earring",
body=gear.herculean_ma_body, (Herc Body DA4 QA#)
hands="Adhemar Wrist. +1", (STR DEX ATT)
ring1="Epona's Ring",
ring2="Hetairoi Ring",
back=gear.da_jse_back, (DEX 30 ACC20/ATT20 DA10 PDT-10)
waist="Windbuffet Belt +1",
legs="Samnuha Tights", (Capped)
feet=gear.herculean_ta_feet (Acc+28 TA+4)

MH: Aeneas
OH: AG3 Twashtar

I am considering trying out MH: AG3 Twashtar OF: Raetic Kris +1 not sure if that makes a difference

Based on your set and using Aeneas/Twashtar

With Relic +3: 4124.353
With QA/DA Herc: 4215.443
2.16% lead for Herc.


Would be great if you can share your findings on it (still trying to make one myself), Im very much interested in the outcomes because I believe it would be the strongest combo [provided you have a source of refresh]

Was experimenting with a proposed [CRate TP] set while AM3 active from Twashtar/Taming Sari and it was interesting:

ItemSet 359849

CRate in Gear: 45
CDMG in Gear : 16

I can use multiple choices for body,legs, feet and neck but I wanted a balanced TP with the highest CRate possible.

There was a noticeable difference in DPS [Around 4-6% each fight]
Buffes: SAM/Chaos and capped Magic Haste/Samba, also had Behemoth Steak +1.
Target was Apex Bats.

Can imagine in [capped situations+short fights] it would be a slight edge to BiS TP if you fancy switching sets.

Or in pure white damage situations if you get amnesia.
I also think if you managed to get a Rouge's Roll your CRate would be very close to 100%.

I have played around with similar AM3 crit sets on Kannagi NIN (and while it isn't melee, I also love my RNG Armageddon AM3 crit set). A few observations from that perspective:

I've never been able to make Nefarious Collar +1 worth using over non-crit necks (Anu, Lissome, whatever)

Body you're probably going to get better DPS results with some CHD, might try Abnoba or Meghanada +2 there (I'd imagine both would result in better DPS than Mummu), maybe even Herc with good augments. (NIN has the luxury of Kendatsuba +1 in that slot, so can afford to give up the CHD in exchange for TA+6%/Crate+9%).

If defense matters, you may want to consider Mummu Ring. Not much worse crit rate than Begrudging (3% to 5%) without the nasty DT+, and gains DEX+8 from set bonus if you're using another Mummu+2 piece. Epona also still does great, and may well still be a BiS choice when paired with one of the other candidates from Hetairoi/Begrudging/Mummu.

Otherwise, yeah I can totally see your set being worthwhile. People tend to underestimate Empy's white damage/crit potential across the board, and I get fantastic performance paying attention to it on NIN RNG.

A white damage build looks like it could be a lot of fun, lets see what this update brings!

What is expected from Divergence Dagger?
As far as naming goes it seems they went back to Greek Mythology so few names might pop:

Aether, Aeolus, Attis, Castor, Eurus, Notus, Pollux, Zephyrus.

Bolded names haven't been used by SE in FFXI yet and all these names have air/wind affinity.

And as far as stats go and by looking at H2H in Devpost:



And this (daydream):


Defensive stats will still be the main framework for dagger design but I highly doubt that its the final form, there should be an aftermath of some sort and that could be augmentable and made into rare/ex to join REMA squad.

So possibly something like this:

Notus
DMG:145 Delay:200 Magic Damage+255, Dagger skill +269, Parrying skill +269 Magic Accuracy skill +255, DT -10% or MEVA 50, Accuracy 50, Magic Accuracy 50, HP 150

Can also add job specific trait if it was DNC exclusive [I'm almost certain it will be]:
Saber Dance: Haste Samba potency +15 [Capped JA Haste] or No decay to DA% [Stays at 50%]
Fan Dance: Healing Waltz AoE effect, or adds Stoneskin Effect or TP cost -100 or No decay to DT%.

And if it was augmentable for an aftermath:

Final Form add:
"Dancing Edge" Aftermath: Increases DEX,AGI,CHR potency.

All speculations, any thoughts XD ?

Edit: just noticed the weapon list update ...

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Setan_Kober

+50 acc is nice, the dmg / delay looks okay... Is this our new Aoelian Edge option?

The Step TP consumed is a bit meh, unless i'm not getting something... but isn't the step TP cost less a factor than the TP opportunity cost from JA delay?

I just added Setan Su5 to Spreadsheet and used it offhand for Terp then for Aeneas.
Twashtar still beats it by a huge margin in offhand:

Aeneas/Twashtar :3922.374
Aeneas/Setan Su5:3585.588

Terp/Twashtar:3919.611
Terp/Setan Su5:3711.856

TP consumed is lackluster, since DNC have no issues at all with TP generation but I could see it doing great on mobs that spams TP reset moves.
A 40TP step is what one hit with SAM roll? but you will still get locked with that 5s timer.

Presto + step > RF with the cost of 40TP can save lives.
Very specific use from the looks of it.

All that can change however if it wasn't the final form.
I wouldn't bother using it for AE though.

Didn't realize Terp/Twash was that close to Aenas/Twash. Nice, I don't see the new weapon being useful in almost any situation considering the damage you're sacrificing but maybe the augs will be nice.

regardless of using it, just getting it is lame. roughly 10m a synth and need HQ2 to be usable outside dyna

At the first glance, it’s underwhelming.
Let’s wait to see the augments, also I have a hunch that you can increase its HQ other than level 4 shield but it will be very time consuming.

Regarding Terp/Twashtar combo being close to Aeneas/Twashtar you would need Fighter’s Roll to get there as mentioned before.

Kat do you mind sharing your LUA ^^ finally got off Mac and can get away from macros once again !

Is Adhemar body +1 just Evisceration gear for DNC now?


ps. nevermind I use Megh body for that


I think I no longer have a use for Adhemar body +1

I switched mine to FC path tbh.

If anyone has the free time to post BiS sets I would appreciate it. Getting alot of mixed info. I usually play DNC in a party/alliance setting with max buffs

Dancer! A Community Collaborative Guide

I've been having quite the conundrum of late. I was a main dancer for most of abyssea and adoulin era but haven't touched the job since 2016. I picked up warrior a few months ago and have been working towards making an Ukonsavara, which needs the same materials as Twashtar. Both my warrior and dancer are in the A tier for gear, and I have a strong desire to just throw out all the work I put towards the Ukon and go all in with the twashtar and use that main hand with a taming sari (I've read alot of anti Ukon/ukkos comments lately which is pushing me that way).

My biggest worry is that dancer still kind of has a stigma against it and it might be harder to get groups for end game as a dancer with a twashtar over an Ukon warrior. I'm mostly interested in doing D/VD ambuscades/omen/escha stuff (and if I could get clears on dancer I can make a Chango and use that over an ukon).

Would I be able to do all that content as a dancer with a twashtar mainhand in today's Asura meta?

My last question is about duoing content with a geo on dancer vs warrior. A geo+warrior pair is really good at brute forcing through nms, how well would a dancer compare against some of the t1 t2 escha nms?

Many thanks,
Xelnok

and All the anti ukon posts came from people without one....

I know at least 2 proficient Ukon users in game, their performance on parse was devastating in ambu. Often keep up or beat other rema DD like drk and sam with max gears. so theres just no way that a ukon would suddenly keep you away from doing endgame as if you are a mnk.

Basically, Mont+1 or equivalent, ukon, chango should be close enough to each other with +- 10% difference depending on playstyle, nm mechanics, other dd in pt and sc property, one may be better than another.

That being said, war can perform reasonably well with a gs, and gs is cheap anyways. But dnc really needs 2 rema to compete. If I were you, Id do a twashtar, and just use gs on war in pt while working on a chango. No one should kick a well geared gs war considering how strong and effective gs build is. A dnc without any rema would be much, much harder to compete. Dagger jobs are kinda screwed in a way that a remaless dagger job player would be much, much further behind another dagger job player dualwield both. Unlike GS jobs like drk and war can somewhat keep up with a mont hq, zulfiqar or raetic.


D, VD, omen and most of the escha are not relevant to the type of DD job that you play, nor what weapon you use. I just did ambu VD for 2hr with a zufiqar and nq gears with a ranged attack cor not meleeing, still 6 min clear easily, which was only 2 to 3 min slower than much more elite groups. Being perfectly elite is really just the difference between 2 min clear time in VD, and honesty its really no big deal unless you are aiming for speed clears rather than casual farm and play.

VD is 90% about pt coordination, mages cast silence when appropriate, heal fast, use fade and wilt if necessary, have a good tank. And have extremely high acc buffs via brd. Not so much about perfect gears or super dd.

Same can be said for omen.

If you have difficulty getting into pt its more important to build connections imo. Connection is life in ffxi, gears not so much.

In terms of the job itself, dnc is much harder to play than warrior. Id rank dnc as one of the hardest dd to play well and war being one of the easiest. So normally people prefer war just because its easier to reach dps ceiling.

If you lead your groups, I don't see why not. Most of the time a group start by someone with 1-3 LS mates and guess what, they're missing a tank/brd/geo/whm... And that's what they shout for. Sitting in town and waiting for shouts won't get you far, fast, if you aren't a good tank/geo/whm/brd... Making your own group will, especially if you build them around a comp that works for you.

We don't do DNC for the meta, we do it out of love. But it's really on you to prove you can dance when the music's on.

Aiming for "Meta" in ilv 139 content is kinda silly anyways imo. Meta for 149 is much more legit. 139 is mostly farming and play for fun, not progression. 149 is where people would aim to make a more elite pt with max performance.

Greetings Xelnok,

I will try to give some feedback based on experience of DNC in Endgame and please note that each server got their own paradigms to deal with "Meta"


WAR is a great job over all, its excellent in endgame content and adds a lot of power to the group during zerg.
However, when it comes to weapons you're faced with many options based your party's strategy.

A-If going multi-skillchains route on something then GA is the way to go and Uko/Chango won't fail you there.
Uko is a solid weapon with a sick aftermath, you wont be disappointed with it especially if you have an aftemath TP set [C.rate+Multi].

B-More often than not, one can safely assume that most setups that includes WAR go there with the intention to Zerg things down so quickly.[Players want things done fast and without hassle] ergo GS comes to mind.

The real question is, can you still manage to do this without REMA on WAR? the answer is definitely Yes.
You basically have 2 non-REMA GS's that can do it with ease.

1-Montante+1
2-Raetic Algol +1

**Preforms best in Escha Zones and/or if you have a form of refresh

You can also check out the discussions in WAR forums and I'm 100% sure that Saevel can help a lot in that regard.



Here were things get tricky, I fail to see the stigma associated with DNC... I've played DNC since release and before fTP modifications and never faced an issue with going as DNC to almost anything.

Best guess is:

1-DNC is a very demanding job when it comes to preforming your best; therefore, many people shy away from it because it requires a lot of thinking and fast reactions to JA's [It is immune to Bandwagon].

2-Because of how its designed.. if you don't cut times of JA's spam you will hurt your DPS by quite a margin.
And for some reason I don't think you have that issue.

DNC is an excellent 1H DPS job, I personally think its the best between 1H in multi-skillchain approach and even in zerg if you use Terp-PK spam.

I dont want to step into the 2H realm and start comparing it to them, but based on my personal experience and after a zillion fight along side 2H jobs I think its a force to be reckoned with.
Many capped situations I was about 1-5% away from Top and in very few instances I get to beat them [usually with Grand Pas+ Trance]

DNC is essential to 3 Resi HELMs, its the fastest job to create TP without mele and can dish out insane damage by using /THF Sneak Attack and Climactic Flourish.


As of late, Twashtar is by far the best Off-Hand.

As for Main-Hand:

1-Aeneas/Twashtar is the best combination to use if going multi-skillchain route.

2-Terp/Twashtar is best in pure Zerg route spamming PK at 1k but Aeneas/Twashtar is very close to it.

3-In longer fights Twashtar/Aeneas is best by a good margin (5-7)% especially if you use AM3 TP C.Rate Set.

4- Twashtar/Taming Sari is best while /THF and focusing on forced crtical rudras in longer fights that requires no mele or needs huge spikes in DMG.

5-There is a creeping combination that might end up being the best DPS overall which is Twashtar/Raetic Dagger +1 in most situations.
It gets the lowest Delay possible with a very high TP generation rate and overflow.[I have yet to get my hands on that Raetic]


So in conclusion, the answer is yes you can with Twashtar Mainhand while you climb your way up to Aeneas since 3/5 scenarios require you to main hand it.
And you still get to use it as best offhand in 3/5 scenarios.

One last thing, many often forget or don't know how powerful DNC is in endgame content:

It can debuff enemy with -23% defense down the whole fight, lower its evasion by 44 and lower its magic evasion by 30.[it stacks with everything btw].
The real kick however is giving party 14% C.rate [every DD job will thank you for it!] and helping with heals in oh ***moments along side the amazing Haste Samba....

Since we will be spamming Dyna to make new weapons or upgrade the long list of REMA's [till the end of times]... Dancers will be needed more than ever to help alliance make things way easier for the sole reasons I mentioned above and the nerf to GEO Bubbles there.


Aside from NMs with dreadspikes/spikes or are strong to piercing You can safely clear everything there.
DNC is an excellent soloer with very high rate of survivability.. You can literally fight/recover forever with it ever since it was released.[Also Fan Dance is broken].

Both can clear effectively with one of them having more edge in survivability.

Dear Katriina,

I have a few questions for you.

Which Reisen HELM are we useful on? I’d like to know for future reference. I haven’t fought the HELMS there yet.

My other question is that I’m making my way towards Aeneas, just finished up with Sky Gods (as DNC, PK spamming) this weekend and I have Terp. Right now I’m using Terp/Capped Sari. I don’t have Twashatar yet. Do you happen to have the math on Terp/Aeneas and Aeneas/Terp? Is it better to use one or the other with Sari in the offhand? Or should I use both? Just wondering.

Is there such a thing as too much Store TP for a Terp DNC? For example, I’m currently using Brutal/Telos (don’t have Sherida yet). Should I replace Brutal with Dedition earring for now for my TP set?

Is it better to TP in Horos Casque+3 than a less than optimal Herc body? (Right now I have ACC/Attack DW 4 on it).

As a general side thought for Xelnok’s post, I often go DNC to many endgame events: Omen, Dyna, Escha. Depends really on the nature of the fight. Katriina is right on the money with Terp being a zerg weapon. I do really well in SR since the fights are so short. My issues with DNC in general is mainly that we really can’t make Light Skillchains with other classes easily. Exenerator to Kasha or Shark Bite to Kasha work for example, but DNC is better off closing skillhains due to our bonus. I usually don’t have problems getting invites to parties but the fact that I can only make Darkness with (PK/Rudra/Evis) our main skillchains is one thing you should probably be aware of before taking the plunge. I do think you should go for Twash. The job is worth it, but you really have to be willing to be flexible and sometimes sacrifice damage to help with other things.

Thank you all for the replies, they are precisely what I was looking for.

I'm going to make the Twashtar. I already have a nicely augmented Zulfiqar and Aganoshe which have been working out well, and allow me to do a bunch of stuff on warrior. A twashtar on the other hand will allow me to do so much more than I can now on dancer, (and honestly I started missing the job, I really enjoy the multilayered aspect of it.)

The sole reason that thinking about playing dancer is exciting to me, and I can't wait to gear it up again probably should have been a good indicator of what to make.

My current plan is to make the weapon, make a tp and then rudras cape, and work towards horos +3 body and feet, I'll probably need to wait until next month to gear it up decently though because empys are freaking expensive to make. (still hoping for a voidwatch campaign!)

Time to start murdering a bunch of low level nms again to catch up the dagger to the abyssea stage.

Edit: I just saw splendids post and tbh if I have to sacrifice some damage to play the job as it's meant to be played I won't have a problem with it. One reason I didn't pick it up when I came back is some people were saying by doing dancer things you effectively lower your dps because stepping is a dps loss. There was a post a bunch of pages back though that kind of made fun of that point of view, if I'm coming dancer I'm going to be coming for the jobs strengths, even if it keeps me off the top of the parse.

Greetings Splendid,

You raised interesting ideas and I went and tried your combinations because if I remember correctly this debate of Terp being an offhand was discussed way back in the day when AG came a long and nothing happened after that.

But first:
Good luck on your path to Aeonics Aeneas is an awesome dagger, its a really challenging trip if done the old classic way.


Basically Erinys, Onychophora and Teles require DNC for various reasons.

For Erinys:
You cant mele but you can land steps easily and when you sub THF and have these two macros ready you can clear it in no time every time you have TP.

Climactic Macro: [make sure you have at least one finishing move]
Line1: /attack <t> <wait1>
Line2: /ja "Climactic Flourish" <me> <Wait1>
Line3: /ws "Rudra Strom" <t> <Wait 1>
Line4: /attackoff

Sneak Attack Macro:
Line1: /attack <t> <wait1>
Line2: /ja "Sneak Attack" <me> <Wait1>
Line3: /ws "Rudra Strom" <t> <Wait 1>
Line4: /attackoff

Onychophora:

Same dependancy on spike DMG [forced critical rudras or PK spam] when the window opens depending on its stance. but you can also mele and you should not sc with other DDs.

For Teles:
She's extremely weak to piercing and because of her mechanics its best to kill her so fast with Forced Rudras as well.

Honoroble Mention:
Schah, more often than not I can kill adds very quickly [aside from Ashva,Ratha]
and Grand Pas + Trance on Schah under 25% makes a huge difference from observation.


Default recommended setup is Aeneas/Twashtar and assuming Rudra spam: 3965.074
When Terp in offhand: 3558.370
Thats a huge drop in total DPS.

Default recommended setup is Terp/Twashtar and assuming PK spam: 3614.465
When Aeneas in offhand: 3419.782
When Taming in Offhand: 3562.120

Taming is better than Aeneas in Offhand and only beaten when Twashtar offhand by 1.5%



The first part of the question could potentially start WW3, but Im team STP in TP sets and dont see any reason to say "too much STP"..

As of now Sherida/Telos combo is BiS for Terp TP I went on and switched between Brutal and Dedition:

With Sherida/Telos: 3614.465 [Default Set]
With Brutal/Telos: 3609.330
With Dedition/Telos: 3593.654

If for whatever reason you cant get Relic +3 you should at least change the augments on Herc body to STP and not DW4, you only need 1 DW in capped magic haste anyway if youre master.

But as of late Relic +3 body proved to be great even for Terp Dancers.

Exactly that! On a side note, I finished mine yesterday. Instantly getting more use out of relic shoes... >.>;;;

Anyone have a recommendation for what to burn Pellucid/Taupe stones on? I am up near 3000 of each now.

I vaguely remember that I was making Waltz hands before I left with Taupe (hoping for CHR+10 with enough Waltz potency).

Are either of them capable of seeing -4% DT?

Taupe Stones are great for 15DEX, 15STR, 15VIT, 3TA, 4WSD, 4C.DMG, 4DT Combinations [Could add 15CHR, Waltz Potency?]
I prefer them over Fern tbh

I'm stacked on Pell as well... no need for them except max acc/attk which is eh these days.[AF3, Relic 3..etc]