Dancing can be a powerful form of expression, or just a way to let loose when nobody’s watching. However, Final Fantasy XIV’s Dancer is rather different: this new Shadowbringers job is all about dishing out damage from afar and cheering on your allies with some inspiring moves.
The new FFXIV job was announced at Tokyo Fan Fest 2019, where we were lucky enough to get a closer look at more of the new features and content coming with FFXIV: Shadowbringers release date. The Dancer is the second new FFXIV job to come with Shadowbringers, following the already-revealed FFXIV Gunbreaker job. Dancer will fulfil the Ranged DPS role, though it also offers some support skills. It will dual-wield two chakrams as its weapon of choice and it will most likely share ‘aiming’ gear alongside the Bard and Machinist jobs.
Now, once you’ve flicked through the Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers patch notes, it’s time to hit the dancefloor and round up everything you need to know about the Dancer job in Final Fantasy XIV. Based on what’s been announced so far, we have an overview of the new job’s abilities, a guide on how the Dancer job fits in the Final Fantasy canon. Let’s boogie!
How to unlock the Dancer job in Final Fantasy XIV
You will be able to acquire the Dancer job by visiting a trainer in the Limsa Lominsa Lower Docks. You’ll need to have at least one Disciple of War or Disciple of Magic job at level 60 in order to start the quest, however.
Your trainer will offer you some initial guidance on how to play Dancer, provide you with a weapon, and give you a set of armour to get you throwing your first set of shapes. Job quests will be available for the Dancer between the levels of 60 to 70, and then a final quest will unlock once you reach the new level cap of 80.
FFXIV Dancer skills and abilities
Now that we’ve had some time with the Dancer as part of our FF14 Shadowbringers impressions, we can give you a complete idea of how the job functions. Dancer will feature a balance of damage dealing and support skills that ensure it can dish out some serious punishment while also keeping allies pepped up. The Actions Overview page on the official game site has been updated to show the Dancer Job’s full abilities list, plus the updates to the rest of the game’s jobs.
Your main ability is to – yeah, you guessed it – dance. Activating either Standard Finish or Technical Finish will replace four of your skills with different dance steps of various colours. Depending on the Finish skill you’ve chosen, you’ll then need to match either two or four of these colours to perform a brief routine. Executing this then puts you into a state called Espirit which buffs your damage and enables you to earn extra resources to use on additional attacks.
One of these resources is Fourfold Feathers, which can be spent to pull off a single target or area of effect fan attack. These are on different cooldowns to your other abilities so you can weave them in to build up a lot of burst damage against opponents. In addition, you have one massive finisher that can only be used once enough Espirit has been built up by landing basic weaponskills. Reach the threshold and you can unleash a devastating torrent of blows on a group of close targets.
To help you gain these resources even quicker, you can also assign a party member as your Dance Partner in group activities. This chosen ally not only gains the Espirit effect when you activate it to buff their damage but their attacks can then contribute to building your Espirit value to activate that big finishing move.
MMOre like this: FFXIV is one of the best MMOs on PC
While you’re managing to keep your Espirit status active, you can also empower your Dance Partner and party members with a host of handy support skills. For the Dance Partner specifically, you can temporarily buff their critical hit and direct hit rates for a massive damage bump. Or you can share a heal with them to help the healer in a pinch. As for the entire party, there’s a damage protection effect you can trigger to lessen the impact of group-wide effects from bosses.
So, while Dancer may not be the pure healer job lots of players wanted to see from Shadowbringers, there is still a lot of room for you to fulfil a support role within the party while dishing out some serious damage.
Dancer will also have access to a number of Ranged DPS role actions. As these have seen a significant rework, you’ll no longer have to choose between a wide selection. Instead, they will be steadily unlocked as you level up. You’ll be able to have them on hand to interrupt enemy attacks, better manage your threat level, and much more.
FFXIV Dancer lore
Dancer has a rich history across the series since its first appearance in Final Fantasy V. Then it was a fairly weak melee job better suited to casting magical abilities and performing one of four random dances that offered a range of effects, from confusing enemies to draining their HP.
The job was more prominent in Final Fantasy X-2, though it existed under the name of Songstress in the 2003 sequel. By dancing or singing, the Songstress could apply different buffs to allies or nerfs to enemies, though it was unable to perform attacks itself.
Perhaps the most important version of the job in an MMO context is Dancer’s appearance in Final Fantasy XI. When the job was first rumoured to be coming to Final Fantasy XIV, its history as a support and healer led many to think that would be the same for Shadowbringers. Their competency at fighting, however, allows FFXIV Dancers to fulfil a damage and support role.
While tanks lick their lips at the prospect of playing as a Gunbreaker, healers must make do with White Mage, Scholar, and Astrologian for now. According to game director, Naoki Yoshida, the team would prefer to work on balancing the current healer roles instead of adding a new one.