The Dancer was designed -- and this comes from the mouths of the job class director, Mitsutoshi Gondai -- to be a front-line healer. Anyone who would debate this probably hasn't heard that the gross majority of the Dancer's moves require TP, but not as much as you probably thought. If you didn't know, you might have thought that for every major spell a Dancer uses in its support role, a 100% TP (or more) might be needed. That's not the case. Some moves (usually Tier I versions of DNC spells) require as little as 10TP to activate, while more powerful versions of these moves (like a Bard's II, III, IV songs) require greater amounts of TP. Some moves, though, don't cost any TP whatsoever, making them free. But Dancer abilities are organized by styles, like Sambas, Waltzes, Jigs and Steps, each with their own inherent abilities, like a Red Mage's spells, which are grouped into enhancing magic, enfeebling magic, etc. Let's take a look at what makes Dancers so fleet of foot.
Trance -- This is the Dancer's two-hour move; it lowers the TP cost of dances, and reduces the number of 'steps' needed to zero.
Sambas -- These dances imbue melee attacks with special enhancements. Here we will list the Samba moves and their effects.
Drain Samba: (TP cost, 10) Casts Drain Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle drains the enemy's HP. Drain Samba II costs 25TP.
Aspir Samba: (TP cost, 10) Casts Aspir Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle drains the enemy's MP. Aspir Samba II costs 25TP.
Haste Samba: (TP cost, 35) Casts Haste Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle gain Haste. There is no tier II version of this spell
Waltzes -- These dance moves cure and remove ailments from party members. Here we will list the Waltz moves and their effects.
Curing Waltz: (TP cost, 20) Restore a party member's HP. Curing Waltz II costs 35TP. Curing Waltz III costs 50TP.
Healing Waltz: (TP cost, 20) Removes one magic-induced ailment from a party member. This is most similar to the White Mage spell, Erase, but since it's specific to a 'magic-induced ailment,' it probably won't remove physically-inflicted enfeebles, like Slow. There is no tier II version of this dance.
Divine Waltz: (TP cost, 40) This Waltz heals party members HP, essentially a Curaga spell. It is unknown how much enmity using any of these curative oves generates.
Jigs -- These dances enhances your own abilities. Here we will list the Jigs dances and their effects.
Spectral Jig: (TP cost, 0) Allows you to evade detection by enemies that detect by either sight or sound. Essentially this casts both Sneak and Invisible on yourself, at zero MP or TP cost. Unlikely to be effective in avoiding detection by mobs with True Sight, however.
Chocobo Jig: (TP cost, 0) Increases the Dancer's movement speed (as in running, not attacking). When questioned about the actual speed increase, Mitsutoshi Gondai informed us that Chocobo Jig has the same speed effect (on the player alone) as Chocobo Mazurka, and not Raptor Mazurka as we originally suspected.
Steps -- These dances enfeeble enemies while granting access to 'finishing moves.' Here we will list the Steps and their effects.
Quickstep: (TP cost, 10) Lowers target's evasion. If successful, you will earn a finishing move.
Box Step: (TP cost, 10) Lowers target's defense. If successful, you will earn a finishing move.
Stutter Step: (TP cost, 10) Lower target's magic resistance. If successful, you will earn a finishing move.
Flourishes -- There are two tiers to the Flourish category. These are powerful dance steps that can only be used after earning 'finishing moves,' which are basically function -- on a small scale -- like TP. You connect with a particular dance move, you earn a finishing move. Spend your finishing moves on Flourishes. Here we will list the various tier I Flourishes and their effects.
Animated Flourish: Provokes the target. Requires at least one finishing move.
Desperate Flourish: Weighs down a target with a low success rate. Requires at least one finishing move.
Violent Flourish: Stuns the target. Requires at least one finishing move.
Flourish II -- Here we will list the various tier II Flourishes and their effects.
Reverse Flourish: Converts remaining moves into TP. Requires at least one finishing move.
Building Flourish: Enhances the potency of the next weapon skill. Requires at least one finishing move.
Wild Flourish: Readies the target for a skillchain. Requires at least two finishing move. How this flourish 'readies' the target is unknown, but could mean many things, like it stuns the target to prevent it from moving, binds it, lowers its elemental resistance, adds a non-DOT Dia effect, lowering its defense (although that is achieved already via two separate 'steps').
The Dancer's weapon proficiency lies with the dagger, which is appropriate since these weapons have the lowest delay, making for relatively quick TP build-up, especially if a Ninja sub isn't used (in favor of, say, a White Mage sub). As the Dancer's moves don't use any MP to cast -- by design -- the dev team sees this as a solution to the number of dwindling healers, since a good majority of the players out there have by now leveled WHM to at least 37 for support job purposes. Now low-level parties in the Valkurm Dunes (or in the Wings of the Goddess expansion) that can't find a WHM can just invite a Dancer, who will change the dynamic of leveling parties significantly. Instead of the usual melee up front while the WHM lingers in the back setup, now a party of six damage dealers can all be fighting at once, Dancer right in the thick of things, keeping Curaga-like moves activating when necessary
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Dancer Solo-SC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKE_r58yX_M
