The Last Dance III: A Dancer's Guide *New*

My grep adventures revealed that I was on DNC with a Stardiver DRG exactly once since Stardiver's release and we were fighting different monsters. Apparently I used to go BLM or SCH to a lot of events and basically used DNC for farming stuff solo.

For a top tier Rudra set are there any more options other than the herc pieces listed, for head feet and body?

For those of you using Herc in those slots, what augs do you have on them?

I’ve yet to get any decent dm augs.

Cheers

this is my Climactic Rudra's set.

sets.precast.WS.Critical= {ammo="Charis Feather",
head="Maculele Tiara +1",
body="Meg. Cuirie +2",
hands="Maxixi Bangles +3",
legs={ name="Horos Tights +3", augments={'Enhances "Saber Dance" effect',}},
feet={ name="Herculean Boots", augments={'Accuracy+11','Weapon skill damage +5%','DEX+6',}},
neck="Etoile Gorget +1",
waist="Grunfeld rope",
left_ear="Sherida earring",
right_ear="Ishvara Earring",
left_ring="Begrudging Ring",
right_ring="Regal Ring",
back={ name="Senuna's Mantle", augments={'DEX+20','Accuracy+20 Attack+20','Weapon skill damage +10%',}},
}

not top of the line but getting there

Yeah I'm also using Maculele Tiara +1 in my climactic set.

For my stand alone Rudra set the pieces I'm wondering about is all the herc stuff, because I hate throwing stones at it for crap augs and there are 3 pieces to try and get good augs on.

Head, body and feet. Though I'm using Meg. Cuirie +2 atm for body and lustra +1 for feet. At what +wsd lvl would herc be better in the body and feet slot over what I'm currently using?

This set is from byrth's set inside the beta_examples_and_information folder in the gearswap folder

sets.WS["Rudra's Storm"][0] = {
ammo="Charis Feather",
head="Lustratio Cap +1",
body={ name="Herculean Vest", augments={'Accuracy+21','Crit. hit damage +5%','DEX+9',}},
hands=wsd_hands,
legs="Lustratio Subligar +1",
feet="Lustratio Leggings +1",
neck="Caro Necklace",
waist="Grunfeld Rope",
left_ear="Mache earring +1",
right_ear="Ishvara earring",
left_ring="Ramuh Ring +1",
right_ring="Ilabrat Ring",
back={ name="Senuna's Mantle", augments={'DEX+20','Accuracy+20 Attack+20','DEX+10','Weapon skill damage +10%',}},
}

Rudra’s you basically want all the WSD then DEX and Attack you can get. So herc augments is what you want.

Maculele Tiara is a must for Climactic Rudra's. It basically undoes the Rudra's fTP nerf.

And is the best contender for the WSdmg+10% piece in the +3... whenever that happens.

Finished my first REMA this week, my Twashtar for DNC, and was wondering if the thing in the guide about /war and Airy Buckler is still a good option? Or is it situational? Unaugmented, but still the best dagger I have right now; don't have Tauret done yet

Single wielding Twashtar should still be good if you can get capped magic haste and you wont need to use fan dance.

Weird post incomming, I like to screw around with niche things. I don't think DNC's have used H2H since the 75 cap days, but since we are on Karambit, I decided to throw some sets together to see what kind of random fun I can have with them.

DNC/MNK
ItemSet 375141
mostly nothing changes to this set, as /mnk gives us all the Martial arts we need (actually a bit too much), but does require us to full time Haste Samba.
Delay 132 (2.20 seconds)
TP/Hit 110.0 (10 hit build w/o WS)
WS available: Combo, Shoulder Tackle, Backhand Blow, Spinning attack, One Inch Punch, Raging Fists, Tornado Kick.

DNC/SAM
ItemSet 375142
Mache earrings +1, and swap into a STP ring (gain 1 hit/round take off if you know you'll get SAM roll)
Also still requires full time Haste Samba
Delay 134.9 (2.25 seconds)
TP/Hit 144.0 (7 hit build w/o WS)
WS available: Combo, Shoulder Tackle, Backhand Blow, Spinning attack, Asuran Fists.

So I'm debating on /SAM and spamming asuran, with building flourish, or maybe doing /MNK spamming raging with striking flourish? The delays are almost identical, its just the hit build that changes, but is completely negated by a Sams roll.
Also havent even thought about how to gear up the WS sets for those, or any H2H ws if anyone has ny input into that.

edit: Tornado kick could be interesting, as well as Climatic Backhand Blow.

Climactic Backhand Blow? I think you confused something here. You dont force crit with CF on WSs that has change to crit (unless its also some super high fTP on 1st hit WS, but BB is not).

Climactic RF could be neat, other than for lols though really even super mediocre tauret is going to be significantly better

your right, you would probally want to Climatic on Tornado kick.

Isnt h2h good for main healing tho if thats strickly what your doing?

Actually not really and not really. No h2h WS are really good for CF after update to h2h WSs. They are all about replicating fTP and MA proc to increase numbers of hits. CF only force a crit on 1st hit of the WS, which doesnt mix well with h2h WSs. Before the update RF had like 9+ fTP on first hit (or something like that) and fTP was not replicated. That past RF would be good for CF at 3000TP. I think currently the highest fTP is on 3000TP Howling Fist, but its still low for CF purpose. The best Flourish III for H2H WSs is probably Striking Flourish with Af3+1 body.

Wouldn't Ternary Flourish or maybe Striking Flourish, if the crit works on h2h WS, be a better choice for Tornado Kick? Since it would make the WS a 6-fold attack of 16.8 ftp (at 2000tp).

Deciding on making a terp, and as I look through the TP gear sets, for people with terp do they really stay in malignance through all levels of magic haste/dual wield to cap? or are those just listed as options to use?

Not sure what you asking, but if you mean if using 5/5 Malignance with AM3 set and uncapped magic haste is better than swapping some piece to more DW to hit 80% delay reduction cap, then probably swapping to DW is better.

that being said I think Tier with 15% magic haste and haste samba is wrong. You need 25%DW, not 13% imo. I would probably get that with Af+3 head, 10DW cape, Reiki Yotai.

I still use relic +3 feet even in malignance set, they are just too good.

Thanks for the response, this did answer my question!

Totally agree, I am currently working on my DNC cause it's very active and fun to play.

You don't quit FFXI, FFXI quits you...

I am back, have read the last 12 pages to try and refresh my memory. Max DPS set seems unchanged from what I had when I left, outside of a buy'able ammo, buyable earring, and 1 Odin Ring?

People won't shut up about Malignance gear, but it doesn't really seem to be more than a niche piece for Dnc. Don't get me wrong, I would love to clear up ~20 inventory spaces with 5, and update all of my ACC/DT/Haste combo sets, so I'll be farming those.

Any Dnc solo strategies worth discussing? I'll browse the Lileth thread shortly, but the first 3 pages so far have been people arguing what 'solo' means.

Most importantly, does anyone have an up to date, non-bastardized DPS sheet? I have mine from 1.5 years ago, but I believe Tauret's Evis damage was still being debated at that time, and I manually forced it. Maybe I can find it on my PC and add the new gear manually.

Lastly... I read the discussions about /Drg update, but it sounded like you concluded /Sam was still king for non-Terp owners?

Malignance is absolutely necessary. Its borderline broken.

If you have DNC you probabaly have THF. Darkness SCs heal her first form so I've never taken DNC to that fight.

Malignance is about as far from niche as you can get. Meva is king, staying alive is king, and on top of that it has insane offensive stats. If you like to use sword dance, it makes it even better, if you have a terp its a no brainer. Before malignance THF/DNC had atrocious "hybrid" gear, you either had to pick turms which had no DT and mostly "eh" offensive stats, or meghanada / mummu legs which has poor meva. I would kill to have malignance on RUN or BRD.

Farming her sucks hard but in the end its worth it and can be used on tons of jobs.

In response to the Malig in AM3, no, but you also forget that a lot of DW gear is not just in the main 5 pieces of visible armor, a 10 DW back, Reiki yotai, suppa, ebani, the JSE neck, and if you REALLY still need DW swap out the head for the artifact.

Example:No Magic Haste:
Haste Samba/No Haste

I went back 4 pages to the March posts, but didn't see it mentioned. For those of us who Solo and SC often, the Augmented Warder's Charm with +15% SkillChain Damage... it sounds like a lot on paper, but in practice does it beat out our Aug'd +2 necklace?
At one point, I know my lua had a 'skillchain pending' code/ability, but I think it's been snipped by now.

Is Multi Attack, the only thing that matters for Jump/High Jump as /DRG? Anyone have a set to share? I can stack all my MA gear, just wasn't sure if Str/Dex/Att factored in at all?

I got 3 pieces of Malignance so far. For anyone who cares my personal DPS drops are ranked as such: (Using BIS Max Haste, /Sam, Solo w/Trusts)
Horos Body -> Malignance is the smallest dps lost
Head next, Hands, Legs, and finally feet. (Assuming Closed position merits/facing mob)

If you're into tiered DT sets like I am, this is the order in which I would start swapping them. BIS + Loricate/D.Ring/Vocane(23%) with Horos Body for 29%, will out DPS full Malignance, even in your Hybrid sets, of course assuming Acc and MagEva aren't required to survive.

I have my Hybrid Sets in 4 tiers, so tonight I was min/maxing each tier and this is what I personally found.

Skillchain damage gear is rarely worth sacrificing for since the skillchain damage formula is mostly just multiplying your closing WS's damage so trading in gear that could have produced higher WS damage also lowers your SC damage If for example that neck boosts your ws average by 10% that also boosts the SC damage by about 10% and when you add them together in most cases that will be far more than just the 15% to skillchain would do especially since you already have a lot of skillchain damage trait and damage cap is especially easy for dnc to run into on skillchains.

Jump and High Jump are mostly each just a normal attack rounds subject to store tp, multi attack, acc/att/str/dex etc. but not subject to attack speed concerns so dw gear is especially bad since it lowers tp per hit while doing nothing positive for jumps.

Other jobs have access to jump tp gear which provides extra tp subject to store tp (the bonus is once per jump, as long as you land a hit)

Jump also gets a damage multiplier based on VIT but its usually far less important than maximizing tp return. It is (1 + VIT/256)

Without special jump tp gear and assuming you are fully hasted you don't really benefit much from jump in extended fights since it ends up blocking a normal attack round unless you use it while engaging/switching targets or timing between attack rounds if slowed/weakened. High jump is used for dropping hate.

Just piggy backing on everyone else...Malignance is probably the single most broken set of gear and is 1000% worth the time to farm it.

Easiest/simplest way to farm is to go on THF with trusts. Super brain dead/barely have to pay attention way is to do VE and spam evisceration. Have fun doing 200 runs to get your set.

E has a better (slightly) drop rate but also has spikes/charm to deal with. I personally did E On THF with left over DNC gear and did the “gyve method”. Basically engage her until she spawns a gyve, switch to it, TP on it, and spam evisceration on Lilith. Still need to turn for the charm gaze depending on how you position but it’s a pretty high win rate once you figure it out.

Good luck farming.

People seem to be awfully offended by the term Niche. I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. Niche doesn't mean bad, it means it has a more specific focus, than other gear sets that are more universal.
MagEva is wonderful, and as a person who has carried a full Turms set, on top of a full -DT/HP set, 2 more tiered hybrid DT sets, and 4 tiered accuracy sets on top of those for years now... I appreciate the value (and space and simplicity) that Malignance will offer to my lua. Trust me.

My point was that, it's just a macro swap for when you specifically need to max MagEva. That comes often enough I suppose, which is why I have the macro/sets to do it, but for everything in between 'full MagEva' and 'Full DD' it's more effective to use DD gear, with -DT accessories, than to swap Malignance in. Dnc doesn't run into Acc issues very often, we already had access to Turms and ways to cap -DT, so Malignance really just seems like a QOL change more than anything.

It's obviously great for Terp owners. I am not one of those. Perhaps it's just the way I use Dnc, or as a returning player, maybe I'm just ignorant to the events where people are riding Max Mag Eva for entire events?

It's an upgrade to Turms, undoubtedly better in every way. I just don't find myself in full Turms very often, or for long enough to feel that it has much of a dramatic effect on the way I play Dnc. I do use Turms on every Ninja in dynamis and have seen 2 rogue Majin's kill everyone in my party but me because of it, so I love the utility. But unless you were dying to something in turms, and surviving that same ability in Malignance... it seems like an upgrade, but not changing anything.

It's FFXI, so either min/max or GTFO, I get it. I went 0/24 solo'ing Lileth on VE. Failed multiple E runs, and then yesterday a friend helped me out, and I got Head, Hands, and Feet in 3 back to back to back runs. I'll keep working on the other 2 this weekend, I already got Gere and Orb+1. Balder+1 doesn't beat Brutal in my opinion or in my DPS sheets, so I skipped it.

I just started looking into Odyssey and was trying to see what, if any, augments were worth it for Dnc. Seems the accessories are the only interesting options, for tanking Loricate, Odnowa... but what really caught my eye was the 200HP on Unmoving Collar. Odnowa's 3% DT, allows me to keep Horos Body on instead of Malignance and stay at the cap, or keep Maligance and swap Flume belt for Windbuffet, which looks to math out ahead.

Are there any Odyssey augments you guys feel are worth it for Dnc? I haven't entered yet, is this something you can do/farm/win solo with trusts on Dnc?

Kentarch +1 R15 is the new best Rudra belt. Uhhh, off the top of my head that’s the main odyssey aug item DNC would go after I think but I may be missing something.