As I continue to lose myself in the world of Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion, writing guides on how new folks can get started and fighting terrifying raid bosses, I’ve also taken the time to experiment with new jobs. I followed my co-worker Mike Fahey’s lead and started the new Dancer job. And oh my god, I think I might have to give up “maining” my other damage-dealing classes. Naturally, this has caused me a lot of unnecessary guilt.
The Dancer is a new job to “Shadowbringers,” Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion. It’s a damage-dealing class that can attack at range and buff teammates. While I play a healer primarily, I have another character for damage jobs.
Recently, I levelled my character’s Samurai and Monk jobs to the max level of 80. Monk, frankly, needs fixes. It feels way too slow and lost a lot of fun abilities in “Shadowbringers” in an effort to streamline jobs. Samurai can do a ton of big, bursty damage attacks that I enjoy a lot, but it’s a selfish class.
You set up, do your big attacks, and repeat. Enjoyable, but not too dynamic. Dancer is astounding by comparison. Your attacks have a random chance of triggering combo chains that can then trigger even more abilities. It’s reactive. You need to see what abilities “proc” and react accordingly. And you need to periodically play a sort of DDR mini-game to keep your buffs up.
Even playing Dancer at early levels, I’m fairly certain I want to make it my main damage-dealing class. I’ll probably make the swap without too much guilt, but there is guilt nevertheless. I play on a role-playing server, and my regular damage character is a Monk narratively. There’s a certain strange obligation to keep that class at a high level and keep their Samurai skills sharp.
I’m also already at the max level for them. Do I really want to grind out Dancer to max, suffering through the randomly generated dungeons of Heaven on High in order to get fast experience? The last time I did that, I nearly died… although that was because I was apparently developing a lung infection without realising it. Go figure.
So this is where I stand: Dancer is amazing. It’s possibly one of the most fun and valuable classes in Final Fantasy XIV at the moment. Every second with it is a delight, but swapping means repeating a grinding process I’ve done twice already and abandoning playstyles that I’ve grown skillful at. That’s daunting, but I need to give myself the advice I’d give any Kotaku reader: “Play what is most fun for you, Heather.”
So I guess we’re back at it again in the Crystarium.
[/backflips, knocks down the nearest weapon shop sign]
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