Because I Can
I recently regained the inspiration to keep doing dancer and found myself seeking at level 50 this afternoon when the following occcured:
{Party} {Do you Need it?}
{Yes, please}
can DNC tank?
I can try
okay come to the quicksand caves
You may note I didn't say "yes" to the tanking question. I had my doubts and I'm sure he did too. But eh, I've always been sort of curious if dancer can tank. I switched to DNC/WAR and went out to meet my fate.
Long story short, dancer can tank IT mobs, or at least can tank IT anticans and beetles.
The party setup was DNC (me), DRK, SAM, BRD, SMN, PUP. The DRK was very good, stunning ancient magic and the like. The PUP was using the whm frame and I got an occasional cure IV. The SAM was pulling, but he sucked at it and ate a lot of magic from blm antlions. The BRD did his bardy thing. The SMN spent most of the time AFK and the rest having his avatar melee and using random bloodpacts.
As for me, wow. Dancer tanking is intense. You still have to play dancer by debuffing and watching TP, but I also had to keep hate and not die. The not die part became tricky when I was taking 80-130 damage a hit with criticals over 200. The PUP was helping keep me alive but the SMN just wasn't. It took me a while to get used to taking so much damage so quickly and to balance dancer abilities with tanking duties. All in all, the party was actually great. We got an amazing amount of exp (ding 51) and I never died, and it was a lot of fun. It never really felt safe, but results are results, and everyone was pretty amazed I managed to pull tanking.
Because one short party instantly makes me an expert in a topic (hey, who's gunna know?) I wrote a quickie dancer guide at alla: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=19;mid=120329047361136021;num=0;page=1 . If anyone will read it and care is anyone's guess. I'm not sure *I* care. DNC tanking was fun but somewhat stressful. But at least if there aren't any tanks seeking I can offer myself now that I've proven it's possible.
I rejoined Shp's salvage group and had a run yesterday. I think there is one tonight and tomorrow as well. Lar seemed less than happy to see me, which was fair given an entry I wrote about her a while ago. I tried to apologise for what was said in that entry and, well, let's just say it didn't go well. I'd be willing to bury the hatchet, but I guess she's not. Now, granted, at this point I'm only sorry for the fact that I criticized her in public (wtf, people I know reading ereblog) - it's pretty obvious from the short conversation we had that the attitude clashes that caused me to blow up at her in the first place are still present. I don't particularly care if she doesn't want to forgive me; as far as I'm concerned, the matter is closed with my apology. I do owe Shp not to cause drama in his group though, so it would probably be easier if I just don't say a word to her during the salvage runs outside of what's necessary to complete the objectives.
Still no linkshell and not really thinking about applying. I'm debating transfering servers. It's not that I know anyone off Sylph, but with the speciacular fall that happened to SX my long-term plans have gone entirely to hell. Waiting for things to work themselves out is translating to just playing FFXI less (note the long delay between this entry and my last) so I should probably make up my mind soon.
{Party} {Do you Need it?}
{Yes, please}
can DNC tank?
I can try
okay come to the quicksand caves
You may note I didn't say "yes" to the tanking question. I had my doubts and I'm sure he did too. But eh, I've always been sort of curious if dancer can tank. I switched to DNC/WAR and went out to meet my fate.
Long story short, dancer can tank IT mobs, or at least can tank IT anticans and beetles.
The party setup was DNC (me), DRK, SAM, BRD, SMN, PUP. The DRK was very good, stunning ancient magic and the like. The PUP was using the whm frame and I got an occasional cure IV. The SAM was pulling, but he sucked at it and ate a lot of magic from blm antlions. The BRD did his bardy thing. The SMN spent most of the time AFK and the rest having his avatar melee and using random bloodpacts.
As for me, wow. Dancer tanking is intense. You still have to play dancer by debuffing and watching TP, but I also had to keep hate and not die. The not die part became tricky when I was taking 80-130 damage a hit with criticals over 200. The PUP was helping keep me alive but the SMN just wasn't. It took me a while to get used to taking so much damage so quickly and to balance dancer abilities with tanking duties. All in all, the party was actually great. We got an amazing amount of exp (ding 51) and I never died, and it was a lot of fun. It never really felt safe, but results are results, and everyone was pretty amazed I managed to pull tanking.
Because one short party instantly makes me an expert in a topic (hey, who's gunna know?) I wrote a quickie dancer guide at alla: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=19;mid=120329047361136021;num=0;page=1 . If anyone will read it and care is anyone's guess. I'm not sure *I* care. DNC tanking was fun but somewhat stressful. But at least if there aren't any tanks seeking I can offer myself now that I've proven it's possible.
I rejoined Shp's salvage group and had a run yesterday. I think there is one tonight and tomorrow as well. Lar seemed less than happy to see me, which was fair given an entry I wrote about her a while ago. I tried to apologise for what was said in that entry and, well, let's just say it didn't go well. I'd be willing to bury the hatchet, but I guess she's not. Now, granted, at this point I'm only sorry for the fact that I criticized her in public (wtf, people I know reading ereblog) - it's pretty obvious from the short conversation we had that the attitude clashes that caused me to blow up at her in the first place are still present. I don't particularly care if she doesn't want to forgive me; as far as I'm concerned, the matter is closed with my apology. I do owe Shp not to cause drama in his group though, so it would probably be easier if I just don't say a word to her during the salvage runs outside of what's necessary to complete the objectives.
Still no linkshell and not really thinking about applying. I'm debating transfering servers. It's not that I know anyone off Sylph, but with the speciacular fall that happened to SX my long-term plans have gone entirely to hell. Waiting for things to work themselves out is translating to just playing FFXI less (note the long delay between this entry and my last) so I should probably make up my mind soon.