Dancer Rotation, Openers, and Abilities - (Patch 6.5)

Final Fantasy XIV's Dancer is one of the easier jobs to play in the game, but that doesn't mean it's easy in every scenario. For casual content, a rotation is important but not essential to completing the fight. The more difficult the content, the more pertinent it becomes to learn and master the Dancer rotation.

Because the Dancer job is so heavily reliant on procs, it can be easy in content with few mechanics, but highly challenging in endgame fights where looking at the floor or looking for tells from the boss is imperative to your entire team's survival. Because of the proc-based combo the job heavily relies on, understanding the rotation is pretty simple, but mastering it can be difficult.

Dancers are a physical ranged job that act as a mix of damage and support. There are several mitigation skills, as well as some healing that makes the job one of the best supports as far as DPS jobs go, but with great responsibility comes great sacrifice. The maximum DPS output is one of the lowest for all DPS jobs, made up for by the support it offers.

This guide will cover the level 90 rotation with some tips and tricks on how to maximize your damage and manage your job gauge in order to get the most out of the job's kit. 

The basics of the Dancer job

The first thing Dancers should do when they enter content is to pick a dance partner by using Closed Position. There is a priority to who you choose for your partner which we will go over later in this guide. Whoever you choose as your dance partner is provided some of your buffs, including Devilment and Esprit, which comes from completing the Standard Step. You can also heal your dance partner directly with Curing Waltz, which will also heal those around you and your partner. 

Past dance partner, the rotation is centered around the Standard Step and the Technical Step, with other oGCDs weaved in between your combos. There are two different combos available for Dancers, one that focuses on a single target, and one that provides AoE damage. 

Dance partner priority

Different jobs have actions that will fill your Esprit Gauge faster than others, making it pertinent to pick a partner strategically based on their job and what their skills will do for you. Since your Esprit is shared with your dance partner, certain jobs are preferred over others. Here is a list from highest to lowest of which job is preferable to pick as a dance partner.

1. Samurai
2. Ninja
3. Reaper or Monk
4. Dragoon
5. Black Mage or Red Mage
6. Summoner
7. Machinist
8. Bard
9. Dancer

Healers and Tanks should almost never be chosen as your dance partner. Even if the other DPS is a Dancer, you should be partnering each other to maximize the amount of Esprit you earn.

Dancer's rotation

Because of the proc-based combos, Dancer has less of a traditional rotation and more of a priority system. For single targets, Cascade and Fountain are the one-two combo that also have a 50 percent chance of triggering Reverse Cascade and Fountainfall, respectively. Then, those two procs have a chance of triggering Fourfold Feather, which grants the ability to use Fan Dance. Fan Dance then has a chance of triggering Threefold Fan dance, which grants the ability to use Fan Dance III. Using any of the proc'd skills will not reset your combo, so you should use your proc'd skills as soon as they come up, depending on the situation. The exception is Fan Dance, which will be explained in full further in the guide.

The same is true of the AoE skills for Dancer. Bladeshower and Windmill have a 50 percent chance to proc Bloodshower or Rising Windmill respectively, and each of those have a chance to proc Fourfold Feather, which in addition to making the single-target Fan Dance available, will make the AoE version of Fan Dance proc, called Fan Dance II. 

Dancer's burst window

The only skills that are going to have a static position in the Dancer rotation are Standard Step, Technical Step, Devilment, and Flourish. After the opener, players should always start with the Technical Step, then Devilment, then Standard Step, and then Flourish. The moment you start your Technical Step, you've begun your burst window. These buttons combined with the feathers you'll have saved up will probably overwhelm you at first with how many skills are proc'd. Follow this priority in general, with tweaks based on your feathers or how high your Esprit Gauge is. 

1. Saber Dance
2. Tilllana
3. Reverse Cascade/Fountainfall or Bloodshower/Rising Windmill
4. Fan Dance III/IV
5. Cascade/Fountain or Bladeshower/Windmill

In between burst windows, do your one-two combo while building up feathers again. Use Shield Samba before raid-wides, and use heals when needed. Typically, many endgame Dancers don't use Improvisation very often because of the DPS loss, but it can be warranted when the boss is untargetable or your healers are struggling to keep people alive. 

Dancer opener

The Dancer's opener is pretty straightforward and doesn't have any variations like the rotation does. Below is the Dancer opener which begins 15 seconds before the fight begins, with the Tincture of Dexterity popped just before the fight starts at -1.5 seconds.

1. Standard Step (-15 seconds)
2. Peloton
3. Pot (-1.5 seconds)
4. Standard Finish
5. Technical Step
6. Technical Finish
7. Devilment
8. Starfall Dance
9. Flourish
10. Fan Dance III
11. Tillana
12. Fan Dance IV
13. Saber Dance (Fountainfall if Saber Dance hasn’t proc’d yet)
14. Dispel any additional feathers/Fan Dance III
15. Standard Step
16. Standard Finish

After the opener, players should continue using the one-two combo as well as the abilities as they proc using the priority listed above. The only exception to this is Fan Dance, which has it's own little mini-game in terms of when players should spend them.

Managing Fourfold Feathers and the Esprit Gauge

There are two resources Dancers need to keep track of when managing their rotations. Both mechanics are tucked into one gauge, but do very different things.

Esprit Gauge

The Esprit Gauge is represented by a yellow bar that fills from left to right, and a number under it. This Gauge can be filled when Esprit is active. Esprit is a buff gained when you finish your Standard or Technical Step. While under Esprit, you and your dance partner can fill the gauge by executing a weaponskill or casting a spell. Once you finish your first Standard Step, you should never run out of the Esprit buff if you are doing the rotation correctly.

Once the gauge hits 50 or more, you can use Saber Dance, the highest potency skill in the Dancer's kit. It is important not to let the gauge cap out. Doing so will disallow additional Esprit Gauge charge, delaying your next Saber Dance, resulting in a loss of DPS. The best practice is to use it as soon as it's up, although you may need to delay it if you're in a burst window and using your Standard Step, Technical Step, Devilment and Flourish. 

Fourfold Feathers

Fourfold Feathers are likely to be the biggest headache for a Dancer if they're trying to use them correctly. These are commonly referred to as just "feathers", indicated by a little feather poking out from the top of the gauge. Players can hold up to four feathers at a time. Unlike the Esprit Gauge, it is actually recommended that you hold four feathers at all times if possible so that you have all four going into your burst window.

Once you have four feathers built up, a common practice among Dancers is to hold all four of them until a proc that could give a feather comes up. For example, in a single-target encounter, if you have four feathers, you'll want to hold them until Reverse Cascade or Fountainfall become available. Once either of those comes up, spend a feather, then press your proc, and hopefully it will give you another feather, bringing your total back to four. 

Some Dancers prefer to consider themselves lucky and will spend that feather close to the Tech Step window, and others will hold onto both the feather and the Reverse Cascade/Fountainfall proc for the burst window. I personally hold my feathers when the Tech Step counter hits less than 20 seconds in order to have all of my feathers for a burst window. 

Dancer Tips

 There are a few oGCD skills that can be used as party buffs and heals. Weaving these in between your GCDs can be the difference between a wipe and a near wipe. There are four main ones:

• Shield Samba: Provides a 10 percent damage reduction to you and nearby players.
• Improvisation/Improvised Finish: Grants a healing-over-time effect, and grants Improvised Finish which absorbs damage based on how long the Improvisation skill was used for up to a 10 percent reduction. Players should only use this skill when the boss is untargetable or it will prevent a party wipe. Otherwise, the amount of time spent using the skill will result in a massive loss of DPS, which could cause your party to see enrage or fail a DPS check.
• Second Wind: A personal heal has a Cure Potency of 500.
• Curing Waltz: Heals you, your dance partner, and anyone around both you and your dance partner wit a Cure Potency of 300.

All that's left to do now is practice, so find your nearest training dummy to give the rotation a try. For Dancers, it's best to have a friend also training on the dummy to see how to weave in Saber Dance and test out weaving in some party buffs.