DNC Merit Priorities?

I'm not usually fighting anything that casts and can kill me with magic.

Off topic:
Sorry if this has been already answered, but I do have one question regarding to DNC relic +2 legs. I can just macro it in when using Saber dance? or I have to have it on the whole Saber's dance duration?

Thanks!

I think you have to wear it during it :( I'm not sure though

D:

From what I understand, you can equip them at any point while Saber Dance is on to get the bonus.

Like Kallila said though, they only gives the effect when they're on.

but it still reduces the damage which is doing the same if not more than your 1 tic of regen between fights

Err.... If he were fighting something that used magic damage, he would move his MDT gear from the satchel to inventory before he engaged it.

SE hasn't really implemented random encounters in FFXI yet. You can predict what you're fighting pretty well. If you don't need MDT, you don't need MDT. If you don't need a heavy evasion build, you don't need a heavy evasion build. If you don't need PDT, you don't need PDT.

For instance, against nightmare monsters you need none of those things at the moment. No nightmare monster casts, they aren't very accurate, and there's no reason to pull a ton of them. Accuracy is capped naked and Flashed, so I don't need Step Acc. They nerfed AoE killing, so there's no point in bringing my AE build anymore.

In Salvage, the magic damage is laughable and I can (and frequently do) pull all the monsters in a room and tank them at once with Saber Dance/Haste Samba up. Evasion is capped naked, so I don't need that set. Accuracy is capped naked and Flashed, so I don't need Step Acc. I do start out with my AE build here for the lower floors, but then I switch to normal damage and put it back in my satchel.

I rarely Waltz in either of those situations (especially CHR gear), so I don't really need that set either, but when I do need to Waltz I like it to be as powerful as possible. Plus, I already have 15 free spaces. I don't really need much more free space. With my setup, I have space for 15 pieces (2 of my other sets). If I need AE, MDT, and PDT at the same time, I can move Regen or Waltz CHR pieces out of my inventory.

Magic Accuracy is another generally unnecessary set.

But byrth that requires thinking @.@;;;; I just want to grab my gear and go hit stuff :(

Story of my FFXI life... Hell, soon I'll have to stop leaving certain pieces in my satchel/sack when I change jobs or I'll run out of room all over again.

I have a billion tabs from potestas farming, so I usually get regen from the book outside valk before I enter, as a side note.

I don't suppose anyone has an up-to-date Status.xml resource file do they?

I've been trying to make it so I don't waste TP/FM and use Presto when I have 0 or 2 FM's (so I only need 2 steps to get 5FM), but apparently I need to update my status file (because Byrth's Spellcast says so!)

i just destroyed my xml on accident today, trying to make an extentorator set, lmao
;_;

i'm really not good with notepad

Heh, try these:

resources.xml - http://pastebin.com/anw4qp0B
status.xml - http://pastebin.com/YnmaPkrN

I changed both of them so they default to DNC main job durations (and added/changed a bunch of other durations for statustimer).

Just as a warning for anyone that starts using it, your Fanatic's timer will count down from 1 minute instead of up from 0.

Yay! It works now, much appreciated Byrth!

So, if i'm reading all this right some, then prior to AF3+2 legs then merit all 5 into NFR and drop it by one when at least having AF3+1 legs. I'm trying to rearange my merits here and have 3 into CP atm and just trying to figure out if i want to move all 3 into Saber to make it 4/5 for the time being (a 3 1/2 min CD). Almost hate to just leave a merit into CP when I'm hit capped for Abby but not rdy for VW yet. Ya I solo but not Abby NM's or Dynamis to any great extent (I can as long as I'm careful on picking my targets but still slow going)

So to sum up

Tier 1 is a no brainer.

Tier 2 I should do?

3/5 Saber or 4/5 Saber for the time being.
1/5 Fan as an Oh $#!* button
5/5 NFR
1/5 or 0/5 CP

So far I've done 1/5 SD, 1/5 FD, 3/5 NFR and 5/5 CP (though my dagger and evasion is still uncapped, I've been lazy :D)

When I get +2 legs and body, I'm going 5/5 SD, 1/5 FD, 4/5 NFR.

Ya, atm i'm dagger caped (minus one dagger merit) and 36 from evasion capped (no merits into it yet)

So far I'm pretty set on merits. 8/8 Dagger and 4/4 Evasion, though I'm meriting MND for my WHM/RDM/SCH while most of my mage jobs are on Hit, and my mule can get the most out of STR merits.

Otherwise, I'd be

15/15 HP
5/5 Enmity Increase
5/5 Critical Hit Rate
8/8(or is it 12 now? I forget) STR
8/8 Dagger
4/4 Eva
DNC merits I've already mentioned.


Also, that is an awesome avatar >_> MEW4LYFE! :D!

So I'm confused. What does haveing Etoile Tights +2 have to do with how many merits are in NFR?

Yeah I don't understand either how gear that augments merit abilities to behave differently would cause people to change the way they choose their augments.

"Enhances Saber Dance" is +1% minimum double attack per merit level.

I can't figure out if you are being sarcastic or not, so....What on those pants changes anything? Hmmm, answered my own questions, the FFXIAH search reveals Sylow's comment on the further augmented version, but Lillicarnage, I appreciate the information answer.

Reminding me that I still need to do the exp for my pants. :/

I apologize for the necro-bump but I didn't want to clutter the forum with a new topic for the same basic idea.

Stuck on Category II merits since they all changed since I deployed. Not had any meriting done since then so I've just left them:
Saber Dance 1
Fan Dance 5
NFR 2
Closed Position 2

The -25% recast on Waltz's seems too good to give up to me; am I just overvaluing it? I want Saber to 5/5 since +25% Samba Duration would be a significant improvement on TP conservation and time spent doing them. Even soloing NM's I sit in Saber until I get shadows wiped with more than 10sec on ANY shadows. But if I were to try and solo something like an Iron Giant wouldn't Fan 5/5 make a huge difference (obviously not on one that has en-amnesia lol).

NFR 2 seems fine. It + Presto = 5 steps. I don't have Relic +2's and I don't even HAVE any Relic aside head/body.

Closed Position just seems too good to give up. +3acc is meh but +3eva per merit seems pretty great when tanking. People pay a significant amount for pieces with +acc/eva... a "piece" without taking up a slot seems great.
Again, am I overvaluing?

Stuck between
5 Saber, 2 NFR, 2 CP, 1 Fan Dance
or 5 Saber, 2 BFR, 3 Fan Dance?
Or heck, 4 Saber, 1 Fan Dance, 5 NFR and say screw presto? lol.

Not played Dnc since last year and it makes me sad ; ;

Anything more than 1 point in FanDance is playing it too defensively and safe imo.

Worrying about Waltz recast is too defensive.

Solo/lowman stuff like Dyna/Assault/Abyssea/Salvage/Nyzul/Limbus anything doesnt need a dancer geared for 5/5 FanDance or Waltz Recast Gear or weilding a Phurba, etc.

I have full parry+evasion+dagger merits along with:
5/5 Haste Samba
5/5 Reverse Flourish
5/5 Closed position
4/5 SaberDance
1/5 FanDance

I also finished the augment trials on Etoile Toe Shoes and Tights +2 which complement my choices even further and love them, would never change my merits for anything else.
For nearly everything I do saberdance+Haste Samba is on 95+% of the time.

I never saw the appeal in no foot rise, Presto+BoxStep+BoxStep then ws @100 and reverse flourish to self skillchain happens so effortlessly+quick that NFR felt like a waste.

Anything you are fighting that wants you dead is going to kill you just as easily with 1/5 or 5/5 FanDance imo. Your DPS+TP gain in fandance comes to a crawl once you drop into fandance versus HasteSamba+SaberDance which just means your defensive play is dragging out how long you have to fight something which can be a bit iffy depending on what you are fighting.

Fandance is a 'oh crap im in red hp and need a buffer of time to waltz V back to full' move imo. Anything hitting you hard and often will most likely outpace your ability to keep yourself cured. I'd suggest another survival tactic like Desperate Flourish+Violent Flourish kiting when 'crap hits the fan dance'.

At the end of the day, your merit choices will ideally be based around what you are doing most of the time on your dancer, not some weird 'maybe' edge case for 1 or 2 NMs unless you enjoy redoing+regrinding merit points often. That being said, most of the time usually means not getting hit and focusing on your dps killing stuff, not waltzing or having fan dance on.

I use 4/5 NFR, 5/5 Saber, 1/5 Fan. Realistically I'm evasion capped against anything I fight on DNC anyway, so CP doesn't really benefit me and NFR is free FMs with an additional 20 TP thanks to AF2+2 augmented body.

Love the avatar! Pink hair :D!

Thanks for both the replies. I think I might drop NFR for now and go 5/5 Saber, 1/5 Fan 4/5 CP since I merited Eva/Parry anyhow. May as well play into it! :D

5/5 saber
4/5 no foot rise
1/5 fan

Don't look back.

Merit enhancements on saber and fan dance are pretty worthless, although saber's is slightly better. Regardless, 5/5 saber for the extra 5 double attack from etoile tights +2.

Closed position doesn't really do anything so forget that noise.

4/5 nfr because with af2+2 body it's basically a free WS every 3 minutes and we don't have anything better on which to use our merits.

Recently getting my 85 Twashtar I went 5/5 no foot rise so I could do the whole Climactic>Rudra's>NFR>Reverse>evisceration=darkness. Am I doing this wrong? A quick 4 step/RF with Bangles +2 test did not put me at 100 tp. I feel the need to keep fan dance as an "oh s**t" button and for kiting/pulling, so reluctantly went 4/5 on Saber Dance. How is everyone getting away with 4/5 NFR? Just thought: maybe augment Etoile Casaque +2? (which I don't have).