Dancer Skill Set Rework?

[dw6561]

Hey guys, I had some interesting ideas for dances and Andrew suggested I make a new thread for it. So here you go. Remember though that these are just me brainstorming and it's not at all set in stone what the skills do or even if they are all included. This idea will turn dancers into decent close up units that can use punch art/other physical skills or their cloths without ignoring their own innate skills. Dance will no longer need mimic to follow up, and will no longer be as trolly/spammy as it is now. The idea with making them all 0 range is because I want them to have to stay in the action (which IMMEDIATELY makes me think of the new cloth ideas we made- Cashmere for initial protect/shell + auto potion sounds like a great dancer set up). Hopefully this also makes the AI actually STOP dancing lol.

Wiznaibus: 2-3 AoE, 0 Range (doesn't hit caster), retains current formula
Witch Hunt: Deals MP damage, 3 AoE, 0 Range
Dirty Dance: 2 AoE, Either deals 1 damage, or Target's current HP - 1 damage if it hits
Nameless Dance: Inflicts Darkness, DM, Slow, or Oil if it hits, 2 AoE (will need higher hit rate to compensate), 0 range
Square Dance: Jarbles the code, turning every unit into a crystal
Tap Dance: 3 AoE, 0 Range, 50% hit, Creates odd soundwaves, dispeling most positive statuses (what it includes can be discussed, however should at least cancel faith/innocent)
Swords Dance: 2 AoE, 0 Range, 5-6 CT, Dmg_[Weapon] (weapon elemental can be debated), Hit 50% (more jobs could use dance, but the 50% hit rate balances it. Basically, an elemental spin fist with concentrate + darkness. Synergizes very well with Dancer's PA and would definitely help with mitigating the effects of evasion for all units)
Ballet: 2 AoE, 0 Range, 100% add slow, ?? CT no persevere (only if haste 2/slow 2 go bye bye)
Foxtrot: 2 AoE, 0 Range, 100% add Haste, ?? CT no persevere (only if haste 2/slow 2 go bye bye, this may not seem balanced but it will help with the masamune issues. Plus, this skill set is a LOT more useful for physical units than Draw Out or time magic is, and it can be used on non-mages.)
Last Dance: Becomes instant, 2 AoE/0 range like the other new dances and loses persevere (Altima 2 will use return 2 like mad sometimes, so we MIGHT want to study how the AI uses this before implementing it.)

[Andrew]

Draw Out-like range would fix a lot of the issues with Dancer, since it would encourage the Dancer to move in, rather than hang back and not make good use of dat juicy base PA.  The skills would still be reoccurring, just like how Dance and Song currently are.  Some thoughts on the skills you posted:

spoiler: Wiznaibus

Would need a damage increase if it wants to compete with Swords Dance.

spoiler: Witch Hunt

Melt and Witch Hunt are the only sources of AoE MP damage.  I feel that Witch Hunt would need a minor MP damage boost for it to compete with Melt.

spoiler: Dirty Dance

Has the potential to be very powerful, especially against tanky units.  Would probably need a substantial MP cost and/or -1 AoE.

spoiler: Nameless Dance

I'm completely fine with this one.

spoiler: Square Dance

This could be really good against Piety spell gunners because of how much I hate them.

spoiler: Tap Dance

In addition to dispelling Faith/Innocent, I would love to see Tap Dance dispel Charging/Performing, since there's no AoE way to do so.  Would make the skill pretty unique.

spoiler: Swords Dance

I think 3-4 CT would be fine.  It's like Southern Cross, but has a larger AoE and a CT.

spoiler: Ballet

I'm not a fan of 2 AoE Slow, since it can really mess-up teams.  Maybe if it was only -25% instead, but eh.

spoiler: Foxtrot

2 AoE Haste is a little more tolerable than 2 AoE Slow, but still not a huge fan.

spoiler: Last Dance

The AI will be spammy with this skill regardless of what you do to it, since it's inflicting -100 CT.  I don't really know how to approach this one.

[Dokurider]

I'm going to reproposition this Wiznaibus idea I had and FDC refined:

Wiznaibus deals 10% curHP (that's current HP for the easily alarmed) damage. What this does is make Wiznaibus effective by itself but ineffective when stacked. Have some math:

1st: 100% HP * 90% = 90%
2nd: 90% HP * 90% =  81%
3rd: 72.9%
4th: 65.61%
5th: 59.049%
6th: 53.1441%
7th: 47.82969%
8th: 43.046721%

As you can see, it rapidly takes off HP initially, but falls off hard. This creates pressure on teams and has an effect without being directly lethal. It would also take ages for a Wiznaibus spam team to actually bring a team down, and most importantly, it is equally effective to all units, squishy or tough. So to summarize:

Wiznaibus: 0 Range, 255 AoE and Vertical, 6 CT, 5 MP, 100% Hit, 10% curHP + PA damage, Enemy Only

[Gaignun]

I would like to propose a slight change to Square Dance.

Square Dance: Turns every spellgunner into crystal. 255 AoE.


Edit: Now for something completely serious.  I like the idea behind the proposal in general, but I would like to offer a little critique.

Wiznaibus & Sword Dance
We should probably decide on one or the other.  Some might not realise this, but even the names of these two skills are similar.  Wiznaibus is a blind-idiot translation of With Knives in Japanese phonology.

Tap Dance
If this skill can be used to interrupt charging and performing, I propose we call it Slam Dance in honour of FFVI's human-loving, fast-talking, street-smart, SLAM-dancing moogle to highlight its disruptive properties.

Dance charging/performing & CT
Will these skills be performed with long CTs as before?  If so, I wonder how the AI will respond to this.  For example, if a Dancer winds up a 6 CT, 2 AoE Wiznaibus, will the AI treat the tiles around this Dancer as a dead zone?

[Malroth]

Wizanabus   AOE4 enemy only CT5   Fury based 3xPA,   Physicaly Evadable, triggers all reactions and supports as if it was a weapon attack  33% chance to inflict HP poison  Absorbs inflicted damage,  Undead reversal

Witch Hunt  AOE4  Enemy only CT4  Fury based 2xPA  Physicaly evadable triggers all reactions and supports as if it was a weapon attack 33% chance to inflict MP poison absorbs MP Absorbs inflicted MP damage  Undead reversal