Final Fantasy Tactics Dancer Guide Version 1.8 by Lucas "Strangevision" Gardner Use of this faq and all its contents is permitted as long as you notify me at strangevision@hotmail.com and give me credit for my own work. Changing or altering this faq in any way is prohibited. ================= Revision History ================= v1.2 overall polish of the faq. Added Q&A section plus more reccomended abilities. v1.3 polished. Added more abilities plus refined some of my reccomendations. Added another q&a. v1.4 polished. Added Ryozan Silk Weapon. Fixed Q&A #3. Updated credits list. v1.5 polished. Added an entire new section (VI.) v1.6 polished. Added an entire new section (VII.) v1.7,v1.8 added a new entry for (VII.) Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Q & A III. Move List (all rated * to *****) A. Action Abilities B. Reaction Abilities C. Move abilities IV. Suggested Equipment and Abilities V. Battle Tactics VI. Don't Mock Me! VII. Deadly Suggestions VIII. Closing IX. Credits ======================================= I. Introduction Welcome I hope you enjoy this guide to probably the best job class of Final Fantasy Tactics . The Dancer is restricted to females which you sent down the warrior path. Sending a male down the wizard path will eventually open the bard class to you (shudder) . The prerequisites for the dancer are a level four geomancer and level four lancer. The dancer disturbs enemies with her beguiling.....dances! Causing status abnormalities and strength handicaps, the dancer can tear up the battlefield. II. Q & A 1. Why the Dancer? A dancer is a mix of a knight class, oracle class, and the calculator class. Well maybe I should put it like this: The dancer is a mixture of power,status inflictions, and the ability to hit all enemies on the screen. And better yet she uses no MP. Think twice before you send all the women down the wizard path. Be sure to choose someone with high brave points in making a dancer. 2. The battles are taking forever ...... Yes, I know. The dancer takes her time and slowly but surely destroys her opponents. If it is too slow for your liking I have found Knights and Geomancers make good Dancers plus have high attack power. Archers and Monks make awful Dancers. (Note: Dance will be the secondary ability for the situations above if you did not know) . 3. Cashmere is fairly weak. Where can I find a better cloth? Ryozan Silk can be acquired only by poaching an enemy called Tiamant (Hydra Class). The armor secret clothes is located on the sixth floor of the Deep Dungeon (you might have to go down there to find a Tiamant as well) . Good Luck! 4. How many dancers do you reccommend? I have four but honestly two is all you need. Even one is a great addition since dancers are not very easy to acquire. 5. Does Haste speed up the time it takes for a Dancer to use her skill? No. Raising its speed or casting Haste has no effect. Magic Attack Up and accessories like a Bracer have no effects on a Dancer's moves either. Brave points are the only thing to raise the damage of a Dancer's skills. The speed of her skills will never change *unless* you change her job class. 6. Can you list the pros and cons of a dancer? Certainly! ===== Pros ===== Great abilities Good attack power Can hit all enemies on screen No MP required Great movement skills Better than a bard (yet so is a squire....) ===== Cons ===== Low defense Low evade% Some skills miss too often III. Move List ================== Action abilities ================== ** - Witch Hunt Jp needed - 100 Speed - 17 Witch hunt is one of the fastest abilities but also the lamest of abilities. Witch hunt siphons MP from your enemy but it does so in such small quantities this spell is not worth it. It works pretty good against summoners because they may need all their MP to cast a single spell. *** - Wiznaibus JP needed - 100 Speed - 17 Wiznaibus is a risky dance. It causes HP damage but does so in very small amounts. It is great if you have 2 dancers dancing Wiznaibus simultaneously. Otherwise, don't bother. A nice trick is if you let Ramza constantly cast Cheer Up on the dancers until they have 100 brave. ***** - Slow Dance Jp needed - 100 Speed - 13 Slow Dance is definitely one of my favorite abilities. It lowers all enemies speed and is fast as well. Mix this one with Nameless dance and you should have no problems in any situation. Plus this gives a speed demon like Orlandu the chance to do some powerful damage. If you have two dancers use this and gain some major experience points. **** - Polka Polka Jp needed - 100 Speed - 13 Polka Polka is a great ability. It is exactly like Slow Dance except it decreases strength instead of speed. If you are up against Knights or Archers this will save you. **** - Disillusion Jp needed - 100 Speed - 10 This skill is exactly like Polka Polka except it decreases magic power. Although this is a bit slower than Polka Polka, chances are that Summoners and pesky Time Mages are more of a threat that Knights and Monks. Combine this with Polka Polka if you have 2 dancers. ***** - Nameless Dance Jp needed - 100 Speed - 10 This is definitely one of the best skills in the game. This is what makes the Dancer what she is. It causes random status abnormalities on all enemies. If you only have one Dancer this is the skill for you. By the time you are done with the battle most of your enemies will be sleeping,silenced,confused, and poisoned frogs. Have fun! * - Last Dance Jp needed - 100 Speed - 5 This so-called ultimate dance really isn't what it should be. In theory it sounds great. It lowers your enemies CT count to 0 causing them to lose their turn. Easy victory,right? Not exactly. If it hits it is great but it almost always misses. Couple that with its slow speed and you have one awful skill. =================== Reaction Abilities =================== **** - A Save Jp needed - 550 The most expensive reaction ability for a Dancer is A Save. When hit by any attack you automatically raise your strength. While not so great for a Dancer, this ability is great for ninjas and knights. *** - Brave Up Jp needed - 500 While this ability is not as good as A Save, this ability does raise your strength slightly by raising your brave points. Again, not reccomended for Dancers. =================== Movement Abilities =================== *** - Jump+3 Jp needed - 1000 I know some of you are thinking "Only 3 stars! I love this ability." Well, I am not saying this ability is bad in any way but since the path of becoming a Dancer requires you to be a Lancer, you should have learned Ignore Height which is a much better skill. ***** - Fly Jp needed - 1200 This is the ability I have equipped on all four of my Dancers. Fly allows you to move over or across any obstacle(walls of castles, etc.) which is a great run away maneuver if the enemy gets too close. Until you learn Fly, Ignore Height or Teleport are a good substitutions. ======================================================================= IV. Suggested Abilities and equipment Abilities can be crucial for a dancer, since she is not the best melee attacker. Here is a look at my 4 dancer's abilities..... Command Ability : Dance (default) 2nd Command Ability: Steal (thief) , Time Magic (Time Mage) Reaction Ability: Abandon (ninja), Sunken State (Ninja) Support Ability: Equip Armor (knight), Defense Up (Oracle) Movement Ability: Fly (dancer), Ignore Height (Lancer) ....and her equipment Weapon: Ryozan Silk (cloth), Cashmere (cloth), Air Knife (No H Bags) Headgear: Crystal Helmet, Thief Hat Armor: Reflect Mail (auto-reflect), Black Costume Accessory: Salty Rage (always protect and shell), Angel Ring This is my reccomendations but if you find a more powerful cloth,for example, don't hesitate to equip it. If you do not have the accessory Salty Rage, substitute that for the Angel Ring or Germinas Boots (availible in shops). Also H Bag weapons may be powerful but are useless to a Dancer. They miss often and no character class, in my opinion, should ever equip a bag of any sort. As far my choice for abilities, I really do not think it gets any better. I chose the steal ability for safety reasons. If an enemy gets to close use the ability Steal Heart to charm them or you could steal their weapon making them powerless. Let your own style of playing influence you, however. Equip Armor gives you a HP bonus and Abandon increases your evasion property by a ton making surviving even the strongest blade swipe a cinch. The same goes for Sunken State as well. ======================================================================= V. Battle Tactics Below I list suggested battle formations with 4 dancers. If you are wandering what to do with Ramza make him a Samurai with a bard secondary ability(by no means should you make him a bard!!). Have him cast Kiyomori on Dancers who have no Salty Rage accessory and then either attack or sing a song of your choice. If you attack with Ramza, equip him with the 2-sword support ability. On these lists D1,D2, etc. stands for Dancer 1 and Dancer 2, etc. Tough, huh? When fighting wildlife...... D1: Polka Polka D2: Slow Dance D3: Nameless Dance D4: Wiznaibus When Knights come your way ...... D1: Polka Polka D2: Slow Dance D3: Nameless Dance D4: Last Dance or Slow Dance When wizards cast their spells...... D1: Disillusion D2: Disillusion D3: Witch Hunt (mainly for summoners) D4: Nameless Dance When all join forces..... D1: Nameless Dance D2: Nameless Dance D3: Slow Dance D4: Wiznaibus, Polka Polka, or Slow Dance Boss Fights...... D1: Wiznaibus D2: Wiznaibus D3: Wiznaibus Orlandu and Ramza For the boss of the game I reccomend 3 dancers stand 2 panels away from it and hit it with their cloths and for Orlandu to hit it with Holy Explosion or Lightning Stab. Ramza should cast Kiyomori and attack twice with two Kikuichimojis. Give him a Bracer as well. ======================================================================= VI. Don't Mock Me! Okay, I have been informed many times about using Mimes in conjunction with Dancers. With this mixture Dancers will surely hit the enemies repeatedly with their moves and prove more effective. Let's look at these scenarios. Scenario#1 : Enemies at a distance. You have two Dancers and two Mimes. A Dancer performs Nameless Dance and it is repeated twice by the Mimes. Your other Dancer performs Wiznaibus and it is also repeated twice. Total of Dances: 6 Scenario Grade: A+ Scenario#2: Enemies Close. Too close. Dancers attack with Ryozan Silk and punish the attackers. Mimes helplessly are attacked at the side. Mimes fall. Deaths: 2 Scenario Grade: F You see? I still stick with 4 normal Dancers with 100 Brave Points. The Mime path is also a great way to go as well. Take your pick. Choose wisely. ======================================================================= VII. Deadly Suggestions Look over the following Dancer ability suggestions if you want to be unstoppable and crush your opponents. Some of you may have a suggestion as well. Just e-mail me and I will post it for you. Full credit will be given. 1. Dancing Through Time Written by: Strangevision Command Ability: Dance (default) 2nd Command Ability: Time Magic (Time Mage) Reaction Ability: Critical Quick Support Ability: Two Hands (Samurai) Movement Ability: Float Explanation: With this you can float 1H over water or lava and begin dancing. No physical attackers will harm because of this you but wizards, etc. will. With Time Magic, you can cast reflect and remain virtually invincible against all magic. The Wiznaibus dance would be ideal for this situation. 2. You Can't Hurt What You Can't See! Written by: Janet Mccann Command Ability: Dance Reaction Ability: Sunken State Explanation: Give a dancer the ability Sunken State. Start Wiznaibus, then get hit. You can wait an infinite number of times, having your dances still affect and slowly draining your enemies, and never turn visible! Add four more dancers for even more fun! 3.Bow down to the goddess of math dancing and stone guns? Written by: Zero Zero Command Ability: Dance 2nd Command Ability: Math Reaction Ability: Blade Grasp (high Brave) Support Ability: Equip Gun Movement Ability: Teleport, Fly, Move+2 RHand: Stone Gun LHand: (none) Head: Ribbon Body: Rubber Costume/Secret Clothes Accessory: Chantage Explanation: This Dancer is almost invunerabnle to physical attacks (with the exception of Throw Stone for some strange reason), "You can't hit me 'cuz I caught your face dragon!", can attack (if required) from a distance for massive damage, cannot be afflicted with any negative status, can use any learned magic for FREE, and cannot die as a result of the perfume (well, that's permanently anyway). More coming soon. E-mail some suggestions! ======================================================================= VIII. Closing I hope you enjoyed my strategy on the Dancer job class. If you have any tips,corrections,questions,etc. e-mail me at strangevision@hotmail.com and I will give you a written reply within 2 days or less. Thank you! IX. Credits 1. Squaresoft for such a great game. 2. In game tutorials, even though they often put me to sleep. 3. Phillip for his many contributions and insights. 4. www.gamefaqs.com for its abundance of helpful material. 5. Rubyheart and Zop for their information involving Ryozan Silk. 6. Janet McCann and Zero Zero for sending in Deadly Suggestions (VII.) Copyright 2001 Lucas Gardner