Dancer Melding, Stat Priority, and Consumables — Dawntrail 7.1

This page covers a generalized priority system for substats pertaining to Dancer. In FFXIV, stats are in a tiering system, and tiers can increase at intervals wherein some amounts can provide no gain to damage dealt at all. Critical Hit scales quadratically, while Determination and Direct Hit scale linearly, but work together dynamically to provide gains to each other. Skill Speed is generally Dancer's least favored stat and should only be placed on gear to achieve specific speed thresholds where the rotation comes together cleanly.

Dancer's best-in-slot gear is located on our Dancer Best-in-Slot page. Some of the choices in the best-in-slot lists will differ from the generalized melding priority on this page simply due to the optimization of stat tiers.

The stat priority on Dancer is as follows:

1. Weapon Damage;
2. Dexterity;
3. Critical Hit;
4. Determination;
5. Direct Hit;
6. Skill Speed.

Weapon Damage and Dexterity will always have more of an effect on your damage than minor substat changes, and these should be prioritized ahead of them. Critical Hit is the substat you want to prioritize most, with Determination and Direct Hit being the next two as they are very close. Skill Speed should only be used if it allows you to reach a specific speed tier. Using anything more than suggested will cause alignment issues.

When melding on Dancer, the stat priority should be followed as listed above. When able to choose between Determination and Direct Hit, you should try to keep them relatively equal, prioritizing Determination.

As for Skill Speed, while gearing up and not BiS yet, favor pieces that don't have Skill Speed without dropping your item level to avoid it.

Potions in Final Fantasy XIV are fairly simple. You will always want to use the highest grade potion or tincture available that uses the main stat of your choses job. For Dancer, this means you will be looking for the highest grade Tincture of Dexterity available at the time.

Food is included alongside our BiS gear set, so if you are looking for information on which food to grab for Dancer, you will want to look at the Dancer Best-in-Slot page. Stats from food will affect stat tiers, so the best food is chosen based on the BiS gearset. If there is no BiS available, you will want to grab the highest item level food that contains Critical Hit, Direct Hit, or Determination while avoiding foods that boost Skill Speed or non-DPS stats.