Who would you make a dancer?

[Erinyes]

I'm currently doing my second playthrough of Blue Lions because I just love that house so much. I'm at the moment where I have to choose a dancer. I recruited Dorothea specifically to become a dancer since it feels 'canonical' and also because I felt bad for letting her rot on the bench in my first BL playthrough. Before I actually commit, I thought about what other candidates I could use instead. After some time, I think I'm going to settle with Dorothea.

This might come off as controversial, but I honestly believe that making your healer or high utility unit a dancer is overrated. The point of having a dancer is to give your other units a second action at the expense of your dancer's turn. Stave users, or in this case faith magic users, has a utility that's entirely different from dancer utility. If you make your only rescue unit a dancer then in the long-term you're going to be put in a dilemma of either dancing or rescuing another unit. By making your benchwarmer a dancer, you don't really run into this dilemma, in fact, you basically get another rescue.

This may not be a perfect example, but my point is that stave utility doesn't complement dancer utility, at least in Three Houses since magic is exclusive individually. I think this is why most dancers are designed to have terrible stats. Your dancers don't need to fulfill any niche besides dancing. I mean, if your dancers can warp your boss killer into the boss room or if they can one-shot every inconvenient unit in the game, then what's the point of giving them dancer utility?

Of course, this is just my analysis of dancers. This doesn't apply as well compared to other games since in FE3 and FE12 the game gives you a staff that gives you dance utility.

I'd like to know what other people think and why they choose what unit to make as their dancer. Part of the reason I made this was because I read that some people made Flayn their dancer. Admittedly, I did this too, which is why I don't like making healers dancers.

And feel free to tell me if I missed any characters.

Edited August 16, 2019 by Erinyes

[DragonFlames]

I picked Annette on my first playthrough of Blue Lions, because she basically volunteered and I couldn't bring myself to say no. I didn't end up using the class at all, though.
In my first Black Eagles playthrough, I picked Petra, but again, not because I wanted to make use of the class, but for the skills it offered. Sword Dance is a pretty good combat art and Sword Avo +20 is pretty good on Petra if you keep her in a sword-using class like Assassin or Swordmaster (which I did on that particular run).
In my Golden Deer playthrough, I made Flayn a Dancer and used her as one for a bit, but after a while, I switched her back to Priest, then Bishop, because she was much more useful using Fortify and Rescue.

Hence, my vote goes to Petra due to her natural sword affinity. She can make the best use of the class skills you get as soon as you win the dance contest. The class itself is kinda... eh in Three Houses. I haven't gotten much use out of it in my three playthroughs so far.

[Humanoid]

Playing as Golden Deer, I went for Lorenz because he was completely useless otherwise. No idea if that'd salvage him, since I only did it last night as the last thing I did before bed. The pick was uncontested because my other useless unit, Ignatz, had 7 charm whereas Lorenz had exactly 13. I had recruited Dorothea earlier that chapter so I suppose she'd have been the fallback option if Lorenz was not possible, my only two other recruits are Ingrid and Petra who are way too useful as my flying corps. Claude might have been an option because mine kinda sucks too.

[Erinyes]

7 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

I picked Annette on my first playthrough of Blue Lions, because she basically volunteered and I couldn't bring myself to say no. I didn't end up using the class at all, though.
In my first Black Eagles playthrough, I picked Petra, but again, not because I wanted to make use of the class, but for the skills it offered. Sword Dance is a pretty good combat art and Sword Avo +20 is pretty good on Petra if you keep her in a sword-using class like Assassin or Swordmaster (which I did on that particular run).
In my Golden Deer playthrough, I made Flayn a Dancer and used her as one for a bit, but after a while, I switched her back to Priest, then Bishop, because she was much more useful using Fortify and Rescue.

Hence, my vote goes to Petra due to her natural sword affinity. She can make the best use of the class skills you get as soon as you win the dance contest. The class itself is kinda... eh in Three Houses. I haven't gotten much use out of it in my three playthroughs so far.

I never considered the Dancer combat arts and abilities since it gets in the way of dancing utility so I didn't consider the practicalities. I might consider doing that in my second BL run.

I do agree that dancers are less useful in Three Houses since, at least in BL, is pretty easy. The game gives you way too many resources, especially in boss kill chapters.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

I went with Dorothea. It's one of her canon classes, and she's not really stellar as a mage anyway to be honest. She has not much utility, and can't really nab OHKOs with Meteor or whatever. Occasional 1-3 Thoron was basically her selling point, and she could still perform that function as a Dancer.

I don't think Flayn as Dancer is a bad idea at all. Every house already comes with a character who will be your main healer anyway, and going into Dancer doesn't prevent her from using Rescue at all. You can argue that if you make someone else a Dancer you can do double Rescue or something, but you can make this argument about pretty much every mage that has any form of utility.

I hear people say that Marianne might be hands down the best Dancer candidate in the whole game, but I haven't done it yet myself. She has a somewhat mediocre Reason spell list to begin with (only Thoron is really that good, like Dorothea), and her main utility from Faith is Physic (someone else can heal) and Silence (not needed every turn). She can abuse Swords well, though, especially with Blutgang and Soulblade, or just the Levin Sword.

[Garlyle]

So far I only used Marianne as a dancer in my Deer, and also in my Lions run. It feels like the role fits for her perfectly, because it let's her keep her magic skill and also gives some help with swords as well. Her Charm is also high enough to make her into a dancer without any issue.

The other one I'd consider a good candidate is Dorothea. I haven't made a good Dorothea yet, but she is also sword and magic based, more focused on the spells. I'll try her out in my Eagles run next time.

[Erinyes]

15 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Playing as Golden Deer, I went for Lorenz because he was completely useless otherwise. No idea if that'd salvage him, since I only did it last night as the last thing I did before bed. The pick was uncontested because my other useless unit, Ignatz, had 7 charm whereas Lorenz had exactly 13. I had recruited Dorothea earlier that chapter so I suppose she'd have been the fallback option if Lorenz was not possible, my only two other recruits are Ingrid and Petra who are way too useful as my flying corps. Claude might have been an option because mine kinda sucks too.

I haven't played GD, but I heard that it was harder than the other houses. I assume Claude is supposed to be a glass cannon and then promote into a fancy kinshi knight. I'm guessing you got strength screwed.

If Lorenz is marginally better than Ignatz then you can feed him some golden apples that Dorothea brings in when recruited. Obviously, that's not going to remedy his low charm but it was something I recalled when I recruited her twice.

[Humanoid]

Just now, Erinyes said:

I haven't played GD, but I heard that it was harder than the other houses. I assume Claude is supposed to be a glass cannon and then promote into a fancy kinshi knight. I'm guessing you got strength screwed.

He got Speed screwed actually, had something like 14 speed at level 19? Given that his base speed is 8 and his speed growth is 55, yeah that wasn't great. I ended up cheating with Divine Pulse on his last two levels to try fix him up.

None of his other stats are particularly high to compensate. Hopefully going into an Advanced class will go some way towards fixing that.

[Erinyes]

26 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

I went with Dorothea. It's one of her canon classes, and she's not really stellar as a mage anyway to be honest. She has not much utility, and can't really nab OHKOs with Meteor or whatever. Occasional 1-3 Thoron was basically her selling point, and she could still perform that function as a Dancer.

I don't think Flayn as Dancer is a bad idea at all. Every house already comes with a character who will be your main healer anyway, and going into Dancer doesn't prevent her from using Rescue at all. You can argue that if you make someone else a Dancer you can do double Rescue or something, but you can make this argument about pretty much every mage that has any form of utility.

I hear people say that Marianne might be hands down the best Dancer candidate in the whole game, but I haven't done it yet myself. She has a somewhat mediocre Reason spell list to begin with (only Thoron is really that good, like Dorothea), and her main utility from Faith is Physic (someone else can heal) and Silence (not needed every turn). She can abuse Swords well, though, especially with Blutgang and Soulblade, or just the Levin Sword.

My issue isn't that Flayn can't use rescue as a dancer, it's that I don't want to expend a rescue bot for a dancer in a game that has somewhat stingy deployment slots. I guess that might be up to preference.

Although, admittedly my argument becomes less compelling when I consider the formula used to calculate rescue range...

[Stroud]

Golden Deer: I picked Hilda, because I had no idea how good Sword Avo +20 can be.

BE: I picked Petra, and she became a good dodgetank thanks to that. Almost 100% certain dodging.

BL: I did the same with Marianne, she is some kind of a magical Swordfighter for me and she is worth it. Love it that she learns Forstlance and Soulblade. 

I intend to try it with Ferdinand next time, because his personal skill gives him +15 Avo and with some skills he could be one of the best Dodgetanks in the game and maybe viable in later modes. But I never used Dancer as dancer, I just pick them for the skill. Of course he may need some investment in Speed. I don't have it on view. But I actually think with all the Avoid buffs, high speed is not that necessary. 

I mean Ferdinand...

Lets say he has 40 Base Avoid.
+15 Avo (Personal Skill)
+20 Avo (Sword Avo)
+15 Avo Battalion
+10 Avo (Evasion Ring)
+20 Avo (Sword lv 5)
+10 Avo (Wyvern Class )
+30 Avo (Avoid Stance skill)
This would make 160 Avoid. Maybe I still missed something. Of course the one skill Defiant Avoid could help out. But That would need the unit to get some damage. Ferdinands upside is that he can have such Avoid at 100% HP.

And he actually has 50 Speed growth rate. Not that bad.

Edited August 16, 2019 by Stroud

[Erinyes]

16 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

He got Speed screwed actually, had something like 14 speed at level 19? Given that his base speed is 8 and his speed growth is 55, yeah that wasn't great. I ended up cheating with Divine Pulse on his last two levels to try fix him up.

None of his other stats are particularly high to compensate. Hopefully going into an Advanced class will go some way towards fixing that.

Yikes. I think I had a speed issue with my Sylvain in my first BL run but that could be because of cavalier promotion growths. Thankfully he gained swift strikes which kinda negated that issue.

I think he gets access to a flier which might help? Not sure what the promotion growths are, but I think flier promotion growths, at least the Pegasus line, has a plus speed growth.

[Humanoid]

Just now, Erinyes said:

Yikes. I think I had a speed issue with my Sylvain in my first BL run but that could be because of cavalier promotion growths. Thankfully he gained swift strikes which kinda negated that issue.

I think he gets access to a flier which might help? Not sure what the promotion growths are, but I think flier promotion growths, at least the Pegasus line, has a plus speed growth.

I switched him from Lord to Brigand for axe skill and am pumping instruction points into axes and flying to make him a Wyvern Rider, yeah. He failed a 44% exam yesterday so hopefully not much longer. Men can't ride pegasi in this game so it's his only viable option for a mount currently (as his lance skill is 0 points into E).

[Erinyes]

3 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

I switched him from Lord to Brigand for axe skill and am pumping instruction points into axes and flying to make him a Wyvern Rider, yeah. He failed a 44% exam yesterday so hopefully not much longer. Men can't ride pegasi in this game so it's his only viable option for a mount currently (as his lance skill is 0 points into E).

Doesn't he need C lances for Wyvern Lord? Or is he going to be a Wyvern rider for part 1 and then switch to his unique class?

[Yexin]

BE: Dorothea

Reason: Breasts and Hips

 

BL: Mercedes

Reason: Breasts and Hips

 

GD: Marianne

Reason: I want her to feel at least a little bit of joy by dancing for her allies

also Breasts and Hips

[Humanoid]

2 minutes ago, Erinyes said:

Doesn't he need C lances for Wyvern Lord? Or is he going to be a Wyvern rider for part 1 and then switch to his unique class?

Yeah, lances are required for Wyvern Lord but I expect to change to his unique class. I don't actually know exactly when it unlocks, but I'm only in chapter 9 and want a more immediate fix. Besides, all of Petra, Raphael, Hilda will probably end up as Wyvern Lords already, and maybe more depending on who else gets recruited eventually. Maybe even my Byleth who is an Assassin currently but has no clear next step.

[Erinyes]

24 minutes ago, Stroud said:

Golden Deer: I picked Hilda, because I had no idea how good Sword Avo +20 can be.

BE: I picked Petra, and she became a good dodgetank thanks to that. Almost 100% certain dodging.

BL: I did the same with Marianne, she is some kind of a magical Swordfighter for me and she is worth it. Love it that she learns Forstlance and Soulblade. 

I intend to try it with Ferdinand next time, because his personal skill gives him +15 Avo and with some skills he could be one of the best Dodgetanks in the game and maybe viable in later modes. But I never used Dancer as dancer, I just pick them for the skill. Of course he may need some investment in Speed. I don't have it on view. But I actually think with all the Avoid buffs, high speed is not that necessary. 

I mean Ferdinand...

Lets say he has 40 Base Avoid.
+15 Avo (Personal Skill)
+20 Avo (Sword Avo)
+15 Avo Battalion
+10 Avo (Evasion Ring)
+20 Avo (Sword lv 5)
+10 Avo (Wyvern Class )
+30 Avo (Avoid Stance skill)
This would make 160 Avoid. Maybe I still missed something. Of course the one skill Defiant Avoid could help out. But That would need the unit to get some damage. Ferdinands upside is that he can have such Avoid at 100% HP.

And he actually has 50 Speed growth rate. Not that bad.

I remember fighting Petra in BL and noticed her sky-high avoid. I imagine the +20 avoid was a huge part of her invincibility.

I don't play ultra optimally but I don't think I would be committed to that level of stacking, haha...but maybe I'll try when I get back to my BE run.

I'm noticing a trend that dancers are either dumped as a salvage class for RNG screwed units or are used for combat arts and abilities. Maybe a year or so we'll have a dancer pitfall.

[Erinyes]

10 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Yeah, lances are required for Wyvern Lord but I expect to change to his unique class. I don't actually know exactly when it unlocks, but I'm only in chapter 9 and want a more immediate fix. Besides, all of Petra, Raphael, Hilda will probably end up as Wyvern Lords already, and maybe more depending on who else gets recruited eventually. Maybe even my Byleth who is an Assassin currently but has no clear next step.

I think you get your first actual unique class at the beginning of part 2 and then a second one later on. At least that's what I experienced in the BL. You could garden for some swift carrots but I'm not sure what seeds you would need and I imagine it would require some RNG. There's also a speed ring somewhere in the game but it only grants +2 speed which is just a waste of an inventory spot at this point. 😕

On the bright side, combat arts mostly can't double which makes Claude more of flying glass canon and gives him some utility.

[Cysx]

1 hour ago, Erinyes said:

My issue isn't that Flayn can't use rescue as a dancer, it's that I don't want to expend a rescue bot for a dancer in a game that has somewhat stingy deployment slots. I guess that might be up to preference.

Although, admittedly my argument becomes less compelling when I consider the formula used to calculate rescue range...

Pretty much this. Flayn takes ages to get to a respectable rescue range(especially since she doesn't have many ways to obtain exp), and her 4 move make its offensive applications very limited. I agree that benched units are the best picks, but I do think Flayn is a solid choice as well.

Evasion builds are nice too, yet I'm not sure I'd say it beats out dancer utility.

Edited August 16, 2019 by Cysx

[Flere210]

Annette imo is a great option. Her kit is already built for support, she does not have a great spell list as gremory and she like the 3 speed if you eant to nuke something instead of dance for a turn.  And she is good at authority. Not making her the dancer is my number 1 regret of this playtrough.

[Garlyle]

5 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

Annette imo is a great option. Her kit is already built for support, she does not have a great spell list as gremory and she like the 3 speed if you eant to nuke something instead of dance for a turn.  And she is good at authority. Not making her the dancer is my number 1 regret of this playtrough.

Wait, really? I'm using Annette as a mage, and also gave her Axe ranks to unlock Lightning Axe. Either Lightning Axe or a magic tome is a great nuke, and I really enjoy using her that way - Rally supports are really situational for me. Though her Spd and Def is really low, so she's also one of the more fragile units out there. There's also no real class that benefits from axes and magic too.

[timon]

Dorothea, it's her canon class and she is made for it. And she doesn't really have a role outside of it (I mean she can become a good gremory as her Reason spell list is amazing, but she stops getting Faith spells at C...). Also you get Meteor and Physic, so even if she falls behind she can be useful.

Other option is probably Annette? I mean she's kind of a garbage unit with rallies, might as well go full support. Or Flayn, Flayn is completely useless, Dancer could work.

I'd avoid picking Marianne, she can be a pretty powerful frontline mage/healer with added nuke in Soulblade/Frozen Lance (and a remarkable spell list with Blizzard and Thoron early on).

[Gregster101]

In my Golden Deers playthrough, I recruited Dorothea and made her my dancer because honestly she makes the most thematic sense as a dancer. And I still plan on having her as a dancer when I do the other routes.

[Flere210]

12 minutes ago, Garlyle said:

Wait, really? I'm using Annette as a mage, and also gave her Axe ranks to unlock Lightning Axe. Either Lightning Axe or a magic tome is a great nuke, and I really enjoy using her that way - Rally supports are really situational for me. Though her Spd and Def is really low, so she's also one of the more fragile units out there. There's also no real class that benefits from axes and magic too.

My annette is nuking so hard that the mag bonuses are not really necessary and tomefaire can be grabbed if you focus on reason for enought time. The biggest thing is that 6 mov on a mage that early on the game is amazing even if you want to use her primarily as a mage and only dance occasionally. I think Dorothea would be a lot similar, minus the option of rally(wich is still situational as fuck).

[Erinyes]

23 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

Annette imo is a great option. Her kit is already built for support, she does not have a great spell list as gremory and she like the 3 speed if you eant to nuke something instead of dance for a turn.  And she is good at authority. Not making her the dancer is my number 1 regret of this playtrough.

Well, dancers seem to be used as a salvage class. In this case, Annette is kinda disappointing as a gremory since she doesn't have the speed to back up her wind magic. It doesn't help that Excalibur is her only anti-flier spell. She does get heroes relic that uses magic which I think is supposed to contrast her wind magic since it's stronger but less accurate.

[iavasechui]

Dancer has move move than mage if I remember correctly. Lysithea was my dancer and she could help out by situationally dancing to get certain units into the fray faster but most of her time was spent nuking with not only magic but the 3 range levin sword + that gave her avoid bonus (also didn’t steal Lorenz relic since he got pretty speed screwed and needed that spell range as a dark knight to  hit and run) so the range on the levin sword really helped her stay away from getting one shot by anything that looked at her funny.