Quote Originally Posted by boys from the dwarf
its far from useless. you cant save it like other limits and special attacks but its very useful against tough bosses. trance has different effects on each character. a lot of these effects are stat boosts which is why steiners trance seems to do nothing. i think its suppose to make his attacks a lot more powerful. im not too sure but i bet on a site like gamefaqs.com there's a trance guide.
Once you get far enough in the game your normal attacks will do 9999 by themselves, they won't need the help of Trance. This is when it becomes utterly useless, except in Vivi and Eiko's cases, where they can use two attacks in one turn.