Chef Archive

I was discussing this with a friend of mine, so I'll pose the same question here:

If you HAD to compare the *INTENDED* role of Chef to another class/profession from a another MMORPG, what would it be?

I personally chose Chef because I was under the impression that I was choosing the premiere buffing class for SWG.

Now, I know we are due for a balance pass, but before that happens I would love to get word from SOE concerning their intentions for the role of Chef in this game.

Essentially, I see Chef as a combo between the Everquest Shaman and Enchanter (the buffing aspect at least, though I would LOVE food with mesmerise/combat slow charges).

Am I completely off base here, because that was the type of class I personally intended to choose.

Thoughts?

Cyene

WE are not the premier buffer of this game. The Doctor has buffs that last over 2 hours and although random when cast, they can grant from 500 - over 2100 to your Con/Str/Stam/Quick/Health and Action.

I wouldn't mind our buffs lasting up to 20 minutes and no less than 8. I would also like to see the skill tree gone through and food and drink that is not made or bought, removed. Also would like to see those negatives diappear or be way less. Also like to see the high end buffs give an excellent buff. 75, 85, 150 is crap. I want to see 400, 600, 800.

Exactly.

With Doctor buffs being so good, what is the point of Chef?

Understand I am in no way saying Docs should be nerfed, but look at their tree and then look at ours. Something is seriously wrong there.

All we have is buffs...are they ever going to be of sich quality that a grup says "Man, we need a Chef before we can move out."?

Call me selfish, but if the answer is no, I may be playing the wrong class.

As an ex EQ Enchanter, I want the group centric role of buffer. Does that even really exist in this game?

Cyene

If people know a doctor or someone who has the skill in doctor to buff (like my combat medic can), then most likely people are going to get ahold of their buffer friend to buff them. My guildmate who is a docter gets tells from the time he logs on until he logs off to buff people. And he does it for tips which are between 2K - 8K. Last night he was offered 30K to go to Endor and buff people. I don't think anyone would ever ask a Chef to bring them some food buffs to a hard planet. They just don't compete.

As for mind buffs, I think they are the best we got. Well, I mean Mind/Focus/Willpower.

Looking at the way that food, drink, and the profession evolved from beta 2 until now, I must say that chef strikes me more as an afterthought than a necessary profession. As it stands, the chef is simply a specialty crafter, not unlikea tailor or image designer. We aren't really necessary or integral to the game, but we add a bit of room for role-playing. Our buffs are inferior to those of both doctors and smugglers and they come at a much higher cost in resources, time, and skill cost.

Now, is this how the profession should be? No, in my opinion. I think the chef should be the equivalent of the potion master/alchemist in a medieval setting. The buffs from food and drink should be highly sought after, and the chef should have some unique buff or capability that no other class has. Until players actually need what we offer, we will remainan afterthought. This class balancing pass should be quite telling, as it will give a better indication of what SOE really thinks about our class.

S'per, the Spice Chef

From what I can tell it really does seem like the chef was just thrown in at the last minute in a rush to say they got the class in the game.

1. Lots of crappy items. No item in the chef tree should be worse than domestic arts items.

2. Compare the material needs of a weaponsmith or a medic to a chef. The weaponsmith will need specific types of metal that aren't always found. The medic needs planet specific materials. Chef? Wheat can be found anywhere. Water can be found anywhere. This screams "RELEASE THE GAME! WE NEED MONEY!"

3. Flavor on resources seems to do nothing. Lack of real play testing for chefs.

4. Factories create food at the same speed as a high end rifle. But I am expected to deliver hundreds of these things, this is way too slow.

5. WE HAVE WAY TOO MANY ITEMS! If all we are going to do is buff stats we really only need30 items total.Eachbuff in drink and food form give lots of flexability in buffing.

• All 3 HAM.


• All 3 Regen stats.


• All 3 Non-ham non-regen stats (Is there a term for these?)


• 3 Health stats


• 3 Action stats


• 3 Mind stats


• Super buffs to single stats

Any other combination is just goofy and stupid. People buy ormachek and veghash because it buffs related or grouped stats. If a veghash buffed willpower, quickness, and health it probably wouldn't sell as much as the regeneration veghash because it's a stupid andworthless combo.

I'm sure they planned for us to be the alchemists of Star Wars, but there is only so much you can do with buffs in asetting without magic. It makes sense in EQ, UO, AC, DAOC, or even the upcoming WoW and Middle Earth MMORPG that you could drink "Glorak's Sekrit Saus" and sprout thorns from your body to damage would be attackers. In Star Wars it's just retarded.

I agree completely on removing some foods from the chef line. It would actually be nice if a Dev was paying attention like before, but the game is so bad they had to take the dev who was working on chef issues and make him do something else.

Anyway, there are a lot of useless buffs. I was checking last night and some things are worse than the novice or domestic arts stuff in terms of buff and time it lasts. I say get rid of them

Although I do agree that the Chef class needs a serious balancing pass, I don't think any recipes should be removed. Spruced up? Yes. Brought to par with other foods that have similar resource requirements to craft? Yes. Removed? Absolutely NOT. As a crafter, one of the things that drew me to this game was the sheer varietry and number of schematics and recipes available. Do I want to become a chef just to grind out a countless number of Tatooine Sunburns? No... I want variety. Even if that means that a few recipes need to be modified so that the will yield the same quality and duration buffs. I'm okay with that, but I want variation. I don't want to fit the mold of what everyone else is crafting. I believe that this should be the way that all classes are handled. I don't think any recipes should ever be removed.

Talks should even be had about differentiating some of the foods by making them give temporary buffs to skills. Think about some kind of meat-pie that gives a bonus to a doctor's healing rate. This would not only make the chef unique, but also make them ultra in-demand. Or a liquor that impairs shooting accuracy but gives great buffs to the artistic (customization) of certain artisan classes. (Think about all the famous artists and painters who were chronic alcoholics. )

However, to satisfy those of you who claim that some of the recipes that are less popular and not as frequently crafted, or the ones that just take up room in the crafting selection menu, how about pushing for some kind of smart collapsable tree? Or a way to sort your recipes into the most crafted. I think this is far more profitable to chefs as a whole than pushing for recipes to be completely deleted.

Just my two cents.

Age

Thanks for the constructive posts guys

However one question still looms.

What is our intended role (as you understand it)?

I wanted to be a buffingprofession. Lo and behold, only one profession does that and only that....Chef.

Am I wrong to want food to actually make a difference?

Or maybe a better question would be, how close to the mark is the current state of Chef?

It seems to me we are way off.

I am concerned that the impending rebalance will end up looking like this:

• All chef recipes have had their durations increased by 25%


• Herbivores now have a "Milk" option


• Tatooine Sunburn has been moved to Mixology 4 and has had its buff reduced by 30%

Ifit looks like that, I'm gonna be slightly perturbed.

Rebalance means each recipe is given consideration. Blanket fixes will not do it imho.

Cyene

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Cyene wrote:

Thanks for the constructive posts guys

However one question still looms.

What is our intended role (as you understand it)?

I wanted to be a buffingprofession. Lo and behold, only one profession does that and only that....Chef.

Am I wrong to want food to actually make a difference?

Or maybe a better question would be, how close to the mark is the current state of Chef?

It seems to me we are way off.

I am concerned that the impending rebalance will end up looking like this:

• All chef recipes have had their durations increased by 25%


• Herbivores now have a "Milk" option


• Tatooine Sunburn has been moved to Mixology 4 and has had its buff reduced by 30%

Ifit looks like that, I'm gonna be slightly perturbed.

Rebalance means each recipe is given consideration. Blanket fixes will not do it imho.

Cyene

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As long as chefs, doctors, and smugglers buff the same stats the system will never be acceptable to all. If chef buffs are increased docs and smugglers will complain about the competition.If they aren't, chefs will continue to complain about being underpowered since buffing is all we do. There are slight distinctions that could be made (docs being required for doc buffs, smuggler buffs being better but with a downside, all 3 buffs being stackable), but I'm afraid that there will always be one type of buff that is valued well above the others (currently doc buffs).

Really it's not just that chefs need a significant boost and rebalance, but also that the buffing roles in the game need to be much much better thought out in general.