Chef Archive
Thread: Entertainer buff explanation
Ok, with the patch notes bringing both good news (stack fix) and bad (improving other classes' buffs, pets no longer a food black hole), I thought I'd try to clear the air a bit and talk about how the entertainer buffs work. I've come across this because my char is both a master musician and chef. No, I'm not making any money, how'd you guess? 
First, these "mind enhancement" skills have been included since release, but were mostly unknown until about a month ago. Starting at Novice Musician and Novice Dancer, an entertainer gets a skill that increases the audience's mind pool (dancer) or focus/willpower (musician). The buff duration is curently equal to twice the amount of time you watch/listen, with a 30 minute maximum. WIth the increased duration in the patch, that may change. So if you want a 20 minute buff, you have to watch for 10 minutes. If they keep the same rate after the patch, to get the 2 hour buff that's so demeaning to us (me wearing my chef hat now), they'll have to sit doing nothing for an hour. And the buff takes effect when the buff-ee stops watching or listening. It also gets applied when the performer stops their dance/song, so to keep going for a full hour, they're going to need a doctor healing their action or sunburns to boost their stamina when they get drained.
The size of the buff depends on the "Technique" skill of the entertertainer. One reason this buffwas under most people's radar is that the tech skill branch was usually the last one done before going for master.The only "useful" things seen in it was instrument schematics and the lighting effects, neither of which improve xp gain or healing. The skill goes from 10 points (Novice), 20 (tech 1), 30 (tech 2), 50 (tech 3), 75 (tech 4), to 100 (master). The current setup gives a percentage increase to the mind stats equal to half the skill, so5% at noviceand 50% at master. After the patch, it looks like it's going to be equal to the skill value, so a 10% to 100% bonus.
So this isn't like the doctor's buffs that give a flat +1000. If the audience member has100 willpower, the best they're going to get (after the patch) is another 100 watching a master musician. If they have a 400 mind pool, they'll get another 400 watching a master dancer. Watching someone without Techniques 1, those numbers will be 10 and 40. And having multiple Masters of a given type will not stack, since even with an entertainer group, the game only allows you to /watch or /listen a single target for each command.
Finally, the buff can only be applied in structures that allow wound healing (cantinas, hotels, personal homes, taverns, and camps).
So, the "executive summary":
- The buff is only given by the elite Musician and Dancer classes, not regular entertainers. Dancers buff the mind pool, Musicians the secondary stats.
- The buff is a percentage of the buff-ees mind stats.
- The buff percentage depends on a skill that is usually left for last, so most non-masters will be giving only a 10% buff (after patch).
- You can only be buffed by one Musician and one Dancer at a time.
- The buff duration depends on the down time spent watching the performer (at a 2-for-1 conversion pre-patch). The after-patch duration of 2 hours may require an hour sitting around, and a straight one hour performance without a break.
- The buff can only be applied in certain structures, and may be affected by a camp's medical bonus. Are doc buffs lower in camps or with lower-level surgical modules?
So, the "executive summary":
- The buff is only given by the elite Musician and Dancer classes, not regular entertainers. Dancers buff the mind pool, Musicians the secondary stats.
- The buff is a percentage of the buff-ees mind stats.
- The buff percentage depends on a skill that is usually left for last, so most non-masters will be giving only a 10% buff (after patch).
- You can only be buffed by one Musician and one Dancer at a time.
- The buff duration depends on the down time spent watching the performer (at a 2-for-1 conversion pre-patch). The after-patch duration of 2 hours may require an hour sitting around, and a straight one hour performance without a break.
- The buff can only be applied in certain structures, and may be affected by a camp's medical bonus. Are doc buffs lower in camps or with lower-level surgical modules?
Elite Musician/Dancer is a oohhhh soooo rare thing ... its even harder to find them since they dont crowd up in cantinas. Only can be buffed by one at a time ? well good... 1k more mind is 1k more mind .. no need for 20k more mind. the time you need to watch will be lowered. if not, entertainer bots will spread like hell, just log in both at breakfast, let him watch, since hes master no flourishes, means dancing forever and no need for a doctor. go work, come back, go kill.
and if a buff lasts 2 hours, where is the problem to be in a cantina to apply it ? every house works as cantina. i dont know any hunting spots where the distance "spot<->next public house or city" is over 1 hour of running, so you still are buffed for one hour in this WORST case scenario.
If you got your tiny entertainer bot, youll take a small house with you, throw it near your hunting place, put your doc bot and entertainer bot right into it and tada .... another milestone in single-player mmorpg is born.
I can't wait to watch a musician with my zabrak and his 900 willpower. That will make it 1800
Then I eat some muon gold for another 500 willpower making it 2300
Add in two hits of veghash, and two shots of
**edit** it I hate when the happens.
I can't wait to watch a musician with my zabrak and his 900 willpower. That will make it 1800
Then I eat some muon gold for another 500 willpower making it 2300
Add in two hits of veghash, and two shots of ice blaster and I'm sitting pretty with 2900 willpower.
I don't think any two people would be able to kill me (targeting mind)
Chef is dead there is no reason dancers or doctors or musicians should buff beter then chef , sence they do the Chef is a useless profesion and needs to be removed from the game or completly reworked to do something else.
Potillan, it might even be better then that. I'm going to do some tests tonight to see what happens when a mind buff food is eaten just before you stop listening to a musician. Since that's when the buff is added, that might be when the buff is calculated.
So you could be at 900, plus 160 for two ormacheks (my current best mind booster), times 2 (when watching a master musician) for a total willpowerof 2120. And an interesting question I hope to also get answered: when the ormas wear off, will you be at 1800 (base willpower times 2) or 1960 (the 2120 you were at minus the 160 buff that wore off)? If it's the second one, by partnering with a master musician, the max food buff duration just got extended to two hours.
And ReblSoldier, I know chefs are sitting at the back of the fix bus, but pasting the same comments in every thread mentioning the entertainer buffs isn't going to win us any sympathy, probably won't get us noticed by the devs any faster, and seems to just end up ticking people off. Don't get me wrong, I agree with your sentiment (at least the complete rework part), but there's got to be a more productive way of communicating it.
sciguyCO wrote:
Potillan, it might even be better then that. I'm going to do some tests tonight to see what happens when a mind buff food is eaten just before you stop listening to a musician. Since that's when the buff is added, that might be when the buff is calculated.
So you could be at 900, plus 160 for two ormacheks (my current best mind booster), times 2 (when watching a master musician) for a total willpowerof 2120. And an interesting question I hope to also get answered: when the ormas wear off, will you be at 1800 (base willpower times 2) or 1960 (the 2120 you were at minus the 160 buff that wore off)? If it's the second one, by partnering with a master musician, the max food buff duration just got extended to two hours.
And ReblSoldier, I know chefs are sitting at the back of the fix bus, but pasting the same comments in every thread mentioning the entertainer buffs isn't going to win us any sympathy, probably won't get us noticed by the devs any faster, and seems to just end up ticking people off. Don't get me wrong, I agree with your sentiment (at least the complete rework part), but there's got to be a more productive way of communicating it.
Hmmm you maybe onto something there......
But unfortunely that won't help with the general appeal of food. But if it works I see the hardcore people buying a ton more food.
I wonder if it might even be possible to loop it.
Once the ormacheck wares off eat some more then watch some more and see if the mind goes up even more.... We could be looking at infinite mind here.... hmmm I'm going to have to some test myself if it works we'll be useful again.