Dancer Archive

Hello fellow dancers/musicians/entertainers. I will try to keep this story brief because I can go on and on sometimes LOL. I love the entertainer profession. There's nothinglike the poplock!! I was getting bored with the Flurry server so I decided to visit another server to see how things are there. So I have been on this server for about a week now and something has bothered me lately. That one thing is the amount of time it takes you to get into a group even when you can plainly see there aren't even 20 people in the place. When there are alot of people in the place and you continually ask for an invite, I think it is just common curtesy to let the person know the group is full and when you get a spot you'll let them know. I have found myself wondering around the cantina asking who the leader was only to get no answer, just a sea of AFK tags. Whatbothers me the most is that when you finally get in the group after an hour you notice a few masters in the group doing the profession they are masters in. True they could be working on FS XP, but I know when I was in a group and a new person needed XP or anyone that wasn't a master, I would leave the group for them to get in. I hope this made sense and that maybe it could help a new person out. I have seen a couple new people log out because they couldn't get in a group and they became discouraged. So help out your fellow new entertainer and let them share in the joys of entertaining!!

Your problem is you "grew up" in theed on flurry, where us attentive group leaders were constantly kicking people out of group if they went LD for more than a few minutes. Most group leaders just ignore the LD's and eventually leave, handing it off to somebody who hasn't been there as long and now there's 4 "out of range" people in the group, this compounds since most GL's aren't willing to disband to get rid of LD people in favor of live people because the mob of AFKers there might not re-join, so they just let it slide till most of the group is LD, and you see 5 people in the group (and they see 20)

I'm not sure what sever you were on, but on my server, I rarely try to get into the group. The group leaders are inevitably AFK. The members of the group are akf.

When I walk into the Theed Cantina on my server (Chilastra) I immediately take stock of the group. I check the afk tags...I try to get info on the group leader. If the group leader is AFK I just start my own group.

I am also the first to leave the group if a newb needs in... I don't even wait for the group leader to send the message out that they need a master to leave, I just bow out gracefully and get the 'little one' into the group.

I highly recommend to the new entertainers that they come to the boards and introduce themselves. It's a great way to get to know the entertainers on your server, and many others from other servers.

I've had this problem on both Bria and Chilastra in the NPC cantinas. I'm a master dancer in Bria, so its no big deal if I don't get an invite - for me anyway. I just head back toward the bar so that the leveling ents are between me and the patrons and only speak up if someone comes in wanting a buff. In Chilastra, Theed is terrible when it comes to grouping. Seems rather clickish to me. The other evening I tried for 20 minutes to get someone to respond to me - without addressing them personally just to see what would happen. Even the people who were talking in spatial wouldn't give me the time of day. This included asmall, talkativebunch who did not see fit to either acknowledge me or explain if they were a "private" group.

~Deli'ah~

Very true - it's to the benefit of the entire group to have a couple of masters since it raises the total xp value. Then there is the potential for new entertainers to learn a lot from the veterans.

I find Mos Eisley to be a good place to find willing and attentive group leaders. They are usually new players who actually want to be entertainers or cross-server ents leveling up.

My home cantina on Corbantis is Theed. I play there most evenings for at leasta little while. Unlike dancers musicians can't play their own selections in a group so I no longer join the main group. I sit to the side and group with my droid playing the tunes I enjoy and writing more. Slowly its gotten to where the ATK dancers will join me instead of the big group because we all chat and I'm playing something besides SW1 in 20 different patterns.

I know the dancers aren't getting the highest experience in our small group but we are all ATK and having a good time. That makes the time go much faster so the experience still seems to move right along for them. I'm also building a small clientelle of buff customers so I can pretty much guarantee the dancers at least a reasonable amount of healing experience. I'm truly surprised to find a lot more people listen to game music than we sometimes realize. I've gotten fighters commenting that they've never heard a song when I'm playing ceremonial or asking for particular songs. Its fun to actually have people wanting to hear what you play and enjoying the show for a few minutes.

I'm finding that getting the ATK entertainers grouped together, regardless of size, makes it much more pleasant than having a huge mix with the majority AFK or out of range in the larger group.

Elwyn LyteFoot - Corbantis server

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Madosa & Volicia Faroni h Sisters Of The Force
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I always boot an afk non master before asking a master to leave a group, even an afk master. Lets face it, when a combatant walks in they know what the high level dances are, if they see a master dancing they're not gonna check to see if you're in the group, they're just gonna start watching you to get healed fastest. If you as a master aren't in the group, all that healing xp is effectively wasted. Its not like the afk person is actually playing, thats how it is in Theed Flurry anyway, its assumed if you're afk and room is needed, you may get booted, nothing personal, just how it works, most have /join in thier macro so we can re-invite as needed tho.

I tend to try and keep AFK masters grouped as long as humanly possible.

I wrote a post once on entertainer group etiquette, after grinding out a dancer character on Bria. My 'home cantina' on my server is Theed, even though it's fairly dead these days, but I despise Coronet. Everyone is crowded into the lobby and the cantina itself is completely empty... so I stick to Theed. And when at ALL possible, I make myself the group leader. There are a lot of new players whodon't completely understand how buffing works, so when random fighters come in and ask for an invite, they see no problem with it. That's an extremely frustrating thing to deal with, and I've had to have a little chat with more than one new entertainer. Getting groupedcan be an exercise in futility, that's for sure. You just have to be patient sometimes and keep hoping.

Something along these lines that has happened to me on both Chilastra and Wanderhome, but opposite. I couldn't get into a group because they were all AFK and I had been asking for a while. A new entertainer came in and asked for an invite. I invited them and explained that all the others were afk. As soon as the young ent saw that it was only us two, they left the group saying they would rather just keep waiting to get in the large group.

Gorath, Chilastra, Wanderhome.

Elder SL, Rifleman, Pistoleer, Scout, Marksman, Tailor, WS, Merchant, Entertainer, Dancer, Musician, Pikeman, TK, Smuggler, Commando, Combat Medic.
Currently Officer, Medic, Entertainer, Jedi, Smuggler, Domestic Trader

I like to group whenever possible. It has nothing to do with experience, it has to do with wanting to socialize with others. I do agree that when someone wants in the group and the leader isn't paying attention, it's extremely annoying. If I see someone ask twice, then it's obvious to me the leader isn't paying attention, so I personally try to get their attention on group chat or send a /tell to make sure that person gets an invite. It's annoying, but I play 2nd in command a lot because people aren't paying attention like they should. If it gets to be too much that it annoys me, I will even ask the leader to let me be leader. Usually I don't get much flak for that as most people don't even want the "responsiblity" of being leader these days. I know I hate when nobody responds to me...even if the group is full, a simple "the group is full" would suffice and I'll request to be put on the list. But, to completely ignored is unacceptable to me. I know it goes on a lot, and there's nothing I can do about it if I'm not around, but I will take matters into my own hands if I am. There have been times when I've been group leader for 8 to 10 hours straight.

And, I agree...I do not allow people into the group who are not entertainers. If it's just somebody who wants to group to get higher missions and leaves, I have been known to disband to get them out and then re invite everyone. All the live people will come back, and the afk'ers with join within 10 minutes due to the /join in their macro. I normally don't boot anyone otherwise...with the exception of a live entertainer needing a spot when there are afk's about. Then I will boot an afk'er for a live person, but 99% of the time it doesn't come to that, fortunately.

I guess I do make exceptions, if there are other masters in the group who are buffing and they request someone be let into the group temporarily for a buff, then yes, I will do that as well. There's no harm done if the groups not full and the buffee doesn't abuse the group by leaving before disbanding.

Esharra ěsh-äŕ-rä, noun
1. Entertainer
2. Bounty Hunter
3. Smuggler

"One man's oddity is another man's routine." -Bertos Goodner (a dancer)