Dancer Archive
Thread: Okay.. Heres the news from the Test Center on our buffs.
I finally managed to get in an do a little testing last night on our new buffs. The **edit** servers where down most the evening so I didn't have the time to do nearly as much testing as I wanted to but I will share the results I have so far and update you as I find time to test more.
Want to the good news or the bad news first? hmm.. I'll start with the good news I suppose.
Our new buffs do Indeed buff a person 100%.. which is just fantastic. someone with 800 mind, bam, now they got 1600. This just plain rocks. 
I will note that as of right now our buffs even stack still... mind boggling this is, and I'd expect it to be changed before this goes live. I got some girl up to almost 5,000 mind last night. Their insane if they let this go live like that.
Well thats it for the good news.. now for the bad.
The change to make our mind buffs Targetable did not, I repeat did not make it in with this update apparently. I was really hoping it wound and I appologize for getting so many of your hopes up. 
There still is some small hope it will be changed before this goes live but don't count on it, we may not see this until the next patch.
On top of that, it apparently still works the way it use too, however... I'm not sure if the 1:2 ratio still applies. It seems sort of wonky right now to be honest and I think its bugged so I can't say. I will say that I didn't manage to get a buff to stick for 2 hours but I honestly didn't really have the time to test it. I'll keep you all up to date on my tests with this, by the time this goes live it should be working as intended and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure the system is at least reasonable. I did get one to stick for over a half hour tho, (just barely) but the person had only been watching me 5-10 minutes I believe. So just stay tuned on this one untilI get it sorted out.
On another positive note however, the shirtless guy thing is awesome and I think you ladies will sure appreciate it. 
And so will you guy dancers because it really gives us some great new costume possibilities and lets the guys be sexy for the ladies for a change. The girls where sure drooling last night, lol. Should stop by the unity PA hall this evening and check it out.
Thats it for now.. I'll get back to you soon with more info.
Too bad about the targeting thing not going in, you'll just have to stay on their case to get it implemented!
Good news on the rest, thanks for spending the time to test it, it's appreciated.
- J
Ok so let me get this straight.
Buffs 100%
Targeting not in?
Ok so now we just compounded the problem great job SOE
Not only will the cantina be filled with AFK entertainers
It will now be filled with afk patrons waiting for a buff
WONDERFUL.
Lets just make entertainers NPC"s and be done with it .
This is disgusting.
Master dancer/ out of work
Bloodfin
- J
picklesSW wrote:
I hate to say it, but Bloodfin there has a point. AFKing just got much much worse, and we'll have a new influx of AFKers in every cantina with this change.
The only reason I'm biting my tongue right now is because Ravenmist (and others) have assured me that AFK Macroing is high on the Dev's list of things to fix. Quite frankly, as nice as the new enhancement is, it isn't going to do a thing to the AFK problem or add to our control over our own fate until the buffs are only given to those we target.
Until they are targetable, I guess /denyservice just became a half-arsed fix
Meanwhile, I'm sure Pickles and others are right - thebuffs are going to be sweet enough that there will be a lot of novice entertainers wanting to macro their skill up to take advantage. Let's hope SOE has something else up their sleeve, as well, because this alone just isn't enough.
If I was in a powergaming PA I'd have someone use the cantinas to bot their way to master, then sit them in the PA hall with the following macro:
/join
/startdance basic
/ui action targetGroupMember01
/disband
/dancebuff
/pause 60
Just loop the macro and all PA members have to do is invite the dancer to a group, wait a minute for the macro to swing around, then the dancer joins their group, initiates a buff on the leader, then disbands ready for the next member to invite him. Sure, it would take 20 minutes to buff a full group.. But it's still a 2 hour buff.
I'd really like to see Ravenmist pushing the idea I posted in the new type of xp thread I created. I've seen no negative responses to that yet.
How does it work
Someone watches you for up to 15 minutes, and gets buffed up to a half hour, up to 50% of their mind pool (Dancers) or focus/willpower (musicians). When they stop watching, they get the buff.
what branch effects the skill
Technique. Specifically the skill "Dancer's Mind Enhancement". The max percentage you can buff is half that skill. At master the skill is 100, hence the 50% buff.
is this something I can go out of my way to advertise as something useful
Currently not really, the duration is too short to be useful to most.
do we benefit from our own mind buff
No.
* This is all based on current live, not the changes on Test.
I agree wholeheartedly with Sylune_hart here.
Until a buff is targetable, the entertainer class may as well be NPC's.
How many other classes can you run from the Starport on creation, to the Cantina, run an infinate-looped macro for a couple of weeks, and leave the cantina with Master title? The only time you actually have to be at your keyboard is to periodically ask one of us idiots to train you.
Tiaga wrote:
Even with them being targettable you'd have bots...
If I was in a powergaming PA I'd have someone use the cantinas to bot their way to master, then sit them in the PA hall with the following macro:
/join
/startdance basic
/ui action targetGroupMember01
/disband
/dancebuff
/pause 60
Just loop the macro and all PA members have to do is invite the dancer to a group, wait a minute for the macro to swing around, then the dancer joins their group, initiates a buff on the leader, then disbands ready for the next member to invite him. Sure, it would take 20 minutes to buff a full group.. But it's still a 2 hour buff.
I'd really like to see Ravenmist pushing the idea I posted in the new type of xp thread I created. I've seen no negative responses to that yet.
Okay.. I can give you a vague update now that I've talked to our Designer...
The stackable effects will definately be fixed.. (good for game, doesn't help us)
The ability working as it is now will not stay that way... suffice to say that the goal will definately be to make this as hard as possible to afk Bot, but there isn't any way thats full proof.
Your idea on the xp thread is intresting Tiaga, but if you stop and think about it the very macro you just described would also get them all the xp of that type they could possibly want/need.
Oh yes.. and if I didn't make it clear in any of my earlier posts, I'm in full agreement that until this is targetable it will only hurt the profession and make the bot situation worse.