Dancer Archive
Thread: Can or should dancers be able to stat buffs
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dancer&message.id=3561
Guler wrote:
Can or should dancers be able to stat buffs pretty plain and simple i have heard we give mind buffs but so far it seems to be rumors maybe its just a bug because we heal mind so fast we put it over the cap to be honest right now there is no real way to tell if we can buff and or how much we can buff another thing is should we be able to buff the secoundary stats to mind, andhow about giveing us a buff command that uses massive action like doctors have that way we would know who we are buffing and how effective it might be.
Punctuation and line breaks ... they're not just for grammar school anymore 
Try /watching a master dancer for about 10-15 minutes, you'll see it's more than "rumor"
Guler wrote:
thank you for all your good replys though how much can we buff and can we buff secoundry stats also is the amount of time watch affact the time the buff lasts how long do the buffs last in genral
I can speak as a dancer (thus the forum). With Technique IV, I buff about 37%. This is consistent with the claims I've heard that the buff is 1/2 the Mind Enhancement skill. Thus, a Master Dancer can buff 50% because he'll have +100 in that skill.
A musician affectsthe secondary skills. I assume it's the same numbers. I did play around and watch a Master Dancer and listen to the Master Musician. It was very nifty. It's a rifleman's wet dream.
I need to post again asking for better buffs, to be honest. Today a master doctor friend of mine buffed everyone in our group similar to what I have here: (and note, this was from *sub par* materials that we picked up where we were fighting.)
Health: From 800 to 1896 for 6624 seconds (+137% for 1:58:09)
Strength: From 450 to 1532 for 5633 seconds (+240% for 1:33:52)
Constitution: From 400 to 1100 for 8885 seconds (+175% for 2:28:05)
Action: From 800 to 1456 (+82% for unknown amount of time (he forgot to say, but longer than health))
Quickness: From 450 to 1735 for 6624 seconds (+285% for 1:58:09)
Endurance: From 400 to 1254 for 5633 seconds (+213% for 1:33:52)
(Our first buffs of health and action were some longer lasting meds made from higher quality materials. The stats were more in the area of 2200 for health and action using those, and according to our doc, he was unsatisfied that they would only last abuot 2.5 hours.)
Now, it may just be me, but I consider the fact that a master doctor can buff to this high a level for such a long time to be rather on the unfair side, compared to what my master dancer could do for the same character of mine:
Mind: From 900 to 1350 for 1800 seconds (+50% for 0:30:00)
and my master musician friends:
Focus: From 600 to 900 for 1800 seconds (+50% for 0:30:00)
Willpower: From 600 to 900 for 1800 seconds (+50% for 0:30:00)
Especially considering that while a doctor can make these meds using a factory ahead of time, takes as long as it takes his mind bar to regenerate to buff the party, and can buff himself, performers must rebuff every 30 minutes for 15 solid minutes of dancing in order to get their best effects. True, doctors need resources to make these, but avian meat isn't terribly hard to come by, and reactive gas is more expensive but still not impossibly rare.
The advantage the performer has is being able to buff the whole group at once (except for themselves), not using materials, and being able to potentially "stack" multiple effects (inasmuch as +100% for 0:15:00 after 30 mintues downtime is more attractive than +50% for 0:30:00 after 15 minutes downtime.)
I very much like the idea of combat profession + master performers being able to really help out a group... but the 15 minutes downtime out of every 45 for this small a buff doesn't really encourage it, especially when the performer can't buff themselves to further help the group (and encourage people to think that the master dancer + pistoleer isn't dead weight compared to the CH + pistoleer.) In general, when I group with my friends (who pretty much all have at least performer alts) we'll watch and listen to performers when we have downtime because someone has gone LD, or a pet has gone missing for a bit, or whatever. But after the first buff from back in town or camp where we met wears off, we don't go out of our way to make time for a little performance.
Even if we needed to have some sort of consumable device (with stats which would determine how powerful and long lasting the buff would be) to help us buff and even if we couldn't do the stacking trick, I'd much rather be able to buff for 200% for an hour after ten minutes of downtime. That would be big enough for a party timeout while we get ourselves ready to go into battle again, and big enough to help people visiting the cantinas. (The only drawback I see is that one hour might be long enough that people would simply use us and leave rather than inviting us along on missions to re-buff.)
Anyway, end of rant.
Agreed, our buffs are nowhere near as effective as those granted by doctors, and that should be improved upon.
Our testing has shown this is not limited to Masters, but begins at Novice Dance. The buff is not so significant that most notice it after watching those below master, however.
Secondary stats to mind are buffed by master musicians, not master dancers.
Our testing has also shown that these buffs stack. That is to say, if you watch a master dancer for (for example sake) 3 minutes, you'll get a 50% buff. Stop watching, and start watching again, and you'll get a 50% buff to that, rinse repeat. Note though that the buff lasts approximately twice the time spent watching, so spamming /startwatch /stopwatch will gain the watcher a huge buff, but it would last very little time.
Additionally, our testing has shown that if someone has consumed food or drink that buff mind, the dance buff to the mind pool is applied to the buffed amount, thus allowing for a higher level of buff, and the dance buff to the higher amount appears to remain even if the food or drink effect has expired. So, having someone eat something that gives, say a 5 minute boost to mind, and then watching and stopping, should grant them a 50% buff to their buffed mind pool.
Most of the stacking effects have also been confirmed for the musician secondary stat buff.
It's a start =)
Hypatian wrote:
I need to post again asking for better buffs, to be honest. Today a master doctor friend of mine buffed everyone in our group similar to what I have here: (and note, this was from *sub par* materials that we picked up where we were fighting.)
Action: From 800 to 1456 (+82% for unknown amount of time (he forgot to say, but longer than health))
The Action buff was in the 7-8k neighborhood, my previous batch was over 10k.
Sub-components were good, but not advanced and the stuff we found in the field was good, but not great.
As things are now, mind damage is what kills me/my party most frequently. Between buffs and stim-e's I can keep 4-5 players and a pet tank or two up and fighting no problem (and if not that's what res kits are for )
I'd really like to see somethingsimilar that master entertainers can use. Buffs (along with selling stim-b's) are my biggest money maker. If entertainers could make some kind of mind buff they would not only be much sought after in combat, but they'd also find another source of income.
CKilla wrote:
Hypatian wrote:
If entertainers could make some kind of mind buff they would not only be much sought after in combat, but they'd also find another source of income.
When someone first suggested that musicians/dancers have the ability to create holos of our performances, I was very dubious. But the more I think about it, the more I wonder if this isn't a pretty nifty idea. I won't be spending lots and creds on my own vendor, but this would be a decent way to raise cash - provided the buffs/heals were worth the cost.
Would be a reasonable thing to do while performing in a cantina or the like. You could even do neat things like have choice of venue impact buff power. (Want a good buff? Record in the theatre!) Make a recording device/disk be a master artisan item to help master artisans out as well.Theory:
1) Performer buys a recording device (reusable) from master artisan
2) Performer buys discs (one disc is one buff) from master artisan
3) Playing or dancing for whatever the time required to give a viewer a full buff "charges" a single disc (if this is too powerful, multiply by some amount.) Can be done while performing live. Just remember to switch discs periodically in the recording device to fill several up.
4) Customer purchases a playback device from a master artisan.
5) Customer purchases dance disks from dancers and music disks from musicians.
6) When in the field, the customer can use one dance and one music disk at a time with his playback device to receive a buff.
This might also make it easier to avoid having the "15 minutes downtime for 30 minutes of fighting" problem in the field. Maybe. Performers come along, bring disks to share out for semi-instant buffing, can add to the recordings while in camp for real downtime.
The only potential problem is the very high demand I think this would cause--might be necessary to somehow allow disks to be pressed some limited number of times in a factory in order to duplicate them. If the "quality of performance" is variable, this becomes another crafting-like opportunity. Record a number of disks while performing, then pick the best one to duplicate and sell a number of copies of, and sell the lower quality recordings on the cheap.
Ach. I went off again. I *really* want to see these buffs work. I'm spending more and more time not playing my dancer character because I like being out in the field, and because my friends also like being out in the field, and finally because the public cantinas are... not pleasant for me these days, on the whole. I want to feel like I'm really contributing something again.