Dancer Archive
Thread: Question: what's a mind buff?
Isabow wrote:
I know it's been asked a thousand times and, yes, I expect flames. However, from a master dancer POW, I see that I can give about 10 minutes of dance time to someone for +(whatever) mind buff.
What is a mind buff? What does it do to the player getting the buff? Where does it show up on their stats? Why does it cost so much for a buff that doesn't show up? Is it that the only thing it does is reduce BF faster? Is there another benefit? What is it?
These are questions that my customers are asking me and I don't have the answers. Please advise.
Thanks!
A mind buff doubles the mind pool for 2 hoursof the person receiving the mind buff, the primary blue bar. A musician mind buff doubles the two secondary mind stats.
Not sure what you mean by why does it cost so much. However, in order to do the buff, the person must be grouped with you or you must target the person and type /setperf. After you perform 120 flourishes, they stop watching, and the mind buff takes effect.
Isabow wrote:
I only ask the question about the $$ because of the (seemingly) controversy over tipping (no ask), tipping (ask) and outright charging for the service. Now that you've mentioned that 120 flourishes are necessary, looks like I'm making a trip to the old ID master for a stat reconfig and putting a MD in my pocket.
I don't ask for tips. As a matter of fact, I've returned tips that were given because someone assumed that my dancing services were something that I charge for. I don't. I'm a socialite (ingame) which is agalaxy-wide departure from my IRL nature. It gives me a freedom of expression that I don't find IRL. There's no amount of money for a feeling like that.
I can, however, understand the charge now because of the flourishes. Didn't realize there were 120 of them. Are all of them necessary for the full buff? How does the other person know they've been buffed? (does it "show up" anywhere via icon or symbol)?
I'm just trying to re-assure myself that my buffing services are doing the job that someone may (tip) me for.
Thanks!
Toshee - Bria
Well, buffing was given to the entertainer professions as a way to make us part of the interdependent SWG economy. So, you are well within your rights to charge for these services. You are providing something extremely valuable to the combat player, who will then turn around and go do combat missions and make 100K+ in the time that your mind buffs are working for him/her. It's everyone's personal choice, of course. But, I always encourage people to actively charge, even if it's only 2k or 3k. The reason I encourage this is because there are a lot of entertainers who use this as their source of income. And, if everyone learns to expect mind buffs are free, then it will go right back to the days when we didn't have them and entertainers couldn't even afford a new pair of shoes. The mind buff was meant for us to make money.
It's not as completely cut and dry as the 120 flourishes. However, you can be guaranteed to do a full buff with them. Basically, whenever you perform a successful buff, the person's mind pool will always double. However, if you don't do enough flourishes, it's the time that will be shave off. For example, instead of the full 2 hours, your buff may only last 1 and a half hours, or 1 hour.
Most players like getting buffed in as short a time as possible. You could probably do your regular routine and not have to change any stats, and perform a buff in 10-12 minutes. What I do, though, is flourish 5 times every8 seconds. It burns the action up pretty quickly, as I'm sure you know. But, it allows me to perform a buff in the quickest time possible, which is 3 minutes and 10 seconds. I usually go for 3 minutes and 30 seconds just to make sure I've done enough and to account for any timing inconsistencies on the part of myself or my customer. Of course, I could never do this if I weren't buffed myself because I'd run out of action. So, if I'm out trying to make some money buffing, I will either get a doctor to buff my quickness/stamina, or I will drink some accaragm. Sometimes it's difficult to find a doctor who will only buff those stats, they like to buff the full set of stats in order to not break up their buff packs. So, basically, I'm an alcoholic, I drink lots of accaragm, which does the trick just as effectively.
So, in a sense, because I spend money to be able to buff people and help them get in and out as quickly as possible, that even further justifies me charging people for my services. Most people don't complain and think it's all part of being part of the economy in the game.
Both you and your customer can tell if their mind stat is buffed because you will see the blue bar in the HAM bar double. The customer also has a buff window which will show a little dancer icon when the buff takes effect.