Dancer Archive
Thread: Mastering Legitamately takes too long
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Jacquelyn
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:07 pm
#1
I am wondering if mastering dancer legitimately should be as hard as it is. I really enjoy dancing and made it for most of the way without dancing AFK. I am now 4343 but the entertaining healer experience is just killing me. I have started to AFK dance at night even though I am against it. I have been working on dancer for about 6 weeks and it looks like I will have at least another 2 weeks to go before I knock out those last 2 healing boxes.
I know most combat professions can be mastered in a few days, but even "cheating" I.E. afk macroing, dancer is a pain to get xp with. I wonder if this is not one of the reasons we have so many AFKers, I mean the majority of AFK dancers are not Masters.
I really don’t feel like I have a right to criticize AFK'ers anymore since I am now going that route to try to finish my last 2 boxes. However I am still very much against the AFK buff bots who steal business from other dancers.
Are their others who feel the way I do and have been where I am? Would it cheapen dancer as a profession to lower the skill requirements a some?
NJ62
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:10 pm
#2
I think that this is something that absolutely needs to be addressed when recursive macros go away! But if the requirements were lowered now, people could not only afk through the profession, but could do so in record time.
rayill
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:22 pm
#3
Personally.. I never found that it took too long to master anything in this game. It took me a month to Master Dancer on my main account back over a year ago. That wasn't too long in my opinion. It made it feel like it was something worthwhile.
I've seen people Master the profession in three to four days, even getting the dreaded Healing XP. Of course, those were AFKers, and they didn't know anything about the profession other than writing a macro. I had a pure entertainer alt that I worked on. It took me two weeks to legitimately get all the requisite XP to master Dancer. I did this during this past summer, and it took half the time that it had previously took.
Mastering a profession should be an accomplishment measured in what you did, not how quickly you got it done. Racing to be the first one done won't make you a better dancer. One of the best Entertainers I ever met on Kettemoor had never even mastered the profession. She loved it, she breathed, and she knew more than almost any other entertainer on the server, and she was proud to admit that she never mastered it. Not because she couldn't, but because she wanted to actually earn the XP in performances.
Dancer is not a hard profession since it does not take actual resources to make or any special items. We have to put the time into the profession to make it work. As so many people have pointed out, time is a valuable asset. If we reduce the amount of time it takes to Master the profession by reducing the "challenging" XP gain, then we only continue to trivialize our profession in its current state.
kirah_ashlin
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:25 pm
#4
I understand your delemma - but if it makes you feel any better about the length of time it's taking you to level - it took me 3 months . . . and I'm not alone in that boat. I do hope that this issue will be addressed -as N'Jessi said - after the buffbots and AFK abiliiesare done away with.
DarkY0da
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:37 pm
#5
I hope it gets addressed as well. Just not in the way this thread means. I hope that ALL proffessions end up taking longer to Master. I think a Month for a 10ish hours a week player should be the norm. Of course that means that non-masters need to be as viable as masters just in different ways. As well as enough content for those working their way up to keep them playing and enjoying it. Post-master content is of course always a must. But I'm not sure if SOE can change the thinking of the players of this game from "Grind to Master then play" to "Play the game while working toward master"
Tiaga
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:42 pm
#6
In my opinion, it takes too short to master other professions, to be honest. The master title means almost nothing in most professions. Combat because they can be mastered so quick, and entertainer because it can be mastered 100% AFK. I've mastered dancer once, entertainer 3 times, going on 4, and musician twice with a good bit towards a third. That was 100% ATK, aside from 5 minutes when I was brand new and just learned about macros. Most of that I wasn't even using a flourish macro. I don't feel like it took too long.
Still I do know some people feel this way. I don't know if it will help you or not, but my advice is turn off the xp meter and just enjoy dancing. As a dancer, being a master isn't that much different than being novice, and barely different than being 4343. Treat the game as a journey instead of a destination. If you treat it like a destination, the journey just becomes an annoyance. If you treat it like a journey, then it is fun.
Still I do know some people feel this way. I don't know if it will help you or not, but my advice is turn off the xp meter and just enjoy dancing. As a dancer, being a master isn't that much different than being novice, and barely different than being 4343. Treat the game as a journey instead of a destination. If you treat it like a destination, the journey just becomes an annoyance. If you treat it like a journey, then it is fun.
kirah_ashlin
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:47 pm
#7
Well, I agree with the "grind to master" mentality, that's for sure. However, I played almost every day for 3-4 hours a day during the time I was working on master dancer. Now, I did other things, as well,but my main focus was dancing. It still took me almost exactly 3 months to finish mastering as I got caught in thebeginning of theholo-tainer/Jedi-grind fiasco toward the end there. Had that nothappened, I figure I would have mastered about 3 weeks sooner . . . . 
Drygo
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:49 pm
#8
It took me 3 months to master the first time, too. But, at the time, I actually got all of the healing experience long before I got the dancing experience. Things were different then. Everyone was a noob, they didn't have the uber armor and the uber buffs. Wounds were amassed a lot quicker, and entertainers got the healing experience quicker.
The second time I mastered, on another server, it took me less real life time (ie, 2 weeks), but I think it took more overall hours because the healing experience was so difficult to come by. So, I've definitely seen this from both sides. I would say that it's definitely gotten harder to master dancer than it did at launch, not counting the rampant ease that people acquire the afk macros these days.
One of the problems that we face, that I think merchants and politicians also face, is that we are not completely directly responsible for our advancement. Yes, we can actively try to seek out those places where healing is more in demand, and we can use our social skills to attract more watchers. However, there's nothing in a specific game mechanical way that we can do to gain healing experience. Our fate lies in the hands of others in this regard. And, I am not going to lie...waiting hours for someone to come in for a slow trickle of healing experience is frustrating and makes you feel like you're wasting a great deal of time when you could be out doing other things. And, the reason for that is because there are times when you're dancing your butt off and gaining no skills. And, when people feel like they're working so hard for no experience gain, it can be maddening. At least politicians and merchants don't have to actively stand around near the voting booth or their vendors hoping for people to come by. They can be off doing other things while they're gaining the experience. So, in that regard, I think entertainers have it even worse.
I don't think that it would cheapen dancer at all if the healing experience requirements were lowered. In fact, I think it should be lowered for the reasons that I outlined above and the frustration that goes on with it. To me, it really has nothing to do with trying to get there as fast as you can. The fact is, in July of 2003, you *could* get there a lot quicker. And, the increased difficulty does not lie with making the profession itself harder. There weren't "nerfs." It was simply the way the game evolved-with less of a need for healing. It makes sense to me that our profession should be tweaked in the area of entertainer healing to evolve with the game.
DarkY0da
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:51 pm
#9
It took me about 3 months to manage to get enough EH to finish off Dancer. The rest of Dancer was done in about 3 weeks. /sigh
Tiaga
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:51 pm
#10
I know someone who took over a year to master. They were many times more excited about it than anyone I've ever seen who did most of it in macro and AFK. The enjoyment you get out of it relates to the effort you put into it.
Jacquelyn
Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:54 pm
#11
Mastering a profession should be an accomplishment measured in what you did, not how quickly you got it done. Racing to be the first one done won't make you a better dancer. One of the best Entertainers I ever met on Kettemoor had never even mastered the profession. She loved it, she breathed, and she knew more than almost any other entertainer on the server, and she was proud to admit that she never mastered it. Not because she couldn't, but because she wanted to actually earn the XP in performances.
I 5* you because this helped keep me going... Thanks!
MyT_Chicken
Mon Dec 20, 2004 5:10 pm
#12
One thing I don't like about this game is that fact that most professionscan be mastered in a day or 2.
That is one of the things that I enjoyed about doing all the entertainer professions. It wasn't a 2 day experience. It took me a while to master Musician, Entertainer and Dancer;but the grand part of that is I met so many people. I really wish all the professions were like this.
I don't think this profession is broken when it come to reaching master, I think every other profession is broken because you can master in 2 days. I really hope the combat balance changes this.
Entertainers have it so much better than any other profession in my opinion.
- Entertainers learn early that it's ok to ask for help.
- Entertainers learn that grouping can be fun if people actually WANT to play the game.
- Entertainers are always helpfull to eachother.
- Entertainers use to be the "Goto" people to learn about faction actions (Imps attacking XXX).
The problem is that many people that become an entertainer take advantage of Macro's and simple don't care. While you can do this for other professions, it quickly looses it's flare (Combat you can only go so high while AFK, and Crafters have to actually be there).
I don't think Mastering any Entertainer class Legitamately takes to long. I think its perfect; actually I think it doesn't take long enough. Entertainers will always be the Back-bone of this game regardless if people give us credit for it or not. We are the ones that keep this game moving. And honestly, if Entertainer took any less time to master just think about how many MORE buffbots there would be. Many people are discourged at the time it takes to master, and I for one like that.
Morwen
Mon Dec 20, 2004 6:12 pm
#13
I don't think the problem is in how long it takes to master dancer, but in how little time it takes to master most of the other professions.
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