Dancer Archive

Hello, I am not an entertainer or anything, I enjoy playing the game with combat professions, but I thought that everything that involves combat makes this game one of the best options for roleplaying.

An idea just came to my mind, I think that entertainers should have some good utility buffs for a good start. BUT, if you could add a 9th slot to the group that could only be filled with an entertainerso that they could go out a bit too and get some fun in the wild. It would be nice if only entertainer skills could be used there so we still have a balanced combat group but with some backup.

It's just an idea, it sure needs more planning on it but at least I tried

I'm not sure I understand this. What is the point of a dancer going out with a combat group, exactly, when she has no combat skills? Assuming buffs last 3 hours as they currently do, it's not like you need them to be "recharged" during a normal evening of play. And what's the dancer getting out of it? Not much as far as I can tell... she gets to be a spectator watching everyone else get into combat and have fun? That would get old for me in about 10 minutes.

I'm not clear on why it would make sense for my cantina dancer to be out at Mount Chaolt watching you hunt Kimos....

C

Message Edited by Chessack on 07-30-2005 01:41 PM

Entertainers no longer get XP from buffing, only from flourishing. So they wouldn't get any more XP from buffing you than from dancing alone in their house.

Again it's not cleaer to me why a dancer should, conceptually, be out there dancing in the middle of a battle. When did they ever do this in Star Wars?

We are not bards, and I believe the general consensus is, we do not want to be bards. Entertainers want to have the cantina be the social hub of the galaxy as it was at launch time.

Short term buffs that can only be applied on a per-battle basis are going to not just ALLOW us to go into the field if we want, but FORCE us to in order to provide a service. I think most of us have said repeatedly that we oppose such requirements.

Remember, it's possible to play a combat class if we want to. We had that option and chose instead to play a cantina-dwelling non-combat class. Why, after making such a choice, would it make sense to push entertainers into combat? After all, if we wanted to be in combat in the first place, we'd have picked a combat class to play.

C

Some of us, believe it or not, like to get out of the cantina once in a while and stretch our legs. For me, the only thing to do outside of the cantina is ID - very fun for me, but it's the only thing I can do. (I've mastered all ent profs)

Why not make the buffs so that you can choose the duration of each one when you are buffing someone? When a patron watches you, you have to choose what type of buff you give (already discussed in different posts) but you should also be able to choose the intensity.

Let's use the inspiration buff for example. Combat profs can get a 20% inspiration buff that only lasts30 minutes, a 15% buff that lasts60 minutes, or a 10% buff that lasts120 minutes. A 3-hour inspiration buff should only be about 5%.

What are the benefits of this? First of all, it means a great deal more customers coming inand out of the cantinas. Second, it means more interaction between the ent and the customer than just the type of buff. The customer actually has to know what the buff is for and how long they'll need it. Thirdly, it will make combat profs want to have ents with them in the field. This is great because we can charge more for this - increased revenue - and it makes us much more valuable as a profession. Xethar has a wonderful idea - don't punish the group by taking away a slot, just give ents a special slot.

Chessack, if you don't like to go out into the battlefield, then stay in the cantina. You still have that choice - this system doesn't force youto do anything. /shrug Most likely, ents will wisely make the price for such on-location services very high, so it's not going to be something that every combat group can have. I think that even with this system, there will still be a very great demand for long-term buffs - though probably not at the Dant MO.

/applaud Xethar

Nice idea!

I kinda like the idea of a role for ents in the combat group. When I first started, I thought there was such a role. There sort of was, but I never really found myself getting invited to hunting groups for my dance skills. I was a little disappointed by this.

I think Chess is right that there aren't a lot of people who want us to have a 'bard' type role, and in fact I'm not sure it has much basis in the Star Wars universe, and there are also the Squad Leaders to consider who do sort of have this type of role already.

I'm not sure what the best type of role to serve in this type of capacity would be, but maybe if they could find some way that hunters would want a camp and would have to come back to it every so often during the battle, but to be sure that it helps the game play and not make it more of a hassle, it might work. Maybe if there was some way to have increased healing in a camp or more of an increase with an entertainer present. Something like that maybe.