Dancer Archive
Thread: newbie dancer questions...
Page 1 of 1
Dizzey
Thu Aug 12, 2004 8:25 am
#1
Hello - I am very new to the dancer profession - I am also quite ignorant about it.. I have, however, read the FAQ and learned a bit. I've played about 1.5 months now and the only interaction with entertainers I've had as a combat profession is to heal battle fatigue...
I know people go to them for mind buffs, but I've done it maybe twice in my time in the game (it is an irritating process and not worth the trouble... it seems stupid standing there for 15 mins waiting for some stupid bot to invite you or the leader of the group to invite you, etc... just isn't worth the hassle... the only 2 times I actually used it was with a dancer who wasn't a bot.. but they seem hard to find and not worth looking for since they are so rare).
Anyway, I want to make 1 of my characters as a master dancer just to provide buffs for my friends and guild for when we pvp (every point of extra mind pool helps immensely in pvp obviously).
Basically, I am a little confused on how earning xp works.... I understand that flourishes give xp... do certain flourishes give more than others?
How long must I wait to use another flourish (I heard 8 seconds?)
Does joining a group of entertainers give me more experience?
Do I get more expierence if people watch me?
It's all a little bit confusing.. any tips on earning experience would be appreciated. Thanks.
SmedleyLlama
Thu Aug 12, 2004 10:11 am
#2
Dizzey wrote:
Basically, I am a little confused on how earning xp works.... I understand that flourishes give xp... do certain flourishes give more than others?
From casual observation, I believe the higher numberd flourishes give a point or two extra XP but I can't say I've actually taken the time to check for sure.
How long must I wait to use another flourish (I heard 8 seconds?)
I run flourishes every 5 seconds. You will need to have your stats loaded into the Action categories (Action, Quickness, Stamina), or get a Doc buff, or Accarragm from a Chefin order to keep this up for any length of time though.
Does joining a group of entertainers give me more experience?
Yes.
Do I get more expierence if people watch me?
Yes. And Healing XP is only earned when a player with Mind wounds or BF is watching you or a member of your group.
It's all a little bit confusing.. any tips on earning experience would be appreciated. Thanks.
SmedleyLlama
Thu Aug 12, 2004 2:58 pm
#3
Ikewe wrote:
So it seems stupid and isn't worth it but you're creating an entertainer in order to do it because your guild needs it.... okay
Now now...
Encourage the lad (lass). Afterall, he/she did say it wasthe part about getting abuff from a bot, he/she found irritating and a waste of time. 
Ikewe
Fri Aug 13, 2004 12:24 am
#4
So it seems stupid and isn't worth it but you're creating an entertainer in order to do it because your guild needs it.... okay <shakes head> anyway to your questions:
You get experience for dancing with flourishes. The higher the dance level the more experience points you will earn that's why many dancers will tell you to always dance your highest level dance. Though I found some of them so repulsive I only did them when the cantina or hotel was empty. The number of the flourish (meaning Flourish 1 or Flourish 8) doesn't matter. What matters is performing the flourish.
I would tell you the amount of pause depends upon the flourish and what looks good but it sounds like you don't care about the choreography so the simple answer is flourish as fast as you are able.
You only get the healing experience if you are healing someone. Thus someone with mind wounds or battle fatigue must be watching you or your group if you are in a group.
You do get more experience when in a group.
Dizzey
Fri Aug 13, 2004 7:43 am
#5
Thanks to everyone for the info... as for it being "stupid" why I am making a dancer? Well heaven forbid I should want to do something to help my friends and guildmates - I mean, we should all only do stuff that benefit us personally, right? Doing things for friends is just "stupid" .. right?
I'm not making dancer to make credits - that's why I have a combat profession for... I am not doing it to spend hours providing "afk buffing" for others.... I only want the dancer so I can give mind buffs to my friends and guildies to help them in pve or pvp -- see the word? Helping.
My friends and I don't have the nerve to spend the better part of a half hour looking for a buff from a stupid buffbot that never seems to work (or some jerk in the group never invites people, etc)... non-afk dancers giving mind buffs seem non-existant - I spent 2.5hrs on several occassions looking for one and the only one's I usually found were only novices just trying to earn xp.
Not everyone who picks up dancer is doing it to make money or to build a buffbot - heck, I'm not even using it for the "social" aspect (which I NEVER see any entertainers do these days)... I just want to help my FRIENDS. That's it ... what on earth is so stupid about doing something that isn't selfish? I swear, so many people seem to just care about what's good for them and that's just sad.
Ikewe
Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:26 am
#6
Apologies for not being clear. I see nothing wrong with you wanting to help your guildmates - that's why I posted answers to your questions. It just sounded odd that in the first breath you said mind buffs weren't worththe effort(by the way, you called them stupid I was just quoting) and then finish it by saying your guildmates and you need it. I was shaking my head at the unintended incongruity in your phrasing not at the idea you might want to help your mates. It was a small attempt at a bit of humor but well, didn't come off that way.....
In addition, be aware that when you do get to the point where you are able to provide the buffs for your guild. The system isn't full proof - thus the failed robot buffs you have experienced. I seem to have about a 5% rate of failure when I buff - though some nights it will seem much higher. While most of the time this isn't a big problem because the people I am buffing can wait the additional 3 minutes to try again, if your guild is doing a raid or engaging in PvP defense/attack, having to redo buffs might prove to be very frustrating and indeed impossible in some situations. I had my first experience with that very scenario recently when I was trying to rapidly mind buff a couple of Overt players before their battle. One of the buffs failed and literally seconds before the timer went off on the second attempt, Overt members of an opposing guild arrived and the battle was on. This unlucky player was unable to get the mind buff in time as he was attacked before he could stop watching. Make sure you warn your guildies and try to prepare yourself for that frustration as well.
Ikewe, Master Dancer Shadowfire
Dizzey
Fri Aug 13, 2004 9:02 am
#7
The "stupid" part I was trying to refer to was the absurd amount of time it takes to get into a dancer/musician group for a mind buff when the character doing it is a bot (if the leader of the group isn't paying attention or is an ass - you will never get in.. as a combat profession, this happens far too often).
Mind buffs are good... but to me, not worth spending 30minutes to2 hoursor more sometimes before you can actually get one. It is such a massive headache to receive something that is not essential (unlike doc buffs which typically take me 5 mins or less to receive).
Mind buffs are a luxury - not a necessity.. I nor my friends want to lose an hour or more of online time looking for it (it's really nice to have though).
I guess my beef is that there are only buffbots in bloodfin doing it these days and not at-the-keyboard dancers... making it a very very very frustrating experience to try to get it.
It is not uncommon for me to see this from a friend: "Be right back - getting mind buffs" --- and then only meet up with him an hour later when he finally found a buff bot that he got invited into.
By making my own, we can eliminate that agony and have more fun... it's also a chance for me to try a profession I've never played before (I personally don't see the profession all that enjoyable yet ... doing it for practical sense only).. I haven't done any afk-grinding and greet almost everyone who I see... very few people do anything other than just sit there, so it isn't even fun for the "social" aspect since nobody really seems to do that or be interested.
Oh well.. I'll be happy when I reach master and can just log in the character when we need the buffs... I have no intent to use it for public buffs at all - I'll let the other dancers make their money with their annoying buffbots 
Ikewe
Fri Aug 13, 2004 11:09 am
#8
Given your description of your server I suspect you'll always have a lack of attentive ATK entertainers unless something in the culture of that particular server changes. Not too manysocial players will want to spend hours trying to engage patrons who have no desire to be engaged so they'll either drop entertainer or resort to going the robot route in the hopes that things will eventually improve once they reach Master. They won't obviously and so the cycle will continue. It sounds like the majority of robot healers/buffers on your server long ago lost any interest they may have once had in being an entertainer. I certainly don't envy you or anyone else who decides to take up an entertaining profession in that atmosphere.
Ikewe, Master Dancer Shadowfire
Nizaria
Sat Aug 14, 2004 1:26 pm
#9
The flourish XP comes in ticks - if I remember correctly, its 1 tick every ~8 seconds, and drops by about 5-10% per tick over the course of about a minute (6-8 ticks or so). So, youcan do 1 flourish every minute or so and still get a decent amount of XP. I've done this when running low on Accargam, or can't find a buff, just to keep going.
Your best bet is to latch onto a dance where the flourishes take less than 8 seconds to animate (anything other than formal/lyrical would work) and just tap a flourish every8-9 seconds to keep the per-tick XP at max. Accargam is better than a doctor buff for dancing, since it targets just the Action stat and sub-stats, is cheap, and a decent bottle of it will have 16 doses at 30+ minutes per dose (i.e. 8+ hours, instead of 2h50m from a doc), and at 8-10 seconds per flourish its plenty strong to keep your Action up.
Dizzey
Sat Aug 14, 2004 7:11 pm
#10
Ah, ok.. so since I am flourishing every 5 secs right now using Footloose, I am basically just wasting action, right?
Dizzey
Sun Aug 15, 2004 12:02 am
#11
I am a novice dancer still.... so, if I do a flourish every 5 seconds isntead of every 8 seconds (like I am now), will I earn experience faster? Does each flourish give experience? Sometimes I do flourishes and don't gain any xp it seems, so it feels a bit like wasted action points for the extra one's.... I'm not clear how it works 
Page 1 of 1