Doctor Archive

I've been a master doc for a few weeks now and I thought I'd go on about how I got into this, my experience thus far and thoughts about the profession. Apologies for the long ramble.

For the past 6 months as my toon (Lannedew @ Infinity) I was a happy wookiee TKM with a bit of medic and working my way up CH. CH proved boring after I worked out how to mount my pets (ooh-errr). Having bought a bunch of stims and resources on hand, I thought - hey why not Master medic? Few hours later, it was done.

That done I was left in a quandry about what to do next. CH was easy to drop - I had grown fond of my pets for sure but after getting it sorted in my head that I was merely "freeing" (not destroying as the silly datapad kept on insisting) my pets and I would visit them in their new homes, honest.

BE seemed rare and interesting but looking at the experience gained and things to do with it I thought it was too much of a gamble. Plus I'd mastered medic and thought I might as well use the whole thing.

Choosing Doctor was simple despite the respect I have for CMs in combat (PvP is an area I'm still pretty weak in). I simply didn't want to waste skill points on marksman when I figured Novice Scout would be more useful. Plus the one thing missing from extensive long PvE hunting sessions was buffs.

Master Doc was easy to come by. Day 1 - paid a tumbler 100K, set AFK macros to work, gained all skill boxes bar the crafting branch. Day 2 - grinded ABECs until mastered.

I know, I know, bad of me to grind MD without working through the profession but I really wanted to get into the commercial town buffing business. From outsiders point of view, it seemed lucrative and having promised myself I would never be a serious crafter again (played a AS earlier) a service industry seemed like a fresh alternative to killing.

I bought my first set of buffs (a reasonable 125K I thought for some 23xx 3h10m stuff), doubled my money, rinsed, repeated until my last purchase of 100 buff packs. I also bought some better buff packs along the way for personal / guild / friend use.

Town buffing itself was a challenge. Took me a while to set up the right macros to avoid common mistakes of reapplying already applied enhancements or missing a particular enhancement. Keeping track of food (bivoli), drink (brandy to avoid delays as mind repaired), buff packs, incoming bank tips (and silly cash tips) and the oh so numerous tells was a logisticians freaky fantasy. Then the customer service side was just a monumental challenge. I won't reiterate the common problems faced by docs whilst buffing the masses but I found the challenge of keeping a cheery disposition and avoiding transferal of a bad mood from one idiotic customer to another customer (who had yet not proven they were an idiot) was difficult. So I adopted McDonalds style efficiency by having a pleasant macro to greet my customers and wish them well, regardless of how pissed off I was with a previous customer (or them!).

After some time doing this I've realised some truths about this business:

* The money is good if you have the patience for it but not fantastic. Hunting is certainly more profitable but buffing requires less travel and is less dangerous. Sometimes this suits my temperament, sometimes I prefer to kill. However, given that buffing doesn't drop loots and good loots cost a packet, I think financially its not a viable option for anyone with an elite combat profession.

* Town buffing is a nice way to socialise and meet people (good and bad). I know the ****** from the really nice people now on my server. I often get a chance to have a natter with those about and with guildies which whilst hunting I rarely do.

* Crafting buff packs - something I'm only now at point where I have enough good quality resources to do - is a huge pain in the ass. I'm going to have enough resources to build some 50 packs for myself if I really can't get any elsewhere but I prefer to pay for others hard work. The way I see it is few hospitals or general practictationers act as pharma companies, so why the heck should I?

* Hunting with groups is a waste of time unless they are good friends or guildies. I've been on two SUCCESSFUL big hunts, spent a good deal of time and my inventory keeping people alive and free of state effects and DoTs and the return on my investment? Zero. Nada. Zilch. Smaller hunt groups (usually newbies) are a bit better because at least the reward of helping new people in the game is there.

* The MDs role in a group hunt is neglible if there's a CM aboard. The one thing I find most useful is when tanking to keep myself clear of state effects. Otherwise, doctors should hang back offsite ready to buff those who need it. Yet most occasions they are running about frantically trying to heal people and getting themselves killed. Don't expect your fellow team mates to help you once all the docs are dead. Don't even expect thanks most of the time, really. Strangers are best avoided altogher lol

* Havla is evil spawn. During town buffing use it with care or your belly will be full just as you need a fix of bivoli. In combat situations where quick healing is VERY useful, you're better off spending your stomach (eh!?!) on canape and synthsteaks to keep your mind high as possible and reduce your exposure to damage.

* Whilst doc buffs are the cornerstone of the entire economy, docs get very little respect and charge far too little for their services. The net result is that there are fewer docs and fewer still willing to provide their services for the general public. This in turn increases dissatisfaction as queues get longer and no rational mechanism to improve the situation - normally achieved by increasing prices. Training new docs is the only option but keeping reasonably competent docs happy doesn't seem to be anybody's concern.

Somewhere, sometime, somebody decided that prices should relate to production costs and not be based on supply/demand in this game. There's no way to equate benefit received with the cost of a service. If there was a mechanism for say charging a 10% royalty on all hunting done whilst on a buff (not an unreasonable rate I think) buffs would easily be worth 30-50K (excluding any loot).

Instead prices are differentiated by a few stats and basically what people think they can get away charging. I vary my rates based on how busy I am, a form of queue control and I've gone from 10k-20K with a one time special tip from someone for 100K.

So anyway, I'm down to my last few public quality buff packs and had promised myself I would quit after that. I still love being a doctor and will happily do a few buffs around the galaxy but its a clear realisation that town buffing is for the new ranks of doctors who aren't jaded enough yet to know better (or who don't have any combat skills). There just aren't the incentives to be a public service (either with hunt groups or in town) which is a shame for the profession and for the general populace.