Entertainer Archive
Thread: So You Want to be an Entertainer...
The first step is choosing a race.
If you already have a character, you can skip this step, though the numbers on the action stats may be of interest.
The entertainer professions are flooded with Twi’leks, Humans and even Zabraks. If you absolutely must have your character be one of these races that is your choice, but be aware that you will not stand out among the hordes. If, on the other hand, you choose any of the other races, you will stand out simply for that fact.
With regards to gender: It is unfortunate, but true, that female characters tend to do better as entertainers than male characters do. However, there are male entertainers that have done well.
The number values on the action stats are one thing that you should take into consideration when making a character that is destined to become an Entertainer. I have divided the various races available in Star Wars Galaxies into four categories.
Races with poor action stats:
- Trandoshans (1000/450/400)
- Zabraks (1300/450/400)
Races with moderate action stats:
- Mon Calamari (1000/450/550)
- Wookiees (1200/550/500)
Races with good action stats:
- Bothans (1300/750/500)
- Sullustans (1400/750/500)
- Twi’leks (1250/750/400)
- Ithorians (1100/750/500)
Races with excellent action stats:
- Humans (800/1100/1100)
- Rodians (1200/650/850)
The numbers reflect the maximum Action/Quickness/Stamina of each of the races. Note that Humans could get 1100 in Action if they dropped Quickness or Stamina to 800. However, it is the Quickness and Stamina numbers that affect how well you can perform as an entertainer.
Be aware that if your character is of any race other than Human or Rodian that you will not be able to flourish frequently enough to get the best xp without buffs of one kind or another. Accarragm is your friend.
You are now ready to go out into public.
Upon entering the cantina, the first thing you will notice is the horrendous amount of spam that fills your spatial chat box. Before you even start dancing or playing music, you need to deal with that.
If you see someone spamming “tip me/heal me/invite me if I’m not already grouped” etc, they need to go on your ignore list. You can be sure that any combat characters that spend much time in the cantina will have already done the same. The same goes for anyone with the "afk" tag over their head who is saying or emoting anything (note that there is an option to ignore chat from afk characters, but this will not ignore emote spam).
The use of the same emotes over and over also calls for being placed on the ignore list. Now some people use emotes to keep them from being booted for “inactivity” while they chat or perform, however, it is not necessary to use the same emote over and over and a /pause 300 between each emote (or other action)will still keep you in the game just fine. Note that emotes are not the only actions that can be used for this purpose and other actions that you can use don't spam spatial chat. The test for if a keep-alive macro is annoying is to run it in a location where you are alone, so the only things that show up in spatial chat come from you. If your keep-alive macro becomes an annoyance to you, change it. Better yet, if you are in a cantina which is actively used and you /greet newcomers as they enter, you can do away with a keep-alive macro entirely.
Choosing where to perform:
Each cantina is different. One cantina might fit your playstyle while another will be completely antipathetical to you. Your choice of server can also affect which cantina is right for you.
The Coronet cantina is usually extremely busy, but is also flooded with zombies (characters who are performing afk) and bots (a variant of zombie that allows itself to be used by anyone wanting an entertainer buff). These characters make the atmosphere in this cantina hostile to a real entertainer. Some people are capable of dealing with this and have been successful even in the face of the horde of zombies and bots.
The cantina in Theed is usually regarded asTHE place to find"live" Entertainers. It is usually somewhat less busy than Coronet, but is still an active cantina.
There are cantinas in many other NPC cities as well as player cities. If neither of the two "big" name cantinas (Coronet and Theed) are a good fit for you, check out the other venues. Don't forget that you can also perform in Hotels and Theaters! Performing in an under used venue can have its own advantages if you go there regularly (especially if you play at "off hours"). If combat charcters discover that there is an entertainer that can regularly be found in a particularlocation, especially if that location is more convenient to them than Coronet or Theed, they will start coming there.
One other thing to take into consideration: cantinas sometimes go through cycles. At one time, everyone in a given cantina will perform in the main room, then suddenly, they will move to the foyer. Those interested in truly entertaining tend to go to the main room while zombies gravitate towards the foyer. Exceptions to these can and do occur, but these are the areas that you can usually find each type of character.
Ok, you are now ready to start actually performing.
The best method to gain xp as a performer is to join a group of other performers and to flourish once every 10 (for dancer) or 5 (for musician) seconds. You can have fun performing if you are flourishing less often and don’t belong to a group however, especially if there are enough live people present.
If you have chosen to make your character of a race that has poor or moderate action stats, be aware that you will still gain xp even if you flourish less often and are not grouped. It will be at a reduced rate, but the goal of an entertainer is more to have fun than to race to the Master box. Chances are, if you grind your way to the Master box, you will feel that the profession is boring and dull. So don’t do it! Enjoy the journey.
How often should you flourish if your action stats are less than excellent? For those with poor to moderate stats, a 30 second pause for dance or a 15 second pause for music is good. You will still run out of action fairly quickly, but this will be balanced out by the xp you earn during the time that you are performing. If you have good stats, you should be able to handle a 20 second pause for dance/10 seconds for music.
Action Foods:
Because of the importance of the action stats for entertainers, I am including a list of the different foods and drinks that will provide a boost to these stats.
- Accarragm is the number 1 Entertainer's Drink of choice. It will give a nice boost to all 3 action stats and lasts up to 45 minutes.
- Blob Candy only boosts action itself, and does not give much of a boost.
- Breath of Heaven gives a boost to quickness, but does not last very long.
- Kiwik Clusjo Swirlboosts both quickness and stamina and lasts around 10-15 minutes.
- Pastebread and Sweesonberry Rolls only boost action, but provide a decent boost to the stat and last a good amount of time.
- Scrimpiboosts quickness and has a nice duration.
- Teltier Noodles provides a small boost to stamina.
- Vercupti of Agazza Boleruuee boosts action only and has a fairly short duration.
Interacting with the public:
When someone enters the cantina, let them know that you are there for them. Many combat characters seem to be shy about interacting with entertainers,a /greet is a simple, non-confrontational method of doing this. If they respond, this is a go-ahead sign that they are interested in interacting and you can feel free to talk to them.
Macros are a tool that can be used for good or ill.
Some Entertainers are skilled enough that they are able to do their flourishes by hand. I have nothing but admiration for such talented individuals. I am not one of them, however, and depend on my own macros to do my routines.
When writing a macro for a routine, try to vary the flourishes you use so that your performance is interesting. Learn the flourishes for each song/dance you are able to do. Several of the dances do not have a full 8 flourishes and some of the flourishes are less that attractive (I personally refuse to do the “Monkey” flourish from the Rhythmic Dance).
A sample leveling dance macro would be:
Be aware that dance flourishes may take different amounts of time. So if you were doing a performance, you would want to take that into account in making your pauses. This is where the skill of those who are capable of timing by hand really shines. They can make one flourish flow into the next seamlessly. Note that this same macro could be used for leveling a musician by simply changing the pauses from 10 to 5 (or whatever your pauses need to be set at).
The sample macro presented here is really much too short and both could and should be made quite a bit longer. The echo line will show up in the top chat tab of your main chat box to let you know when to restart the macro. You can write anything you like for the echo line. Some people send themselves a /tell instead.
If for any reason you need to stop your macro, just type /dump in the chat box.
Making Routines:
Music flourishes are all the same length, so when you make a music routine, you simply determine which flourishes to use and in which order to produce a pleasing sound. Play around with the different songs/flourishes until you come up with something cool. There are also threads on the Musician Forum with routines that others have developed and are offering to share. One other point is that music flourishes "stack" so you can do multiple flourishes in a row and they will all play.
Dance routines are a bit more complicated as the different flourishes take different ammounts of time. The time a dance flourish takes ranges from 5 seconds (for some of the Rhythmic Flourishes) to 32 seconds (for flourish 1 in exotic 4). Check out the Dancer Forum for posts on Dance Cards for more information on this.
In conclusion:
Remember, the primary goal of playing any profession is to enjoy yourself. If you are not having fun with the profession, maybe you should try something else.
Message Edited by Maisland on 03-08-2005 12:44 PM
-how often to flourish for maximum xp if you have good action stats, and how often (approximately) to flourish for maximum xp if you have lousy stats (dancer and musician vary)
-how long dance flourishes last (approx) for each dance?
-what happens if you flourish during a flourish?
-how to dump a macro (even non-repeating macros might need this)
-queuing music commands versus dance
-where to perform (i.e. what "type" of cantina is a good fit - crowded, slow, RP?)
Maisland wrote:
Now some people use emotes to keep them from being booted for “inactivity” while they chat or perform, however, it is not necessary to use the same emote over and over and a /pause 300 between each emote will still keep you in the game just fine. The test for if a keep-alive macro is annoying is to run it in a location where you are alone, so the only things that show up in spatial chat come from you. If your keep-alive macro becomes an annoyance to you, change it.
When my IDs were working on their skills, I used my Dancers on my other account as my target. They were doing nothing but flourishing and accepting the ID changes... they repeatedly got disconnected until I added an emote every so often. I don't know about the other 2 methods you mention as I have never tried them.
Eaca wrote:
/flourish 1 every 300 seconds will keep you connected, regardless if you have entertainer or not
/tendwound every 300 seconds will keep you connected, regardless if you have medic or not
/harvesteractivate every 300 seconds will keep you connected, regardless
The above 3 ways will keep you connected without resorting to saying anything in spatial. Please note /sit, /stand, or any one of a multitude of different / commands will keep you connected to the server without spamming anything. Also please note that the first example above is part of entertaining. Running a flourish macro will keep you connected, without the need for spam.
Rule #1 in the cantina: If it says (AFK) above thier name, and they say or emote anything /addignore.
Devil_Tiger wrote:
I use a really simple macro to keep me connected when I'm doing things like shopping or arranging things in my storehouse backpacks:
stayhere
/mood none;
/pause 480;
/macro stayhere;
Works like a charm and there is no emote spam. Got the idea from the merchant forum (forgot who said they use it).
Oooh, nice. I'll have to try that.
P.S. I tend to use long non-recursive macros rather than short looping ones if I can so that my macros will all work when recursive macros go away (as has been promised).
Message Edited by Maisland on 03-07-2005 01:25 PM
Devil_Tiger wrote:
Need to figure out how to colorize echos though, I use one for my buff macro and I've missed it coming up a couple of times. At least I noticed the xp ticks dropping off and restarted the buff macro, lol.
I believe that you can color /echos by the same method that you color labels on packs/waypoints and house signs... thus:
/echo \#FF0000Red Text\#FFFFFF
Get a color wheel to use to choose what color your text is. I used the sample of red text because that seems to be the color that most choose to use for visibility. The second color code will turn the following text white, otherwise the red color will "bleed" over into the next line of text.
