Dancers play a crucial roll in decent PvP. I think it's important that we start adressing the issues of PvP dancers. I'm starting this guide and encouraging anyone who uses their dancer in PvP situations to please chime in with any advice, tips and tricks you might know of. The first session here will be directed towards preparing yourself for PvP.
You do need to have a combat proffession to compliment your dancing. I have taken up pistoleer because of the action cost but at the moment it's not the greatest for PvP. So consider the situations you might find yourself in when chosing your combat proffession. Assuming you will master dancer (optimum healing and bufffing abilities are so important) you'll have to invest 106 skill points into dance so you can afford to master one elite weapon class as well as have some medic and scout. I'd suggest something with strong defenses because it does happen that you will be attacked and not able to stop the dance animation and you want those attacks to miss. I'd also suggest staying away from anything that costs mind as it will be your biggest vulnerability already and chances are good you'll not be mind buffed.
Invest in canape, brandy and (gag) muon gold, get the best armor you can and the best weaponry you can and get used to dying anyway. Always insure and clone. The points invested in dancing cause you to be gimped as far as PvP templates go so you have to adjust fire and make up for it in food, skill tapes, bio engineered clothing and really good equipment. Trust me when I say that you will not have a hard time finding a group of people who will help you get all of this stuff. I have yet to pay for anything. They need you out there. You will take care of them and they will take care of you.
I would suggest staying covert your first few times out just to get the feel of the things (but don't make a habit of it because it's not exactly honorable to heal overts and be covert). Try not to get too frustrated if you don't know what's going on, it tends to get a bit chaotic and as with anything else experience helps (/giggle i never know what's going on:smileywink.
-silly-
Save your breath. You'll need it later to blow up your date.
So, ok..you've got your dancer all equiped and ready to go in the best armor you could get and the best weapons you could get and you've survived the raid (hopefully). It's time for you to heal your friends and rebuff. You don't want to spend 20 minutes changing into your dance clothes do you? I know your friends don't want you to and no one wants you to have to dance in that tacky armor. The following macro should help speed the process.
there are 8 pieces to a full set of armor. Put them on the 2nd toolbar pane starting atF1 to F8 and put your dance outfit (i'm going to assume a dancer's leotard with mind enhancement modifiers, gloves with wound healing modifiers and shoes with bf healing modifiers hopefully with enough sockets left over for some mind enhancement sea's if you are lucky enough to get them) in the F9-F11.
Make a dance macro that flourishes every second and uses the /macro macroname command to loop then put the icon for that on the F12 slot
Set up the folloing macro and name it something easy for you to type for example "healing"
assuming you use the first toolbar pane for your combat keys the following macro will change you out of your armor into dance gear, start you dancing, and switch you back to your combat keys (just in case).
Now Make the exact same macro as above but start it with /dump and leave out the ui slot11 ( I'd suggest naming it "fight")
so to get out of combat mode and into dance mode all you have to do is type /macro heal and to get out of dance mode and back into fighting just type /macro fight
-silly-
Save your breath. You'll need it later to blow up your date.
An excelent start, but you left out some crucial elements
1. Wear Brightly colored clothes so you can be seen and targeted from a distance.
2. Spam your light show in an attemt to mezzmorize the other players.
3. Repeatedly ask the oposing side for tips after all you ARE providing them with faction points.
Nah, I don't die as much as I used to but I'm still pretty new to the PvP arena so I still have some learning to do. It's a great new experience for me. I hope you'll be open minded enough to try it.
-silly-
Save your breath. You'll need it later to blow up your date.
Before the 30sec nerf.."City being raided! Everyone to the cantina for combat buffs!"
Later in the day....dizzy dizzy, blind, posture down, "eat cold stun baton!", gaffi to the chest, gaffi to the chest, gaffi to the chest. /deathblow.
Now it takes a little longer. Thank god for t'ssolok. Our group mind buff is an incredible asset in PvP and can be done in camps as well as cantinas. True I can defense stack like other pure combat professions but thats one of the prices I have to pay for being able to heal battlefatigue and buff the MOST important stat in the game. Its just a shame I still have to go to another dancer to get MY mind buffed or a cantina to heal battlefatigue.
Keorythe
h Combat Medic h
/Forcing Counterstrike PvPers to PvE since 2003 \
A Combat Medic Alpha tester who never got the chance to alpha test
I don't think it's a matter of being open-minded... I would imagine most of us have at least DABBLED in combat, or have a combat profession already. But I know there are those who don't really enjoy combat. I'm one of them. I'm a dancer/tailor and I'm perfectly happy with that. My ID is a pistoleer, although I don't really know why, she never fights. LOL
~*~ F U S C H I A D A R K W A L K E R ~*~
Yes, I'm a respec Jedi. Get over it.
~*~ A V A D I H A L O N A - S O E P ~*~ Entertainer For Life - COMPNOR Eye Candy "You don't really rank around here unless you've been flamed by Oben, trolled by Mono, set straight by Geen, got caught in a love triangle between Cherry and Anoq, had your house decorated by Kipera, hugged by Esin, fondled by Fuschia, had IG respond with something inane and nonsensical, or at the very least been (a.) asked "can I have your stuff" or (b.) been accused of being a Todd by any number of random Tarquinian posters." --TalonKarrdeTN/Tyndaleon
In certain circumstances macroing a healing dance is the worst thing you can do. There will be times (base attacks in particular) where you will be doing your job while a battle rages around you. You sooo do not want to be on auto pilot at this time. You need to be in control and able to quickly stopdancing and pull your weapon.Wasting time to /dump a macro could be very detrimental to your survival.
Your soldier friends are responsible for keeping the bad guys away from you. If someone manages to get past that you are very vulnerable to attack without any means to fight back. I've found that Popular and Popular2 are the best "battle dances". The flourishes are only a few seconds long and alow you to quickly recover if you find yourself under attack. I'd stick with flourishes 1 and 5 from popular2 as they seem to be the quickest flourishes in the game at the moment.
-silly-
Save your breath. You'll need it later to blow up your date.
I don't think it's a matter of being open-minded... I would imagine most of us have at least DABBLED in combat, or have a combat profession already. But I know there are those who don't really enjoy combat. I'm one of them. I'm a dancer/tailor and I'm perfectly happy with that. My ID is a pistoleer, although I don't really know why, she never fights. LOL
I completely agree. Play your game your way. My point was only that I hope people are open to the idea of trying something that may be considered a bit unconventional. It's a load of fun and I sincerely wish that everyone could enjoy it as much as I do.
Plus i think it's way cool to be standing over the corpse of some notoriously tough Imperial PC while wearing my Master Dancer tag.
-silly-
Save your breath. You'll need it later to blow up your date.
Plus i think it's way cool to be standing over the corpse of some notoriously tough Imperial PC while wearing my Master Dancer tag.
ROFL That reminds me of the last time I actually PvP'd. I was standing in the middle of the Rebel PRC we were currently terrorizing, when someone looked at me, /pointed at me, and said "Best. PvP Title. Ever." I was like, huh? Then I realized I had my Master Image Designer Title on. Heehee.
~*~ F U S C H I A D A R K W A L K E R ~*~
Yes, I'm a respec Jedi. Get over it.
~*~ A V A D I H A L O N A - S O E P ~*~ Entertainer For Life - COMPNOR Eye Candy "You don't really rank around here unless you've been flamed by Oben, trolled by Mono, set straight by Geen, got caught in a love triangle between Cherry and Anoq, had your house decorated by Kipera, hugged by Esin, fondled by Fuschia, had IG respond with something inane and nonsensical, or at the very least been (a.) asked "can I have your stuff" or (b.) been accused of being a Todd by any number of random Tarquinian posters." --TalonKarrdeTN/Tyndaleon
I also have master dance/ master pistoleer. I am not by any means Uber at PvP but its really fun for me. I figure that I may not be the best contributor in the fight itself but my mind buffs help my friends. The no decay for insured PvP deaths also means if you have enough Fpts to cover it your losses are minimal.
I personally have had a blast dancing and fighting at base defenses. A good defense is a party all in itself. Once the bad guys leave we dance and play around until vuln time ends and that can be awhile.
Additionally everyone there is at their keyboard. I am never dancing with or for zombies. That is a bonus all in itself.
I must add if someone is not a master dancer yet and is not adverse to battle ... You can get great entertainment healing exp at raids. Combat medics are key in PvP at the moment and I see alot of black mind bars. I know if I had known this I would have been a master much sooner!
-silly- You may already know this but if you pick up some smuggler (the dirty fighting line) that really helps with pistol. I haven't yet though because it will take all the points I have in scout and medic. I enjoy being able to patch friends up in mind and health so when I do go smuggler it will be temporary.
As for a good split dance/fighter template. I have a friend who is TKM / Master Dancer and she is fiercesome in battle. If I didnt love my pistols so much I think that is what I would do......
Yeah, I picked up Smuggler dirty fighting and I'm pretty happy with the Low Blow for PvP and Last ditch is nice for when I don't want to agro everything on the screen. By the way, Panic shot and Warcry are very nice moves to buy you enough time to get out of dance gear and into armor, especially if you have the macro set up from above.
I don't think we'll ever be uber and I think that's probably the way is should be. My job on the battlefield is to live long enough to heal my friends, it's not my responsibility to deal a lot of damage. I feel this is a very important point to make. It will save a lot of frustration if you have the basic understanding that your usefullness is not in the damage you can dish out but in the wounds you can heal. Your combat skills are more for self defense.
And you are absolutely right about the healing xp. Nothing but black mind bars by the time a decent fight is over. It's so funny to me that people are paying CM's in the cantina's to throw mind diseases when PvP groups are plagued with mind disease and desperate for someone to heal the resulting wounds and battle fatigue.
I'm really thrilled at the response we've gotten in this thread. I was starting to think maybe I'm the only battle dancer out there. Does anyone have any advice on stat migration and what foods to keep in stock?
I'm still set up as a PvE pistoleer and RP dancer so basically I'm heavily invested in Action and Stamina. I've been thinking of moving some of that into quickness so that flourishes cost less (flourish=healing). But that seems a bit redundant since quickness is buffable. I'm also tempted to rely on doctor buffs and move everything to my mind, because that's my weakness and I'm rarely mind buffed (grrrrr). However, I'm a bit reluctant to comit to that because sometimes I just want to chill somewhere and dance and I don't want to have to stop dancing every 5 seconds because I only have 400 action. Any advice?
I have some Tat sunburn left that I still use for just chillin with my dance shoes but I'm not that familiar with the new foods. I have Canape, Brandy and Muon to keep my mind going in PvP but I'm certain there are other food options now that would outperform the pre patch action foods.
-silly-
Save your breath. You'll need it later to blow up your date.
As for a good split dance/fighter template. I have a friend who is TKM / Master Dancer and she is fiercesome in battle. If I didnt love my pistols so much I think that is what I would do......
-sian
This seems to be a very common combo among dancers who also want to get down and dirty in battle. I have it myself and I love it. I always go into battle with my master dancer title up. And, I dare say there are a few people who are initially surprised when I get my vibroknucklers out, knock 'em down and dizzy them.
I love dancing first and foremost. But, the beauty of this game is it gives us so many options, and I would personally feel like I'm missing out if I didn't pick up at least one combat profession to be useful out in the field. Most of our dancing abilities are prep work for battle, especially if we're the ones staging the raid. So, even if you're not actually out there, a dancer is very important to have around when you're preparing for a battle. But, having the option of actually going out and getting into the fray is also nice.
Stat migration is something I have had a problem with tho, I admit. As a dancer, I need to keep my action pool up. As a TK, I need my mind pool, especially considering the fact that I'm the one buffing and I usually don't get a buff as well. And, I do such a mix of things in the game, and stat migration takes so long that I can't really fine tune it on a daily or hourly basis depending on what I'm doing. It's also not smart to get my health pool down while trying to keep action and mind up, because that will be a serious weakness on the battlefield. So, I have just decided to even them all out as much as possible. It may not be the wisest choice, but I've tried several other combinations, but they don't seem to work for me. I'm also interested in any optimum HAM stats for someone who heavily relies on both action and mind.
Well, I always feel a little badly about it because I am a Dancer first and foremost... but I have a Blue migration. I am an uber leet MD/MID/Swords. I've been like this for a little over a month now.
It's not very practical for a Cantina only Dancer, but I take Dancer Brandy (Accarragm) when I first load and with in half an hour someone always comes along to quickness buff me. I was tired of blue deaths, it was the only way I ever died... and I was tired of wasting Docs' rezz kits. A lot of nice Docs still keep a set of Ent only low quality Quickness buffs... they will still usually buff a live Cantina Dancer for free. If I am in the field, I'm fully buffed like everybody else and taking Vaserian Brandy... I also get Musician and Dancer buffs most of the time (in fact, I pitch a fit if I'm around combat and I don't have them ).
I only get away with this because Doc buffs are so insanely common and easy to come by right now and I am lucky enough to be taken care of by very nice Docs and Chefs.
When the CB comes, Doc buffs may not be so common, blue healing may not be such a pain (as a Dancer only, I'm a little worried about that part still)... when that happens, it'll be back to a Dancer migration for me.
(Notes: I Dancer buff Docs and Chefs for free, I travel for them, and I come cheer for them on hunts and camp Dance... I believe this is why I am well cared for by Chefs and Docs that aren't in my guild... my guild Chef and Doc of course rock hardcore and spoil me )
P A N T H U Y GlitterUsagi M i n d B o d y S p i r i t Dancer ImageDesigner Doc
I'm a Master Dancer/Pistoleer too. I PvE Pistoleer and I've PvPed Dancer. The best PvP strategy I've seen was the Imperial group who set a camp outside a Rebel city and concentrated on protecting the camp (with dancer) while attacking the city's installation. The Imperials placed the Rebels in the position of protecting their installation while trying to get to the Imperial camp. You could pretty much figure out who was going to win by who's dancer left her post or died first.
Why would a dancer fight and become unavailable for healing? If you have more than one dancer wouldn't it be better to set up more than one camp rather than to leave your camp to fight? If a dancer is truly valuable shouldn't she be protected and discouraged from placing herself in more danger? Maybe dancers are fighting because our value as dancers is out of balance. So perhaps rather then look for ways to become better combat dancers, we should be looking for ways to become more valuable dancers during combat.
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I enjoy being able to patch friends up in mind and health so when I do go smuggler it will be temporary. 
A lot of nice Docs still keep a set of Ent only low quality Quickness buffs... they will still usually buff a live Cantina Dancer for free. If I am in the field, I'm fully buffed like everybody else and taking Vaserian Brandy... I also get Musician and Dancer buffs most of the time (in fact, I pitch a fit if I'm around combat and I don't have them 
