Why are bureaucrats the least played profession?

[___________AngryCrat]

You'd think bureaucrats would be one of the more popular professions in the game.

They get pets, can charm, have the 2nd best DDs, can mezz....


So why are they the least played? Metas used to be even less played than crats long ago, but now they are one of the most popular professions. What exactly changed that made Metas go from least played to top 5?

The facts really speaking for themself: the bureacrat profession is very underplayed. Barely 3% of over lvl 150 players are crats on RK1.

At Level 50:
http://auno.org/ao/stats.php?rubika...0&level=50&t=ag
At Level 150:
http://auno.org/ao/stats.php?rubika...&level=150&t=ag

So why is this and what should Funcom do about it?

[_______________Vydas]

I find this chart:

http://ymera.com/actprofprweek.html

a little more accurate when trying to assess population distribution across professions. The chart indicates characters that leveled within each week, so it excludes inactives (and level 200's).

That said, crat is always one of the least played professions. Part of that, at least, is due to pet related issues. But my su****ion is that the rest of it is due to the fact that crat is not easy to play for most people, and they don't really want to work at it as much as they'd have to do.

[ralguramo]

Like being a doctor, what a crat does can either keep the group alive or get people killed.

It's a lot of pressure for some. Nothing like having a total stranger you group with in a pickup group cuss you out cuz the manure hit the ventilator and folks die in a bad fight due to lag, an honest mistake, etc.

[Jynne]

My thoughts on why there aren't a lot of crats:

1) A lot of players don't realize what crats are capable of.
2) Pet pathing.
2) Title caps and psychic checks make their charms useless or near useless for many levels at a time.
3) After level 150/160, adds aren't much of a problem in a mission.
4) Psychic checks make their charms useless on higher level mobs.
5) Did I mention pet pathing?
6) The profession name just isn't glamorous-sounding and doesn't attract interest. Soldiers and NTs attract plenty of players, even while 'gimped' Fixers and Adventurers attracted plenty of players. They are 'cool' in ways a paper-pusher never will be

[engelstein]

Number 6 is the biggy, I think. Bureaucrats, are, well, boring. Woo, I can calm and DD. I'd rather play an NT. And do.

[Peisinoe]

Pet pathing. Look at the pet class percentages. :P

Also keep in mind that those graphs only show guilded players. Not very accurate, but more of a general guide.

[__________RuthieChan]

I don't think it's the pet pathing.
People still play Engineers and Meta Physicists.

I play a crat, and I LOVE being management. When I solo, I let the bot do my work for me, unless it's pretty tough foe, and then I help out from a safe distance.
Also, on lower levels, I like charming. Though it sucks when you get higher and it doesn't work much anymore. But, we still have our mezzes and such.

But, yeah, I think most people don't play it because they don't get it. Or it doesn't sound interesting. *shrug*

Oh, I like your name PwrPuffGuy.

[Beria]

I've never really been able to figure this out. I've played a few other professions, not all but a few, and I keep coming back to my 'crat. Any time I play an alt, I can't get over the feeling of "lack of control" versus playing my 'crat.

I really think it boils down to what suits your own personality. You like "in-your-face" action, go with a MA/Enf/Sold. You like helping people and looking like a hero, be a Doc. You like standing back and blasting the stuffing out of things, be an NT. If you like controlling the situation and being an indirect participant in the action, then maybe a 'crat is for you.

All that being said, I think you all might be right, some people just don't see being a 'crat as very cool. Me...I think it's the ultimate in cool, but hey, I'm biased.

[Glarawyn]

If you like doing damage and making the Doc look good when the calmer screws up, be an Adventurer.

[Peisinoe]

I don't know what game you play, but if you really think there are that many high level engis/mps, let me have what you're smoking. :P Crats in that respect are quite fine at high levels as they're the least pet reliant prof of the three. And once again, those numbers you're looking at aren't accurate. They're only guilded players. You might be suprised at how many aren't.

[Blackwing]

i guess first time players are kinda put down by pet classes with multiple combat options - meta and crat unless they get help at first with macroes and scripts and all.

and later when its time for an alt, crats are not very glamorous. i think alot of alts are done to explore a different playstyle, have a buff slave or a pvper.

the only thing the crat in this regard then is pets and calms.
no buffs comparable to wrangles or mochams and lousy in pvp.

like another poster said before if you want calms and nukes you might as well be nanotech - or if you just want calms heck go trader.

the responsibility of being main calmer or main healer in a newbie group kills alot of aspirants as well.
just yesterday the whole group of my lowbie nt was wiped because somebody panicked and broke calm.

i only play my doctor if i team with at least 2 friends in other words rarely. its better with the bureaucrat since at that level people can stand the heat for a couple of seconds so if i lag its unlikely the whole group gets wiped.

[____________Intrepid]

crats are just so damn complex. too much work for some people with all their charm lines and calms and auras etc.....

Definately give props to those who can play a crat well.

I couldn't choose between crat and engie but i choose eng for tradeskills

[_____Real Kinky Ityn]

I think a lot of those reasons are valid. There is another huge factor too, a crat is the most complex class to play by far. Not everyone wants to go through all the work it takes to build a solid one, but if you are a smart player with a lot of time on your hands crats have the most potential for variety and play style than any other class in the game.

The fact is, there are a lot of not so smart players in this game, and, well, that's what MAs are for (no offense to the smart MAs out there of which I know quite a few) a fairly easy class to play with really only one direction to take.

I'd say runners up for other tough classes to play: Meta, Trader and to some extent agent. They also have fairly small distributions.

[BGumble]

I wouldnt say crats are that hard to play but they do take more brainpower than most professions. I found mine the most rewarding solo character I've played by a long way, able to do ridiculous feats of soloing at places like SW mine and NW cave at very low levels.

It's the name/description thing. Crats, Traders and Fixers all suffer from it with the exception that Fixers have become flavour of the month since their improvements but will probably settle down to be a smaller profession again.

[ralguramo]

I keep hearing how Fixers are flavor of the month and how the number of fixers will taper off with the next love patch.

Could be...

Then, it's entirely possible that they are so fun now that they are *playable* that they won't dwindle off into oblivion at all.

MA's were flavor of the month at one point. They are still played heavily.

Crats are just plain hard to play well. Seems they struggle in solo combat early on. That makes it tough to level them up to a decent grouping level.

[_______________North]

Actually, if you look at the char that Vydas provided you can see that NTs are far from most popular professions. And since 14.4 patch, Trader have become very close to Crats...while there has been a massive increase of Fixers.

All these changes of course relate very closely to patches. Interesting chart tho, as it actually has patches on it as well

[__________RuthieChan]

I didn't have a problem with combat early on as a crat.
Especially once I got the hang of using my bot, and then soon discovering macros and scripts.

[Lilyflie]

I found crat hard when I first made one...however that was when I first started playing the game...so I made a MA..which of course is one of the easiest to learn to play to IMO....after I finally learned the basics of the game, I decided to try crat again, just for a laugh.....well, crat is now my main, and I have tried every other prof available, and Crat is still # 1.

I think the main reason people don't like playing crats is the pvp aspect....crats are pretty well known to be a weak class in pvp...and I don't mean all crats...I understand that there are a few high lvl crats who are quite good, but in general, the only pvp match I ever won was a fight with a lvl 100 enforcer, while I was lvl 125...and I limped out of the arena with only 70 or so hp left....

From talking to a lot of people PVP, pet pathing and the chasing down mp's for mochams are 3 of the most common reasons people don't play them.

It's funny actually, I get asked at least 2 or 3 times a week by low lvl crats who see me above the 100 lvl....asking me if I like playing crat. Yes...yes I do...I think I would have been bored with the mechanics of the game a long time ago if not for the crat. And as much as I can't stand pet pathing, I have been able to solo the majority of this game (with the exception of lvl 80 - 130 which was more a guild thing than a NEED thing) because of the tools available to a crat.

I also think someone was on to something when they mentioned the name itself....nothing glorious about crat, compared with MA (you think jackie chan) Enforcer ( you think The rock) soldier (you think AHNOLD) fixer (you think matrix)..adventurer (speaks for itself)...you get the picture anyway.

Anyway, I still enjoy my NT, my MA (now and then) my fixer..but Crat will always be # 1.....now...do something about that pathing and I'll be in heaven

[Cambist]

If the most powerful and easiest to play profession in the game was called Trashman or Janitor, everyone would still play it. If this profession managed to do good enough damage to be wanted at unique spawns, won at pvp on a semi-regular basis, could solo well, and was wanted by high level teams (Lvl 150+ group looking for Trashman!!) people would play them more than any other profession.

[Ashuras]

Let me tell u guys why there are so few crats.

1) New players

New players who tried to start as crat might not survive for long as it's a pet class and not easy to play. Thus u don't get many new players as crats (only those experiences ones and good players will survive to high levels)

2) Old plaeyrs.

Why is it that so few old players twink new crats? Reason is simple.. there is no point!

Want PVP ? Crat is not king in PVP
Want to buff ? MP is the one
Want trade skill ? Engies or Trader

Few will play another twink just for PVM. Unless they just want to try something new.

So that explains the pet class theory, ie. even though MPs and Engies are pet classes too, their population is still higher than crats, coz high levels twink them for trade/buffs, etc.