As of late I have found myself a bit more interested in combat. And while I'd like to be more involved, I keep running into this little issue: I don't have the proper skills to hold my own against advanced opponents. Seeing as I gain lessons very slowly (100 credits, once a month, plus in-game purchases which due to the now exorbitant credit market, are far and few between) by the time I have the reccomended (Trans guild skills, Trans Planar, up to focus mind in Discipline, Trans Magic and Resilience, etc) we'll proabably have level 102. This leaves me with a choice: Keep my Cameo and use it and the fun RP that accompanies it, or trade it in and get credits.

Pros to Tradein:
* 666 bound credits, on the spot.
Cons:
* Once I give up the Cameo, I may never get it back.
* Lose the fun rp
* Lose the convenience

If you're planning on staying a druid, you don't technically need any skills beyond sap in druidry to begin with. Of course, more skills will give you more options and a greater likelihood of being able to kill others (not to mention some skills will up your survivability).

I've bought credits once - I only purchased 40 of them, and it was mostly to make Nyir permanent. Granted, I am not an upper tier zomg AWESOME fighter, but I can hold my own in most situations where I'm prepared and not against a group. It took me a while to get to even where I am right now, although part of that is how most of my credits are ICly bought - I've had a few unasked-for donations from people who know they probably won't be paid back, for which I have much for them, but those donations happen very, very rarely, and I don't ask for or count on them.

I'm trans guild skills (including forgetting trans ecology to trans runes at one point), trans herbalism, trans planar, virt combat, and fabled resilience, with focus mind from discipline in there as well. I've still got a lot of skills to learn in order to increase my survivability and the like, not to mention artifacts to eventually save for, but I still get involved with combat.

What I'm saying in a lot of words is to hold onto your cameo at least a bit longer. Don't be afraid to take things a little slow when you're learning combat, don't be afraid to ask questions, and don't necessarily expect to be able to defeat upper tier combatants right away, regardless of what skills and artifacts you have. Even if you traded in your cameo to gain the lessons you need to learn a lot of necessary skills, you won't be able to take everybody on right away since, from the sounds of it, you don't have much combat experience right now anyway.

If you find you're really impatient for more lessons after you spend some time learning to fight, and if you feel you won't miss the cameo too much, then I would say trade it in. Don't trade it in out of frustration at being unable to win fights, though - learn to work with what skills you have at first before you learn more, and work toward smaller lesson goals to get key skills while beginning. Otherwise, you may wind up frustrated that you traded the cameo in for more credits and still aren't able to win fights yet.

Before I can answer the poll question, I need to ask you which races you cameo into, and how often you do it.

Do bardics for credits, don't throw away your cameo. That's like selling 334 credits in the market for 1 gold per, and just donating the gold to beggars.

Instead of buying 100 credits a month, save up for a couple of months and buy a bigger package for a better rate.

Essentially- Faeling, Elfen, Dracnari and Furrikin are the mains. Human, Lucidian, and Aslaran on occasion.

I change my race pretty much once a month, mostly because I feel obligated to.

In that case, Don't trade in the cameo.

Truth.

When I first started as a Blacktalon combatant, it was damned hard to get everything down. It took me awhile, but once I did, I was able to spar Sidd in the arena and come to a draw. When that point came, I was damn proud of myself.

It just takes awhile. Don't get too discouraged, and like Nyir said, ask for help if you need it.

You want to trade in your cameo. Pick a good race to be, trans some needed skills, get to other skills that you need below trans. All the people above lie. You will never beat anyone or even survive without those skills. The cameo can only save you by allowing you to go dwarf and get smashed so you take much less damage! Which you can also do by going dwarf THEN trading in your cameo. Clearly you should just give in and trade in that cameo. Skills > arties! Unless that artie is for a tradeskill that will help you earn even more gold!

Having traded in my cameo twice, I have to say, bad idea. As a druid there are still three or four viable races to switch to, and cameo is just awesome for RP aswell. On the other hand, you have what, viability in combat? Let me tell you, unless you are omnitrans and Demigod, you won't matter much at all. That's the high tier of combat. Below that, you can survive with the skills above people said, and you will get some fun spars out of it, and you can bash as well.

Lies!