Guild Wars 2

Hello people, I just went back and tried my warrior in WoW again and something stuck me so hard that my brain almost exploded.

Make Death Shroud, Attunement Swaps, Warrior Stances, Engineer Kits(possibly add 1sec cooldown or something) have an icon pop up over their heads when using any of the abilities/mechanics i just said.
Similar to Signets when you actually use them

This video shows an explanation of what i mean.

The animation for doom in animation is almost like this but would prefer if it was for Death Shroud instead since seeing when people enter shroud can be hard in the middle of a intense fight already, and doom is already instant so wtf?.

Also What about making bombs for engineers twice their size/half the size of big ol’ bomb, while also colour code them; Fire bomb=red, Concustion bomb=blue, Smoke bomb=white, Glue Bomb=green
This idea would work for staff marks as well with the icon idea i just suggested +color code them.

Another suggestion i have is color code abilities by adding a simple particle effects around the casting animations, think strong glowing hands when casting, would make easier to see animations and know what they are doing, too many animations in this game are already too similar or way to hard to see and especially during bigger fights. Would also reduce the advantage that Asuras currently have in PvP.
Think this system would probably be the best way to do it while also adding the icon suggestion for at least death shroud, attunement swaps, warrior stances(a quick icon popping up similar to signet use).

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This would be a lot easier than trying to make new animation for every problem class/race. Would also make it more pleasing for spectators since they would easier see what some classes are doing.

edit: this has nothing to do with actual balance, more about making the game clearer and easier to see, which would also make it easier to skillfully evade abilities instead of randomly dodgeing/predicting combos

Edit nr2: The skills i suggested are just suggestion and could possible work for others as well and some might not need it, remember it’s just suggestions and don’t get to stuck up on a part of the text.
Also sorry for the poor formatting, it have never been a strength of mine.

I’m going to address Attunement Swaps.

The fact that each swap is accompanied by an explosion of fire/water/lightning/rock around the Elementalist, auras around the Ele’s wrists and an icon next to the player’s portrait telling you which attunement the Ele is in isn’t enough of a clue? Sometimes the Ele will even yell out the element that was swapped to…

Elementalist skills are the most telegraphed skills in the game, the only obvious exceptions being the Arcanes.

Another thing that i just remembered, add more icons to the buff bar for traits like Reaper’s protection.
You already have that for kit refinement.

Glenstorm.4059:

I’m going to address Attunement Swaps.

The fact that each swap is accompanied by an explosion of fire/water/lightning/rock around the Elementalist, auras around the Ele’s wrists and an icon next to the player’s portrait telling you which attunement the Ele is in isn’t enough of a clue? Sometimes the Ele will even yell out the element that was swapped to…

Elementalist skills are the most telegraphed skills in the game, the only obvious exceptions being the Arcanes.

Good input there and i sort of agree.
I just think having a small icon pop up instead of the small whirly things around the hands+ the icon on the buff bar would be better and just look smoother. Especially for spectators as well.
And when you think about it, races like asura have way more advantage over other races with this.
It’s like with engineer you can obviously see which kit he is in by seeing which abilities he uses and the kits themself are pretty unique but not enough to actually see which kit he swaps into beside flamethrower/elixir gun

The game in general needs to become clearer to see, especially with races like asura being in it.

What do you think overall though?

Another thing:
Please add better and clearer sound effects for abilities as well.

For death shroud, the fact the guy just turned all black and shadowy isn’t enough of a head’s up? Never mind the health bar changing color?

Sounds to me like you want the most telegraphed things in the game to be even more obvious, in case people were watching the target’s health bar instead of of their opponent.

Game would become too cartoony and weird if icons popped up all over and arrows and bombs mysterious glowed a certain colour, I think.

Imagine WvW where every skill is telegraphed like that, I’d need to buy new brains after my current ones had leaked out my ears after that madness.

Do agree that some skills could use a more obvious animation.

No more effects… please… no more… It’s already 1 big mess with all the effects these days. So much that my static fields wont even render properly anymore.

Uh. Game is already laggy enough in zergs with current effects. More than that would probably explode some people’s computers. Good god, I have a pretty high-end computer, and I still lag like hell sometimes in WvW as it is. Adding more effects to load? No, thank you.

As was said, elementalist attunements are easy to spot. Maybe not in a zerg, but they really don’t need to be visible there.

And I honestly don’t see how you can miss Death Shroud. It’s the easiest of all of these to spot…how exactly are you having a hard time telling if someone’s gone black and shadowy and has a green health bar?

I do believe they could add some more icons that appear when targeting players, although then this causes a danger of icon bloat where there’s so many icons on a person that you can barely even tell what’s going on in there anymore.

I mean, it’s easy to tell when a warrior has popped their berserker stance because you can see it, but it’s a bit more difficult to tell when they’ve popped balance stance because you have to watch for the boons.

I don’t think they necessary need elaborate animations with particle effects for everything though.

Vuh.1328:

Another thing:
Please add better and clearer sound effects for abilities as well.

I always found it a bit weird that you can’t hear certain shouts from other players… I think FGJ and guard are audible, but things like SYG are only audible to the guardian using them… I don’t know if that is deliberate or just an unintended characteristic that they have.

Yamsandjams.3267:

I do believe they could add some more icons that appear when targeting players, although then this causes a danger of icon bloat where there’s so many icons on a person that you can barely even tell what’s going on in there anymore.

I mean, it’s easy to tell when a warrior has popped their berserker stance because you can see it, but it’s a bit more difficult to tell when they’ve popped balance stance because you have to watch for the boons.

I don’t think they necessary need elaborate animations with particle effects for everything though.

Vuh.1328:

Another thing:
Please add better and clearer sound effects for abilities as well.

I always found it a bit weird that you can’t hear certain shouts from other players… I think FGJ and guard are audible, but things like SYG are only audible to the guardian using them… I don’t know if that is deliberate or just an unintended characteristic that they have.

I think it’s more about audio channels being clogged in fights and some sound effects like certain shouts(not just the shoud abilities, but when character say certain stuff) just get drowned out/gets less priority

I agree with you OP that we need to be able to see attack cues better. I think graphical effects should universally be toned down, at least in PvP. In particular, I think Asura should be banned in PvP, but that would cause an uproar. Their size and animation tells need to be normalized so that you can’t use screen clutter to be essentially invisible at times.

I like the idea of colour coding otherwise ambiguous skills like Necromancer Marks or Engineer bombs. I think that the whole Vigour and dodge spam issue could have been sidestepped if only everything was easier to read in the first place. As it stands, people are forced to dodge randomly because it’s hard to tell whether it’s a Reaper’s Mark or a Mark of Blood, or a Concussion Bomb as opposed to a regular Bomb (the most egregious, and that’s coming from a Bomb kit Engi).

GW2 is and remains one of the most fun to play, yet the most impenetrable to watch games I’ve experienced. Teamfights are a cavalcade of coruscating Particle effects and match-turning plays are often lost in the maelstrom. Making Signets, Marks, Bombs, and other otherwise hard to read skills easier to read is good first step towards making the game more accessible and fun to play, as well as fun to watch.

This is definitely a Quality of Life issue deserving of attention if Arenanet can ever hope to recapture the #Esports feel of a high-level GW1 PVP match. Whilst I applaud the efforts of Arenanet’s graphic designers and artists in coming up with the particle effects, more can be done and indeed, more should be done to mature GW2 as a game and as a spectacle.

MonMalthias.4763:

As it stands, people are forced to dodge randomly because it’s hard to tell whether it’s a Reaper’s Mark or a Mark of Blood

It’s actually quite easy to tell which is getting cast. Reaper’s Mark has the necro thrusting their staff out, then pulling it back.

Now, Mark of Blood vs. Putrid Mark I could understand. Those two are extremely similar animations.

Signets are likewise not an issue, since the signet image appears above the caster’s head when activated.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

MonMalthias.4763:

As it stands, people are forced to dodge randomly because it’s hard to tell whether it’s a Reaper’s Mark or a Mark of Blood

It’s actually quite easy to tell which is getting cast. Reaper’s Mark has the necro thrusting their staff out, then pulling it back.

Now, Mark of Blood vs. Putrid Mark I could understand. Those two are extremely similar animations.

Signets are likewise not an issue, since the signet image appears above the caster’s head when activated.

I’m sorry but I completely disagree. Trying to identify which mark they’re casting from a 1200 or even 900 range is ridiculous. Then there’s the issue of your opponent being an asura in which you can’t even tell if he’s casting a mark or not in the first place.

This game really needs some work on animations and untelegraphed instant bursts. It feels like a mess in comparison to many others.

Zuik.7158:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

MonMalthias.4763:

As it stands, people are forced to dodge randomly because it’s hard to tell whether it’s a Reaper’s Mark or a Mark of Blood

It’s actually quite easy to tell which is getting cast. Reaper’s Mark has the necro thrusting their staff out, then pulling it back.

Now, Mark of Blood vs. Putrid Mark I could understand. Those two are extremely similar animations.

Signets are likewise not an issue, since the signet image appears above the caster’s head when activated.

I’m sorry but I completely disagree. Trying to identify which mark they’re casting from a 1200 or even 900 range is ridiculous. Then there’s the issue of your opponent being an asura in which you can’t even tell if he’s casting a mark or not in the first place.

This game really needs some work on animations and untelegraphed instant bursts. It feels like a mess in comparison to many others.

Disagree all you like, but the animation for Reaper’s Mark vs. any other mark really is quite obvious. The Asura is the issue here, not the skill animations.

Glenstorm.4059:

I agree with you OP that we need to be able to see attack cues better. I think graphical effects should universally be toned down, at least in PvP. In particular, I think Asura should be banned in PvP, but that would cause an uproar. Their size and animation tells need to be normalized so that you can’t use screen clutter to be essentially invisible at times.

Well, they were supposed to be altering the targeting mechanism to help alleviate the problem of asura hiding behind minions and pets and the like… I think they had implemented something awhile ago, but then it got reverted or something… I don’t even know.

Short answer: No
Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo