Guild Wars 2

There are many skills out there that have duration icons above your skill bar. All boons have this and also some skills have it. Simple example is Guardian’s “Purging Flames” that shows how long the buff lasts. But the Guardian’s summoning skills such as Wall of Reflection or Shield of the Avenger do not have these. Making it difficult to determine when the skill is running out.

Knowing the duration of some skills is crucial in some occasions. For example, in the Uncatagorized Fractal with the harpies where Wall of Reflection plays an important role in reflecting back the big lightning balls that do knock back. If you get knocked back it basically means you fall and die.

Wall of Reflection and Shield of the Avenger are just two of the Guardian’s skills I mentioned that do not have any duration indication. I’m sure there are many other skills that are also simply cast without any further information on the buff icons.

I think another QoL improvement would be if skills such as the Wall of Reflection would slowly fade away on my screen when they are close to ending.

I feel that the skills you mention should not have any visible duration cues. Personally, I feel players should be expected to learn and understand skills of their opponent in those cases. Particularly when those skills do not specifically add an effect to a specific player, be it the use of the skill, or those effected.

I disagree with dancing (and thus agree with OP). The skill of playing a game should not be in memorising tons of arbitrary facts and numbers, but in knowing how understand an opponents tactic, and work out how to beat it with what you have available and then to execute that plan as quickly and effectively as possible.

The best games out there are ones which are complex but where all the complexity is available to the players. Having hiding durations and invisable rules is the quickest way to make a game go from challenging but engaging to confusing and frustrating.