Guild Wars 2

Whether you like them or not, any trait that uses an internal cooldown has absolutely no method to track it like you can with weapon/utility skills. Sigil/Rune cooldowns have their problems too (but less problematic than traits that take up a lot more of a build), but this is my suggestion for traits.

-The icons currently used for Empower Allies, Spotter etc. should be replaced by icons that have the Power, Precision etc. icons from the Hero menu.
- The old icons that contained trait numbers are now associated with traits like Hard to Catch or Moment of Clarity. They appear on the status bar when they trigger, and when they tick and eventually disappear, they are ready to trigger again.

For example:

- You get hit by a CC while using Hard to Catch
- HtC triggers and you are teleported
- An icon with [X] (it is the 10th trait) appears on your status bar with a 30s timer
- After 30s, the [X] icon disappears and HtC is ready to trigger again. It flickers as it’s about to vanish like every other status.

I think this will go a long way to enable ICD traits to be used more purposefully in combat. Thoughts?

The idea is great but first we need a fix to show all effects on the status bar in rows. Because right now they disappear behind the minimap. And I think it shouldn’t force us to move our minimap to the top… They were shown in rows in Guild Wars too as far as I remember.

Would be very messy and not really help if you have multiple traits with ICD. Also it is not that hard to keep track of those while playing.

SSalp.6423:

Would be very messy and not really help if you have multiple traits with ICD.

Any more messy than the current quantity of Boons and Conditions a player can have on them? As for not helping, even if you have 3 separate traits with ICD labeled “V”, when they appear should give you enough context to know which trait just triggered in the majority of situations. Worst case scenario, it’s equivalent to the current system of not telling us our ICD’s at all.

Also it is not that hard to keep track of those while playing.

This feels like a naive, off the cuff refusal of the idea without really thinking about it. Do you turn your UI off and keep track of all your weapon, utility and heal cooldowns mentally? Do you track endurance in the same manner? Of course you don’t. OP’s suggestion would increase transparency and potentially skill cap, and it’s not as if he’s suggesting something brand new – the UI already supports icons and timers for conditions and boons, it’s not a mountain of work to include ICD on traits/runes/sigils on there. You could always offer a toggle to display/hide these icons in case it makes a players screen too busy. It’s a nice QOL increase at (what I’m assuming is) a low cost in development time, due to already existing structures.

Auesis.7301:

Whether you like them or not, any trait that uses an internal cooldown has absolutely no method to track it

I use awareness to track them.

Some traits already have an active cool down display that shows in the UI in the boon section. So you cannot really say there is "absolutely no method to track them, because there is in some cases. Personally, I like how it is. I do not wish to have more system stress in WvW effecting lag. That said, we do not know how many of those traits will change in the next update that may or may not effect this issue.

Howell Qagan.9752:

The idea is great but first we need a fix to show all effects on the status bar in rows. Because right now they disappear behind the minimap. And I think it shouldn’t force us to move our minimap to the top… They were shown in rows in Guild Wars too as far as I remember.

Then you will have players who either cannot identify the the icons because they must be compressed as the rows stack up, or complaining that they begin to effect players FoV.

Hmm this would be alot of stuff on screen.

Runes, Sigils, and Traits +boons any 30 arcana elementalist would look like he just took all the buffs from the norn area, running the boosters from gem store, and grabbed all the guild banners.

I seen this before on a thief and it was pretty funny

You can already fill the stat sheet up on boons except retal on a ele then you would have renewing stamina going on and off and evasive arcana going on and off and the icd would be different for each attunement also to go along with run and sigils. Some of the runes and sigils icd’s are so short they would be popping up all the time too.

I don’t know how I feel about this one GW2 is a visual game but I can see the information being helpful in some cases. Would the pro’s out weigh the cons which would be so many icd’s going off that you don’t even have time to read them on your enemy.