Something that I think should be addressed at some point (more so than it has been) is the “watchability” of this game. We all know that esports is where GW2 is headed, anyone who disagrees with that at this point is only kidding themselves. However, I’m concerned about how difficult it is for the viewer to follow what is actually happening during an sPvP match, so many little details just get missed. Here’s my 2 (literally and figuratively) cents on how we could improve the issue.
Cast Bars (bars that would hover under the target’s HP bar displaying the name of a skill and the duration of it’s cast) would be huge for not only watch ability, but play ability as well, to be able to see what skill the other player is actually using, how fluid their rotation between skills in general is, and what abilities are actually getting interrupted by the person playing, would greatly improve the experience of watching a team fight.
I also think class based icons for the mini-map, rather than simple green dots, would be an amazing improvement for global awareness of people that don’t have access to a team’s VOIP, this would also be a huge benefit to solo queue (yolo queue) players in terms of global map awareness -right now VOIP is just OP as hell because without it you can’t truly know WHO is WHERE on the map; you just have to kind of guess based on subtracting which classes are near you from your overall team comp.
I’m fine without cast bars. I like that people have to learn the animations through experience. Cast bars would make interrupts even more ez-mode. It’s not tough to tell when someone is casting, but it does take some experience to learn what to interrupt and what to dodge/ignore.
I do think the mini-map could be more informative of your own team’s movements. Enemy movements should remain hidden.
I’m fine without cast bars. I like that people have to learn the animations through experience. Cast bars would make interrupts even more ez-mode. It’s not tough to tell when someone is casting, but it does take some experience to learn what to interrupt and what to dodge/ignore.
I do think the mini-map could be more informative of your own team’s movements. Enemy movements should remain hidden.
While I agree with you on the mini-map, I think what’s happening mostly right now with interrupts is a lot of RNG; you just get someone low then spam cc (pistol offhand skill: “headshot” on thief for example).
Its also worth noting that a lot (most) of the cast animations in the game are the same/similar (thief “basilisk venom”/thief “hide in shadows” heal for example) to one another, so having an icon/text to let you AND the viewer know which skill is being used/interrupted would be a huge improvement to the watch-ability of the game as well as to the general fluidity of combat.
The animation may be the same, so it’s like blackjack. You have to be able to count the cards enough to have a feel for what skills they’ve already burned and what they’re likely to pull next. No cast bars is a part of what makes this game’s combat system feel so crunchy and good, imo. It’s more immersive.
Cast bars wont be introduced. Its against the design philosophy of this game. There would have to be nearly universal outcry from wvw and the pve crowd alongside us for this.
Cast bars make combat messy in fast paced games. What we really need are more varied animations and ones that are better telegraphed for certain skills.
Some spell animations are completely impossible to see, especially in the heat of battle or in any time where it isnt 1v1.
I would LOVE cast bars. It would allow punishment of poorly timed ability uses and it will allow people to learn the animations because they see what spell is being cast as the animation is going on. Eventually people will learn the animations in this way and not need the bars anymore. If anything we should have the option of seeing them or not seeing them. I have no idea why this isn’t in the game.
cast bars would increase the watchability of the game aswell as understanding of combat, and if they added focus targets/cast bars and gave us the ability to focus interupt and focus cc like in Wow it would increase the skill and complexity of combat tenfold.
The ability to keep track of 2 targets cast bars and control them both adds another whole dimension to pvp.
+1 for dueling in the mists.
+1 for 3v3 or 2v2 deathmatch
Like I said, there would obviously be a way for the casual players to turn them off. Just for the competitive scene, it’s rely impossible to follow what’s going on in a fight without them.
