Guild Wars 2

Title

Can we get them?

Extremely blatant animations aren’t enough?

sorry I forgot we stack :/

Would be nice, especially if you want to interrupt and especially if in zerg-mode and you can’t see anything from boss…

enemies cast bars were already in GW1 … no idea why they didn’t added this in GW2.

papryk.6273:

enemies cast bars were already in GW1 … no idea why they didn’t added this in GW2.

Travis the Terrible.4739:

Extremely blatant animations aren’t enough?

That’s your answer right there. Every boss basically does this…

A better solution would be fix the ridiculous particle effects. We don’t need every 2 attacks to look like a small nuclear bomb just went off. Then boss animations would be enough for anyone to spot attacks.

It isn’t in GW2 because the devs want a gane less focused on managing UIs and watching status bars, and more of an action-orientated MMO, but … particle effects.

I’m in favor of cast bars, because the visibility in this game is bad, and the bosses have very poor tells compared to other games.

Fine exactly how it is, boss attacks are extremely telegraphed.

Flissy.4093:

Fine exactly how it is, boss attacks are extremely telegraphed.

Extremely poorly telegraphed is what you mean. Ever looked at the way other games handle this? In a game with this many players, and this many particle effects, the tells could be a lot better.

Take the Legendary Dredge Powersuit boss for example in the dredge fractal. He has a massive agony attack that has no tell, unless you spot his little stability icon, and then dodge twice.

Now compare it to a game with good boss tells:

I don’t think anyone will dare claim that this boss is easy due to his obvious tells.

Humanoid bosses are impossible to see with the particle effects, large bosses are very easy to see, but why does the particle effect scale size? I would enjoy to see a cast bar added.

Sorry, but… what’s a cast bar?

Fror.2163:

Sorry, but… what’s a cast bar?

Watch underneath Dhuum’s healthbar at the top of the screen, when he uses a skill. This was in Guild Wars 1. A cast bar visibly shows the boss casting his skill with a progress bar (often with a custom icon for each skill), so you can see what he’s doing, and respond. It also gives you time to interrupt.

Well, in that case, the tells as they are currently implemented are enough. I only have troubles with the tells of the Colossus fractal bosses, but except that, I’m fine.

Fror.2163:

Well, in that case, the tells as they are currently implemented are enough. I only have troubles with the tells of the Colossus fractal bosses, but except that, I’m fine.

So you think the tells on the Legendary Dredge Powersuit are also fine? Really?

I would love a cast bar since I have a hard time seeing some tells with all the particle effects, even if I turn them down with the option we have.

Where do they cause issue? I can tank those hits while zerker and kill them in time. Never caused any issue.

Getting insta-down agony on the other hand…

Fror.2163:

Where do they cause issue? I can tank those hits while zerker and kill them in time. Never caused any issue.

Getting insta-down agony on the other hand…

Can you tell what this boss is doing?

This is the sort of stuff we’re talking about.

I loved the cast bar in gw1 but it was easy mode. Having to watch animations is harder. Im in the middle on this one, I think its very nice to be able to see the skills, but then again the difficulty scaled higher is nice too. Not sure what id want, there would have to be very careful implementation. Also for pvp it was easy before to rupt peoples best skill, now you have to watch animations etc. So it would be going to EZ Mode if this was added

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Can you tell what this boss is doing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txiUl6_dhjg#t=4m15s

This is the sort of stuff we’re talking about.

Solo him and you’ll learn the differences.

I’d be fine with either better animations, or cast bars. Either would do for me. But as it is right now, visibility is very poor, and cast bars are the only 100% sure way you’ll always be able to see what a boss is doing.

Players should never die due to the effects obscuring the moves of the boss, or due to boss attacks being poorly telegraphed. They should die due to poor reflexes or poor strategies.

Fror.2163:

Solo him and you’ll learn the differences.

I HAVE defeated him solo. How is that an argument? This is a boss meant for massive amounts of players, so his moves should be visible with the amount of players the event is meant for. Even knowing what he can do, and knowing his moves, the moment you have a large number of players it becomes just a giant glowing ball of effects, like in that video.

Be honest. Can you tell what the boss is doing in that video? I don’t think anyone can. It’s a giant ball of particle effects.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Flissy.4093:

Fine exactly how it is, boss attacks are extremely telegraphed.

Extremely poorly telegraphed is what you mean. Ever looked at the way other games handle this? In a game with this many players, and this many particle effects, the tells could be a lot better.

Take the Legendary Dredge Powersuit boss for example in the dredge fractal. He has a massive agony attack that has no tell, unless you spot his little stability icon, and then dodge twice.

Now compare it to a game with good boss tells:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRsCBnuk0Xs

I don’t think anyone will dare claim that this boss is easy due to his obvious tells.

If you did the fight a couple if times, that attack becomes extremely obvious.

But you’re right in easy tells doesn’t make a boss easy. Lupi has some of the most obvious tells in the game, but judging by how many PUGs wipe on him over and over, he’s clearly quite difficult,

Xae Isareth.1364:

If you did the fight a couple if times, that attack becomes extremely obvious.

But isn’t that the case with any bad tell? You can memorize any pattern, no matter how badly telegraphed. A big problem with the Dredge Powersuit, is that it hits the entire room. Now you might be on the other side of the room, and you would not be able to see any visible effect that you’re supposed to dodge. But it hits you like a ton of bricks none the less.

So if I’m operating the lever for example, I can’t see what the boss is doing. I’m looking down on him, or he’s far away, and that makes it impossible to see what he is doing among all the other effects. And this boss is just an example, the game is littered with similar bosses.

The difference is that in a game like Demons Souls, you see the attack coming the very first time you do the fight. Because the tells are clear, and the game only demands reflexes and awareness. In GW2 you get hit/downed the first and second, and maybe even third time, until you memorize it. But that is bad design.

+1 for cast bars.

If they can’t figure out how to tone down the spell effects, give us the tools to work around them! Honestly, i wouldn’t mind cast bars for PvP either, but that’s another beast in itself.

Also give us a “display target’s target” so I can see if that boss blanketed in spells is even looking at me or in my direction.

Travis the Terrible.4739:

Extremely blatant animations aren’t enough?

You clearly aren’t playing GW2.

Aberrant.6749:

papryk.6273:

enemies cast bars were already in GW1 … no idea why they didn’t added this in GW2.

Travis the Terrible.4739:

Extremely blatant animations aren’t enough?

That’s your answer right there. Every boss basically does this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLKqxxDqv8A

Which does 5% of your hp in damage. Then 5s later he twiddles his thumbs behind his back and does 150% of your hp in damage.