Guild Wars 2

I purposefully no longer take any banner buffs (like the heroes banner for example), because the buffs/icons/food/utility you have, keep getting pushed further and further to the right hand side of the screen – to the point where you can’t even see which buffs you have! I even reduce the size of my map, but I still cannot see my yellow “XP” buff, because there are too many buffs.

Will there ever be a change to this? Is it THAT hard to program it so that all buffs can be shown on your screen? I don’t understand.

For now at least, I am no longer taking any banners because I need to see all my buffs. It shouldn’t be like this, but until something changes, I can’t afford to take any banner buffs. Please look into this Anet, it’s becoming a very big problem.

See the pic below as an example. So many buffs get pushed off the screen that I have to ask other players how much time I have remaining on my XP buffs. You shouldn’t have to do that.

I remember when using the gobbler to grant myself buffs + grabbing a heroes banner ontop + enabling my own boons and using food i had around 23 icons on my screen,no other boons shared yet from other people.

How do you even get that many buffs? In my time playing gw2, I’ve never gotten enough buffs to even push beyond the boundary of my elite skill, and I’ve been playing since beta weekend three before vanilla launch.

It certainly seems like a UI design issue and should be resolved, but I’m wondering how it’s even possible to get that many things.

Maybe the size of my skills are too small? (Can’t check cause that’s my life right now)

You could move your mini map to the top of the UI. You’ll be able to see your buffs then.

You can easily get that many buffs from banners, food, utility, magic find buffs, xp buffs, area specific buffs (like that silverwastes buff which gives magic find etc.), passive signets, and you can easily do this with the candy corn gobbler.

Chad.6104:

You could move your mini map to the top of the UI. You’ll be able to see your buffs then.

Ah, thanks! That’s very helpful I think the buffs can still go off the screen, but thanks this will definitely give me more room to see my buffs

Zaoda.1653:

Chad.6104:

You could move your mini map to the top of the UI. You’ll be able to see your buffs then.

Ah, thanks! That’s very helpful I think the buffs can still go off the screen, but thanks this will definitely give me more room to see my buffs

YW. I dragged my minimap to the top a long time ago. It lets me see what’s happening around me better.

Not to be flippant, but if what I’m seeing is a screenshot from a 4:3 ratio setup, I suggest investing in a widescreen monitor. That’ll give you a lot more horizontal real estate to see your string of buffs.

Kruhljak.2705:

Not to be flippant, but if what I’m seeing is a screenshot from a 4:3 ratio setup, I suggest investing in a widescreen monitor. That’ll give you a lot more horizontal real estate to see your string of buffs.

Thanks yes I tried a wider monitor a few months ago, but I just couldn’t get used to it (I found square better because a wider monitor made me look from left to right a significant amount more, hurting my eyes in the long run). I suppose I could try a wider monitor again and try to get used to it, but I shouldn’t have to change my monitor for something Anet should have changed right from the beginning of gw2. I just moved my map to the top right corner, and it seems to be a lot better in terms of seeing the time left on my buffs, but the extra buffs still go off the screen (I’ll attach a pic).

All Anet has to do is make a second line for buffs, and that should be enough space to see them all.

I’d really like to see the display changed completely. Any or all of the following would make things easier for me:

• Use a fixed size for all buff/debuff icons.
• A different row for buffs, for debuffs, for ‘enrichments’ (e.g. guild banners, celebration boost)
• Use the same location for each notification, i.e. bleed is always slot 1, burning always 2. Then I’ll always know where to look.

I think it’d be nice if the food/utility buffs were always on the far left, followed by boosters, and then whatever silly buffs you happen to pick up. Either that or just compress hero banner buffs into 1 thing.

Non combat effects really need to go on their own line, and this would include banners.

But a better solution would be to reduce the absurd number of effects players can obtain. To start, Heroes Banner needs its own icon, that would instantly eliminate 5 icons from the bar of anyone who uses a heroes banner. Then Anet could consider removing stuff like that armor booster effect, and rejuvenation booster effect. Candy corn gobbler might have to be changed (probably just increase the cost tbh). Specifically for WvW, outnumbered buff should be an effect surrounding your bar. IDK something like flames around your HP circle. Just get it off the buff bar.

This isn’t perfect, and wouldn’t completely solve the problem, but it would make a big difference at least, removing up to 8 effects from your buff bar in WvW (up to 7 in PvE).

Wide screen monitor, problem solved.

Strong resolution you play at. Just lol

Widescreen 24" display. Everything is fine.

If you thought having that many buffs clogging up that area of the screen was bad you probably weren’t around before Squads were a thing (or if you didn’t know simple party UI was a thing)…

…Having a some PUG full signet warrior with every boon + buff in the entire game on every engagement with the enemy literally crawling across the MIDDLE of your screen. That implies if you needed to target someone off in the distance in the middle of ya’ screen or aim siege anywhere… yeah. RIP.

As others have suggested, you could probably drag your map in the top right corner of your screen if it helps.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Wide screen monitor, problem solved.

No, it’s not. It just changes the type of problem.

What about changing the UI scaling? Would that make things a bit smaller so more icons would fit on the display?

Again, it has been said, but a 16:9 aspect ratio screen would help a lot too.

First of all, not taking banner “just becouse its too many” is like saying you dont use (some of) your skills couse its too far away from your hand to reach. Shortly put it doesnt make sense. If you take it, you know its there, you know its going to last for about 15min if not more. If you worry about wearing it out couse you cant see it, you can always go back and interact with it every 15min or so.

Second, you do realize that you can change your UI right? as such you can minimize the map, Place the map on right top of your screen by simply dragging it. OR shrink the size of your ui entirely at options.

Edit: also the game is based on average user that has 1920×1080 resolution. Devs cant impossibly keep every resolution in mind and adjust the UI according to that

Zaoda.1653:

I purposefully no longer take any banner buffs (like the heroes banner for example), because the buffs/icons/food/utility you have, keep getting pushed further and further to the right hand side of the screen – to the point where you can’t even see which buffs you have! I even reduce the size of my map, but I still cannot see my yellow “XP” buff, because there are too many buffs.

Will there ever be a change to this? Is it THAT hard to program it so that all buffs can be shown on your screen? I don’t understand.

For now at least, I am no longer taking any banners because I need to see all my buffs. It shouldn’t be like this, but until something changes, I can’t afford to take any banner buffs. Please look into this Anet, it’s becoming a very big problem.

See the pic below as an example. So many buffs get pushed off the screen that I have to ask other players how much time I have remaining on my XP buffs. You shouldn’t have to do that.

Tryed going into settings and lowering your UI scale ? 50% of your screen is covered by UI.

You are either blind or ignoring said option…

Not to mention the aspect ratio that is the biggest source of your problem..

you could move your map to the upper right corner it might help

zealex.9410:

you could move your map to the upper right corner it might help

Try reading the thread. The OP already did that. They even posted a screenshot of it.

Sephas.8793:

zealex.9410:

you could move your map to the upper right corner it might help

Try reading the thread. The OP already did that. They even posted a screenshot of it.

didn’t read his second post thanks

castlemanic.3198:

How do you even get that many buffs? In my time playing gw2, I’ve never gotten enough buffs to even push beyond the boundary of my elite skill, and I’ve been playing since beta weekend three before vanilla launch.

It certainly seems like a UI design issue and should be resolved, but I’m wondering how it’s even possible to get that many things.

Maybe the size of my skills are too small? (Can’t check cause that’s my life right now)

That was pretty much what I was wondering! In all my time wandering around Tyria I have yet to encounter more than maybe 10 unplanned buffs to add before something expired. If I managed to have more buffs than screen real estate I would consider that very lucky. It is like complaining a day is too nice.

Nostalgic, those low res 4:3 screenshots makes me feel like we’re back in 2005

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Wide screen monitor, problem solved.

No, it’s not. It just changes the type of problem.

How so? I have a wide monitor and have no problem.

What about people with 15 or even 17 inch laptop screens?

ArchonWing.9480:

What about people with 15 or even 17 inch laptop screens?

It’s resolution that matters how much stuff fits on the screen, not the size of the screen

Ameepa.6793:

ArchonWing.9480:

What about people with 15 or even 17 inch laptop screens?

It’s resolution that matters how much stuff fits on the screen, not the size of the screen

Well okay, those with older laptops with lower resolution.

But anyhow, I think “get a better monitor” sort of deflects the issue. I mean sure, I agree that kind of thing is no good but I don’t think there’s a need for multi-icons for a single banner because it looks unsightly and I would also like it the most important buffs were to the left.

That being said, shrinking the UI was sorta nice, will have to squint a bit.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Wide screen monitor, problem solved.

No, it’s not. It just changes the type of problem.

How so? I have a wide monitor and have no problem.

How many buffs do you typically have on you though? Here’s an example of what I often get, and I just shrunk the UI. It only gets worse with more effects especially in group situations.

Menadena.7482:

castlemanic.3198:

How do you even get that many buffs? In my time playing gw2, I’ve never gotten enough buffs to even push beyond the boundary of my elite skill, and I’ve been playing since beta weekend three before vanilla launch.

It certainly seems like a UI design issue and should be resolved, but I’m wondering how it’s even possible to get that many things.

Maybe the size of my skills are too small? (Can’t check cause that’s my life right now)

That was pretty much what I was wondering! In all my time wandering around Tyria I have yet to encounter more than maybe 10 unplanned buffs to add before something expired. If I managed to have more buffs than screen real estate I would consider that very lucky. It is like complaining a day is too nice.

Signets, heroes banner, food, utility, and then using candy corn gobbler can easily generate a ton of effects on you, and that doesn’t account for any traits that apply an effect.

Food
Utility
1 or more booster (xp, WxP, Heroic, Item, etc.)
Guild hall tavern 24 hour buff
Multiple buffs from guild banners (if players are kind enough to share)
Stability, regeneration, retaliation, fury, might, protection, etc., etc.
Weapon sigil (if you’re using one)

And then throw in half a dozen or so conditions.

As pointed out already, even with the mini map moved to the top corner and nothing in the bottom, your icons can still go off screen.

What they could do: with the mini map at max size in the bottom right corner, have the icons stop before the map. Any additional icons would go into a new row on top. It would make things easier in competitive gameplay as well, since other player’s buffs/conditions can go far to the right of the screen, thus allowing you to actually see everything they have. (If you have your mini map in the top right corner so you can see your buff/debuff icons, the map might cover other players icons)

OriOri.8724:

Menadena.7482:

castlemanic.3198:

How do you even get that many buffs? In my time playing gw2, I’ve never gotten enough buffs to even push beyond the boundary of my elite skill, and I’ve been playing since beta weekend three before vanilla launch.

It certainly seems like a UI design issue and should be resolved, but I’m wondering how it’s even possible to get that many things.

Maybe the size of my skills are too small? (Can’t check cause that’s my life right now)

That was pretty much what I was wondering! In all my time wandering around Tyria I have yet to encounter more than maybe 10 unplanned buffs to add before something expired. If I managed to have more buffs than screen real estate I would consider that very lucky. It is like complaining a day is too nice.

Signets, heroes banner, food, utility, and then using candy corn gobbler can easily generate a ton of effects on you, and that doesn’t account for any traits that apply an effect.

I agree you can have a lot but normally the only ones you run into are a hero’s banner (or a few banners for individual buffs), some food (usually one, but call it 2 if one is a utility) and maybe a drink and/or something like a bonfire. Buffs from items you had not planned on encountering are hardly the majority of the buffs you can get.

Once upon a time .. long long ago .. there was a solution .. in a game called Guild Wars ..

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Options#User_interface
“The interface tab is used to enable, disable, move and resize …”

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I’d really like to see the display changed completely. Any or all of the following would make things easier for me:

• Use a fixed size for all buff/debuff icons.
• A different row for buffs, for debuffs, for ‘enrichments’ (e.g. guild banners, celebration boost)
• Use the same location for each notification, i.e. bleed is always slot 1, burning always 2. Then I’ll always know where to look.

All great ideas, especially making the slots consistent. It’s hard not only to see your own boons/condis, but also those on your opponent when they keep bouncing from one side of the screen to the other as new things are applied and old things expire. I’d love for each unique boon/condi to have it’s own reserved spot on the screen so you know where to look for each type.

But I think there might be complications since you wouldn’t know the chronological order in which things were applied (which I believe matters for boon strips and condi clears, since I think they often remove whatever was most recently applied). I’m a little vague on details, though I have read that different skills have different fixed methods of removal priorities. They would have to rework the way those things operate or find a different way to show the chronology while keeping consistent boon slots.

Unfortunately, I doubt they’ll change anything. GW2 was always meant to be alot more visual, so I figure anet wants us to be focusing on the boon effects around enemy players rather than staring at the buff bar like we stared at skill activation boxes in GW1. I just wish the buff boxes wouldn’t be so small. It’s especially a problem since boons and condi’s seem much more prevalent now than at launch.