Guild Wars 2

Hey folks,

this suggestion is rather a cosmetic change, I find it pretty useful and nice to look at though. I’m quite tired of comparing names in a group with the players around me just to find out who plays which profession, or click on a player in open world. A visual representation in form of a profession icon next to the nametag would be quite cool as the character’s physical appearences do not really mirror the profession they are. What do you think?

What do you mean, profession icon? Each nameplate already has a profession icon. crossed daggers: thief, flame: ele, bomb: engie, and so on. What else do you mean?

He means a floater above the character, e.g. next to the floating healthbar.

Personally I disagree that this is needed. It would polute the screen even more

Yah. That seems unnecessary. If I’m ever curious enough about someone to check their profession, I click on them. If I’m not curious enough to do that, then I don’t care.

i dont even have player names on at all…. useless resource

I do not see it as really needed. If I look around and there are a lot of pets and people with longbows I know there are a lot of rangers in the vicinity. A lot of other professions have tells too (unless they are wearing an outfit you can figure out everyone to one of 3 professions at a glance).

Not even seeing, just listening. At megadestroyer you always hear a lot of bows twanging.

Menadena.7482:

I do not see it as really needed.

Me neither. I didn’t argue it was needed, I just pointed out that it’s something nice to look at. In fact, this would just be one more toggleable option that every player could choose to turn off or on, which brings me to @mcwurth’s point: it’s up to the player to toggle nametags or not. Same applies to every other option offered.

Menadena.7482:

If I look around and there are a lot of pets and people with longbows I know there are a lot of rangers in the vicinity. A lot of other professions have tells too (unless they are wearing an outfit you can figure out everyone to one of 3 professions at a glance).

Not even seeing, just listening. At megadestroyer you always hear a lot of bows twanging.

However, you’d only notice what they are by seeing them in action. A pet is quite obvious, I agree. But there are, just as you mentioned, characters that don’t seem like anything they actually are. Again, I’m not saying that this is absolutely necessary! It’s just something that wouldn’t take too much effort for ANet to implement into the game and CAN (!!!) come in quite handy in groups (for me at least).

As for the “polluted screen”, I totally disagree. My screen is nowhere near of being “polluted” without having turned off anything, be it nametags or other stuff. Could you please elaborate on that, @mercury ranique?

It’s not needed, but i wouldn’t mind the option for new players. Veterans can already tell the classes apart, so that’s why it seems unneeded to them. Some MMOs have class icons, such as swtor, which is pretty useful for new players in pvp. I couldn’t imagine using them in zergs or wvw though.

I’m neutral.

Cons:

- useless for veteran players
- screen clutter
- may block view of certain things
- what’s your FPS again at Karka Que-oh right.. None.

Pros:

- useful to new players
- distinguished classes without needing to click
- may help finding a specific class to party up with
- some may like it for cosmetic appearances

Don’t know other than that. Whatever.

I personally wouldn’t mind more distinguished icons in some cases (ele vs engi), but I don’t think adding more content to the screen will help much – especially when considering Commander Tags and large scale battles (WvW Zergs / World Bosses).

I personally can crash when I spawn in Sparkfly Fen for Tequatle facing the water and then turn around to see the horde of players behind me. If I dare hit my Ctrl / Alt keys to display the name tags I will certainly lag into oblivion.

If you’re a Gw1 player – I can see where you’re coming from. But, the difference is how large and graphically demanding each zone is as it is already. Some computers just couldn’t handle it – and even if the option can be turned on and off – too many people don’t know we have an official wiki/forum or what their options menu is