Guild Wars 2

In regard to the auras, if they aren’t going to return the previous version. It would be nice if they at least provided a less ‘visually noisy’ replacement of equal quality to what was removed. The current egg drawn in MS Paint its awful. It doesn’t fit at all with the art in the game.

The patch note for that change should have read: “Reduced quality of product.”

I just think auras are pretty important, I mean, a magnetic aura REFLECTS projectiles but I can barely see it. Ok, the previous auras were a bit too noticeable but why this egg-shape visual nerf instead of a spherical aura like before except with less noise?

Gaile Gray.6029:

Thanks for the continued discussion. I really think it’s valuable for the team to see your comments and to know how you feel about the subject — in general and on a specific level. Clearly, the team is open to your input, so do share your thoughts.

I have a suggestion for auras for the dev team. Could you just use the auras or attunement outlines that were used for the Breachmaker battle? That way, you won’t have to create new assets but reuse older ones. The Breachmaker battle with Scarlet change the glow affect affect or outline of players.

This is the Prime Attunement (which could be used for the Light Aura):
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/gw2-in-tune-battle-for-lions-arch-achievement-guide-2.jpg

There are also hylek potions in the game that changes a players color, a similar effect could be used. So, instead of a fire egg shell aura the effect will turn the player red which is a lot simpler and more effective than the egg shell auras.

Red Hylek Hue Potion player:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Red_Hylek_Potion_Transformation.jpg

Reason why auras are so important:
The current egg shell auras are extremely hard to see. It’s really bad in PvP, when you have an aura share Tempest that puts a lightning aura on allies. In the heat of the battle, players will often stun themselves because they can’t see the aura egg shells. Or kill themselves with projectiles due to a magnetic shield or earth aura. On my Elementalist, sometimes I don’t notice when I do an aura combo due to the aura barely being visible.

Even though this patch was great (like the patch before this one), I still feel a little dissappointed that they didn’t restore more of the old effects.

The only effects that have been restored so far are Chronomancer wells (not Gravity Well though…), and Elementalist Fireball, even though there have been alot of requests to restore other effects aswell.

Currently the Effect LOD option affects only Elementalist Fireball, and the Chrono wells. It’s almost completely unutilized, because it affects so few things. Why was the option even added, if it only affects literally 4 skills in the game?

Not going to read through all of this, but I’m just saying — since they reverted the wells for us mesmers to see them flashy for only ourselves (if I understand effect LoD correctly), I’d appreciate it SO much if they could bring back our beautiful round chaos armour too! Please ANet, mesmers are the flashiest mages and deserve such beatiful effects!

Sorry for bump but I feel visual effect nerfs are still an issue for a lot of us.

It’s funny they still didn’t fix this issue after the kitten storm, rofl Arena.net

I’d still love for Overload Air to get its cloud back…I mean, it’s in the description of the skill…“Use your air magic to summon a nimbus”….

hi, sorry if it was already been answered somewhere else. (i tried to find something releated to it but didn t)

if there a way (by changing the .ini file for example) to put back the old spell effect on the elementalist ?

because right now its ridiculous,
see this fire shield!
Feel the power ! that s the flames of balthazar for you !

but more seriously isn t that some kind of “false advertissement” ?
i know the spells arent adds per see but NONE of the spell shown here
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/elementalist/
are what you get in game

phoenix ? really? its just a small sparrow !
static field ? where is the power ? why doesn’ t my character have this electric aura while casting ?
https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gw081.jpg
https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/elementalist-static-field.jpg

is that because i m not lvl 80 ? it sure would be great to have the particle effect scaling with your level, but sadly that s not it.
and yea i deactivate LOD to eb sure to have original skill particles.

i read the last pages on this topic and just like someone said: many bought the game recently or not BASED ON thoses beautifull visual effect! and that s true !

visual noise ? really ? i never thought once that this game would enter in this categorie, as you have more visual noise in moba than here..
and moba are e-sports games .
also how can visual noise be concidered bad in an mmo ? how come the dev didnt though ONCE that it could be a positive point ?
game like cabal or Dekaron where build on super flashy skills because it bring this kitten feeling.
and OBVIOUSLY for thoses who had low spec: they could reduce the particles effect.
problem solved
so why? ..
but i digress,

do you guys know a way to bring back the old spell effect ?
based on frost aura it s just look they litteraly dropped the spell effect to the ground: meaning just like a curtain ont he floor it seems you just need ot raise it again . (modify Y axis?)

meanwhile, since i can t base myself into the official videos and screenshot can someone tell me what class manage to skill keep his kitten feeling with beautifull spell effect? mesmer ?
guardian seems correct and i guess warrior are untouched since its just swords skill unless they changed the animation for less polished one x) that would be stupid but i guess everything is possible

I just miss the original aura effects like Fire Shield, Ice Shield and such looking bad kitten . Oh and the Skill5 on Dagger/Dagger Elemenetalist when you shoot out a huge earth quick BANG right at the end.. =(

I miss the old times we fought world bosses with ~ 30 man. Back then you could see the boss. Only few bosses are so bag their bodies escape the giant discoballs of flashy effects.

Well, i just went through all of this topic, and seeing that the issue started 10 months ago, had dozens of replies (not including other forums), and we still didn’t get anything.
I remember back in the day when i started playing GW2, basically the visual effects in combat was the reason i started playing this, yet i started the game and 2 months later they nerfed almost every effect and made them dull and just look kitten :S (i mean they still look good, but compared to the old effects.. nah)
I don’t understand why can’t we have an option on the options to choose the level of particle effects, combat visibility .. you name it. It would be like high: which is the old effects or normal, as they are right now.
or
like there is in many games already: make it so, that your effects, like the effects coming from your character are fully visible, and than the effects from other players are toned down like they are right now.
I dont’ know, are we asking for the stars here? I mean it’s not impossible to implement into the game.
Now, or course we (the player base) asked for these changes in the first place, but again, it could’ve been and it should’ve been an option.
I still hope we might get the old effects back in a way, like i still cry every time i do greatsword 5 on mesmer, or i see any aura or egg rather..

Remember when Colin promised our FX would come back? I still do. Too bad he left the company towards Amazon Game Studios.

I’m still largely inactive in GW2 until our skills can look good again.

This thread deserves to be bumped again. Heck, a GM suggested I should so anet know we want beautiful combat FX back, especially now that Effect LoD is improved and lets everyone see beautiful visuals or muted visuals on other player skills as much as they want.

And Jan, you weren’t asking for the stars. That’s exactly how Effect LoD works nowadays, for Ele Fireballs at least.

Yeah I still remember the beautiful visual combat FX back then before they nerfed it…
I miss my elementalist kitten fire spells looking bigger, and Armor of Earth, Fire, Air and Water looking bigger and cooler! Now the flames are smaller, and the buffs look like a thin line of an egg shape which is terrible =(

Yep, you’ve got that right, DreamyAbaddon. The Aura nerf in particular actually hurt PvP, which makes these changes even more ludicrous.

Luckily, we /totally/ don’t have visual clutter nowadays, right?

Sold Out.7625:

Yep, you’ve got that right, DreamyAbaddon. The Aura nerf in particular actually hurt PvP, which makes these changes even more ludicrous.

Luckily, we /totally/ don’t have visual clutter nowadays, right?

I loved the Aura effects. They were amazing!

Here is a 30 second video of my Elementalist fighting with big fire effects And some awesome Aura effects before the visual nerf update:

Sold Out.7625:

Remember when Colin promised our FX would come back? I still do. Too bad he left the company towards Amazon Game Studios.

I’m still largely inactive in GW2 until our skills can look good again.

This thread deserves to be bumped again. Heck, a GM suggested I should so anet know we want beautiful combat FX back, especially now that Effect LoD is improved and lets everyone see beautiful visuals or muted visuals on other player skills as much as they want.

And Jan, you weren’t asking for the stars. That’s exactly how Effect LoD works nowadays, for Ele Fireballs at least.

Wait… So does this mean we already have the visual fx back but it’s currently in the menu option? Or is that still being worked on? I really want my aura effects back and other awesome visual combat effects restored. =(

This means there was a fix being workedo n when Colin was still at Anet, but when he left, they dropped the entire project in favor of everyone having nerfed ugly visuals.

Good to see this topic back again. Ugly visuals are ugly.

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

Sold Out.7625:

Yep, you’ve got that right, DreamyAbaddon. The Aura nerf in particular actually hurt PvP, which makes these changes even more ludicrous.

Luckily, we /totally/ don’t have visual clutter nowadays, right?

I loved the Aura effects. They were amazing!

Here is a 30 second video of my Elementalist fighting with big fire effects And some awesome Aura effects before the visual nerf update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZeT_sjL29g

Wow, that was amazing! I didn’t realize how bad it is now.

HiddenNick.7206:

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

Sold Out.7625:

Yep, you’ve got that right, DreamyAbaddon. The Aura nerf in particular actually hurt PvP, which makes these changes even more ludicrous.

Luckily, we /totally/ don’t have visual clutter nowadays, right?

I loved the Aura effects. They were amazing!

Here is a 30 second video of my Elementalist fighting with big fire effects And some awesome Aura effects before the visual nerf update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZeT_sjL29g

Wow, that was amazing! I didn’t realize how bad it is now.

There is more! Trust me! This is why it’s a big deal and I hope Mike Obrien decides to restore all the visual effects because kitten it’s worth it.

HiddenNick.7206:

Wow, that was amazing! I didn’t realize how bad it is now.

And this is even more impressive. Things actually looked cool once. And all they’d have to do would be the OPTIONAL setting that Colin promised us over a year ago. Before he left Anet.

We need these visual effects back, Anet!!!

Absolutely do. Heck, it might be silly to them, but as a veteran from way back in GW1, and as someone who’s been in GW2 since very shortly after launch, I won’t buy the next expansion until they return the visuals they removed. They took away cool things and aren’t even giving us an OPTIONAL button to just keep what we used to have.

What kind of game dev thinks it’s okay to remove visually appealing content without an option to keep it?

Sold Out.7625:

And this is even more impressive. Things actually looked cool once. And all they’d have to do would be the OPTIONAL setting that Colin promised us over a year ago. Before he left Anet.

I mean, I readily agree this is only good if you’re solo, but instead of actually fixing the underlying issue, they went with “just remove all the skill effects ~entirely”.

Correct solution:

• A set of new graphics fidelity optioins.
• Spell detail for: Me, Party, Squad, Others, Enemies.
• Possible values: Full, Simplified, Off
• Additional option to auto-scale, with a slider how many players need to be in combat around you to go from Full to Simplified even for those options where you selected Full. Example: I can set Me to Full, but the slider for auto-scale to 30. In a big zerg fight, even my spell detail is simplified.

Carighan.6758:

Sold Out.7625:

And this is even more impressive. Things actually looked cool once. And all they’d have to do would be the OPTIONAL setting that Colin promised us over a year ago. Before he left Anet.

I mean, I readily agree this is only good if you’re solo, but instead of actually fixing the underlying issue, they went with “just remove all the skill effects ~entirely”.

Correct solution:

• A set of new graphics fidelity optioins.
• Spell detail for: Me, Party, Squad, Others, Enemies.
• Possible values: Full, Simplified, Off
• Additional option to auto-scale, with a slider how many players need to be in combat around you to go from Full to Simplified even for those options where you selected Full. Example: I can set Me to Full, but the slider for auto-scale to 30. In a big zerg fight, even my spell detail is simplified.

What a great ideia.
Devs, please, take notes!

Carighan.6758:

Sold Out.7625:

And this is even more impressive. Things actually looked cool once. And all they’d have to do would be the OPTIONAL setting that Colin promised us over a year ago. Before he left Anet.

I mean, I readily agree this is only good if you’re solo, but instead of actually fixing the underlying issue, they went with “just remove all the skill effects ~entirely”.

Correct solution:

• A set of new graphics fidelity optioins.
• Spell detail for: Me, Party, Squad, Others, Enemies.
• Possible values: Full, Simplified, Off
• Additional option to auto-scale, with a slider how many players need to be in combat around you to go from Full to Simplified even for those options where you selected Full. Example: I can set Me to Full, but the slider for auto-scale to 30. In a big zerg fight, even my spell detail is simplified.

That, was one of the best suggestions I’ve ever read on the forums. But I understand that it would be a lot of effort for ArenaNet. Which is why I just want the very simple “high fidelity combat FX” button, with a mouseover notice that stronger visuals may impact combat visibility. Literally all I’d need, even if your ideas are great.

Shamelessly bumping this because we still need what Colin once promised: An option to have our visuals back to as they were. I sure ain’t buying the next expansion unless that’s done.

Wow, I started this thread last year some months after Heart of Thorns, I insisted on it, I gave up, I stopped playing until now, I see the new expansion leaks, I go into the forums and this thread is STILL HERE AND STILL UNRESOLVED.

ARENA NET START ACTING LIKE A PROPER COMPANY ALREADY BEFORE YOU LOSE YOUR CUSTOMERS AND GO BANKRUPT.

That or before you get a lawsuit for false advertisement.

Remember when engineers couldn’t see their legendary effects when they equipped a kit?

Oh wait.

Hirosama Nadasaki.6792:

Wow, I started this thread last year some months after Heart of Thorns, I insisted on it, I gave up, I stopped playing until now, I see the new expansion leaks, I go into the forums and this thread is STILL HERE AND STILL UNRESOLVED

Also one of the reasons i stopped playing, it’s depressing to see the state the visuals are in compared to what they used to be. Every once in awhile i log back in, only to be dissapointed that this they still haven’t been restored.

My question to A-net:
Why would i buy your next expansion (gw2 ofcourse), when with the last one you gave us epic new visuals wich you took away within 2 weeks after the expansion launched?
Not only that, you started your “visual noise” crusade wich even destroyed our vanilla visuals. While it has been stated that the people who wanted a reduction, only wanted the particle on hit size reduced on bosses, the visuals themselves where never the problem.

You gave us the “LOD” option but its function is laughable, it only effect a few spells , while most are sentenced to their pathetic state wether you turn the option on or off (Lightning surge, earth shatter etc).

As it stands, i see no reason why i would buy an upcoming expansion, since there is no garantee that it won’t happen again.
This game still has many things that need to be fixed (Charr tier 3 heavy shoulders, female missing idles and obviously the visuals on spells and abillities etc) .
But it seems the new A-Net mantra is “just keep adding more and more and players will forget about it”. Wich is a kitten shame, because this game was about quality when it started, now it’s seems to be more about quantityto camouflage the short comings you created yourselves…

I would really like to see a formal response to this thread, and the concerns that the people within it have be adressed. A-net you know that people make these threads and complaints (feedback) because they are passionate about the game, it would be nice to see that same passion from the Dev-team concerning these topics since it’s long overdue.

Just my 2 cents

Hirosama Nadasaki.6792:

Wow, I started this thread last year some months after Heart of Thorns, I insisted on it, I gave up, I stopped playing until now, I see the new expansion leaks, I go into the forums and this thread is STILL HERE AND STILL UNRESOLVED.

ARENA NET START ACTING LIKE A PROPER COMPANY ALREADY BEFORE YOU LOSE YOUR CUSTOMERS AND GO BANKRUPT.

That or before you get a lawsuit for false advertisement.

Well, we have that in common at least. As an engineer main I basically had everything visually nerfed.

• All my flamethrower skills were visually nerfed
• All my grenade kit skills were visually nerfed
• All my bomb kit skills were visually nerfed
• My Orbital Strike skill was visually nerfed. In its initial form it was smaller and less wide than an asura.
• All the auras I can apply were visually nerfed.

And at the same time they made stupid legendaries FLASHIER.

I’ve not played the game properly since HoT came out. A few weeks ago I decided to try out the new Living Story content. I liked it, it was nice. But all the time I was nagged at by the fact that every single skill I once used had been visually nerfed.

And the fact that Colin Johanson promised that we would receive an OPTIONAL button to have our skill visuals back, and it would come in Spring of 2016.

Of course when he left the company, all work on it was immediately dropped. And so was every chance of me getting into the game properly again and buying the next expansion. I just can’t. It’s a completely asinine thing that an MMO dev would take away combat visuals without even an OPTION, without even a command line code to bring them back. Didn’t Neverwinter nerf visuals because they messed with weaker machines? All I know is that the only other MMO to ever have done it added a code to bring. Them. Back.

I don’t know what to say that hasn’t been said before. The devs won’t listen. They were clearly at odds with Colin Johanson on the topic. Because Colin’s promise of an alternative button to bring our visuals back was after Gaile Gray on this thread claimed they wouldn’t be back. But he left the company, so they likely immediately allocated whoever was working on this simple button to the gem store and buy-our-expansion staff.

I’m really out of words still. It’s shocking me. It’s one of multiple strange behaviours I’ve seen from this company after Heart of Thorns came out. It was next to calling the Super Adventure Box “literally throwing away dev time. Literally.” and one dev coming to reddit and explaining that they won’t work on chestpieces and leggings anymore for Living World because “they are more work to fit to different body types, like wider arms and legs, than outfits”. You don’t even need real modeling experience to know that is a fallacy and lie. There are free, community made tools for Skyrim that let you do changes like this in ten seconds stat, for absolutely ludicrous morphs, like hips wider than your stomach and other massively strange changes.

But yeah. The expansion might shape up to something neat. It looks like it will be better than Heart of Thorns. But the last time I gave this company 100 bucks they rewarded me by visually nerfing every single skill I frequently use on my class.

Great job.

Wow. This brings back memories. I remember writing on this thread, probably some dozen pages ago. I’m still curious why they really thought a blanket nerf rather than giving players the option to control the visual flair was the way to go. Or why they don’t provide that option now. We may never know. It seems strange to deprive your own game of something that should be a draw-card. Flashier visuals should attract players and inspire them to buy more bling, at least to my mind. Oh well. Sometimes I think, half-jokingly, that some intern accidentally deleted all the high-quality effect files and anet are too embarrassed to admit it. :/

Waooooo guys almost three years, and yet this problem it’s still here. I will not buy the next epansion after they messed up this with Hots.

Necrum Davengers.3519:

Waooooo guys almost three years, and yet this problem it’s still here. I will not buy the next epansion after they messed up this with Hots.

It’s not a problem, it’s a visual nerf and a request from the community to revert the nerf. See you next expansion.

So, two-three days ago we were doing Slothasor,
And occassionally soneone would down. However, I could rarely rez anyone in time because the field was a disco. Mesmer wells, elementalist flares, the general poison on the ground, i couldnt find the downed people if the fate of the world depended on it

Amaimon.7823:

So, two-three days ago we were doing Slothasor,
And occassionally soneone would down. However, I could rarely rez anyone in time because the field was a disco. Mesmer wells, elementalist flares, the general poison on the ground, i couldnt find the downed people if the fate of the world depended on it

That just kind of shows how badly implemented their “fix” to visual clutter was.

They changed the wrong things. Now we have less awesome looking effects, and the game is still hard to watch.

Their changes did nothing to fix the actual issue, and they should be reverted. They should also add more options to tweak/reduce the effects without forcing it on everyone.

For remember the good old times, when the auras were actually auras and not disgusting invisible bubbles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZqGOKsRMGI