Guild Wars 2

I play a Norn Guardian in Dungeons and Fractals of the Mist. The only boss fights i enjoy is the ones where the boss is bigger then i am so i can actually see what they are doing instead of just a fiery shiny blob that hits like a truck. I suggest scaling up the size of all bosses in dungeons, fracts and WvW by 100 to 300 % for the Azura. This would allow for a better game play experience so i could actually see the boss looking at me getting ready to hit me in the face instead of just reacting when i get hit.

I personally prefer that the enemies I face actually look “real” not unrealistically enlarged just for the sake of it.

You can of course solve this “issue” by simply making your character smaller.

lordkrall.7241:

I personally prefer that the enemies I face actually look “real” not unrealistically enlarged just for the sake of it.

You can of course solve this “issue” by simply making your character smaller.

Nope i have tried. The smallest Norn character i have still is much bigger then some of the bosses and there still hard to see. Besides if i have to make all my characters small just for a better game play experience during boss fights what is the point of even having the option during character creation.

Most of the visibility issues come from people stacking on the boss. This is the place Anet should work on, e. g. by improving the AI (which they are doing for HOT) or enlarging the radius of support skills – at least in instance.

Ignavia.7420:

Most of the visibility issues come from people stacking on the boss. This is the place Anet should work on, e. g. by improving the AI (which they are doing for HOT) or enlarging the radius of support skills – at least in instance.

Agreed but i fell the size would help with visibility as well. i don’t like to play zoomed in because i like having the situational awareness that zooming out gives you.

enzo.7182:

Nope i have tried. The smallest Norn character i have still is much bigger then some of the bosses and there still hard to see. Besides if i have to make all my characters small just for a better game play experience during boss fights what is the point of even having the option during character creation.

And if all the bosses are going to be massive, what is the point of having any other bosses than Giants?

Heck, I have both a full size Norn and a full size Charr, and I really don’t see the issues you are talking about in this thread, so I am not sure how much of an issue it actually is.

It would make the game look daft.

Can you imagine an oversized asura?

I just wish there was a way to turn off player FX.

This is something that bugged me all the time. Bosses should be big, impressive and overwhelming. Instead we have a lot of generic ‘Legendary Krait Witch’. There is no name, no impressive special loot, nothing… a huge miss. People want and love that.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

It would make the game look daft.

Can you imagine an oversized asura?

“I feel 6 feet tall!”

lordkrall.7241:

Heck, I have both a full size Norn and a full size Charr, and I really don’t see the issues you are talking about in this thread, so I am not sure how much of an issue it actually is.

Really? I mean, I’ve had this problem a lot. Between mesmer effects and gaurdian blue fire, I have a lot of trouble seeing the following bosses in fractals:
-Archdiviner
-Mai Trin
-Dragonseeker
-Mossman
-Ashym

Even some world bosses are tough to see. For example
-Svanir Shaman
-Taidha covington
-maybe Modniir

Ignavia.7420:

Most of the visibility issues come from people stacking on the boss. This is the place Anet should work on, e. g. by improving the AI (which they are doing for HOT) or enlarging the radius of support skills – at least in instance.

I think support skills in instances should have way larger range. Everyone can play as they do right now, while also opening up other possibilities. A.I. can have cleave/aoe attacks, but the incentives to stack are just too high.

Also, you can have 5 people meleeing not stacked and still have a ton of visual clutter. I think the best solution is:

I just wish there was a way to turn off player FX.

This would help a lot.

You play a class of Giants and don’t want the bosses to be small?

We have 5 classes and only 1 one them are giants,I don’t think the game should adapt to them,they should adapt,its 4 vs 1

Sorean.5379:

You play a class of Giants and don’t want the bosses to be small?

We have 5 classes and only 1 one them are giants,I don’t think the game should adapt to them,they should adapt,its 4 vs 1

I am rather sure that Charr can be as large as Norn actually,
but still 3 vs 2.

How about a way to see who the boss is actually targeting and a better effect or animation to show when a boss starts an attack animation. This could be added to the UI as text that shows who is being targeted. If it is targeting you the text and boss portrait are highlighted in red. Maybe add an additional UI component near the boss bar that indicates an attack being in progress.

Ignavia.7420:

Most of the visibility issues come from people stacking on the boss. This is the place Anet should work on, e. g. by improving the AI (which they are doing for HOT) or enlarging the radius of support skills – at least in instance.

Aha. Don’t forget attack range increase for melee weapons. 1200 should be enough.

Another way to solve the OP’s issue would be to allow us to have a slider to turn down (or off) the particle FX eyesore.

lordkrall.7241:

I personally prefer that the enemies I face actually look “real” not unrealistically enlarged just for the sake of it.

You can of course solve this “issue” by simply making your character smaller.

Well I guess it’s a matter of immersion vs mechanical engagement. Sure a huge NPC would be unrealistic, but it would allow you to see their animations and know when you dodge, or when a heavy hitting attack is in-coming.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

It would make the game look daft.

Can you imagine an oversized asura?

There’s actually a dynamic event with exactly that in it :P

Westwater.1095:

I just wish there was a way to turn off player FX.

This would help a lot.

ProtoGunner.4953:

This is something that bugged me all the time. Bosses should be big, impressive and overwhelming. Instead we have a lot of generic ‘Legendary Krait Witch’. There is no name, no impressive special loot, nothing… a huge miss. People want and love that.

Because events can be repeated I assume that they tried to stay away from specifically naming NPCs.

hazenvirus.8154:

How about a way to see who the boss is actually targeting and a better effect or animation to show when a boss starts an attack animation.

There’s nothing wrong with the animations though, it’s usually just hidden below all the particle effects / stacking / or hard to see on small characters when you’re zoomed out.

Here is a typical boss fight in gw2. We are not stacked. Just fighting the boss like normal. As you can see, the boss is pretty much a white blob.

http://i.imgur.com/9ONr5vr.jpg?1

All of the bosses I listed above have the same problem. We really need a solution. I think turning off player effects would work.

I’ve been doing a lot of fractals lately and i totally get the OP. It’s not a matter of PC size, it’s a matter of all the fire and effects obscuring the boss so that you can’t see the attack animations.

thrag.9740:

Here is a typical boss fight in gw2. We are not stacked. Just fighting the boss like normal. As you can see, the boss is pretty much a white blob.

http://i.imgur.com/9ONr5vr.jpg?1

All of the bosses I listed above have the same problem. We really need a solution. I think turning off player effects would work.

I don’t know, it seems rather easy to see the boss in that picture.

lordkrall.7241:

thrag.9740:

Here is a typical boss fight in gw2. We are not stacked. Just fighting the boss like normal. As you can see, the boss is pretty much a white blob.

http://i.imgur.com/9ONr5vr.jpg?1

All of the bosses I listed above have the same problem. We really need a solution. I think turning off player effects would work.

I don’t know, it seems rather easy to see the boss in that picture.

Do I need to post a picture of svanir shaman fight before you will admit it’s a problem?

I just want to see a critical word from lordkrall once . Simply every single critique about this game is null and void for him. There are a lot of arbitrary complaints of course, but lordkrall manages to defend every single thing. Always. Ever.

thrag.9740:

Do I need to post a picture of svanir shaman fight before you will admit it’s a problem?

Oh, shaman is indeed rather hard to see. But to be honest he will still be hard to see even if he is 20 feet tall if people keep standing on top of him and spamming skills.

There is of course also the whole option to use the Select Nearest Enemy (or whatever it is called) button which selects the enemy for you, even if you can’t click it directly.

I simply don’t think that making mobs unrealistically big just for the sake of making them more visible is the way to go. A better way would be to either give them a special (optional) icon over their head or lower the amount of flashy effects.

ProtoGunner.4953:

I just want to see a critical word from lordkrall once . Simply every single critique about this game is null and void for him. There are a lot of arbitrary complaints of course, but lordkrall manages to defend every single thing. Always. Ever.

Yeah, people tend to see what they want to see. I have disagreed with stuff ArenaNet have done multiple times, but for some reason people never seem to see that.

Well I agree, that scaling npcs up isn’t a great idea. Sometimes with guardian blue flame I still have trouble seeing the tells on lupicus. Admittedly hes tells are more subtle than say, an abom. But still, simply scaling enemies won’t fix the issue as our effects scale too.

However, I think the op brings up a real problem in the game. Through out the thread I have advocated the ability to turn off player effects. I think this is a broader solution that will work on almost all bosses.

Not to mention, graphical performance. You can turn your graphics setting down as much as you want, your still going to see other players effects. This kills slower computer set ups. More people could play gw2 at higher settings if it wasn’t for the extreme particle effects. Like textures in the world, and npc details could look better if some much of our computer’s resources were not on particle effects.

Right now gw2 is a game at odds with itself. On one hand your suppose to see signs that an enemy is about to attack, and your suppose to dodge it. On the other hand your have the extreme visual clutter. If anet wants to introduce challenging group content as they have stated is their goal, they have really painted themselves into a corner. Either make bosses large. Make bosses use only aoe attacks (molten duo glitch,lupicus glitch…this doesn’t work well). Or….anything else viable?

I really think we need a “turn off other player effects” option. This wouldn’t fix everything, but it would fix a lot of things.

i do agree that we need a turn of player effects but i still fell that bosses should be a little bigger. Not overly big but bigger so when that asura swings his mine mace at your knee and hits you for a big chunk of your life you can see the hit coming. OR leave the bosses the way they are size wise and reduce there melee auto swing by a lot but leave there ability damage the same because those ones at least in some fractals put a orange field on the ground so you know a attack is coming and what direction its aimed so you know to dodge. But something needs to be done