Guild Wars 2

I really love playing GW2, but I have a small problem. I have necrophobia – an intense fear and anxiety related to dead things. Mine manifests particularly in regards to human remains. Because of this, I find that I’m frequently unable to equip my characters with certain weapons – for example, I can’t run a staff-guardian because the second skill has a skull, and the focus also has a skull on one of its skills.
While usually I can get through troll caves and the like through the use of interesting camera angles and anxiety management techniques, I can’t run these weapons because of two things that often affect phobics: proximity and duration. In addition to this, my anxiety lasts beyond the time of the exposure, meaning that if I play in the morning, I may be jumpy, shaking, and have an increased heart rate for the rest of the day. If it’s really bad, or I play just before I go to bed, I can’t sleep, be in the dark, or even be in a room by myself. I just want to stress that I’m not a little afraid of some slightly scary images – this is a real psychological condition that I struggle with on a daily basis, and while I’m working to overcome it, I still have a long way to go, and I’m reaching out for a helping hand.
I’ve heard that in the Chinese release, all undead and skull-related images were removed for cultural reasons, and I’m wondering if there’s some sort of way I can do something similar with my account. I don’t necessarily want to take out absolutely everything – modifying the skill icons would be enough. I did send in a ticket, and got a generic “sorry, we can’t do anything, try the forums” reply.
I know that one potential option is to run a program that will re-skin the skills, but I’ve read in multiple places that in general, running third-party programs is a good way to get banned. If this is actually a viable option (because it doesn’t give me any advantage over other players or change the game mechanics at all – the only advantage it will give me is that I won’t be a nervous wreck), then that rather neatly solves my problem.
If that won’t work, I’d really like to be able to actually talk to someone about my options, because I know I’m not the only one with this issue, and I feel that my ability to fully develop my characters and enjoy the game is stilted because I have to avoid certain weapons and play under certain conditions (times of the day, availability of other people, etc.).
Any help or suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks,
Kira

As the placement of the skill bar never moves on the screen, you might consider placing pieces of opaque tape over those areas with just a number written on them. The icon would be hidden, but the skill number would still show. Or, write whatever you like on the tape. Just a suggestion. (I used this trick on old platforming games to judge the center [and thus character orientation] of the field of view.)

Good luck.

Hey,

You could try an overlay just like gw2stuff. it would work like a tape would wouldnt be one perhaps a more difficult but better choice for your screen

Third party programs are never going to be officially seen in a good light by Anet just because of potential for abuse, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen dev replies to people who did stuff like use certain overlays or use programs to remap controls to controller, stuff like that that basically went along the lines of “while we can’t give our approval you’re likely not going to get banned” because it’s not the sort of stuff to give you an advantage and no one’s going to report you for weird behaviour or whatever since what you want would be strictly a graphical issue.

Like Chris Cleary said:
“As with any 3rd party program, use at your own risk. ArenaNet cannot sign off usage of 3rd party programs, as projects often evolve beyond their current implementation and we cannot audit every iteration for fair usage.”

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2drawa/introducing_the_gw2_personal_assistant_overlay/

An overlay seems like an ideal way to solve your predicament, but there’s likely none available that do what you need it to do. I’d recommend looking around to see if anyone you know can whip one up (an overlay that just blocks out part of the UI shouldn’t be too hard to make, theoretically); alternatively, maybe someone here is proficient at such stuff.

In the meantime, don’t play a necro. :P

Thanks for the advice. It looks like an overlay is my best bet – I’ll use a piece of tape in the meantime, but even though I can’t see the skill icon, I still know it’s there.

I have absolutely no intention of ever playing necro. :P

Just one last request – if anyone knows of any good places to find overlays, I’d appreciate the pointer.

You could try contacting someone who’s published an overlay, and ask if they could throw something together for you. Aerodin, the creator of the Personal Assistant Overlay, can be reached via the link I posted above (while quoting Chris Cleary), while you can get in touch with the people who made the overlay for GW2Stuff over on
http://www.reddit.com/r/gw2stuff

1. Run the game in windowed mode instead of full-screen. Move the window down enough that the skill icons are hidden.

2. Open up the UI layout interface. remove the skill bar.

Thank you! I’ll take a look around and see if I can find something, or someone to slap something together.