Jon, thanks for the response, and while I feel particle effects may be an issue for some people, and for seeing whats going on, the issue of Asura are a completely seperate and important matter. The reason players spam asura is because they are small, and it’s impossible to tell what weapons they’re holding most of the time, what animations they’re casting, (save greatsword / hammer) what they’re doing, and targeting them is significantly harder than other races. The biggest issue of the following is animation hiding, which is why so many people play them, especially at the top end.
That said, people have brought up in several threads now, not just this one, that it’s not only confusing to play against, but confusing to watch, unentertaining, and really detracts from the whole experience, not to mention seeing everyone play the same race is unappealing in general.
The most logical solution to this would be to normalize character size, similar to how it was done in Super Adventure Box. Because it’s obviously become a problem, and now that we have people watching, everyone has begun pointing it out.
From personal experience as a top tier player, I despise fighting Asuran models, they’re difficult to read and respond to properly, they’re harder to select, and give a clear advantage, but I prefer to play a human due to aesthetic reasons, though it would be in my best interest to do as many others do, and just simply play Asura. I don’t want to do that, and I don’t think it should be the solution. If it’s a problem at the top, it’s easily a problem everywhere else, especially to people learning the game and trying to read the dozens of asuran models, then dying and having no idea why, or what’s going on.
This game is an animation based game, and Asura’s work directly against that, no matter how crazy the animations are, we still need to be able to see their hands, what they’re holding, and what they’re doing.