Guild Wars 2

This was brought up in a separate thread and I thought it warranted its own discussion.

Are there any plans to give Stability some sort of visual cue? It would definitely support more intelligent play. Currently you have to watch character frames in order to know someone has the boon. It feels counterintuitive to a game where you are watching casting animations for information instead of cast bars.

I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on this.

Maybe the ability for us to customize the color of each boon icon so that we can more easily separate them in the heat of battle.

I agree, there needs to be some kind of tell other than looking at the enemies list of boons.

Hell what if I want to try to stun someone without actually targeting them…since this is GW2 and I don’t have to have a target to use my skills and can just simply aim them?

Their whole philosophy with combat was looking at the action and visual cues, not looking at your UI. Stability is one of those things that forces me to stare at the UI.

I would be in favor of some very obvious effect around the player when they are under the effect of Stability. It would have to be obvious enough that it’s immediately apparent when they use it, but shouldn’t further obscure the battlefield more than the current amount of particle effects.

Perhaps a circle under their feet with the same pillar symbol that the boon has.

Would be so awesome if they just used an old mechanic that was removed from the game.

Engineer Toss elixir S when you got stability used to make you grow larger as well. They removed it.

I think they should bring it back, FOR EVERYONE!

http://youtu.be/6ORToU6LiZA?t=1m10s (1:10 for effect)

stability is pretty noticeable boon.

Velron.3729:

Would be so awesome if they just used an old mechanic that was removed from the game.

Engineer Toss elixir S when you got stability used to make you grow larger as well. They removed it.

I think they should bring it back, FOR EVERYONE!

http://youtu.be/6ORToU6LiZA?t=1m10s (1:10 for effect)

I liked that growing larger for stability too, a simple visual cue that worked and doesn’t clutter the visual field.

This is a good suggestion because sometimes when there are 2 people going for a stomp and I am running towards them I don’t know if I should cc them or jump on for the rez.

There are times when the difference between 1 second spent ccing and not rezing makes all the difference in the world.

uberkingkong.8041:

stability is pretty noticeable boon.

Please explain how its any more noticeable than any other boon.

There are a plethora of threads clamoring for fewer on screen spell/skill effects and now people want more on-screen effects.

This must be an exercise in frustration for the devs.

I agree..less animations..more actual character postures. Currently none of the multiple stealths have any forecast. Ranger firing hunters shot, rapid fire and the start of barrage all look exactly the same. All thief dagger skills look exactly the same..it seems no form of counter play can be performed until after the stealth has been achieved. Forget about stability for no..stealth needs a visual posture cue as opposed to an animation. Their is nothing their to counter stealth and deny it besides luck of the draw blocks.

Geff.1930:

There are a plethora of threads clamoring for fewer on screen spell/skill effects and now people want more on-screen effects.

This must be an exercise in frustration for the devs.

You bring up a valid point (and I can’t even imagine how frustrating it must be to work on an MMO) but this is the kind of on-screen effect that should be very clear.

It’s the clutter of shiny, residual AoE that needs to be reduced. In reducing spell visuals I’m sure they will keep enough information for you to be able to know what spells are being cast and which AoE is on the ground for you to avoid.

While a stability visual effect would be an additional shiny thing, it’s the kind of shiny thing that would offer absolutely vital information for decision making in-game without staring at the UI.

Geff.1930:

There are a plethora of threads clamoring for fewer on screen spell/skill effects and now people want more on-screen effects.

This must be an exercise in frustration for the devs.

Check my post and the video link with time stamp please. The old animation for Stability was just for your character to grow a bit bigger – it did not clutter the screen with any more particle effects.

Stability is probably THE most important boon to know if a target has but you can’t really see it. I can see protection go up, but not stability.

I support this idea. Above all other boons, this is the boon I’m on the lookout for in every one of my fights.

Geff.1930:

There are a plethora of threads clamoring for fewer on screen spell/skill effects and now people want more on-screen effects.

This must be an exercise in frustration for the devs.

Spell effects are often intense and cluttering. Something like the Protection character animation is subtle and informative.

It can be done, and like people have said, this is one of the boons you have to know about to make key decisions, so it makes sense to animate it somehow. Whether it’s character size, or some sort of white shimmering around their feet, etc. It doesn’t have to envelop the entire character in a bright light or make the entire ground go jet black.

Subtlety is possible.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I would be in favor of some very obvious effect around the player when they are under the effect of Stability. It would have to be obvious enough that it’s immediately apparent when they use it, but shouldn’t further obscure the battlefield more than the current amount of particle effects.

Perhaps a circle under their feet with the same pillar symbol that the boon has.

I second this idea. I’ve suggested in another thread for stability to have a consecration-like circle on the ground with the boon symbol appear; it fits into the theme of the boon.

I think that making the character avatar bigger would be fine and dandy – but only if everyone was of standard size such that having Stability was differentiating in the first place.

Perhaps, similar to the Protection generating a “shield” symbol that fades into the blue-grey “arcs” that denote protection, a similar “pillar” symbol can accompany the onset of the Stability boon that then fades away along with the avatar growing in size.