General PvP feedback off in combat Information.
The thing we’ve noticed continually while playing pvp is that there is an insane clutter of information, roughly 10-30 icons stating buffs, debuffs, perma buffs, etc.
But important information as “what build type am I fighting” is not shown at all.
The amount of multiplying complexity with 14 different Debuff effects, 11 buffs, 36 different combo fields, and a near unlimited amount of build setups, makes it an absolute nightmare to try and convey any reasonable clear information at a fast glance.
I am wondering how the devs do not see this as an issue? In any competitive game the most important thing is that you will clearly know what is going on and it is your reactions to what you see which matters. However, with such an insane amount of clutter this will never be possible. What it ends up being is people simply learning standard rotations which they mindlessly use the optimal rotation of in the hope that the opponent is blinded by the information and doing the same.
Even if someone is saying they can keep track of 25-35 icons at a glance, 36 different combinations and reacted to both within 1,5 seconds, it will still become a major hurdle to introduce anyone newer to the game.
I really do believe the next move of Anet should be to limit the debuff, buff and combo fields to a reasonable amount where a fast glance will easily convey exactly what is going on. With that it would also be needed to add the ability to disable icons which have no important information for combat (such as xp of all sorts etc).
as well as finding a way to make a clear distinction between build setups so you at first glance can see what you are facing. Usually This is the reason you got classes and thereby class restrictions. But as Anet has thrown that to the winds, they will need to come up with another way to convey this information.
I hope there should be no doubt that you are solving an issue in a bad manner when you have ended up with 25 different buff/debuffs that All does different things (and adding more for every big iteration, which is a little frightening, meaning they do not understand the issue of complexity yet). It shows that there have been area’s where the devs felt there was an issue and instead of finding a good solution to solve it they continued to simply add more nitch abilities which eventually turned into a kitten.
If you cannot solve an issue with a simpler solution I would suggest that you are looking at it wrong and you should try to re-examine What it is that your “first solution” was supposed to solve or add in the first place and whether or not it can either be looked at from a different angle (bc I guarantee in the vast majority it can. 25 different skill buff/debuff effects is an insane amount for any game)
(edited by Nyx.6532)