Guild Wars 2

Since the OP put such work to being reasonable and not whining. I will have to give this thread a +1. These recent visual noise changes seem to have been done without proper forethought and should be removed and re-evaluated. A lot of these changes seem to decrease counterplay and fun. I’ll save my jokes for another thread. Please consider this.

+1. Magnetic aura on an asura is pretty hard to see, even if you zoom in. I admit they look more like auras emanating off the body now instead of bubbles like before but you can’t see what aura a tempest has on esp on a teamfight. Anet wants us to look at the buff bar more instead of the fight onscreen?

well. Downgrading visuals is bad for the feel of the game ….
On the other side i always hated that playerbar and that all is visible. I want to see the fire aura burning and ice on the skin … But not the icons …

What I want to know is who thought this would be a good idea and to authorize it? The previous aura effects we’re pretty cool along with the sound that came with it, but as of now it is pretty boring and in really bad taste.

The appearance of the auras look pretty rushed and unattractive. Bring back the old versions ASAP. I’m 100% sure everyone who plays ele or has fought against one relies on the appearance and sound of the auras as it affects the outcome of a fight.

For example, warriors attempting to kill an elementalist with a rifle; imagine the ele popped it’s Magnetic Aura up, the warrior would have ample time to react to that and cancel whatever rifle skill they were about to use.

Let’s say after this update the warrior wants to fight the ele. The ele uses the aura skill and the rifle uses Killshot. The unsuspecting warrior wont realise it, because they can’t see the aura. Do you understand?

I will let you think about that, ArenaNet.

+1 to the OP.

But I wouldn’t expect any changes or replies.

E-sports & all that.

http://i.imgur.com/uyPyveU.jpg
Anet are you srs?

ANet: We’re going to design an elite spec that brings back Auramancer!!….oh wait, Auras cause too much visual clutter, so we’re going to make it so they’re practically invisible.

From an aesthetic standpoint, I don’t like the change at all. I’m really unhappy about the "reducing visual clutter’ patches they keep adding because it makes the game look less beautiful and feel less fun, especially in a game that is all about the visuals.

But more importantly this is a HUGE problem functionally. If the point of reducing all the visual noise is for #esports spectating (and lol, there are so many problems with GW2 spectating that have nothing at all to do with clutter), it is a big problem to not be able to quickly identify when your opponent is using auras, especially for Shocking and Magnetic aura. The previous visibility (which imo was perfectly fine) allowed for counterplay. Because of Tempest we have the potential for an absolutely stupid amount of Shocking Aura uptime (Dagger 3, Tempest Defense, Rebound, and Unstable Conduit / Fresh Air) and others not being able to tell when we have that in combat is really not okay.

IMO Anet should not be doing universal visual nerfs, they should be putting in checkbox options like OP suggested (I’d say split at least by self, party / squad, enemies) or sliders so we can custom adjust it.

The thing I want to remind people that even the PvP esport players didn’t request this Aura visual change either. I don’t even know where ANet get the idea from.

Please don’t blame PvP players on this.

Sunshine.5014:

The thing I want to remind people that even the PvP esport players didn’t request this Aura visual change either. I don’t even know where ANet get the idea from.

Please don’t blame PvP players on this.

+1

He’s right. Never once.

oshilator.4681:

Sunshine.5014:

The thing I want to remind people that even the PvP esport players didn’t request this Aura visual change either. I don’t even know where ANet get the idea from.

Please don’t blame PvP players on this.

+1

He’s right. Never once.

At this point it seems like Anet has no idea how to reduce visual clutter an they are just trying random changes without even thinking about them. With all of these invisible animations, elementalists will soon be the most OP class in PvP.

+1 to op

and as respect for his job, i’ll just leave this here to stya a bit respectfull:

“We test our game” – Anet

PS:
But i disagree on one thing, GW2 could perfectly be an e-sport game. But what people (what companies (here Anet), and some playe) fail to understand is that it’s the COMMUNITY that can create E-sport.

Just check what happenned to Starcraft1
quick sum up: Korea’s league of starcraft 1 all switched to SC2, but the huge fan base managed to make it back to E-sport scene by creating new organisation of SC1 tournament

Mattmatt.4962:

+1 to op

and as respect for his job, i’ll just leave this here to stya a bit respectfull:

“We test our game” – Anet

PS:
But i disagree on one thing, GW2 could perfectly be an e-sport game. But what people (what companies (here Anet), and some playe) fail to understand is that it’s the COMMUNITY that can create E-sport.

Just check what happenned to Starcraft1
quick sum up: Korea’s league of starcraft 1 all switched to SC2, but the huge fan base managed to make it back to E-sport scene by creating new organisation of SC1 tournament

Which is very much the reason Gw2 is NOT an Esport, the community doesnt see it as such.

+1 I want my auras back! They are what made playing auramancer fun and cool for me!

+1 to the OP. This is just horrible, particularly on lighter and textured backgrounds auras just can’t be seen.

While you’re at it remove the toon altogether to reduce the visual noise!

I think rendering of the aura is all client side, so what’s in it to mess with it? If you have time “fixing” stuff, please go look at things that are broken like armor clippings, or sylvari racial Orchid chest piece that after 3 years still blocks any shoulder piece from showing up.

Ghatzuma.5192:

While you’re at it remove the toon altogether to reduce the visual noise!

I had this same suggestion. XD Obviously ridiculous, but you never know lately.

EVen wash the pain away is so badly nerfed visually, I can barely see if ppl are being hit by the heal. They need to test these changes with groups of ppl before blindly making visual changes.

Let’s design a game where the interface is minimal, and the player has to rely on what’s going on on-screen to figure out the state of the character and the game environment. That way, the player will be more involved and immersed.

In an attempt to capitalize on lol-sportz, let’s destroy all the visual feedback on screen to reduce “clutter.” Oh and while we’re at it, lets NOT re-design the user interface to make up for the loss of visual cues.

Nothing says “m04r ch4113ng3” and “1337 sk1llz” like making sure all players have no way to know what is actually occurring in game.

I… have a confession. I like the egg shape.

I know. I know. It doesn’t make sense. Only a perfectly spherical magnetic shield could reflect a projectile back the way it came. But I ..like the egg. If only there was an option so people could choose if they see an egg or a ball.

And the auras are definitely too faint.

kittenmit !Visual feedback has been totally ruined!Remove those kittenty eggs and go back to the old effects!WTH DEVS!?are you totally dumb?! -.- It’s unbelievable !!

I think an option bar to increase/decrease the effects would be a nice solution. I preferred the game before the “noise” nerds because it felt like you were actually fighting other players. Now I feel like I’m throwing carrots at people on my ele and honestly the auras being less noticeable is nonsense. Most people wanted them to be more noticeable if anything.