For me, the visuals are a big part of what makes the game fun to play. It really hurts to see what this “visual noise” change has done to many skills for almost every profession. Some changes simply feel “lazy” (just downsize a projectile, reduce animation times, remove some effects entirely) Depending on profession and size of the change, the experience or feeling you get from playing will suffer from this.
While I understand that the amount of visual effects makes it hard to keep track of some fights (World Bosses, large WvW fights or even a few group events), I don’t think this is the way to address this problem. There are still many other skills/effects that obscure the fight even more (Guardian Justice Burn).
On the other hand some effects were reduced so much that in a small encounter you won’t even know what hits you. Some skills are “almost” invisible (Dragon’s Maw, Orbital Strike). Some other have a reduced animation time (Many Engineer Explosives).
I’m not sure what the reason for these changes are, but there are definitely more viewpoints to consider. A great idea many in this thread have already suggested is the extension of the “Effect LOD” option. Let everyone decide for themself if they are in a situation where they need to reduce the effects or if they just want to enjoy the visual aspect of the game.
I somehow feel bad that something like this caused me to make my first forum post after almost 3 years -.-
The biggest change can be seen with this face. Definitely a texture error. I really hope they will fix it.
