Request UI conformity: Spirit = Minions

As a player that plays various flavors of Necromancers, I'd like to see a change in how summoned Spirits are tracked via the Guild Wars User Interface.

Being able to visually "see" an icon that represents the active type of spirit would be nice. A running count of minions is tracked via an icon on the screen, it seems logical that spirits could be tracked in the same manner.

Currently, I find it very easy to lose track of what spirits are still summoned, especially when they are stacked.

Hmm... There is an icon for certain area-of-effect spirits (including ranger spirits), but not offensive spirits. I don't know that offensive spirits are controlled the same way as minions (have a ritualist, but not a necro), and while two necros may be MMs, two ritualists can't summon the same spirit within a certain distance of each other.

As I understand minions, a summoner will have an icon only they can see specifying how many minions are under their control.

Ritualists have no such icon for offensive spirits, but AoE spirits (like Shelter) are visible in the same manner as Favourable Winds.

So is what you're proposing simply adding an icon for each spirit a ritualist (or even a ranger) has personally summoned and is still 'alive'? That could be up to 8 different icons at a time, not including the additional icons from AoEs.

Could take up a lot of space... I'm undecided. It could be useful for some, but I can't say I ever have much trouble tracking which of my spirits are still alive.

In the party window you could have a bar with little dots that appear for each minion and spirit. Minions could be yellow and spirits green. That would not only show how many of each you had, but allow you to click on each dot to target a minion or spirit.
With a lot of the new skills being released targeting spirits and minions is becoming a big part of certain builds and we really need some type of UI to help manage the playstyle better of those builds.

A targetting method would be very useful.

A way to have a quick overview of the health status of spirits/minions connected to your party would also be good. Maybe there could be additional windows like the Party Window... one for minions and one for spirits?

Ya, if the spirit has an effect/buff you will see the icon, but at the moment Pain and Bloodsong (for instance) there are no indicators that they have been summoned.

In a battle with stacked, semi-transparent spirits it can be easy to lose track.

I would love to be able to target them (other than mouse clicking for them) but Necromancer Minions can't be targeted either via the screen icons so that feature may be asking too much.
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EDIT: Perhaps to improve Targeting of Summoned SPIRITS & Minions there should be a new Keyboard Key bind Control: Target Nearest Summoned Ally ...or something like that. I'd find that useful on my Necro and Ritualist.

But, for consistency sake, I still think an icon should appear for each active spirit type that you have summoned, just like the UI does for Necromancer Minions.