Skill Type Indicator

I play almost exclusively an Interrupt Mesmer, but was forced to take a longer break from Guild Wars during which both Factions and Nightfall were released. Therefore I missed a great deal of content and have trouble learning to recognize all those new skills fast enough to interrupt them.

So what I really would like to see is some kind of indicator, so that you can see what type of Skill is being used by the selected foe. This could be a thin colored border around the Skill icon or maybe a dot somewhere.

Since this would be only for interruption (as far as I know, the skill type, during the casting, is only relevant if you want to interrupt it), it would be sufficient to indicate Skills, Spells and Signets, as these are the only interrupt targets I know of.

Well it could be I simply suck but it would still be nice to see this ;D

Im pretty sure this already existed before factions....

..select the creature attacking you and magicly you can see the spell their casting!!!

Woooo!!

They cant show you what skill, every creature on the field is using at one time, or which skills they all possess.

Thats what playing is for. You fight the creatures and get an understanding as to which spells they may or do use. And which profession they are. That way you know how to tackle them.

If we knew exactly which skills to expect from a creature EVERYTIME, then it wouldnt be a challenge.

This is a good idea. Even if you know what the skills are, it's difficult to know if they are "spells" or just plain "skills". Given that mesmer interrupts are mostly limited to spells (or only have an effect if they hit a spell), it'd be nice to have that extra indication.

That said, I think the HM casting time needs to return back to normal; it's just too hard to interrupt in HM (and, I'm talking about interrupting 1s ones). Yes, arcane conundrum and the like are useful, but they should permit you to interrupt .5s skills. This should'd be needed for 1s and above. I think that in HM they should simply get rid of the "after cast" for mosters, that would keep the pace but still permit interruptions.

I think you're mis-understanding the OP's suggestion, as you, yourself seem to be confusing spell skills with skills that arn't spells. The OP is asking for a visual indication of when a skill is a spell; perhaps making the casting bar a different color or something.

Wooooo !! mr "Kind of a big moron" has some great comment !
I think it would be a great idea, and you know there are not only spells, there are skills, attack skills, touch skills... >< HOW usefull to flame someone who is requesting a usefull change ! Thank you again, if you have some other clever-like-this-one suggestion, don't hesitate => hang yourself

Spend some time making friends of the Priests of Balthazar, they can tell you about every skill in the game (except monster abilities). Alternatively, www.guildwiki.com has write ups and some strategy suggestions for every skill in the game (and it also can tell you about those monster abilities)

Its kinda easy to tell when a Rt is using an ashes spell or binding ritual instead of a spell. The names of all ashes have a similar format (so and so was so and so) and binding rituals are super long and invlove the rt droping down on his knees to slowly cast them.

Frankly, its not signed for me just cause it would be somewhat confusing. Really, as an avid mesmer fan, I see where your coming from. It always bothered me rangers can interupt anything and mesmers are stuck on just spells. Playing a mesmer however requires the most amount of knowledge about the game in order to be played properly. You really need to learn to identify all the skills on sight anyway to play one properly.

Well of course it would make my job easier, as did the cast time progress bar and the whole thing where you can see what skill is being used, those didn't exist before I had to stop playing. But that's the whole point of the user interface, it's there so that you can concentrate on doing your job.

I don't mind to primarily interrupt spells, we get the better side effects, so I think it's a fair trade. I would lie if I said being hard to play wasn't a reason of choosing mesmer as profession, but it just fits me like a glove... I simply love being one.

God forbid someone make a sarcastic comment. It was hardly meant as an insult. Did I tell you to go out and harm yourself? Did I personally insult you in anyway? Did I call you a profanity? No!!

All I was was make a comment and use the word "Wooo", so whos the bigger moron. Me, or the person who wrote "hang yourself"!

I wasn't flaming, I just didnt see why you're asking for something, that already seems to exist. I've played for a long time, and to my understanding you can see which spell, skill or buff a creature is activating at the time.

Isnt that what you wanted?

And from simply playing you get a grasp of what possible skills a creature might use, so you can prepare for them with your build.

Plus I'm pretty sure websites like guildwiki.net will list all the builds of creatures ingame.

Your suggestion already exists ingame and it has done for a long time. I've interupted countless spells or buffs that were being activated by a creature because I've seen them using it. I dont see what else you would want on the interface?

Maybe an entire list of their skill bar, and you can see which one their going to activate next?

That would make the game extremely easy, if we could predict their actions. And its unrealistic.

If im wrong, then I apologise, and maybe I've not paid enough attention while fighting over the last 2 years.

However.....

One thing I think would be nice is to see their energy level, and any enchantments they have on themselves. That is information we need to know, because we have spells to drain energy and to remove enchantments.

If we dont know their energy levels, or enchantments, then you dont even know if the spell has any effect.





But I would suggest you dont throw comments around like "Hang yourself", if your trying to be the better man. Sarcasm is one thing, but purely harrassing comments like that are another.

Sorry you took it so badly.

Well I also didn't like that sarcasm, as it depicts me as some kind of moron who wouldn't care to check the current status of the game before requesting a new feature, but that doesn't really matter *shrug*

But back on topic, before I want to know the whole bunch of information, be it from digging in memory, or reading that text, or whatever, I would simply want to know if it's at all possible to interrupt, and that depends solely on the skill type. As this is the single most important question for playing an interrupt mesmer, I simply want that information being presented in an easily recognizable fashion and not hidden in my stupid brain or having to hover the mouse over the skill icon read the first words and realize that it's already too late.

I certainly don't want or need a skill list of my opponent, just something that's already there in a different way, so what's the big deal?

/signed

I must agree I'm causal player and I dont have time for studying such useless things like: "Is it a spell or skill that the target is currently using?" Some people want to play and not to learn something that they don't need for life and kill their free time with that.

Ohh.. I think I had completely missed your point. I think I understand now.

The fact that interupt spells/skills effect either spells or skills, and you dont always know if what the creature is casting is a spell or a skill.

If thats what you meant, then /signed.

I simply thought you meant being able to see as the creature is casting.

/signed

maybe have them as different colors, to keep it simple. Spells blue, skill green.

~the rat~

*hands fish a cookie. its ok man*