Customizable Health Bar Order In Party Window

This has probably been talked before but a quick search did not find anything. Perhaps I don't know how they titled the prior suggestion threads.

As a Monk, I am so sick of people complaining that they were not healed despite there being two Monks in the party. While sometimes it might be a Monk's fault, it is often the rogue, wandering Tank's fault as well as the confusion of who is who in the party list.

Well this fix may just be the answer to the whining Tank's request for speedy health infusions! How many times have you been in a party and the entire group dies because the Monks don't know who is responsible for healing who. They double heal someone or they don't touch them because they think the other Monk will cover him/her. I'm talking about situations where you have two Healers and not a Healer and Prot who have different responsibilities.

So how about the Game Devs make the Party Health Window (the one with all the red health bars of your party members) customizable for each player? The ability to move people up and down the list would allow Monks to sort out (prior to the mission) who they are responsible for healing. Player 1, 3,and 7? Ok! drag and drop players 3 & 7 up to the 2nd and 3rd spots on your interface so you can keep an eye on the top 3 health bars!

Party leaders could easily be moved up or down with an asterisk denoting that they are the party leader. Thus, being the party leader is still relevant and easily determined by simply seeing that asterisk. I know who the henchies will follow - the guy with the asterisk.

The party order changes would be resident in your PC's interface and therefore each person could order the party members any way they wished on their own machine.

Others - not just Healers - would no doubt benefit from this ability as players would get comfortable seeing tanks at the top of the list, Nukers in the middle, and Monks at the bottom (or whatever combination works for you!)

What are your thoughts on this - would it help you?

Murphy

Would be nice, but I don't see why you can't just reorder pre-mission like everyone else.

/notsigned because it's unnecessary

I would love to reorder sometimes but we all know that if you leave and say you're going to regroup, there's the possibility of the group (especially PuGs) grabbing someone else and going without you. Very frustrating - especially if there's no one else to group with.

/notsigned

pointless and unnecessary, as you can already set the party order before you leave

/notsigned

It would change who the leader would be to everyone. In HA you could call people 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 on vent because everyone would have different party windows.

Could be a nice update really, I know I have friends who fight for the 8th slot 'cause they're monks and constantly want to be at bottom. This would enable them to have the last spot.

And as mentionned before, the group doesn't always invite people back, especially when the new team leader doesn't even notice he is... or the guy who simply doesn't reinvite back.

Not necessary, true, but interesting idea.

@ Covah: you still have the choice NOT to reorder on your own window.

@jackers1234 - pointless and unnecessary, as you can already set the party order before you leave

I disagree. You can customize everything else on your current interface options once you've left the town/outpost, why not this one? Try leaving a PuG prepping to go to FoW or UW and try to get back in on a Friday night. I'd say less than half of the time will they take you back before someone else of the same profession jumps in and they leave. This is more of a tweak to your interface settings instead of gameplay and is specifically proposed so you don't have to take the extra steps of leaving and joining multiple times until the party is in the order one person of the party wants. If you ask everyone to leave the group as it stands now, you'll get a lot of flak from the others who don't want to leave. Why not implement this ability and not have to bother with it?

@covah - It would change who the leader would be to everyone.

No, check my original post - it would assign an asterisk (or something equitable) that would keep everyone informed on who the party leader is. There's no loss in party leader functionality or responsibilities. Also, to your point - not everyone has Vent - I don't and I don't plan on getting it. Been playing the game just fine in most cases for 2 years without the need for a VoIP system. If you have specific places where you absolutely have to have the party in the same order on everyone's screen, then it's simple - don't move your list around in that instance! But don't let that stop others in 99% of the rest of the game from being able to do it.

To further the flexibility of this proposed ability, if you don't want to do it, then it's always there in case you do. But, as a Monk, I would find it invaluable to group my party in a specific order. That way I can respond to specific situations faster by knowing that I always put my bond target as #1 in the list, my #2 should never have a hex, etc. Sounds like a good improvement to me!

Once again, the list could theoretically look 8 different ways to 8 different people and you don't have to worry about it because your screen listing looks the way you want it to look and your other party members customize it to how they want to see it without affecting your view.

Thanks for the feedback - keep it coming!
Murphy

it takes less than 1 min to reorder, my guild does it all the time be it PvP or PvE, and you dont need Vent to reorder last time i checked.

/Notsigned

Can't hurt, would be useful in a minimal sense. The best use I can see from this is changing who the party leader is, in case someone goes AFK for a while and wants a friend to take over.

/signed

The Party Leader should be the one doing the reordering. All he has to do is click on a persons name, click 'Kick", then click the + sign to reinvite.

If people are not ready to reorder, they should be kicked anyway. It is easy, fast, and already done. If your team is reordering, you don't leave, the Party Leader kicks and reinvites. If you do leave, and don't reinvite fast enough, that is your problem. It should take 2 seconds to reinvite. If the party leader didn't know you were leaving to reorder, that is, again, your problem.

/unsigned

Basically what I was going to say.

I like the idea, can have the players numbered 1-8 on the left of their name (denotes who the leader is and still gives the 1-8 availability for vent users). I think that it is dumb that you have to either be kicked or leave just to hold another spot in the party window (and who is to say that the way the party leader wants to view is the way all other players want to view). I would also suggest that this reordering customization be permitted once you enter a zone (UW and FoW reorders upon entering, possibly others as well).

Other fix that I want, remove the ability of the rogue tank to run as far away from the monk and complain that he isn't healed.

/signed

(Remember, there is no requirement to use this new interface, if it doesn't hurt you is there really any problem with it. Taking time away from GW2 development is not a good response either since they have separate teams.)

Something I have requested more than once.

Stop monking by using the party window, or stop using the holy trinity. Problem solved.

So basically run Ursan Blessing everywhere and anywhere in everything you do?

Or you know, just heal everything. Division of labor is for weak monks.

Why didn't they ever add a mana bar under the health? It would be so useful. I'd love to see the target of your target.
IE: Joe Warrior is attacking/targeting Bob Enemy. Joe has to chase Bob because Bob is after Jane Healer.

I support this idea. I often play Ritualist and have certain weapon spells I cast on allies who will be attacking, and other weapon spells I cast on people who need healing or protection. I use hotkeys to target specific party members to make using the skills quicker.

When playing with H/H it is no problem since I can always put my attackers in specific party slots. In a PUG the order is random. I usually just re-bind my hotkeys prior to leaving the outpost, but it gets frustrating to do so if the party membership or lineup changes more than once before leaving.

I like the idea of being able to drag/drop my party order view. Like the OP mentioned, the party leader role does not have to change - just an individual's view of the list.

/signed

Nay.

In most PvP battles, each character has a number.

It would be MUCH better if the leader could change the order in any outpost and during the counter until the match starts.

Once the match starts, it should remain fixed, to prevent some griefing behaviors.