Changes to Hex/Enchant icons - dumb?

- Skill icons for Enchantment and Hex spells are now displayed with a small marker in their upper-right corner.

Is it me or is this dumbing things down just a little too much?

"ARGHH! I HAVE A HEX ON ME, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!"

I like the artwork of the skill icons, and these new markers are annoying... The color of the icon tells you whether you have a necro hex on you or a mes hex... why do we need these little markers?

it is tellimg you what the skill is not if anything is on you.

that is elsewhere since you havent noticed yet

EDIT

the different colors are hex or enchantment not mes/nec

Agreed, I mean, if I was new to the game I might think it would be helpful, but even after awhile, I will know most of the skills. I think there are two options to remedy this.

1. Take them out of the game completely, because they are pointless.

2. Make them toggleable so those who like them get to keep them if they want, and those who don't, don't have to see a little yellow/purple arrow on their skills.

I find it quite annoying, personally.

There's no reason for them to even be there, because its self apparent that you indeed, have a hex or enchantment on you!

I like them.

those on the skill tell you what that skill is. (hex or enchamtment)

it freakin does not tell you if somthinng is on you.

try it in town no nothing on you but .there they are in living color.

again it is an additional bit of info about the skill NOT your condition.

I like the new indicators. They don't hurt anything anyways. They don't take up more space or add any extra clutter to the viewer window. This sounds like another one of those ever popular "Let's find something to complain about" threads no matter how small and insignificant it is.

Personally I think they added a couple bells and whistles like this just so people who don't play the game as much as they complain about the game will also have new content to explore.

For all of you experienced players it is easy to recognize the skills (all of them) and quickly tell what the spell is and does. However, and my thought is, this new Enchants/Hex indicators are meant for the newer and unexperienced players, to assimilate the skills more quickly and therefore, enter into higher levels of the game in less time.

Therefore, the indicators are a very nice implementation, not meant for everyone though.

Well, for casual (yet experienced) players like me it could help after not playing for a bit. I took a break form Guild Wars for a wgile because I have a lot of work to do. When I came back for factions preview last night (after arriving home at like 8 or 9PM) I was happy to see the trainign areas with the nearby, area of effect poles and condition "guides" that they implemented. It also helps to have the enchantment and hex arrows, so people will be more intelligent/aware that they should not HEX a hexbreaker-stanced person.

So, despite whatever other people tink, I think that the arrows help, because when you are dying, you don't care about what spell/skill you use as long as you "blast away" at the enemy. The feature also helps us create better teams, because the community as a whole is more experienced.

-"Life"

I think the hexes and enchantments need even more indicators. I mean reading the descriptions of the skills on your bar is obviously out, and the big green or purple border around the enchantments and hexes on you clearly wasn't cutting it. I don't think these arrows will get the point across either. I think they need to flash big red "HEX" and "ENCHANTMENT" text on top of all of these icons, as well as on conditions, to hammer home the fact that even if you missed every visual cue given so far, those effects really are enchantments, hexes, and conditions.

Peace,
-CxE

i personally think the markers on skills are too overcluttered, i like the way things where, mabye anet can do something alternative.

Exactly!

Loviatar, I think you are missing the point. You already know you have something on you... its in your conditions area of your UI. You also already know if it is good or bad, since usually green and pink skills cast on you are bad!

As for skills in your skillbar, if you forget which are which... well... go back to pre-searing.

Ensign, I hope that was sarcasm.

Personally, I think they've taken the first step in making a very beautiful game damn ugly. Why take the lovely artwork created for our beloved skill icons and ruin them with multi-coloured splodges ?

And, from a decidedly less important gameplay point of view for a moment, if you've too little knowledge of the game to know whether the skill you're using is a hex/enchantment or whatever, are you likely to understand the delicate intricacies of Hex-breaker etc. ? It's not like it doesn't tell you what it is when you're picking the skill or anything, or are we going to tailor the game entirely to pre-made using 1 day newbies ?

Give me back my pretty icons.

picture someone starting 3 chapters from now.

12 professions

they added 25 skills to the core professions and will probably cascade them down the line to add interest to previous chapters in the future releases

you will be helped very much as you go through all sorts of different skill sets.

when choosing a skill to try from a list of hundreds and you want an enchahtment or a hex this will help you sort them fast stopping only at the ones that are what you may be looking for instead of having to look at the text description for a moment before the next try.

well lets start a patetion to at least make them toggle-able.

Since newbie players are even more unlikely to understand icons than they are to understand text, I don't understand what the point is.

Does the new black borders help the process of information for the player?
Not really, and I feel the same way about the hex and enchantment arrows.

Its neat, dont get me wrong, but it doesnt improve anything that I know of yet.

Things like energy bars for the group to see seems like it would help tons as it would improve the groups momentum without cluttering voice or text chat.
I see nothing but benifits for something like this but it hasnt happen yet with the new interface.

To further build on your suggestion I have an even more brilliant suggestion, right now you see the status icons sort of have a "zoom in" effect as they appear. Why not make the status icon SO BIG the moment it is first cast, completely blocking out the screen, make it wobble a bit, and then zoom out to its usual position in the corner?

And of course in UT2004 fashion have a voice over announce "Enchantment!", "Hex!"

That way nobody will be able to miss it.

Kthx

Wow guys, relax. All they did was add a two little traingles. Surely noone is actually bothered by that.

And well, let's face it. It could actually help some of the new players. It takes a while before you know what icon is what skill and if your hexed to hell it can be handy to know what strange Icons are actually helping you and which ones are hexes. (could be very handy for first-timers using CoP for instance).

Edit: and my guess is we'll see a lot of other triangles in the future too. This is a first step in making the game more accesible to new players once the different skill types really are aplenty.

It dosn't bother me much I guess. I had some neat idea in my mind of how they weren't that bad, but then I didn't.

So, we have indicators for hexs and enchantments. Arrows that match the indicators on helath bars. Next update should, by that logic, put little grey arrows on condition causing skills.

Since hex, enchantment, and condition causing skills would be labled, shouldn't they label attack skills, spells, 'skills' in such a way? Inconsistancy I say!