I’ve played nearly every MMO that has come out in the last 7-8 years and almost all of them make it very clear what is a good ground effect and what is a bad one.
They differentiate between good and bad AOEs with some form of color combinations or shapes.
I’ve seen a lot of complaints regarding Dragonflight dungeon design being cluttered and confusing and while some of the complaints are very much valid I think the underlying issue that would solve a lot of those complaints would be some form of uniform telegraphing system for AOEs.
Right now the system seems very old, AOEs are simply not drawn over terrain with elevation changes and they seem to be a relic of a very old design philosophy. The swirlies, the ambiguous nature of the AOE maybe you’re safe, maybe you’re not. The VARIETY of colors for AOEs across all dungeons make it unnecessarily confusing.
There’s such a reliance on audio cues for mechanics that it feels like you’re using your auditory senses more than your visual ones during encounters because of all the clutter.
GW2, FFXIV, ESO and many, many others make it VERY clear what is going to hit you and what isn’t. I don’t understand why WoW continues to cling on to this ambiguous nature of AOEs.
More consistent, clear visual cues would make everyone happy, from the casual players struggling to see AOEs to Mythic raiders trying to min max every single GCD during prog.
My suggestion is for the next expansion they should consider homogenizing all the AOEs in the game to look similar and clearly showing their range with a border.
Addons & Weak Auras tell you what is good & what is bad, when to move & when to stand still.
With so many addons & Weak Auras available to do this, WoW devs have not had to implement a clear ground indication system.
The other games do not have addons, so they need a clear indicator of what is happening.
GW2, ESO not only have addons but they’re supported by the dev team.
FFXIV does not officially support addons but if you want a WeakAura/ElvUI in it it’s very much possible.
Sadly the reliance on the addon developers means they slacked in this department and it’s incredibly bad for new players, especially with how different AOEs look from a dungeon to the next. CoS has 3 different colored AOE ground effect colors, NO has 3, TJS has 3 including a very dark one that’s elevated off the ground.
They could keep all of these while at the same time just drawing the aoe range on the ground instead of relying solely on the visual effects.
Saying Addons solves it is not a solution in itself, it’s a broken crutch.
They really should indicate things much better in game, and NOT balance or make things based on Addon-usage.
REQUIRING you to download extra stuff is always bad, addons were - meant - to just make the game more personalised for you; not “must have”.
WoW suffers from a severe visual overload to a point where it’s impossible to discern what’s happening on the screen. Addons that were originally created to help players tell what the hell is going on to their character have ended up just adding to that overload, and the game has become a visual diarrhea.
I remember many, mnay years ago, ZulAman raid I think it was, switching ALL sounds off except Ambient. You can hear the rain starting, the only clue.
Yes. First bosses are too large so you got to zoom out, and in the end your Hero is just a few pixels on screen. Never mind all the well thought out transmogs you have gone into lengths to get.
Then, all the ground effects, from all classes and mobs, so many times very hard to tell what is what. The last boss in CoS for example, on my screen at least outside of the swirlies, some very faint light purple lines on the floor. The first boss in CoS, some very dark, purple ground effects, one shots all of them, and expertly hidden beneath very bright Arcane orbs and explosions!
People kept dying yesterday in RLP because they couldn’t tell the difference between a lethal ground smash (move out quickly!) and a quaking (don’t move if you’re alone!).
I mean they do look different - quaking has 2 rings, but I’d be lying if I didn’t fall for it once as well…
Gotta have them weakauras.
But honestly this goes so much deeper. Fighting other classes is confusing as hell, too.
This becoming a lame excuse - you should not be designing your product around the hope and trust you clients will fix it for you. Blizzard should be designing their game so they players dont have to rely on 3rd party addons. I for one wish I could be completely addon free.