Reading some of the discussions, I came across a comment about the difficulty in knowing if a player should be using one of their defensive abilities and when to save them for something upcoming and more dangerous. So, in a similar way of highlighting abilities/spell that have “procced”, I thought of 2 UI elements that could help players judge if they should be using a defensive ability or if they should just take up the damage and let the healer(s) do their thing:
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Highlight a defensive ability on the bars when there is a massive incoming damage spike that cannot be avoided.
– Think for example a boss pulsing for high damage. Highlighting the defensive ability would both help players learn when they have to put them to use and will also lead to less headaches and heart attacks for healers.
– The algorithm for highlighting could be something semicomplex like: If estimated incoming damage is more than 25% of character’s max hp or if it’s more than 75% of their currently remaining hp, then highlight the defensive abilities.
– I do acknowledge that this could lead to players overusing them or even wasting them; but I do believe it will lead on average to smoother experiences. -
Similar to heal-absorbs appearing on health bars with a darker hue, what if potential incoming damage appeared on health bars with some new graphic element? For example imagine a boss casting a frontal cone attack for damage. The players would see on their health bar how much hp they would appoximately lose if they stand there and take it. And if they move out of the cone, that health bar segment would return to normal color.
– This would lead to players learning what enemy abilities are more dangerous than average.
– I do acknowledge that such a UI element would possibly encourage players to stand and take a hit because the UI would show they would survive it. So maybe only healers would see that graphic element?