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:
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?
Mhm, while it may help, I see more in making the Boss abilities more visible including their potential impact on the group - this as opposed to making (even more) buttons highlight. Many specs already rely on a handful procs/highlights to get through their DPS rotation, adding defensives as highlights will become overwhelming for those - I fear.
So I’d advocate to make the addons that show some sort of timeline of incoming abilities to become baseline in the UI, potentially even including a “danger” level indication.
Why? Because that’s the only sensible way to actually use defensives proactively, and it leaves the deciding-factor more at the player as opposed to “click me because the system says so”.
What I notice in pugs is that people literally have no idea what a boss does, when he does it and what needs to be handled. Of course, we can argue that players should just read the adventure guide (neat described, but not often used I fear), do the fight over and over again, and learn. But I also see some missed opportunities in making it clearer and easier to understand.
There is a reason why mods like DBM/BigWigs/WA are so popular; it’s close to mandatory information that the default UI does not provide.
In some open world ‘bosses’ at least there’s a big word splash on the screen saying ‘elemental hits sundering suckers’ or whatever, no add ons. Do dungeon/raid bosses not do this.
In most video games, there is a cue that the boss is about to do something, be it a coloured thing on the floor to dodge, an audio cue, or the boss will be seen charging up an attack etc, text isn’t necessary with adequate telegraphing.
It certainly doesn’t help that 20+ people’s animations in a raid are filling the screen.
My suggestion is exactly the same as procs highlighting abilities on your bar.
While this is most likely the best solution, it brings the following issue I have encountered for some encounters:
An in-game warning appears on the screen, boss does an emote and it starts casting an unblockable ability with a long cast time that is intended to be avoided by hiding behind an object or inside a protective area. But staying still, vulnerable and “eating” it hurts you for… 20% of your hp.
Then the same boss casts a regular unblockable ability with no warning and with very short casttime targeted at a random player for 70% of their hp.
The above is something that I experienced a lot during Dragonflight, and recently in some Delve, and led me to create this thread and suggestion.
This is another issue that should be solvable with telegraphing, good telegraphing would be to swap the two abilities over. SO the 70% one had the emote and cast time.
