Curse

Shwitz · Oct 10, 2005, 03:48 PM // 15:48

I've been toying with maintained enchantments on my monk character and have found it very difficult to know what characters have enchantments on them still when I run into enchantment-stripping monsters. For example:
In a party of henchmen in the Crystal Desert, I cast Life Bond on all 5 henchmen. While wandering around, I encounter a group of Jade Scarabs. In the ensuing melee, one of the scarabs uses Chilblains, which strips 3 out of my 5 Life Bonds. As I have been concentrating on keeping myself and the henchmen alive, I'm not sure which henchmen still have Life Bond active, as some of them use enchantments on themselves, ruling out looking for the "yellow arrow" next to their name in the party window. Rolling over the small Life Bond icons on top of my skill bar does not provide much help either, as it is sometimes hard to read and the text is not displayed for very long other times.
Here is what I propose as a possible change for maintained enchantments:
Instead of displaying the icon over the skill bar, put it next to the name in the party window of the character on which it is maintained. So if I cast Life Bond on Little Thom, the small Life Bond icon will appear next to Little Thom's name in the party window, and I may double click it there to dismiss the enchantment. This would make enchantment maitenance more intuitive (as the monk will know who is enchanted more quickly and which icon belongs to which character before mouse-ing over it).

Sofonisba · Oct 10, 2005, 05:10 PM // 17:10

Not a bad idea at all.

/signed

Yichi · Oct 10, 2005, 05:46 PM // 17:46

/up in the air still

The question i have is this. ok say you have enchantments. you take lina who has enchantments, some of the hench themselves have enchantments, (keep in mind youd have to have something similar for hexes too) each of you run across that same group of jades...... see where im going here? how confusing do you think it will be to see 93698736938467 little boxes and symbols popping up and down, on and off next to chars names in the party window all the time? would remind me of an equalizer graphic like on a stereo system.

Now if you clicked on their name and it showed a little symbol or icon underneath their names to show what enchants/hexes like it shows with the casting timer now, that could have possibilities

Shwitz · Oct 10, 2005, 07:07 PM // 19:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by MistressYichi

/up in the air still

The question i have is this. ok say you have enchantments. you take lina who has enchantments, some of the hench themselves have enchantments, (keep in mind youd have to have something similar for hexes too) each of you run across that same group of jades...... see where im going here? how confusing do you think it will be to see 93698736938467 little boxes and symbols popping up and down, on and off next to chars names in the party window all the time? would remind me of an equalizer graphic like on a stereo system.

Now if you clicked on their name and it showed a little symbol or icon underneath their names to show what enchants/hexes like it shows with the casting timer now, that could have possibilities

A little icon or symbol under their name would be satisfactory as well. I was hoping to just have the icons next to their name for maintained enchantments though (ones requiring an energy upkeep). Right now we have the small boxes over our skill bar to show what enchantments are being maintained, and we can mouse over them to see who it is on. We don't have anything like that for regular enchantments like Protective Spirit or Healing Breeze, nor am I asking for indicators for those. All I'm asking is that the maintained enchantment icons be moved from on top of the skill bar to next to the appropriate name.

I don't believe that Lina or any of the henchies use maintained enchantments... I've only ever seen Lina cast Reversal, Protective Spirit, and Shield of Regeneration. I'm not sure if she has any others...

Zhou Feng · Oct 11, 2005, 08:52 AM // 08:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by MistressYichi

/up in the air still

The question i have is this. ok say you have enchantments. you take lina who has enchantments, some of the hench themselves have enchantments, (keep in mind youd have to have something similar for hexes too) each of you run across that same group of jades...... see where im going here? how confusing do you think it will be to see 93698736938467 little boxes and symbols popping up and down, on and off next to chars names in the party window all the time? would remind me of an equalizer graphic like on a stereo system.

Now if you clicked on their name and it showed a little symbol or icon underneath their names to show what enchants/hexes like it shows with the casting timer now, that could have possibilities

Id prefer seeing the enchantment icons in a miniature display over their health bars similar to the arrows but showing the icon of said enchantment. Except you can see your enchantments only the other people enchatments are seen like arrows. That way you know WHICH of your enchantments have been stripped:
example
LB icon @
EB icon #
PB icon %
=================
@#%name of char > <---- other peoples enchants
=================

Shwitz · Oct 11, 2005, 01:30 PM // 13:30

You see this thread, Gaile Gray? The people want changes for maintained enchantments! :-D

GreatLich · Oct 11, 2005, 01:35 PM // 13:35

Uhm, people? There's alreay a bar that shows you what (maintained) enchantments you are maintaining. When you hover your mouse pointer over one of these icons it will say the name of the character this is on. When u lose a maintained enchant simple deduction will tell you who is missing the enchant. Why are you asking for stuff that's already there?

*edit* Read the OP's post more carefully

What you could try is editing yout interface so that the "upkeep bar" (that's what it's called iirc) is next to the party screen. Then work your enchants from top to bottom, will not do exactly what you asked for, but comes close enough imho.

Shwitz · Oct 11, 2005, 01:52 PM // 13:52

I suppose I could do that... but, if ANet were willing to make this interface change, it would be preferable

I'll try moving the upkeep bar, as you suggested.

Warskull · Oct 11, 2005, 04:15 PM // 16:15

Maintained enchants desperately need an interface change.

Personally I was thinking have the number of the player who the maintained enchant is on appear in red over the icon of the enchant. However placing it on the players name or by the player's name in the party window could also work.

The game also needs a keyboard shortcut to "Dimiss all maintained enchants on selected player." Double clicking to dimiss doesn't work well at all. As with mousing over the bond to see who it is on double-clicking is poorly responsive and can take 2-3 attempts. You don't have that kind of time to waste in PvP.

Also Lich, that doesn't work at all. When a maintained enchant is lost they all compress and you can't tell who it was lost from. While you get a message if it is lost due to energy issues, that is not a concern for the most part. The trouble is when it gets lost due to being removed by another team and you have to mouse over each one to try and get the pop-up. It takes at least 1s for each enchant to have the pop-up occur telling you who it is on. Additionally you often have to mouse-over the same enchantment 2-3 times. You can easily waste 10s figuring out who lost an enchant this way. In those 10s people will die vs a competent team. They improved the skill monitor, why not improve maintained enchants? Poor interface should never get in the way of the gameplay.

Urda · Oct 11, 2005, 06:16 PM // 18:16

/signet 100%

Both : Dissmiss hotkeys + better status monitoring

Getting the information on which char the enchantment is lost takes way too long. Sometimes the popup even flickers, while moving the mouse inside the icon (still in the iconbounds, still rollover).

If binding skillicons to the characters name position (which i prefer) isnt an option for the devs (for what reason ever), then at least show small numbers of the teammember IN the icons where they acually are.

Zhou Feng · Oct 12, 2005, 04:23 AM // 04:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreatLich

Uhm, people? There's alreay a bar that shows you what (maintained) enchantments you are maintaining. When you hover your mouse pointer over one of these icons it will say the name of the character this is on. When u lose a maintained enchant simple deduction will tell you who is missing the enchant. Why are you asking for stuff that's already there?

*edit* Read the OP's post more carefully

What you could try is editing yout interface so that the "upkeep bar" (that's what it's called iirc) is next to the party screen. Then work your enchants from top to bottom, will not do exactly what you asked for, but comes close enough imho.

Hopefully youve played a monk who uses mantained enchants in PvP and I will assume you know what you speak off.

Unfourtanetly in the heat of PvP combat there is very little time to hover the mouse over the icon of the enchantment too see the name, furthermore when you hover the mouse icon it takes two or three attempts for the name to appear and at times under duress its hard to make out. This makes it hard to deal with mantained enchantments in masse. Therefore mantianed enchantments clearly need a much much better way of micro management.