Curse

Grace Paradigm · Oct 08, 2011, 03:51 PM // 15:51

As a monk in PvP, how do you keep from staring at those little bars. I seem to always be looking at them, is that normal? lol. I've tried watching the bars above players but it seems lacking :/

womBonk · Oct 08, 2011, 05:43 PM // 17:43

'Hard core' PvPers refer to this as red-barring. I'm no hard core pvper but I've heard some suggestions. One of the more popular suggestions is to map the target party member 1-8 keys to something you can easily reach. You can also disable the party window and focus solely on looking at the battle field. This should help you land better prots.

gory_v · Oct 08, 2011, 05:46 PM // 17:46

you kind of have to look back and forth, the only time you really need to look away from them is to check your position on the line and when you're taking dmg and you need to kite. although if you're on vent, you can usually listen for queues from your team if there's something that demands your immediate attention. of course, it's also always nice to have the team organized on the right in order of a certain priority so you know when your team mates really need help or if they're capable of self-heal/condition/hex removal. I've always been the most successful when the team is tailored around healer convenience since they're almost like a goalie in any sport, without at least a capable one, you're probably going to lose

Reverend Dr · Oct 08, 2011, 06:41 PM // 18:41

Turn off the party menu.

I'm completely serious. This forces you to look at the field.

Fleeting · Oct 08, 2011, 07:44 PM // 19:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reverend Dr

Turn off the party menu.

I'm completely serious. This forces you to look at the field.

I would do something like this, or just try to force yourself to not look at the red bars at all for some number of matches. Without the red bars, you may lose a few matches to significant spell pressure, but what you want to train are your prots. Once you're landing prots in advance (i.e. Guardian before the hammer chain goes through, not during) and keeping people alive, the red bars can be useful again.

Grace Paradigm · Oct 08, 2011, 08:29 PM // 20:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reverend Dr

Turn off the party menu.

I'm completely serious. This forces you to look at the field.

I think what I run into here is losing my ability to see conditions and hexes. If the bars above people could show them it would be amazing. A lot of lately I just seem to be feeling lacking in RA. I know thats not really a big deal, it seems to be fairly broken at times but I feel near useless sometimes.

Sun Fired Blank · Oct 08, 2011, 09:00 PM // 21:00

Are you old enough to drive? If so, it's just like driving. Treat your party menu, your compass, and your upkeep monitor like your side and rear view mirrors, and keep your eyes straight ahead on the field. Turning off your party menu is just going to get people killed.

Swahnee · Oct 08, 2011, 09:06 PM // 21:06

If you have some time and, more importantly, the mood for it, you can start a new monk in prophecies and play all the way through with the party menu turned off, and forcing yourself to select your teammates using only keyboard hotkeys. The nice thing about Prophecies is that it starts with a party of 4, then when you become comfortable with that it switches to 6, then, in the end, to 8, so you have all the time you need to make practice.

Yes, it's long and boring if you aren't some kind of nostalgic player, but this way you will certainly develop the habit of looking at the field and your fingers will learn to reach the right keys to select teammate-weaponswap-hit skill automatically. Another nice thing is that you will play with henchmen, who won't complain if you let them die

The next step is bringing some heroes, set them up with PvP-oriented builds, and play against some HM mobs like you would in a PvP arena. I spent some time doing this against stone summit dwarves outside Yak's Bend, for example. Keep in mind, however, that this simple training cannot, in any way, substitute the real PvP experience, which is also made of kids yelling at you and all other kinds of things that will piss you off, so you have to come back to real PvP as soon as you have made some practice.

Regarding not being able to see hexes and conditions, you can learn to understand the graphical effects of the UI: enchantments are white circles floating around the chest, hexes are black circles floating around the legs, conditions are fog-like circles also floating around the legs. Then, there are notorious condition effects like the blind effect (black swarm in front of the eyes) and burning (well...fire!) for example. However, in PvE you will quickly learn what skills monsters use, so you will know when to espect which hexes and conditions. This can still be a nice training though.

Hope i've helped a bit.

Fluffy Kittens · Oct 09, 2011, 11:19 AM // 11:19

Key is watching the enemies not your teammates, of course you still have to look at the red bars (party thing) ro remove conditions, heal up (if you're rc or similar) etc. Just keep your eye on enemy melee characters and you'll be fine, it might take couple days of practice but you can do it!

Xenomortis · Oct 09, 2011, 12:38 PM // 12:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grace Paradigm

I think what I run into here is losing my ability to see conditions and hexes.

Hexes and conditions leave an animation on a player. With regards to conditions it's actually more useful since you can identify the condition based on the animation (although Weakness and Cracked Armour share the same one).

Grace Paradigm · Oct 09, 2011, 01:54 PM // 13:54

Awesome, thanks a lot! It seems a lil hard to see the conditions when people move away. I have my camera all the way zoomed out, though I may change that. Thanks a LOT of the help though

Premium Unleaded · Oct 09, 2011, 04:41 PM // 16:41

Things like bsurge & bflash have distinct initial animations, particularly the latter (bflash is also relatively loud), so you could always make a mental note for those when you need to pull blind off if you're finding the black cloud/smoke things hard to pick out quickly.

superraptors · Oct 09, 2011, 10:30 PM // 22:30

red bar party bar is needed, but you have to balance that out by looking at the field so you know which player is being targetted so you can prepare to heal him or remove any serious condition and hexes

Reverend Dr · Oct 10, 2011, 10:37 PM // 22:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grace Paradigm

I think what I run into here is losing my ability to see conditions and hexes. If the bars above people could show them it would be amazing.

You should not remove conditions/hexes unless you know what conditions/hexes they are. Its your team's responsibility to let you know what they have on them that they need off. Of course the more you watch the field, the more you'll be able to tell. See a Bsurge go off, that warrior is blind; someone starts moving slower, that was cripple or a water snare. Good watching of the field will tell you more about conditions/hexes than the party bar will.

kedde · Oct 16, 2011, 11:45 PM // 23:45

Until you have more trouble with people degening out than with anyone getting spiked or kept clean of important hexes or conditions, you're not accustomed enough to watching the field.