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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Healer Targeting Feedback.
AviThePretender
Member, Alpha Two
Hi,
I'd just like to give feedback based on my experience in the game as a cleric, playing in groups of sizes 8 -> 32 players. This is mostly related to how party targeting mechanics work. I think these are all simple QoL fixes that would make a huge difference:
1. Party members far away or out of range::
Problem: Selecting a party member that is far away doesn't work and you can easily waste CD heals on yourself because you clicked on them, and they weren't there.
Solution 1: Make it more obvious in the party list that the player is not around. Perhaps grey them out and put some text there saying 'Not Present'. I'd even be ok with their health bar not even to be shown.
Solution 2: Allow me to select any party member whether in range, out of range or on the other side of the map. When I use an ability on them give me message and a sound queue that tells me they aren't there. It's better than wasting my CD.
Solution 3: Do both, or add it in as an optional behavior.
2. Party List Order::
Problem: Party list order seems based on when you joined which is not ideal for healer traige.
Solution 1: By default order party list with tank classes up top followed by healers and then DPS.
Solution 2: Allow players to re-order their party list.
Solution 3: Yeh again just do both
3. Mouse Over::
Please make mouse over healing more reliable. Just like no.1 if the tank is out of range and you MO heal it will heal you and waste the CD. This is not ideal behavior. Again, it would be preferable if the heal just failed to cast than for it to go on me.
This is all minor stuff, but I think it has major impact for healers or anyone that is frequently targeting allies with abilities.
I'd just like to give feedback based on my experience in the game as a cleric, playing in groups of sizes 8 -> 32 players. This is mostly related to how party targeting mechanics work. I think these are all simple QoL fixes that would make a huge difference:
1. Party members far away or out of range::
Problem: Selecting a party member that is far away doesn't work and you can easily waste CD heals on yourself because you clicked on them, and they weren't there.
Solution 1: Make it more obvious in the party list that the player is not around. Perhaps grey them out and put some text there saying 'Not Present'. I'd even be ok with their health bar not even to be shown.
Solution 2: Allow me to select any party member whether in range, out of range or on the other side of the map. When I use an ability on them give me message and a sound queue that tells me they aren't there. It's better than wasting my CD.
Solution 3: Do both, or add it in as an optional behavior.
2. Party List Order::
Problem: Party list order seems based on when you joined which is not ideal for healer traige.
Solution 1: By default order party list with tank classes up top followed by healers and then DPS.
Solution 2: Allow players to re-order their party list.
Solution 3: Yeh again just do both
3. Mouse Over::
Please make mouse over healing more reliable. Just like no.1 if the tank is out of range and you MO heal it will heal you and waste the CD. This is not ideal behavior. Again, it would be preferable if the heal just failed to cast than for it to go on me.
This is all minor stuff, but I think it has major impact for healers or anyone that is frequently targeting allies with abilities.
9
Comments
For point 1) It would be best in my opinion to display out-of-reach-targets visibly transparent.
For point 2) I always liked that the raid lead had to arrange the groups and I always worked with the default sorting. Thanks to the defensive targetting option I can always have "my tank" as a kind of focus target anyways.
For point 3) I would not consider this issue minor. As a healer I need to have reliable targetting even while testing. Mend, Wings of Salvation and Judgement do not work or do not work well enough with hover targetting. On this matter I would like to add how I imagine good target priorities. Best example is Judgement, as this is one of the rare spells that are castable on anything and currently feel bad using.
The way I would like target priorities to work is:
1) Hover target
2) Offensive target
3) Defensive target
4) Self
5) invalid/no target
There will probably only be a handful of spells that even need the priorities that detailed. Most will not be castable on friendlies and enemies alike. But for Judgement that would mean that hover targets always take priority over anything else. If no hover target exists the spell will be cast on my offensive target as a damaging spell. If no offensive target is selected the spell is cast on the defensive target. Else on the caster.
I thought about changing 2 and 3, but it is objectively more convenient that way as a group healer. Given the setup that I have my tank as defensive target and the enemy in my offensive target. If I want to heal my tank with Judgement I will have to make a conscious hover cast by hovering over the unit frame of the tank. If I want to cast Judgement as a damaging spell I only need to cast it without a hover target. So both functions are possible without discarding any targets using the escape button. If the priotities 2 and 3 were switched I would always have to ESC-deselect my defensive target in order to cast Judgement as a damaging spell and then reselect the tank into my defensive target.
And please note that attempting to cast a spell on an out of reach or out of sight target should never be a trigger for the system to cast it on the next best target along the priority list. Instead I need a prompt that I tried to cast on an eligible target that was out of reach so I don't waste a CD.
A point 4) that also comes to mind when speaking about unit frames. As a healer I currently have very bad overview over ongoing HoTs, my buffs or despellable debuffs. The only thing I can relibaly see is mana, health and shield which is good, but maybe not good enough.
I do agree with having a priority list for mouse over targeting. This would help out a lot. As for group sorting, this should be an ingame option. At least if you play a cleric. I realize that the DD classes will most likely just switch off the party frame alltogether