Please buff... the Buff/Debuff team pull-out bar

[Teirusu]

 

Soo.. I can't be the only one that thinks that the current version of the buff/debuff pull-out of UI is... hot garbage, at this point, right?   I mean, this thing hasn't really changed all that much since it was originally designed with the game!  Back when we didn't have nearly as much armor stacking, incarnate powers, etc...  In it's current state, it's only just.. serviceable and makes it incredibly hard for buffers on the team to actually keep track of whom has some of their buffs or not.  In fact, just looking at this bar for long stretches of time can give me a headache and just makes playing buffing characters less fun, altogether.

 

This whole buff/debuff pull-out bar can be improved in many different ways.  Below is some of my suggestions to make it better.

 

1.)  Allow it to be a separate window and perhaps even have a transparent background to make it easier to see/read the icons.  Then you can move it where ever you wish and separate from the team window.  When separated from the team window, it could (maybe toggle-able) still have the AT icon and a smaller condensed HP/END bar for each person on your team, just no names to save space.

 

2.) We need SOME system to filter out the icons we don't want/need to see from everyone on your team/league.  (This is the most important suggestion, really!)  The arrow button that currently cycles it closed or open could, instead, cycle from Off, On (With no filters), to Of (With filters), and back to Off again.  That way, people still get the current functionality of seeing all the icons and can, at a glance when joining/making a team, see whom is what.  Then, just switch it to filtered view, or off, if you like.

 

 

How could a filtered view work?  Depends on how complex the system can be made really.  Below is how I think it should more-or-less work.

 

I know that the game does not actually keep track of whom actually gives you a buff like what happens in other MMOs.  It just knows not to stack buffs when the powers are set not to stack from the same caster.  It only keeps track of this per-map and does not know of this per-character name.  'You' as the caster changes when you change map as, some of you may know, you can double buff people by buffing outside of a mission, and then inside again.  With this in-mind, I believe it's impossible to create a filter that only shows buffs given by you.

 

Thus, the filter would have to let you pick icons/buffs/debuffs that you'd be interested in.  The easy system would be to let you filter for powers based from your primary/secondary/epic/incarnate/pools power pools.  Either just a simple window with radio buttons for your Primary/Secondary/Etc, or let them expand to pick particular powers from your various sets and/or which sets.  After all, I don't need to see if everyone has Hasten running or not, but I might want to see if some of the various single-target buffs from pools might be on someone.  Of course, you might want to see how many copies of leadership powers everyone has.. or you might not.

 

Such a system would be a boon to buffers in-particular.  Letting them more readily see which of their buffs are on people.  Easier to keep up things like Fortitude and Forge on people, or even the status protection buffs without having to visually parse through all the other buff icons.  Other people could leave on viewing incarnate powers so you more easily see what incarnate powers are on someone, for instance.  I'd also suggest that you should be able to put these in particular orders.  Like showing the Primary/Secondary buffs first and then etc, etc...

 

Another improvement that could added for this is for when people are mezzed.  My idea would be that whenever someone is mezzed a special debuff 'power' is created on you (Only to produce an icon) that then shows up on buff/debuff bar.  This could be included as some to filter for then.  So, for example, I could set the filter to only show when thermal buffs are up on someone along with the debuff mezz icon that shows up when someone gets mezzed.  This would make it far far easier to proactively keep things like shields and forge up along with being able to re-actively respond to people getting mezzed by casting Thaw on them.

 

[Shenanigunner]

On both Team and Pet windows, I'd settle for being able to select which side of the window the buff icons appear. The setup of having them stream towards the center of the screen makes it frustrating... if you put either window towards the center of your UI, so that you can keep an eye on teammates or pets, the buffs have to be turned off so as not to spray across your other centered elements. A simple click-toggle icon, like the arrow on the trays, that would let you display buffs towards either edge of the screen, would be great.

Edited January 1, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[captainstar]

Since you touched on this subject. I also think that we could have a small button that disables the buffs that are shown below that bar in the game. Instead of needing to access the menu and then options, to disable it.

 

[golstat2003]

I pretty much hide all that noise when playing. Unfortunately I can't for obvious reasons (on a support toon). 😞 

 

Yes, please fix/revamp/enhance, etc. that area.

Edited January 1, 2021 by golstat2003

[srmalloy]

4 hours ago, Teirusu said:

2.) We need SOME system to filter out the icons we don't want/need to see from everyone on your team/league.  (This is the most important suggestion, really!)  The arrow button that currently cycles it closed or open could, instead, cycle from Off, On (With no filters), to Of (With filters), and back to Off again.  That way, people still get the current functionality of seeing all the icons and can, at a glance when joining/making a team, see whom is what.  Then, just switch it to filtered view, or off, if you like.

It's not as flexible as it might be, but go read Advanced Buff Bar Filtering -- you can have more granular control over the status bar, group window, and pet window buff displays.

[Ghost]

As someone who regularly plays support toons, I'd love it if we had the option to just show our buffs on our teammates.  

[Shenanigunner]

9 hours ago, captainstar said:

Since you touched on this subject. I also think that we could have a small button that disables the buffs that are shown below that bar in the game. Instead of needing to access the menu and then options, to disable it.

 

There is a slash command that controls this, enabling simple bind or macro control of the display.

[Shenanigunner]

Didn't have the material at hand last night... here's the short version of how to control all the Buffs displays.

 

/macro BUF "optionset buffsettings n"

 

Where n is a fairly complex stacked value composed of the following numbers:

 

 

You can create one-click settings for almost any combinations of solo, pets, teams, etc. using the right numbers, all added up into one.

 

This doesn't fix the massive strings of buff icons or the selective alerts for things like mezzed teammates, but it's a start. 😛