Dispel help? :(

How in Hate do you folks keep track of dispels?

The buff/debuff icons are so bloody small and I can't tell what's what, even with my glasses on.

This isn't a problem in the other games I play because I can mod the UI.. And the party frames in this game just suck.

Http:\\imgur.com\C3NCABJ

My EQ2 interface. Frames at bottom center. The little cross icons light up when there's something that needs cured. One cross per type.

Http:\\imgur.com\8c6n1wa

My WoW UI.

I don't look at party frames on the side at all. Those 5 boxes(scales up to 25, 5x5 grid) is Grid, a party/raid frame replacement. Rest of the UI is Shadowed Unit Frames.

Party members' frames change color when afflicted by something needing dispelled. Green poison, brown disease, blue magic, purple curse. The border of the little boxes changes as well to those colors. I see *immediately* what needs dispelled. No guessing no squinting.

So why do they suck here?

Buffs have an arrow pointing up. Debuffs point down. After a while playing you just learn what the different debuff icons look like so you know what they are anyway.

To be clearer, the shape of buff icons is an arrow pointing up while debuff icons is an arrow pointing down.

Also, some debuffs cannot be erased particularly from boss fights. You will get used to it After a while

Also a lot of debuffs have red backgrounds. Another thing is unlike wow and some other games there are not different types of debuffs that you need a different ability to dispel, nor do you remove more than one debuff at a time. Kind of crap if someone has several debuffs actually.

There is UI scaling, perhaps that could help if you make them larger to help?

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Originally Posted by LycorisSelunis

There is UI scaling, perhaps that could help if you make them larger to help?

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As Lycoris says. I know on PC you would press CTRL + Home after selecting whichever piece you want bigger. There should be 3 basic sizes, small - medium - large. I do not know the controls to change it on a PS3/4 though.

Can't make *just* the icons bigger, or hide buffs cast by other classes(that alone would help) or put them in different spots or anything. Infuriating.

Might have to wait for addons. I'm visually impaired. My addon choices aimed at accessibility. Raid server first elsewhere, can't *not* suck here.

Embarrassing.

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Originally Posted by Nadirah

Can't make *just* the icons bigger, or hide buffs cast by other classes(that alone would help) or put them in different spots or anything. Infuriating.

Might have to wait for addons. I'm visually impaired. My addon choices aimed at accessibility. Raid server first elsewhere, can't *not* suck here.

Embarrassing.

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Most debuffs for endgame content can't be removed anyway. Not till the nerfbat strikes. So it doesn't really matter much if you're aiming for server first endgame raiding.
BCOB's High Voltage paralysis used to be persistent
BCOB's Infirmity from Twintania
SCOB's petrification
SCOB's Honey Glazed
SCOB's Thunderstruck, Frostbite and whatever that burn name was
FCOB's thunder vulnerability increase
FCOB's bleed for the phoenix encounter
FCOB's heavy and vulnerability up in the Kaliya encounter

The list is incomplete, but I can't be bothered to finish it. It's kind of silly how healers have spells to remove debuffs, but debuffs that matter cannot be removed.

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Originally Posted by Lyrica_Ashtine

The list is incomplete, but I can't be bothered to finish it. It's kind of silly how healers have spells to remove debuffs, but debuffs that matter cannot be removed.

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That's a consequence of Esuna/Leeches essentially being cost-free (aside from a GCD and a pittance of mana). If there's no major cost associated with it, there's no real choice associated with it, either: if a debuff is dangerous enough, you'll remove it with Esuna/Leeches. If there was a greater cost associated with casting them, (such as higher mana, Aetherflow, a charge-based system, a cooldown, etc.) you'd see more use of strippable debuffs, since it'd add an element of decision making into the mix rather than simply being a rote task for healers to perform.

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Originally Posted by Adrasteia

That's a consequence of Esuna/Leeches essentially being cost-free (aside from a GCD and a pittance of mana). If there's no major cost associated with it, there's no real choice associated with it, either: if a debuff is dangerous enough, you'll remove it with Esuna/Leeches. If there was a greater cost associated with casting them, (such as higher mana, Aetherflow, a charge-based system, a cooldown, etc.) you'd see more use of strippable debuffs, since it'd add an element of decision making into the mix rather than simply being a rote task for healers to perform.

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If that was really the case, why wouldn't the cost be higher in the first place? The only reason why status ailments cannot be removed is because it's a punishment for not handling mechanics properly.

Failing to avoid breath attacks in the Hydra relic encounter results into infirmity.
Failing to prevent High Voltage results in a potent paralysis lasting for 30 seconds on the entire party and any pets presents (pre-nerf)
Failing to direct voices in the Melusine encounter or failing to seek proper shelter leads to petrification (pre-nerf)
Failing to perform any mechanic properly for the Imdugud encounter results in a vulnerability increase to thunder attacks
And many, many more.

But there are also cases where it's simply part of a mechanic, but can't be removed none the less:
Death Sentence from Twintania, which cannot be dodged, will inflict infirmity
Handling towers for The Avatar encounter is mandatory, but the inflicted ailment cannot be removed

And it's not limited to endgame content:
Failing to meet the conditions for the first boss in Snow Cloak will result into a frozen state
Failing to meet the conditions for the first boss in Halatali hard will result into petrification
Failing to dodge attacks for the last boss in The Stone Vigil hard will inflict infirmity
Failing to dodge attacks in World of Darkness results into increased vulnerability
On that very same boss the one being attacked by Cloud of Darkness will suffer from a bleeding effect that cannot be removed

There are some unconventional status ailments out there, such as Brand of Purgatory and In the headlights, which are part of a mechanic. But there are plenty of more common status ailments, such as poison/bleed and paralysis, that cannot be removed. Even the petrification from the Melusine encounter could not be removed with the use of Gold Needles. While you could argue that the petrification in said encounter is called "Stone Curse" and not "Petrified", similar items such as Spine Drops fail to remove paralysis that Esuna cannot remove either.

It's not a case of "consequence being cost-free". It's a simple case of punishment and forcing entire parties to do their share of mechanics. While there's nothing wrong with that by itself. Healers are simply powerless to fight any status ailments being inflicted as a result while they have the spell to do so, even if they wanted to.

Additionally: After the High Voltage nerf healers finally were able to remove the paralysis effect. But with the extend of the nerf, it wasn't worthwhile any more: The paralysis lasts 8 seconds. The duration was simply not worth the cost any more. Even if they did last the full, original, 30 seconds, the amount of MP spend to remove all 8 paralysis effects would be 1488 MP in a time span of less than 20 seconds (more if you'd include pets). Square-Enix had to nerf that particular mechanic so bad, that the consideration went from:
It cannot be removed either way
to:
It's not my time worth removing

I think there is a setting so you can show only debuffs that are on the characters. I think it is all or nothing though, so you couldn't even show the buffs you had placed.

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Originally Posted by Lyrica_Ashtine

If that was really the case, why wouldn't the cost be higher in the first place?

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Poor design, mostly. WoW has also struggled on-and-off with this same issue for most of its life (see: Chromaggus), and has introduced greater costs to dispelling in an attempt to make it a more meaningful decision. The fact that there's so few debuffs to actually get rid of as we've progressed through 2.0, as you've said, is fairly good evidence that the designers aren't sure what to do with the whole debuff/dispel mechanic as it stands.

The willynilly dispels in wow got mana cost upped and an 8s CD on it.

All cures in EQ2 have a cast time and reuse timer. Cure curse is a 1 min timer.

Its not too unimportant to Dispel in T7 Allagan Venom or in Mog EX not Esunaed Bemoogled can cause wipes (makes me sick if people dont).
I dont have issues.... get used to the fights, noone expects you to understand all mechanics at first pull except some idiots.
Generally you anyway Focus Target the boss to see casts after that check partylist and see debuffs/buff try to esuna/leech. Trial and error. I even catch myself trying to Esuna stuff that I KNOW its nonesunable. In certain encouters you also know without cast they will come. Also tank has priority you usually have him on default target. Try, try, try.
Also take advice if someone tell you this or that is esunable and dont take it personal.
Good luck in getting comfy with Esuna :)

Removing buffs/ debuffs barely happens in this game, as others have shown. It's probably not important given the state of things, but dispel is actually to remove buffs from an enemy, rather than removing debuffs from an ally (like leeches, esuna, and maybe sometime in the future erase). Doesn't really matter though because I think only MNK has a dispel ability and as expected it cannot be used anywhere that matters (in PvE).

If SE ever actually delivers on addons, we'll be able to customize the UI such as how things like how debuffs show up (and have it show which ones are esuna'able and not). Unfortunately, last I heard FFXIV addon support was going to come in a package deal with Half Life 3.

Most of the debuffs are not worth your time removing because any debuff under 10 seconds that isn't paralyze or silence, doesn't affect the player's ability to do their job.

That said, esuna/leeches is best used to remove poison stacks, not single instances of poison. The game has both, and the latter is pointless to remove since they all tick down at the same rate, where as the single stack of X poison is literately the poison stacking due to multiple casts, so you can remove when it you can't heal through it.