Let's Take a Moment...

Let's take a moment and look at the pictures used for our abilities. Maybe try turning off all help text and then look at them. Do you remember what each and every one looks like and does? Some of the pictures are just simply silly. The overuse of faces rather than icons and arrows that would more accurately portray what an ability does is seen quite often, such as with Shield Bash and Convert. Shouldn't Sacred Prism look like a prism in some regard? Shouldn't abilities such as Resonance and Excruciate give us some idea of what the ability does just by looking at it?

What is happening in these icons?! Why so many bodies and faces?!

This is actually true. I know my skills because of their positions, I can't ever recognize half the icons.

Except for basic stuff like... second wind, cure and blood pact.

I'd love to see this addressed.

agreed........

PUG especially kills me. They all look almost identical and if I'm not focusing 100% on what they are, I screw up my combos pretty bad.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wolfie

PUG especially kills me. They all look almost identical and if I'm not focusing 100% on what they are, I screw up my combos pretty bad.

---

Lord know how many times i hit hundred fist while not paying attention >.>, cause i thought it was shoulder tackle.

I'm hoping with a more customizable UI in 2.0 we get the option to customize our icons as well. +1 to hoping.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Majidah

This is actually true. I know my skills because of their positions, I can't ever recognize half the icons.

Except for basic stuff like... second wind, cure and blood pact.

I'd love to see this addressed.

---

that's true except try playing blm and have second wind equipped. try to tell the difference between second wind and dark seal. you only know which is which just because of memory.

if you don't remember where your skills are they you are pretty much on a desert island without the text help on.

It's true Poet, I do that all the time.

i support this thread

This why I hope with 2.0 and the customizable UI I get to gcreate a UI that looks similar to XI simply because I don't mind the windows...but most of all I don't mind reading text as opposed to looking at pics to make decisions....

one more thing Guild Wars does 34908203482834082348 times better than ffxiv, just saying...they need to hired some of those anet dudes over here....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aarkz

Let's take a moment and look at the pictures used for our abilities. Maybe try turning off all help text and then look at them. Do you remember what each and every one looks like and does? Some of the pictures are just simply silly. The overuse of faces rather than icons and arrows that would more accurately portray what an ability does is seen quite often, such as with Shield Bash and Convert. Shouldn't Sacred Prism look like a prism in some regard? Shouldn't abilities such as Resonance and Excruciate give us some idea of what the ability does just by looking at it?

What is happening in these icons?! Why so many bodies and faces?!

---

What is this?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JakeRoon

one more thing Guild Wars does 34908203482834082348 times better than ffxiv, just saying...they need to hired some of those anet dudes over here....

---

I disagree...they definitely do/did some things different but I won't say better...

LOL

Well let me interrupt the DoW to let you guys know that ALL THE DOL ABILITIES LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME. I have to move my Arbor calls away from each other so I don't hit the wrong one.

Hitting Stealth III when I meant Stealth IV is so, so annoying.

Agree, too many recycled icons.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HiirNoivl

LOL

Well let me interrupt the DoW to let you guys know that ALL THE DOL ABILITIES LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME. I have to move my Arbor calls away from each other so I don't hit the wrong one.

Hitting Stealth III when I meant Stealth IV is so, so annoying.

---

The sad thing is all those spells only need 1 version which levels up as you do.

Arbor's Call should be useable in any area to search for nodes of grade 1-5 for example. (depending on the users level obviously)

Seriously, this is replacing some PNGs. This can be done in very little time. I'd like to see this fixed by the next patch at least.

Agreed.

I remember the good old days in SWG (Pre-CU), where u just had to look at the icon to know what the ability was for.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by darkstarpoet1

that's true except try playing blm and have second wind equipped. try to tell the difference between second wind and dark seal. you only know which is which just because of memory.

---

Well, there is the fact that Second Wind is marked with a PGL's fist while Dark Seal is marked with a THM's scepter.

Yeah second wind might look better with say... a hand fan symbol or a first-aid symbol of some kind.

Iconography is a tricky subject. Sometimes they dont cross cultural boundries. Some symbols are universal and some are not. However, if they DO change them it's best that they are done one at a time so that everyone isnt left with a mess of new icons to headscratch over.

Usually simple is best. The old KISS (keep it simple silly) rule is king in my book. Most of the icons are somewhat small and during combat we really dont have a lot of time to sit there and squint trying to make out a complicated glyph of some kind.

I understand there are only so many colors that can be used, but really.. if I hit Invigorate instead of Sentinel because they're not on total opposite sides of all 3 action bars I may scream.

I mean, look at the different Fists of * skills for PUG.

They're a dull yellow background with a tan person making a punching motion and with only a little bit of red/green/slightly-darker-tan.

Couldn't we have had red/green/slightly-darker-tan be the dominant color here?

Ahh yes, how many times on BLM have I converted and used Dark Seal instead of Second Wind. I fail. X_X

You sense no grade 1 mature trees in this area. *headdesk*

Change the icons for DoL abilities please. I'm so tired of making this mistake!

I'd like to note I completely agree, the ability icons right now are not unique enough to differentiate at a glance from one another. Having played other MMO and games in general, I've seen it done, so I hope SE can eventually have the time to fix this semi-superficial flaw.

Sometimes i hit Second Wind instead of Dark Seal, or vice versa....because they are the same icon for some reason. Shouldn't accuracy abilities look like a bullseye or crosshairs or something?