[Suggestion] Utility of Conditional Abilities

This is a repost from a previous thread I created. It got some positive feedback before, so I'm adding an official Suggestion tag this time. Seemed like it belonged here after the forum shuffle.

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Having put a bit of time into Pugilist, I have noticed that a few abilities are only able to be used after I evade. I also use a Lancer ability that activates when I miss. The problem I often have is that I can't constantly watch my action bar for when those conditional abilities activate, and I usually miss the combat text on the screen informing me of the occurrence of said condition. So what happens is often times I miss activating an ability simply because I don't see the condition happen.

That got me to thinking, it might be useful if when those conditional abilities become active on my action bar, it would give me a subtle flash to indicate it is available for use. Nothing major, just enough to catch my peripheral vision. It could even be an elective feature, controlled in the config menu.

I'm 100% for it. I'm getting damn tired of hitting phalanx key everytime I'm attacked just to hope for success.

Or devs can make ability icons grey when you can't use them. Like already done with TP-abilities.

How about both suggestions outlined above? Context-sensitive abilities grey out when they can't be used like abilities under cd already do, furthermore all abilities flash subtly when they can be used again.

For us gamepad users and future PS3 players they need these context sensitive actions to be easily accessed.

Set your conditionals in such a way that you can easily reach them in time.
Your character makes a distinct sound when they evade (usually a "Ha-ha!" laugh), and you make a distinct lack of sound when you miss. Giant "Evade" "Miss" pop-ups. It doesn't really get much easier than that.

In this case, they should have the ability on your action bar 'glow' in away. Tho it wont help much if that action is on one of the bars you arent displaying. In this case i think they should have all 3 of your action bars showing at once!

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Originally Posted by ChiefCurrahee

For us gamepad users and future PS3 players they need these context sensitive actions to be easily accessed.

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Yea I am not sure how that would work to make it easy to access thoes types of abilities. But I think this brings up an uncertanty that I have had with PS3 and PC on same platform. Right now SE seems like theyu are restricting game elements so people with only linear controls available (controler) can keep up. Reastionarry abilities with small windows after actions seems rough for controlers. I played my Thr and pug with a controler with no issues but with Gld I had to go to keyboard and mouse. As yet I havne't figured out how to make the game feel as responsive as I want it to on a game pad.

Generally I don't have issues using the D-pad to manually move over to the ability when I want to use it. The problem I have is seeing that it is available for use within the small window I have to use it. I'm sure if I knew immediately when it was available every time, I would be able to activate it. The issue here is making it easier to tell when it's ready. Although greying it out when inactive is a good idea, I don't think it would be enough, because even that can be a bit too subtle to notice in the heat of battle. Well, at least for me. And flashing all abilities might get to be too much flashing on the action bar. As it is we already know when my TP abilities are about to be usable again. We have no such warning for conditional abilities.

This is a great idea it should definitely be implemented into the game w/o any complaints.

Agreed. This is both a battle tactics issue, and a UI issue. Both need to be able to give more info to the player naturally.

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Originally Posted by Rentahamster

I like that idea. It's odd that those skills are always look like they could be used at any time when if fact they can't. Having them be greyed out when they can't be activated would be very helpful.

I'd also like more customization to the chat log so that I can alter every instance of "evade" "parry" and "miss" and change them to bold, bright yellow text.

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oh good idea indeed