Icons: Benison vs Benediction

[Serilda]

They look nothing alike and I find it disheartening that some of you actually think they do, and that it causes problems and mistakes.

I'm sure every single person out there with a visual impairment, different HUD setup or poor monitor feels bad for disappointing you, your majesty.

For heaven's sake, people are just politely pointing out a small thing which, if changed, would help them and harm nobody.

[Penthea]

Honestly a lot of the whm spells look familiar; silhouette of a man in front of a blue/green light.

Personally I don't get them mixed up but this is due to how they're laid out on my bars and that some are keybound. However I can very easily see how someone would get them mixed up. The same can be said of the sch's fairy abilities. So many have the same colour palette with dark fairy silhouettes.

Thankfully you can make a macro to change the icon but I really do think SE should make some icons more distinct. A simple colour change would do wonders. Hardly need indepth artistry or dev work to do that.

[Velox]

They look nothing alike and I find it disheartening that some of you actually think they do, and that it causes problems and mistakes.

Because visual impairments aren't a thing now, apparently. Not everyone perceives colors the same way. For some people purple and blue are easily distinguishable. For others, they appear as the same thing, and those people rely on the icon design to distinguish the difference. The only problem is that most of the WHM have similar designs so it complicates things for people with vision impairments

[Penthea]

Because visual impairments aren't a thing now, apparently. Not everyone perceives colors the same way. For some people purple and blue are easily distinguishable. For others, they appear as the same thing, and those people rely on the icon design to distinguish the difference. The only problem is that most of the WHM have similar designs so it complicates things for people with vision impairments

If they haven't already, SE should introduce a colourblind mode. WoW has one. No reason why SE can't do the same.

[Sebazy]

But in the heat of battle, when you only have <0.5s to glance down to see where the ability is and/or what time is left until it is usable again, it is very easy to mistake.

Simply needing to look down at your keys or even hand position is a bigger issue than samey icon designs imo. I've used the same keys to target my party going back nigh 18 years to Everquest, whilst I can trace my rough key layouts back to vanilla WoW. Being able to effectively play with your eyes closed is a significant advantage when it comes to concentrating on mechanics or such and is well worth learning. I'd go as far as saying it's almost essential for savage content.

The problem arises when two abilities that are cooldowns have somewhat similar icons, sometimes I glance down to check the cooldown (and/or sometimes click the button instead of using the Ctrl+ or Alt+ shortcut because I'm moving at the same time and don't want to/can't stop moving to hit Ctrl+ or Alt+), that I'll mistake one ability for another if the icons are too similar.

Ironically I have the opposite issue, I look at my bars so little that I tend to lose track of CDs and as such, underutilise them. I got around this by dedicating a super sized hotbar specifically to duplicating important CD icons right slap bang in the middle of my screen to both help me keep track of what's up, as well as reminding me to actually try and make good use of it.

[Maeka]

Ironically I have the opposite issue, I look at my bars so little that I tend to lose track of CDs and as such, underutilise them. I got around this by dedicating a super sized hotbar specifically to duplicating important CD icons right slap bang in the middle of my screen to both help me keep track of what's up, as well as reminding me to actually try and make good use of it.

I'm forced into 1360x768 because of the TV I use as a monitor. That's the only resolution it likes (I didn't know this when I bought it, as similar priced TVs are usually at least 1600x900).

For the record, this is what my UI looks like:



I REALLY don't have room for a normal size hotbar, let alone an enlarged one. As it is, I had to shrink the hotbars I have to fit all that stuff.

[Elladie]

Just put them in different places and learn where they are? Benediction is my 'oh shit' button and my healer 'oh shit' button is always 6 on my hot bar. Just as Esuna is always 8 and Lucid Dreaming is always CTRL =. Benison is on = and Tetra is on -. I hate the icons altogether because I prefer words over pictures but you can't use 'micon' to change the picture to a word. So I set up my hotbars VERY CAREFULLY and then I learn them. The only time I hit the wrong thing is if my finger slips ... which can be fun when it slips to R and I autorun off of the platform in Titan ...

EDIT: as per the above post, I'm not looking at keys, I'm looking at the bar itself to keep track of cool downs, party health, my focus target (generally the boss or my tank). And I have all those in a position that I'm not going to miss seeing an AOE or something because I'm looking away from the floor. Unless the RDM makes the floor go all sparkly ...

[Rivxkobe]

Because visual impairments aren't a thing now, apparently. Not everyone perceives colors the same way. For some people purple and blue are easily distinguishable. For others, they appear as the same thing, and those people rely on the icon design to distinguish the difference. The only problem is that most of the WHM have similar designs so it complicates things for people with vision impairments

This is specifically about 2 icons that are not that similar at all not all WHM icons.

I'm sure every single person out there with a visual impairment, different HUD setup or poor monitor feels bad for disappointing you, your majesty.

For heaven's sake, people are just politely pointing out a small thing which, if changed, would help them and harm nobody.

Hilarious. There is no need for a change because the complaint is baseless.

Visual impairments, different HUD and/or poor monitors don't change the shape of the silhouette or the style of the icon.

Also. FFXIV has a colourblind mode.

If size is an issue then increase the size.

Otherwise? Its literally on the player if they, for some reason, need to rely on the IMAGE instead of the hotkey/memorization.

The icons are not similar at all. And no one who is playing should be relying on the icons/looking at the icons while they are in the middle of a fight.

Not only are neither of you adding anything to the thread, or stating anything that is of worth, but you act as if I don't know about colourblind people or those with visual impairments. Both of which already have things in place to help them. This thread is not about that. It is about two icons that are not similar being mistaken for eachother and causing issues and I don't see how its even possible when no one should be looking at their icons to decide what spell to use because the location/hotkey/whatever of your spells should already be known to you so you can use them quickly. DB and Bene are not used, at all, in the same way and one should know what button to hit to use which ever they need.

This thread sounds more like a way that OP is trying to brush of their own failure as somehow being SE fault. Instead of learning their own set up. Especially since Bene has been around for AGES.

This isn't even mentioning that DB is greyed out when you have no Lilies.

[Serilda]

FFXIV has a colourblind mode.This thread sounds more like a way that OP is trying to brush of their own failure as somehow being SE fault. Instead of learning their own set up.

They are literally trying to improve their performance and risking their reputation in admitting that the interface as it currently stands is causing them to make mistakes with their emergency abilities. There's no decent argument not to improve accessibility; there are many forms of colourblindness and some people might ordinarily have no trouble but falter over this tiny, completely unnecessary problem. We've only had the icon for Divine Benison a little while so adjusting it isn't exactly going to destroy the game.

If they have time to change the icon colour for things like Esuna, Lucid Dreaming and Eye For An Eye (I still don't really understand this one, it looked more unique before to me), they have time to change some of the WHM and probably also the SCH icons (way too much yellow-green). They won't know these things are issues for some people unless people tell them it's an issue. People who don't display icons prominently will barely know it was done.

To use another example from personal experience, a long time ago I asked for customisable colours in Frontline because I was on Maelstrom (red) and Flames were blue, which meant that it was harder to tell an enemy Flames player apart from an ally than it was for them to differentiate us from their own team. The two shades of blue were objectively very different - dark blue versus light blue - and I'm not even slightly colourblind, but in the heat of battle it is simply easier for me if all teams have genuinely distinct colours, like in most PVP games in existence. So I posted about it, admitting that I was occasionally drifting into Flames in my peripheral vision. Now, you can customise the colours. I made the Flames hot pink on my screen and feel much more in control. It's great, and it's completely optional. Nobody else is harmed by this minor accessibility improvement.

(Also, is there really a colourblind mode? I don't keep up as I'm not colourblind and you yourself admit this issue isn't necessarily to do with colourblindness which is why I specifically said 'visual impairment', but the last I heard it had been delayed?)

OP, I suggest posting this in the User Interface section as an accessibility request, to avoid the pushback from people who don't get it.

[Snow_Princess]

I do admit I do not understand the issue. I had Benediction in the same spot since 2.xx so I know what it is and where it is, no matter what is going on, despite what it looks like:


If Benson icon is too much of an issue, because of how lilies work, you can just make a macro for a different icon, though it hides recast:

I know it is not ideal but it is something till they can fix this for people with sight issues