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  1. #1
    Player
    RichardButte's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    1,107
    Character
    Richard Butte
    World
    Hyperion
    Main Class
    Machinist Lv 90

    Showing shields on health bars as white health?

    EDIT: I mean BLUE health, or any color that differentiates the HP as a shield and not HP.

    Just wondering why XIV has never done this.

    Being able to see shields on HP bars has been extremely useful in other MMOs. As it stands right now, two players may look like they have equal HP by their HP bars, but one may in fact have a huge shield protecting them at that point in time.

    It'd also be nice if shield HP pulsed or blinked before expiring, letting healers know that this shield is about to fade, leaving a player more vulnerable.
    (10)
    Last edited by RichardButte; 08-17-2017 at 05:28 AM.

  2. #2
    Player
    xJimmehx's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Ul'Dah - 1.0, Limsa - 2.0
    Posts
    534
    Character
    Leon Manderville
    World
    Cactuar
    Main Class
    Warrior Lv 90
    Probably the best idea I've seen in a few weeks.
    (1)

  3. #3
    Player
    Niwashi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    5,248
    Character
    Y'kayah Tia
    World
    Coeurl
    Main Class
    Ninja Lv 50
    Simple (from a user's perspective), clean, providing highly useful information easily available in the spot healers are looking for teammates' health anyway, and without taking any extra screen space...

    Sounds great to me.
    +1
    (2)

  4. #4
    Player
    BorisDaBlade's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2015
    Posts
    462
    Character
    Boris Taglia
    World
    Siren
    Main Class
    White Mage Lv 80
    Well, imho, shields last for just about one hit anyway. The icon should be enough.

    But maybe give a crit shield some sort of visual. That might be nice.
    (0)

  5. #5
    Player
    Dzian's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Ul'dah
    Posts
    2,837
    Character
    Scarlett Dzian
    World
    Sargatanas
    Main Class
    Bard Lv 76
    Good idea. But I think the problem would be how do you represent hp. Shields have a variable amount of hp. Some shields can be like 3k some can be like 30k if you get a fully buffed crit adlo for example.

    If it scaled the same as the targets hp bar then you wouldnt be a terribly visible difference between like a 3k shield and a 6k shield.
    (0)

  6. #6
    Player
    RichardButte's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    1,107
    Character
    Richard Butte
    World
    Hyperion
    Main Class
    Machinist Lv 90
    Quote Originally Posted by Dzian View Post
    Good idea. But I think the problem would be how do you represent hp. Shields have a variable amount of hp. Some shields can be like 3k some can be like 30k if you get a fully buffed crit adlo for example.

    If it scaled the same as the targets hp bar then you wouldnt be a terribly visible difference between like a 3k shield and a 6k shield.
    Heroes of the Storm handles this by having the shield portion of HP appear over the existing HP bar and move backwards toward the "beginning" of the HP bar.

    If you have more shield than HP, than the whole bar is simply covered by shield and you won't know how much it is until the shield is either damaged or expires, but it informs you at a glance that this player is currently well protected and you might want to worry about healing another player more.
    (0)

  7. #7
    Player
    tdb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Posts
    859
    Character
    Mikayla Rainstone
    World
    Lich
    Main Class
    White Mage Lv 80
    That's not entirely correct. In HotS shields are inserted in between the filled and empty portions of the HP bar, scaling those back in proportion. Suppose you have lost 50% of your HP, so half the bar is filled and the other half empty. Then you get a shield for 100% of your max HP. Now your bar will have one-quarter filled with green HP, two quarters (one half) filled with white shield and the last quarter empty. You can easily see that you have more shield than HP remaining and some HP is missing as well so heals would not be wasted.

    If you are attacking a target which has full HP and some shields, such as the enemy core, it may look like the shield bar shrinks towards the end of the bar. However if you look closely at the tick marks as you work through the shield you'll see that the number of ticks on the actual HP portion stays constant. Also if you leave the core alone long enough for it to regenerate shields, you'll see that the shield bar no longer starts at the end.
    (0)