{White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

[Murphie]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

So I guess I'm one of those people who enjoy playing pretty much any job. I like the magic bursting, enfeebling, and all the other stuff mages do, and I like the skillchaining, being a SATA partner, and all the other stuff melee do.

Same. I just get a kick out of doing well at whatever job I happen to be playing, and whatever role I happen to be filling in the party at that time.

[Kholdstare]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

I don't think there's anything SE could do to make back line jobs more interesting for the players that just want to be doing damage in the front...they'll still find reasons to complain about them.

One thing I can think of right now that would be make things a bit less monotonous: How about a visual effect when a shadow disappears? Makes Blink Tanking a bit easier to look at, and probably easier to do. Might make NIN tanking just interesting enough to get more people into it.

As for Healers and buffers? Well, I'd suggest an HP bar over their head, but that'd be difficult to implement. Though I don't see why we can't see something like buffs for other players. If I could see an icon on the side that presents someone's buff status (I.e, a small box that shows who has what buffs, or the status of buffs that have been casted by you.) It'd be a lot less taxing than squinting at the text box for those magic words: "So and so's Refresh Effect wears off."

[Akashimo]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

One thing I can think of right now that would be make things a bit less monotonous: How about a visual effect when a shadow disappears? Makes Blink Tanking a bit easier to look at, and probably easier to do. Might make NIN tanking just interesting enough to get more people into it.

As for Healers and buffers? Well, I'd suggest an HP bar over their head, but that'd be difficult to implement. Though I don't see why we can't see something like buffs for other players. If I could see an icon on the side that presents someone's buff status (I.e, a small box that shows who has what buffs, or the status of buffs that have been casted by you.) It'd be a lot less taxing than squinting at the text box for those magic words: "So and so's Refresh Effect wears off."

I like, I like the sound of that /clap

[Murphie]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

If you filter your chat correctly, there isn't any reason why you should have trouble seeing what buffs wear off and when.

[Vyuru]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

It'd be a lot less taxing than squinting at the text box for those magic words: "So and so's Refresh Effect wears off."

Actually, I think I'd favor more chat filter color options. I've got it setup so that it shows green when someone receives a buff/enfeeblement, I'd like to set it so that the text appears in purple or something else just as striking when a buff or enfeeblement wears off.

That way it get's my attention, and I can look just for certain colors of text and ignore everything else.

[Murphie]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

More chat filter options would be nice. But the ones we have so far aren't terrible.

[Kholdstare]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

If you filter your chat correctly, there isn't any reason why you should have trouble seeing what buffs wear off and when.

My problem isn't seeing it, it's that looking at it is monotonous. It's even MORE monotonous when there's all this action happening RIGHT above it. All these monster getting slaughtered and massive spells being cast, and you CAN'T look at any of it because you're watching HP bars and chat logs? Ick.

[Murphie]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

You don't have to stare at the chat log. As I said, if you filter things correctly, there's no reason why you can't easily see when things are wearing, and when spells need to be cast.

[Karinya]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

Being able to watch the log and the fight at the same time is something you get used to with experience. Anyway, what's so exciting about watching a monster get hit for 1% of its HP? There's only a few seconds in most fights where something interesting is actually happening on the main screen. Once you've seen all the possible swing animations for every DD in the party, there's really not much more to look at most of the time.

Refresh, though, is easy. Just watch their MP bar for a few seconds and compare the change to what it should be with and without refresh (taking into account auto-refresh and refresh gear, but most people have less than 3 so it shouldn't confuse you).

[Lmnop]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

and what if you refuse to filter your chat? >.>

I like knowing what my party is doing. And I like saying "wow, nice Viper Bite." I'm not so selfish that I only care about my damage. Hell, when I SC I care more about the damage of the SC itself than my WS: "aww it got half resisted." Because I'm a geek like that.

I would like some option to "hide" chat. Like... a filter setting that you could toggle off, and when it turns off it'd expose all the other things that happened in the fight in their rightful places. Though honestly, from talking to my WoW friends, their HUD is vastly superior. My friend has a tab for his stuff (i.e. super filtered FFXI) and he has another tab he clicks on to see full battle details.

Oh yeah, white mages... yeah they're cool.

[Aksannyi]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

I don't filter out the damage that my party members do, just the damage that they take. I can see that easily enough with their HP/MP bars as it is. The little yellow/orange/red numbers help a bit, too.

I also filter out anything that has to do with alliance, NPC, or others. I don't need to see what's going on with the other twelve in the alliance, especially during besieged, and I definitely don't care that Randomnoobhittingabunnyinronfaure hit the Bunny for 12 points of damage. Ever.

It's also sometimes useful to filter /say and /shout while in a party ... 9/10 shouting is just obnoxious people being ... obnoxious.

[Akashimo]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

I do admit, I like how WoW has its chat boxes set up, a tab for chatting and another for combat damage. And the fact that the chat logs don't take up your entire bottom portion of the screen, espically with the PS2's resolution x.x
But it is easy to catch what to see without filtering the chat or changing color. Just look for lines that are shorter easy to spot or lines that end with "wears off" or "no longer *insert status effect*" =3

[Murphie]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

and what if you refuse to filter your chat? >.>

I like knowing what my party is doing. And I like saying "wow, nice Viper Bite." I'm not so selfish that I only care about my damage. Hell, when I SC I care more about the damage of the SC itself than my WS: "aww it got half resisted." Because I'm a geek like that.

I would like some option to "hide" chat. Like... a filter setting that you could toggle off, and when it turns off it'd expose all the other things that happened in the fight in their rightful places. Though honestly, from talking to my WoW friends, their HUD is vastly superior. My friend has a tab for his stuff (i.e. super filtered FFXI) and he has another tab he clicks on to see full battle details.

Oh yeah, white mages... yeah they're cool.

Then you have no one to blame but yourself if you miss something. But if you don't, then you have no reason to complain in the first place.

[Icemage]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

The real problem with WHM has nothing to do with game mechanics or interface. It's player desires. There just aren't a whole lot of people who like to play a job that can't do much of anything offensively.

Unlike Spiritbear, I don't think "every" player is interested in being able to dish out damage. I'm certainly not (see my job levels), but it would be foolish to say that I belong to anything but a small minority of players.

The real problem is that the game mechanics virtually mandate that at least one person in any group of 6 have some support abilities in most instances. For a "standard" XP party consisting of tank, DD x 2, nuker, support, healer, the ratio of people who want to play that healer role is much, much lower than 1 in 6.


Icemage

[Murphie]

Re: {White Mage} {WTF are they}?!

The only time I'm worried about how much damage I'm doing is when that's a primary function of my job. As a RDM, WHM or BRD I'm more concerned with buffing everyone else, removing statuses, curing, etc. That's what gets me all fired up.