Accessability and the there lack of: Issues no one is talking about

Dayhjawk

Accessability and the there lack of: Issues no one is talking about:

So I have been seeing devs and the community talk about accessibility. So I wanted to take a moment and talk about things that are lacking in eso, that I feel are factors that no one is talking about. Most of this will be PVE focus and not PVP focus, as well as lengthy.

The huge skill gap between the player base, I feel, is there because of many different reasons but most importantly is lack of information or information presented in a way that hurts the player more than helps them. This is based on my experience in the nearly 2 years playing the game now but over 16+ years of playing mmos, interactions with other players, and from running a guild, recently, trying to get new players into trials, both in normal and vet version, as well as dungeons & pledges.

Lack of in game information, and the terminology used is one issue that new player have to deal with. Most of the information is there, in the help section for example, but it is buried deep into it that most players aren’t going to take the time to find, let alone know how to find it. Some don’t even know there is even a help section, let alone that it has information that explains most stuff. The second issue is the terminology that is used with nothing explaining what it is.

Problem:
Help section is there, but most don’t know about it, or the information is buried deep within it, that most aren’t going to take the time to find it.

Solution:
Help sections needs to be more present, and done in a better way that a player can find what they are looking for. Also making sure the information is there. If I do a quick search for armor, there is nothing that explains just what armor does. (see below)


Problem:
Armor - What is armor? There is nothing that explains this, but yet is on your gear, its in your cp system, but there is nothing unless you dig deep enough, have someone explain it to you, or figure it out yourself that explains this. If you have the mmo gamer experience from playing mmos long enough, you just know, but if you do not, then how are you to know?

Solution:
On your character sheet, between the area of spell/weapon dmg, critical, penetration and your spell & physical resistance, have it say armor then list your resistance. So that newer player at a glace can see that armor is made up of your spell and physical resistance.

The other solution, and I would prefer the above one as it’s visually better, is to have under the window that pops up when you click advanced stats, is for it to say Armor: Spell/Physical resistance before Resistances information.

(Dev note for the devs here) If you need me to make a mockup image to help better explain myself, contact me!


Problem:
Critical Resistance- Most newer players don’t even know that this is a pvp related stat. I have seen so many newer players invest into it, thinking that mobs/bosses can crit. When explained that they cannot and it’s a pvp related stat, most common response is “well that’s stupid and pointless!:

Solution:
Just like I stated above about adding “armor” to your character sheet. Add “PVP” with critical resistance following it so new players can clearly see that it’s for pvp. Additional, adding in the mouse over tooltip, that this is related to pvp. “Decreases the damage you will take when you are the victim of a Critical Strike in PVP areas.”


Problem:
CP System- the lack of information when you need it is not there, and having to go to a website, build guide, content creator’s video, basely an external source that just tells you what to use versus information in game and available for you to understand how it effects your character. There is nothing in game that explains how a cp node effects your skills, abilities, or your character. Most new players that I interacted with, just slot stuff they think sounds good, with little information on if it’s good for them. The lack of information on your skills also is a factor. Is it single target, is it area of effect? The tooltip on a skill tells you the cast time, target, radius, duration and cost but does not tell you any additional information about the skill. This is problem, specially for newer players, to undersand how to get their dps up, better survival ability, or even better sustain.

Solution:
Add a “tag” system similar to what path of exile uses. That under the name of the skill, will have tags like “spell, weapon, duration, area of effect, single target, cold, etc.” While this will require a certain level of player knowledge, it would be a step in the right direction to help understand what the skill does and what effects the skill.


Problem:
Lack of information in the CP system to understand and clearly rely the information needed to the player how said node effects your character. Players either just slot whatever sounds good, have to go to external sources for information; build guides, content creators, websites, or just told to slot these nodes without the understanding and knowledge as to why.

Solution:
The CP system when you mouse over a node gives you a tooltip that explains what the node does but not which skills it effects. By simply adding “This node will effects the following skills:” with a list of what skills that node will effect will help newer players make informed decisions on what nodes to use and with this knowledge help bring their damage up. Knowledge is power, and there is no knowledge in the CP system. There is not that many skills in this game, that this cannot be done as most nodes don’t’ effect a lot of skills.


Problem:
Buffs/Debuffs - There are way too many specially if you turn on other player’s buffs/debuffs. The information here is overwhelming or not enough. It’s one or the other. For most players this is fine, but there are some that is vastly important and the fact that it gets hidden in a mountain of a hay stack makes it nearly impossible to know, example taunt. Taunt specially in situation when you are running with another tank or some new player has taunt on their bar is a hugely important information that either gets buried in the hay stack or you have to just figure out what is going on, which only comes with experience and game knowledge, something a new player does not have.

Solution:
Buffs and Debuffs need to be separated from the hay stack. The name and duration needs to be visual and not just an icon. I have to use an addon called S’rendarrs, and I know there are other addons that others use, to separate or track from the hay stack of buffs and debuffs so that on my screen the visual information is there and knowledge can be learned. Also the default Icons with timers, doesn’t help players understand, in situations, when they need to know a certain debuff or a buff and have to remove it, recast it, etc. The name needs to be present, so they know, “Oh, I have bleeding! I need to cleanse this.”


Problem:
Taunt- The hardest thing when dealing with newer tanks is the explaining, knowledge and mechs around taunt. Specially when it comes to overtaunt. Generally, yes you do not need to worry about this, but in the chaos of trials and in rare situations, dungeons, the there lack of taunt and overtaunted information is both annoying and frustrating. Let along, a target is doing a mech, but is taunting, the backlash of “why is this not taunted!?” when it is.
After doing some testing on a dummy, with another player on just taunt itself is surprising and I will explain. The other issue with taunt and overtaunted, is that the icon used for taunt doesn’t match with the skill that was used, which most skills do. So unless you know what that taunt icon looks like, then you will not know that the target is taunted. Again, this gets buried in the hay stack of buffs/debuffs on the target and can very easily get dropped off into the void of “Too many”. The icon is a shield icon by the way with a 15 second timer on it.
The other issue, is overtaunted. Since there is no way to know what the icon is for overtaunted, did testing with a buddy on a dummy, how are we to know it’s overtaunted, other than it’s running around killing everyone and I can’t seem to get it’s attention? You get a message pop up that the target is immuned, but again, lack of information in the chaos of battle this can very easily be missed, or just do not know what this message means because I am doing so many things at once.

Solution:
Taunt/Overtaunted needs to be it’s own thing, not a buff, not a debuff, but something visually EVERYONE can see. So any player can see that the target is taunted. This knowledge, visually, helps everyone, as well as helping when two tanks are doing what they do. Prehaps an Icon to the left of the target’s name box, just for taunt/overtaunted. So that it’s separated and visually you can see it. Also changing the message, from “target is immune” to target is “overtaunted” and have the message appear a little longer than what it currently does, might help newer players.


Problem:
Crowd Control and Immunity- What is this? Is the most common question that I hear, then when explained, a lot of players respond with “why would I invest in a CP slotables for this when I can just break free or avoid it by dodge rolling, etc.” Also, “I don’t’ even know when I get CCed!”
There are so many issues with the CC system. There are times, I get CCed and my character just stands there doing nothing. I think, am I DC’ed? Did I lose connection? What is going on, why can’t I do anything!?” I have to personally use addons to let me know when I get CC’d and even then it’s a little help in the right direction.”

Solution:
Clearly there are bugs in the system. Moments I get CC’d and my character does not show that I am CC’d (kneeling down). Taking the time to make sure these moments are fixed and bug free would really help.
The second, is adding a popup message that you have been CC’d would help, or if there already is, making sure that its working correctly and noticeable would help. Again, I have to use addons to help with this.
Lastly, I don’t know if the CC related nodes in the CP tree is more useful in PVP, but in PVE they do not seem worth the investment. Personally, I think certain nodes could be combined, and open the door for more interesting nodes in their place. Again, with dodge rolling, breaking free, etc, these nodes seem nearly pointless to invest in, at least for pve.


Problem:
Old non-dlc dungeons vs newer DLC dungeons. It surprises me how many players when I grab someone to do pledges with do not know there are hardmodes. They are use to the new standard of click this to enable hardmode. This is confusing to newer players, and the most common remarks are, “Why is it like this?” “There is a hardmode for this!? How do you know!?” Newer players have to remember when there is a hardmode, vs clicking on something to enable it. I have a guild member who has been playing ESO longer than I have, that never knew there was a hardmode to Crypt of Hearts 2 until she ran it with us. Leaving them the way they are, is causing too much confusions and issues. It’s too confusing for newer players and most don’t see the point why they haven’t been updated to the new standard, and like I said, there are even some players that have been playing this game longer than I have, that don’t even know there are hardmodes to old content. The new way is a HUGE QoL, and helps newer players understand basic mechanics that is widely used in a lot of different content.

Solution:
Take the time to add hardmode enable mechanics like in newer dungeons to the few that do not have it. This will help clear up some of the confusion. There doesn’t need to be a grand feat that you do all at once.You could take 1-2 dungeons per 3-month cycle, then do another 1-2 in the next cycle, so forth. Most of the content is already there, the dungeon is made, the mechs are there, the only thing that is missing is adding a hardmode clickable and design/balancing the hardmode. Hardmode is already there, achievements are already there, so majority of the work is already done. Making sure that the old content is using the new conent mechanics, means newer player coming into the game, learn the mechanics that is used widely and vastly across the game at critical points in their learning process.


Problem:
Attributes in general is an issue. When you mouse of an attribute there is nothing that tells you how this effects certain skills, but certain skills are then scaled off certain attributes. So when leveling, there is no knowledge or information that helps them. Most players that are newly 50, and starting to get into CP, have such a wide diversity of attributes, with again, without game knowledge and understanding how your skills and attributes works, isn’t helping.
A lot of newer players also think that investments into Magicka, Health, Stamina, effects your recovery. Bigger pools, must mean bigger recovery right? The tooltip, and the way it’s worded, doesn’t help.
Some skills scale based on your magicka, even thou they do not state that it does in the skill information as well. Some skills are based off the higher of your offensive stats, but there is nothing viusally that says these are your offensive stats, and that knowledge is gated behind either game knowledge, or just being told from another source.

Solution 1:
The tooltip when mousing over an attribute needs to be better worded, so players will know how it might effect certain skills and recovery. Some of the current information probably should be moved to the tooltip when mousing over recovery instead.

• Current tooltip: “Magicka: Determines how many Magicka Abilities you can cast. Magicka recovers over time. The rate of recovery is increased outside of combat. Full-charges Heavy Attacks with a staff will also restore Magicka.”
• Change to: “Magicka: Determines how many Magicka Abilities you can cast, and how potent your magicka based spells & abilities are.”
• Move to Magicka Recover tooltip: “When in combat, you recover X magicka every 2 seconds. The rate of recovery is increased outside of combat. Full-charges Heavy Attacks will also restore Magicka.”

And of course, changing the tooltop for health and stamina as well.

Solution 2:
In the character sheet screen, just like I explained above for armor, there needs to be something that visually tells a player that these are your offensive stats.

Solution 3:
Adding in the tooltip of skills, under cast time, target, radius, duration, cost, a new one that says “Scaling” then say what scales it. Like “Scaling: Magicka or Stamina, Highest.” For most skills, this isn’t an issues because it clearly stats in the description how it scales, but not always. This might be a better way to help newer players understand.


The last thing I am going to address is about combat. Currently on PC, we use addons to help in trials and certain situation out of trials; dungeons, etc. These addons use popup messages to help inform players about certain mechs. The base game does not do this. It uses pop up cast timers, visual effects and audio to inform the player. I recently learned of a player that I have been playing with for over a year, that had sounds disabled. By turning them on, there are now a ton of mechs that he has been able to do because of the audio, however, in the current state of gaming, when you have audio sounds, npcs talking, discord voices (groups/trials), ingame music, sound effects, all this audio noise, it’s hard to understand things at times. Also, we humans, each one of us, learn differently. Some can pickup a article and read about the mechs, get it and go in and do it. Others, can watch a youtube video and do the same. Myself, I have always learned by doing, no book, no video is going to help me. Some players learn via sounds, and some use addons for pop-up messages.

Problem:
Combat in general needs more information about mechs, PC players use addons for this, but those on consoles do not have access to addons.

Solution:
Take a look at the addons PC players are using for content. The pop-up messages about the mechanics, and maybe try to bring this into the base game. Even if starting out, is only for the most dangerous of mechs.


Problem:
Also, the visual noise in some if not most dungeons and trials can be an issue. Just too much going on. This makes it very hard for new players to understand what is going, what is killing them, all sorts of stuff. Not to mention in some areas, the FPS hit is being felt. For example: In cloudrest, 40fps before starting the fight with Z’Maja, and down to 15fps give or take during the fight. There are just so many animation and effects going on in that fight that it’s being felt on some players that don’t have the best pcs on the market.

You want to talk about accessibility, information overload, is generally the most common issues that I have been having when it comes with newer players in content, specially vet, hardmodes. Just way too much going off at the same times, all at once, with little to no time to understand what is going on, just pure chaos that makes some newer players feel like they have to play perfectly in order to clear the content. I know one person that is of age, and a pace maker, that I worry about putting her into a hospital or worst dued to certain mechanics and pure chaos is thrown at us. In some cases, it’s just a matter of beating yourself against a wall over and over, until it clicks and you get it. Looking at your cloudrest.

Solution:
Taking a beat, and check to see if there is too much visual noise is going on during combat. If certain mechs, can be “time” gated so that they aren't all going off at once at the same time, to help newer players in content. This type of play style is fine as you go up in challenging content, hardmode, trifects, etc. But for starting out, even when new mechs are introduced in vet content, maybe having them offset a little bit more, can help newer players learn and adjust, instead of information overload.

Reduce the information overload that is happening in a lot of different content. Layer mechs so you have time to understand what is going on. You have time to adjust, the higher up on difficultly you go, the less of a layering there is. Having everything going off at the same time, all at once, is fine in Vet/Hardmode/Trifect run, but for newer players just getting into normal and even vet trials. Having this happen generally leds to frustration, confusing, or just player quitting because they do not understand. Content needs to be layered in a way that players learn, understand, and adjust as they scaling themselves into harder content. This is something that currently, is not felt.

I understand, that I am talking about going back and adjusting content but it greater needs it. Like I said before, take a 3-month cycle, focus on a dungeon or two, even a trial. Looks at what most players are having to deal with related to the content level they are running it on (normal, vet, hardmode, etc) and seeing if there are adjustments and turning that can be done could go a long way to helping accessibility for newer players. No, I am not saying, make it easier, dumbing it down, or anything like that, but rather making sure the information that is being presented to the players is presented in a way that isn't information overload.

Also, do we need so many animaiton and stuff going off when it’s not related to combat itself? For example, in cloudrest, when you start the Z’Maja fight. Animated barriers go up on all the entrances to the area so you can’t leave. Do we need them animated? Can we just have a glass wall appear instead to help? How about the guys up on the top levels, do they need to be so animated? When we never really see them, or interact with them till they are in combat with us? Little things like this could help those players that are struggling in content dued to performance and fps issues.

Dayhjawk

@ZOS_Kevin Tagging you in hopes it gets to the right ppl. Tried to be constructive and informative feedback.

Dayhjawk

Also:

What is a negative effect? What is it compared to a debuff? Again, nothing ingame that explains these things, with little to no information online. Terminology and lack of information, how are new players to know what these things are?

TheGremlyn

Much of this resonates with my own experiences in this game. I did pick it up during a free to play back before One Tamriel, and there are issues back then that still exist today. Since then, I've been playing consistently since about 2018. I'm a dungeon tank main, a trial healer, and I dps for fun.

Addons

I'm going to get this out of the way. Addons have helped me so much in this game as I've progressed through newer and harder content. Being in comms only does so much. I leverage addons to help me learn the content. After a bit I can associate the dings and alerts with voice queues and gestures a boss is making. I still use them as I can be easily distracted or overwhelmed and need those alerts to remind me "Oh I need to block or dodge this or move over here!"

To some extent I find it amusing and sad that we have to reply on content creators to fill these voids in the game. I use addons to help me with daily writs and to augment the enchanting interface to make is quicker and easier for me to craft specific enchants. I have an addon to track taunts. I have trial specific addons to get additional timers and information for myself but also to make callouts for the people I run with. I have an addon for a mini map, and several UI addons as the vanilla interface leaves much to be desired (such as attribute bars and group panels).

Guides and Tutorials

These basically don't exist in game. Even the one you encounter as a new player, it's short lived and easily forgotten and not accessible to existing players that may or may not create a new player just to experience it. I already have 18 and have for a while so, until I went over to the EU server, I wouldn't have experienced the new "tutorial" for the game.

This is another area where players have to look outside of the game and the company for support and insight. When I started taking I looked to Deltia (and this was probably close to or around the time he took a break from the game) and Alcast. I didn't know where to allocate attributes, what gear to wear or what armour weights meant. I didn't know I should use a chain skill to pull in adds. I started with a Warden but made a DK tank shortly after to build the meta tank that seemed to be all the rage. My main is a warden tank, but I have and rotate through all the classes as tanks and they all their have moments with unique class skills and playstyles that make them interesting.

I looked to SeaUnicorn and Healers Haven discord for ideas and guides on basically how to heal, be that for a specific class or specific content and role (group healer or kite/off healer). I have a hard time keep up with what sets are "good" or "desired" in content. I also have a healer of every class because it's fun to try and heal vSS tombs on a DK healer (tossing stones that knock the vitality out of someone and into someone else is hilarious!).

I have often looked to Xynode's All About Mechanics guides and videos for insight into specific dungeons and trials. I like to know what I'm getting into and what I should probably do, especially as a tank. There's nothing worse that going into even a normal, let alone a vet trial and just flailing because you have no idea what is going on.

There are more creators out there with different guides and builds and styles to how they communicate information. But it all exists outside the game and apart from the company itself. For that reason it's a little sad and disappointing that you have to turn to a third party to understand how a game works.

Taunts

It was mentioned but for everyone involved, not just the tank, there needs to be a better way to tell when something is taunted, untaunted, or over-taunted. I've picked up on some queues, like a sort of red haze over a target's head to suggest it was taunted (not sure if that's specific to inner rage). If something turns away from me and I know it's not a mech then I assume I've lost taunt. Prior to changes to the ice staff, If I ran with a DPS and noticed the staff there's a good chance they would heavy and taunt something away from me. In which case I'd stand there and wait to see if I could get it back. If we wiped I'd explain in chat real quick their ice staff heavy is taunting the thing away from me. If I'm running with another tank it can be hard to tell if a boss or add is over-taunted until it happens and we go "oh, over-taunted, i'll wait a few before trying to get it back". I use addons to help keep track of the things I have taunted because I could have MANY adds in addition to a boss taunted and the skill timer isn't enough.

There's also the question of when a boss has mechs and behaviours that intentionally ignore taunt and hit or turn on a player, but it's by design. This can go unnoticed by other players that don't have tanking experience. Final boss of Arx can do this, she'll turn on a player or chase them down and scream at them. The final boss of Direfrost will, in turn, turn and light attack other players. I'm sure there are other things I just can't recall right now. But I have experience on my side so when a pug kicks up a fuss in chat because they died and they accuse me of losing taunt I have to calmly explain mechs, which they may or may not believe. But I feel bad for tanks that are less experienced and have to deal with abusive players that don't know the mechs and make another tank feel like crap.

There really needs to be something more obvious for the group as a whole to know when something is taunted. In addition, there has to be some way to communicate that a certain boss or add may rush another player, regardless of taunt, because it's a mechanic. It's by design. More obvious NPC dialogue? Helpful assuming someone doesn't have that stuff turned off.

I'll also add, it would be nice if a player knew if they had aggro on something. While progging rougher content, if I go down as a tank and I have both dps rush up to try and rez me, neither one knows if the boss is after them unless it's too late and he smacks them. Some kind of alert (visual and audio) might help a player know the boss is on them so they could kite. And also adding in a few more seconds before the boss turns and smacks someone might be nice. I do find a boss will give little to no warning they're about to turn and immediately smack someone. A player will simply die and stare at their screen because it happened to fast.

In-Game Help

I mostly never use this. The one time I did it was to look up info on status effects as I was trying to keep it straight in my head was a status effect vs the buff/debuff counterpart. I'd have to check when I'm in game again, but I recall getting a little confused because I think there were a few words used interchangeably. It might have been the use of martial and physical. I think the help section used physical, but the CP system would use martial. But I don't think there was anything to connect those terms definitively. It made me question whether the guides and information was being updated consistently across the game. Either physical was being replaced my martial, or vice versa? Or it was intention but I don't understand the purpose except to leave me confused and questioning if they different things or the same thing. I am a person that needs a bit of black and white instruction. The less grey the better, as I deal with that enough IRL.

Noise

This refers to both visual noise and auditory noise.

Skills in this game make a lot of unique sounds, but you can hear yours and those of your fellow players while running content. The enemies you're facing off against also have their own unique sounds. If you're in a dungeon it's tolerable. When you're in a raid group it can be a lot for some people. When you're a tank it can be hard to parse out the sounds you need to focus on. As some people can play by sound it can get confusing real quick. Worse still is when your skill doesn't make a sound and it doesn't actually go off, or it did go off but didn't have the desired effect. I might hear my inner rage go off but for some reason the thing I was looking at wasn't taunted? What the heck did it even go off on? Or maybe it didn't? I think I also had a moment when I was parsing and once or twice my burning embers didn't make a sound and I wasn't sure it went off if it wasn't for the skill timer.

Now there's the visual noise. This can be overwhelming for similar reasons listed above. Worse though is the impact this has on performance. Thankfully you don't see most ally effects or your computer might burst into flames. If you're starting out, especially as a tank, you might have a lot happening in front of you and similar to above you might have a hard time parsing out what is important and what you can simply ignore. It could get to the point where there's so much going on that you can even clearly see the thing you're tanking. I make it a bit worse on myself since I have a beefier system and I want to take advantage of that and I want the game to look super pretty! But that amps up the noise. I'm at a point where I can kind of see past the extra effects most of the time.

Side note: I only have some mixed feelings about progging and clearing Coral HM before you updated the waves and electric circle so they popped more on screen. Why this wasn't done from the get go I'll never know. Maybe it was intended to amp up the difficulty but it was one of the few times I can recall where a (massive) bad AOE was so poorly defined. Every other good and bad circle pops on the screen when you adjust in game settings. No idea why this was overlooked. Please don't do that again.

That kind of leads into somethin else...

Good/Bad Circles

I think be default these circles are pretty dim on screen until you max out the slider to make them pop. I'm not sure there's much in game to tell a player they can tweak those to change the colour or adjust the brightness so they pop. I've resorted to RGB AOE since some terrain doesn't play well with specific colours. Hot pink might be fine in a lot of content, same with a bright cyan blue. Other times that circle way as well be invisible.

Aside from whether a player knows they can adjust those. There's nothing to really help players know they probably should get out of those. I'll watch players stand in the bad and die and get frustrated. Something could pop up to warn a player they're standing in a bad place and they should probably more. I feel like the game is supposed to have some helpful combat tips or something but text that might pop up to say you're standing in a damage circle and should move might help players that just don't know. With experience they could probably turn that off if they wanted.

Combat Queues

It was recently brought to my attention by a friend that they didn't know there were queues for when to block/dodge, and interrupt. I went about and found a WB that had heavy attacks and interrupts and took screenshots of both and posted them in a discord server. Apparently they hadn't really noticed those before.

This is just one of many possible combat queues that gets overlooked. The visual isn't enough for some people, especially if the boss/add in particular is VERY tall. You've made a number of bosses very large that a tank couldn't possibly see their head and notice the lines, no matter how far they zoomed out.

At least these kinds of mechs could use text on screen to help players learn to block/dodge the gold lines, and interrupt the red flashing lines. I'm keyed into these and even on a dps I'll immediately turn and bash something if I see red lines (unless it's supposed to be ignored for a few ticks like in vSS HM Navii statues.

Content Training Modes

Wild thought, and hear me out. What if dungeons and trials had training modes?

It's so hard to learn content, especially on vet and definitely in a trial, when things will just murder you. I'm trying to help folks (new tanks especially) learn vMoL and get the hang of where adds spawn, where to stack them, etc. And the same with boss fights, like twins. When you can aggro things in the room it's hard to say "taunt this and run over here." Training mode might stop random aggro unless specifically taunted, give targets a lot of heath/resistances, remove damage output, and mechs wouldn't kill. It would allow someone to walk the group through how to do something without dying. If I'm raid leading as a healer or DPS but need to show my tank how to do something, I can't do that unless I'm a tank. But with a training mode I wouldn't die in my squishy dps body when I pull a boss and demonstrate positioning. And if mechs can't kill it could help with getting a group to move and stand where you want them. It would give a raid lead so much more time and it would be less stressful for everyone if you have more time to see what was going on and fix it, rather than wiping all the time and have your group get frustrated.

Side note: Can you boost the vMoL twins colour so when colour change happens to the 3 random players on either side, the circle at their feet is WAY more obvious? The yellow isn't terrible but the blue/dark one is so hard for people to see. If those could be way brighter that would probably help players with that fight. Maybe if a players body also glowed the colour they are, rather than just their head? One of the biggest complaints in that trial is people being unable to SEE the colour they are, let alone if they're changing colours.

DrSlaughtr

This is what they should do.

In every zone, players can go to the fighters guild in the capital cities and enter a combat tutorial that takes you from basic to advanced mechanics. Offer rewards that will significantly help newer players, such as big xp boosts and gold.

The pvp tutorial also sucks. Revamp it to match the suggestion above in depth with AP and transmutes as rewards.

The rewards are important because players are lazy. Many "low skilled" players I come across take the "play how you want" mantra a little too close to heart, to the point that they refuse to even listen to suggestions. And they longer they play how they want, the more stubborn they get, while also getting angry that the game isn't easier for them.

If the rewards are good enough you'll get people who may not bother to run the tutorials to do them just for the rewards, and likely will learn a thing or two in the process