A question about combat cues

Jazzblaster

While looking around for an addon that could display castbars (for my own character, not for enemies) I came across people talking about yellow and red rays coming from mobs, Yellow being a tell for a blockable attack and red for an interuptable.

Now, I've never ever in my 70 + hours in game seen these rays. (not talking about red cones/circles for cleaves/aoe) After reading about them I even let a boatload of mobs beat the crap out of me while staring at them just to see if there really wasn't anything i'd missed. Now in the options there is a line called 'Combat Cues' that's off and greyed out, is this the option that would make those rays appear? And if so, why can't I turn it on? Or do these rays simply not exist and are the people talking about them just confused?

(Here's the thread where people were talking about them: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/69155/why-no-cast-bar/p1)

Censorious

They're there. Once you see them they're kinda hard to miss.

Oh - yes. You WILL need to have it turned on lol! (I thought that was the default?)

EDIT: I just checked - I have that 'off' too - I still see the 'rays'

KerinKor

Censorious wrote: »

Oh - yes. You WILL need to have it turned on lol! (I thought that was the default?)

You enjoy poking fun at others mistakes? Joke's on you, kid, "Combat cues" CAN'T be turned on, it's off and greyed-out .. just as the OP said"

ShadowWolf613

They do exist. I see them no problem on my computer when I play.

Xezzu

The visual representation of what you need to block and interrupt (or, more appropriately, have the option to) are there by default. I'm not even overly sure you can turn them off. They are pretty subtle. In fact, you may not even see them if you aren't looking for them, which may be your case.

What do they look like? Hmm.. if you've had any familiarity with comics, there are often 'motion lines' used for a character to show it's running really fast or the like. It looks just like that, and they sort of jet around the silhouette of whatever enemy they are being used for. They can be particularly hard to see in lighter environments. In fact, during the PTS I put some feedback in on that asking to make them more noticeable for that reason.

Like @Censorious said, once you see them, you aren't likely to miss them again as you'll know exactly what to look for.

On another note, I have seen some things that are interrupt-able that there is no alert for. One being that there is an ability that some enemies have where they channel something for a few moments (generally involving lightning), placing a red circle at the ground and if it's not interrupted, they discharge some sort of electric attack. This has no alert, other than just 'knowing' it can be interrupted.

The only thing in the options that I've seen that you can actively turn on and off as far as anything to do with this, is the textual warning you get.

Jynai

I'd say double check your video settings, if I'm not mistaken, those effects fall under particles or effects, so make sure that's on or turned up (at work right now can't check).

Also, some NPCs have those effects, but the npc it self is not interrupt-able (they are tougher ones that usually roam alone).

You can also tell by the NPC stopping its regular attack, and taking a second before attacking again, that pause right there is when you interrupt.

Shimond

I only ever see white lines or red telegraphs. The white lines can mean one of two things - has to be interrupted to cause vulnerability, or has to be blocked to cause vulnerability. Once vulnerable you can use a heavy hit to do extra damage and a knockdown.

For example: there's a couple mobs that do a heavy melee strike AND a fall back to knife throw. In both of those attacks I see white lines indicating them charging up the attack, but to get vulnerability I MUST block the heavy strike and I MUST interrupt the knife throw - I cannot interrupt the heavy strike and I cannot just block the knife throw to trigger vulnerability.

The red telegraphs I always just run out of, I have had little to no success in interrupting those.

ManiacMcLaughton

Just as an aside, make sure your gamma is well calibrated. If you are set too bright, or too dark, the contrast between the signs and the background is too little for most to notice. I had trouble seeing them until I re-adjusted my gamma using the in game gamma check (it was there for beta, haven't used it since then).

Also, to see these "rays".. you can slowly approach an enemy. If you are in his agro range, these rays show up around his face, and he turns towards you. He stays in this position for a good solid 1 second or 2, and the rays are visible.