I think it wouldn't be as much of an annoyance if the various buff/debuff icons were more intuitive. It's literally just a bunch of squares with shapes/colors that I can barely make out spread across my screen. They expect me to memorize like 50 images that all look similar and the buff/debuff they represent. Boooo

Cladius30 wrote: »

and then every 20 seconds or less you need to refresh it?
why cant a buff last at least 1 minute? i dont get it

Because that would be tremendously unbalanced. Powerful buffs, like shields, have short durations to counterbalance the powerful benefit. Part of the game is managing buffs and the resource pools that fuel them.

weedgenius wrote: »

I think it wouldn't be as much of an annoyance if the various buff/debuff icons were more intuitive. It's literally just a bunch of squares with shapes/colors that I can barely make out spread across my screen. They expect me to memorize like 50 images that all look similar and the buff/debuff they represent. Boooo

You are supposed to memorize abilities without looking at the screen. And not 50, only 6 per bar.

I would say it gets incredibly easy after getting used to it.

Edit: Nvm you are talking about the buff/debuff bar. Yes there are waaaay too many of them so it becomes kinda difficult to tell if your sets procced or if your buffs ran out without the help of add-ons.

I always have questions about combat systems that rely on constant buffing/debuffing. Situational buffing and debuffing makes sense to me. When the entire combat system is reliant on it, though, I always wonder why the buffed state isn't just the status quo.

This is why as a magplar I punc sweep punc sweep RD all NPC mobs and stay out of Cyro completely. Don't have to worry about pots; don't have to worry on some fancy-pants rotation with millisecond timing, don't have to worry about buffs or debuffs. Just punc sweep and RD, and the occasional honor the dead if my health gets low.

I only have so much playtime on here; I'm not going to waste it learning some crazy rotation that will only allow me to fight a handful of things beyond what I can kill already.

weedgenius wrote: »

I think it wouldn't be as much of an annoyance if the various buff/debuff icons were more intuitive. It's literally just a bunch of squares with shapes/colors that I can barely make out spread across my screen. They expect me to memorize like 50 images that all look similar and the buff/debuff they represent. Boooo

Its weird the in-game buff tracker uses 50 icons when add-ons like Action Duration Reminder just put the time over the skill on you bar. This works 10x better and should be implemented in the base game. Preferably with a donation to the maker of Action Duration Reminder for creating a buff tracker that actually works.

Most skills you want to run for the full duration, skills that have more effects could change color to indicate an effect has run out.

What I dislike of pve in this game is the lack of traditional roles. I know they stated right at the begin "everyone can play as you like" and I've accepted it, but still, I like the old system better. Like in the previous MMO I played, there are class that dedicated to buffing allies, another crown control, and a class to debuff enemy. Here in ESO tank and healer does all those things but only to a limit degree and it doesn't feel that important. I mean... yeah it's good to have a tank that can cc, chain mobs in and root them, but even if tank don't do that, DDs can still kill things. The role of DDs in ESO is too powerful that if you have enough dps you can ignore the mechanics.

ZOS once state that they like combat in ESO to have fast paced, which boil down to "who have faster reflex and can smash the buttons faster". So they make short duration effects and 6 slots skill bar (which also console friendly). In my previous MMO you need to look overall the fight to see which skill needed where. It also has like 50 skills to choose from (not console friendly). A cc skill might have its duration up to 40s, compare to like 4s in ESO, but also have longer cooldown so you have to think when to use it. Combat feel slower and more about strategic decisions than fast reactions.

But I have to applause ZOS that they have their scaling system work very well. In older MMOs, after every update the old dungeons and raids, no matter how interesting their mechanics are, are out level and forgotten. Here in ESO, a cp 780 still have reasons to go back to level 10 dungeons and can still be wiped if he's bad. You just can't have everything and its up to you to decide if the pros can over come the cons.

Or 10mins... spamming buffs like a moron gets old super fast.. GW2 had it right imo.

Cladius30 wrote: »

I personally find it takes fun away from combat to have to constantly watch and refresh buffs in this game..
wondering if anyone else has this issue

I don't even consider them buffs really because of their short duration. They are more like skills with benefits - because they are so short you have to nearly spam them the same as you do your other skills.

So my advice would be just work out a rotation that periodically uses these skills to keep the effect active instead of trying to constantly watch their duration to know when to refresh... because I can imagine that would get annoying and tedious rather quickly.

Managing Buffs adds complexity to the game, just as managing your resources does (and dots if you're a DD). If you want a simple one button combat, you could play Skyrim.

I think it adds a layer of complexity and skill that takes practice.

Eg on my stam sorc toon making sure hurricane is up at all times while fighting and vigorous. In my mag blade merciless for the dmg buff and building stacks. Better than I was 3 months ago, but still needs work.

I strongly disagree with making things easier all the time.

Lol at all the people defending buff centric game play. Poor fellas don't realize if if there was a less focus on buffs there would be more focus on combat. As the MMO genre grows people learn what is fun and what isn't; instead of buffs (warden can have up to 4 short buffs to maintain) why not utility, crowd control, and situational debuffs? Even as buffs are apart of rotations it still is taking you 'out' of combat for global cooldowns.

Here's a wild idea. Take short term buffs OFF the global cooldown. Mind blowing I know but ESO isn't the only MMO on the market. This is not new.

To be honest, if buff duration weren't that short everyone would just spam their spammable 90% of the time and do nothing else. At least in PVE.

Yeah. Same as some of the others, I'm not sold on the idea that constant micromanaging necessitates skill and creates challenge. Once you have a rotation down--and it's not as difficult to figure one out as people make it out to be--it's the same sequence of actions you'll be performing, over and over, for most content. That's actually extremely mindless to me. ESO combat is junk food.