Huge Red Icons Above My Character in 4v4 Battlegrounds – How to Disable?

ines2015 · July 7

Lately, whenever I play 4v4 Battlegrounds, some massive, intrusive red icons keep appearing above my character's head. Most of the time it's a crossed-knives symbol, like the one shown in the image bellow, but I also get a gigantic red ball occasionally. This only started happening recently.

I have no idea what they are supposed to indicate, and honestly, I don't really care – I simply do not want them cluttering my screen. However, I cannot find any option to turn them off. I've already disabled "Target Markers" in the settings and even uninstalled the add-ons, but despite doing both, the icons continue to show up frequently.

They are so distracting that I have actually stopped queuing for Battlegrounds until I find a solution. Could someone please explain how I can get rid of these icons? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

CameraBeardThePirate · July 7

Those are debuffs. Generally, anything floating above your head means you take a lot more damage from whomever applied it to you, though the exact debuff varies from set to set. There are 3 sets off the top of my head that do this (Spell Strategist = purple ball, Warmask = red moon, and Thousand Eyes = red daggers). There’s no way to disable them, nor should you want to as it is very important to know when they are affecting you due to the impact/strength of the debuff. You can remove them by purging off the effects.

Judging from your screenshot, they're likely too distracting because of the position of your camera. I would recommend going into your settings and raising your camera's vertical offset (i.e., lowering your character on your screen) so that the effects aren't right in the middle of your crosshair.

ines2015 · July 7

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Those are debuffs. Generally, anything floating above your head means you take a lot more damage from whomever applied it to you, though the exact debuff varies from set to set. There are 3 sets off the top of my head that do this (Spell Strategist = purple ball, Warmask = red moon, and Thousand Eyes = red daggers). There’s no way to disable them, nor should you want to as it is very important to know when they are affecting you due to the impact/strength of the debuff. You can remove them by purging off the effects.

Judging from your screenshot, they're likely too distracting because of the position of your camera. I would recommend going into your settings and raising your camera's vertical offset (i.e., lowering your character on your screen) so that the effects aren't right in the middle of your crosshair.

Okay, understood, thank you for the clarification. But I really don't need that. I don't need that visual noise, and it's more important for me to reduce screen clutter. I'm a casual gamer and don't need this excessive information. Besides, I've always managed reasonably well without even knowing what it was, and the distraction it causes is more detrimental than the supposed effects it indicates. Is it possible that there's some addon that can remove this permanently?

Aislinna · July 8

@ines2015 , In Settings > Combat > Buffs & Debuffs, there is an option to not show buffs and debuffs... maybe this solves your issue.

ines2015 · July 8

Aislinna wrote: »

@ines2015 , In Settings > Combat > Buffs & Debuffs, there is an option to not show buffs and debuffs... maybe this solves your issue.

I'm going to try that. Thanks a lot!

CameraBeardThePirate · July 8

Aislinna wrote: »

@ines2015 , In Settings > Combat > Buffs & Debuffs, there is an option to not show buffs and debuffs... maybe this solves your issue.

It doesn't, that's for showing buff and debuff icons on your UI.

ines2015 wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Those are debuffs. Generally, anything floating above your head means you take a lot more damage from whomever applied it to you, though the exact debuff varies from set to set. There are 3 sets off the top of my head that do this (Spell Strategist = purple ball, Warmask = red moon, and Thousand Eyes = red daggers). There’s no way to disable them, nor should you want to as it is very important to know when they are affecting you due to the impact/strength of the debuff. You can remove them by purging off the effects.

Judging from your screenshot, they're likely too distracting because of the position of your camera. I would recommend going into your settings and raising your camera's vertical offset (i.e., lowering your character on your screen) so that the effects aren't right in the middle of your crosshair.

Okay, understood, thank you for the clarification. But I really don't need that. I don't need that visual noise, and it's more important for me to reduce screen clutter. I'm a casual gamer and don't need this excessive information. Besides, I've always managed reasonably well without even knowing what it was, and the distraction it causes is more detrimental than the supposed effects it indicates. Is it possible that there's some addon that can remove this permanently?

No, addons cannot change what is rendered in- engine. They can only change UI related things. There is no way to remove these because they're not going to add a setting that actively gives players a disadvantage.

As I said before, it's vital information. If you find it too distracting, slot a purge skill and purge the effect off and change your camera's vertical offset in the settings to make the visual appear further from the center of the screen.