I wholeheartedly agree. Tunnel vision on the buff bar isn't that fun. I love the game but would enjoy it more if something was done to allow us to undock our focus from a stack of buff icons! I'm a shadow tank and focusing on the buff icons makes it unnecessarily harder to do a good job, especially with bosses that need kiting and interrupting, tricky/dangerous environments, and adds all requiring focus elsewhere on the screen. The proc icons are the main ones we need to improve I think, although there might be some benefit for other effects in some situations. I started a thread here: "Fixed location for select proc icons" with one possible solution. Suggested it to some of the others in my guild and had a positive response so I guess it's a common issue for other classes. I also like the idea of something more obvious near the center of the screen so you can keep your eye on the action and still optimize your rotations. Having said that, healers might prefer the notification nearer the group's health bars so a movable solution would be best.

My main is a shadow tank. I spend most of my time focused on the rows of buff icons trying to catch the moment when harnessed shadows procs so I can fire off the next project. In ops where there are often 3 rows of icons coming and going, it is difficult to see when double strike crits to give me harnessed shadows. This could be solved by adding an element to the UI where a select few buff states are in fixed positions (such as just above the right end of the player health bar but below the debuffs). These would be greyed out when not in effect and light up when they activate. It would only need a few slots - say 3 to 5 - but it would allow more attention to be paid to what's going on in the rest of the fight instead of having to focus on the icons so much. The same is true for other classes too. If it can be moved around as an independent UI element, that would be even better. Healers could move it over next to the group health bars for example. I imagine the simplest way for it to work would be to bind the effect you want in each slot from a drop-down list of possible effects (possibly categorized by type or source such as class effects, group long term buffs, group short term buffs, adrenals, stims, medpacs, relics). Drag & drop would be a pain since you'd only be able to set it up while in combat. Another option might be have them filled automatically and only cover skill tree (or advanced class if any) proc effects which are no doubt the most important ones to watch for. I suspect that might cut down on the coding required to implement it.

I'd love to know the answer as well. I've got a lvl 50 and 4 alts on a low pop West Coast server but I've started a new character on Dalborra 'cause I couldn't wait for the better lag & higher pop. I want to know if: * the legacy experience will come with the US characters at all * the experience of my new character will contribute to the legacy at merge (I'm guessing not but great if it did) * the legacy's will be merged & experience summed (if I keep at it that long), or will conflict if I use the same name I'd really like to know sooner rather than later because the answers will determine whether I discard the old characters and start again, delete the new character & persevere on the US server, or play both sides of the Pacific for the next couple of months. The longer it is before finding out, the more I'll have invested and the more pissed off I'll be if I have to delete or abandon characters!