New Ui

[AeetesSixFive]

I seriously had no problems with their old UI and how cds worked...I log in and play with this new one and I absolutely hate it. No need for it to be that bright on every gcd...

[RamzaBehoulve]

Yeah.

 

Worst problem for me is the greying out of abilities during GCD. Can't tell what's available or not.

 

Complete failure. Should have given the choice in the options.

Edited February 7, 2012 by RamzaBehoulve

[Blaaat]

While the previous CD animation had a serious flaw: it was impossible to tell whether Zealous Strike, for example, was on a CD with 3s remaining or available. The newer version is far worse I can't 'queue' my abilities any more during the GCD because it's really hard to see which moves are usable. :\

[darthtoph]

Yeah.

 

Worst problem for me is the greying out of abilities during GCD. Can't tell what's available or not.

 

Complete failure. Should have given the choice in the options.

 

Newsflash, abilities are now greyed out also after the GCD is over and they're ready to use:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZulDrYZ4CY0

 

It's a slightly lighter shade of grey, still... just hideous UI design.

Edited February 7, 2012 by darthtoph

[AeetesSixFive]

So after doing an ops tonight and a buncha PvP I'm really sick of this UI. It's too bright for every GCD and I have too look down every now and then, never had to do that with the old UI. Le sigh bioware.

[SteveGarbage]

I agree, it's really painful. The problem that I have with it is that while everything is greyed out while cooling, I can't tell when I don't have enough focus to use a skill compared to something that's just cooling down. I wish I could roll back. Since they keep changing the cooldown animation, I wish they would just allow you to pick what animation you like.

[andrew_b_gross]

I told my guildmaster tonight that I can't participate in raids until they revert the UI. It is unplayable.

 

Before, I had almost the entire GCD-- an eternity-- to decide which ability to queue up. I could scan which debuffs were on the mob, whether Cauterize had come off of CD early due to a proc from slash, etc., and then queue the appropriate ability. Zero time ever spent not executing an ability = an asset to the raid, someone who is sought out by friends when PUGs can't succeed to come in and pick up the pieces, and a lot of fun.

 

Now, I cannot tell what abilities are ready until after the GCD expires. I spent over an hour playing, killing easy mobs so that I wouldn't be distracted, doing nothing but staring at the bars trying to find any sort of visual indicator that an ability was going to be available when GCD was up, vs. an ability that wasn't going to be ready. If it's there, my eyes are not capable of seeing it, even when paying way more attention to it than I could in a raid. That means either using horribly inefficient sequences to only ever execute abilities that I'm sure are going to be available (= never using Cauterize the first opportunity it's available, etc.), or else waiting until the GCD is up and then needing to make an incredibly rushed decision because every fraction of a second I spend deciding is wasted DPS. I would be a drag on the raid, and it's no fun, and it's frustrating.

 

I'm sure everyone in the guild thinks I'm nerd raging and that I'll be back on tomorrow. I've been playing computer games since the mid '80s, and I've never once nerd raged. This isn't a matter of holding my breath until I'm blue in the face, or expecting devs to code a 200 million dollar game to my personal tastes; I simply cannot play the game under the current conditions in a manner that would be at all satisfying to me or at all useful to my friends and guild mates.

 

So very dissapointing.

[Llen]

Agreed. I'm not hard core enough to even realize what the difference was. It just felt really icky. That's the technical term I'm going with.

[Ekemeister]

it's not that bad. I've already gotten used to it. At least the health bars aren't in the top left corner of the screen.

 

edit: Bioware, where are you going to implement a drathal's hud layout? It already looks like an imperial fighter's viewport. How much more excuse do you need?

Edited February 8, 2012 by Ekemeister

[AeetesSixFive]

With this new UI and all the bugs on HM Soa, and still the bugs within our class, I'm getting really fed up with this game I've considered unsubbing. I love the game but I really don't wanna play a beta game after it's been released live..

[andrew_b_gross]

it's not that bad. I've already gotten used to it. At least the health bars aren't in the top left corner of the screen.

 

I believe you, and this is an honest plea for help. Maybe you see something I don't.

 

HOW are you able to play with the new UI?

 

Take a couple of specific situations:

 

You have used Cauterize, it's on CD. You're now in a spend Focus mode where you're using Slash. Each time you use Slash, there is a chance it will finish the CD on Cauterize. You obviously want to use Cauterize as soon as it's available. The GCD is ticking down and you need to queue something. HOW are you seeing that Slash has finished the CD on Cauterize so you can queue it right away?

 

You are low on Focus, and need to decide between Force Jump and Zealous Strike. Obviously Zealous Strike builds more Focus and does more damage and is the better choice if it's available. You know you've used Zealous Strike recently, but it seems like it should be up soon, maybe is already up. The GCD is ticking down, you need to queue something in order to not lose precious DPS time when the GCD expires. How do you determine whether to queue Zealous Strike or Force Jump?

 

It would be genuinely helpful if you could walk through how you make really basic and necessary decisions like this using the new UI.

 

Thanks!

Edited February 8, 2012 by andrew_b_gross

[Blaaat]

You have used Cauterize, it's on CD. You're now in a spend Focus mode where you're using Slash. Each time you use Slash, there is a chance it will finish the CD on Cauterize. You obviously want to use Cauterize as soon as it's available. The GCD is ticking down and you need to queue something. HOW are you seeing that Slash has finished the CD on Cauterize so you can queue it right away?

I can help you with this one every time Mind Sear procs your character makes various distinct sound effects. For a female toon it's "Hey!", "Grrr" and "ah hum" (or something like that )

[AeetesSixFive]

You sure about that? I knew scoundrels did but I don't play with sound on anymore. Never heard it when I did play with it though.

[Blaaat]

You sure about that? I knew scoundrels did but I don't play with sound on anymore. Never heard it when I did play with it though.

I'm positive, I never heard the "Hey!" sound effect until I specced Watchman, even my friends noticed it. Having said that the sound effects are likely different for a male toon so I can't help you with that. Edited February 8, 2012 by Blaaat

[andrew_b_gross]

I'm positive, I never heard the "Hey!" sound effect until I specced Watchman, even my friends noticed it. Having said that the sound effects are likely different for a male toon so I can't help you with that.

 

So I need to listen for the proc, then look over to see if I have enough focus? I guess that is possible, but way, way less efficient than having a single indicator that tells me whether all conditions are met or not. (Same thing for Dispatch but worse. Old system: is Dispatch lit up? New System: Look to see if mob's health bar to see if it's under 20%, then look to see if Dispatch CD is done, then look to see if enough focus, if all 3 are true you can queue Dispatch.)

[EnnaRei]

The reason it got changed is because enough people *****ed about not being able to tell if abilities were on CD or not. If you played this class enough where you were actually essential to a raid, then you would know the timers on your own for your abilities. Not to mention you would have no issue with focus, because you would've already been good enough at the class to have just enough for everything that you needed.

 

****, I'm pure pvp on this char and I still know my ability's CD enough to not **** that up. So what are you doing wrong then?

Edited February 8, 2012 by EnnaRei

[darthtoph]

Stop talking out of yer arse, the entire new UI reeks of fail, the main problem being that it is messing up player's peripheral vision. Please, do us a favor and go read any of the 200 pages in General Discussion regarding the issue.

[RamzaBehoulve]

The reason it got changed is because enough people *****ed about not being able to tell if abilities were on CD or not. If you played this class enough where you were actually essential to a raid, then you would know the timers on your own for your abilities. Not to mention you would have no issue with focus, because you would've already been good enough at the class to have just enough for everything that you needed.

 

****, I'm pure pvp on this char and I still know my ability's CD enough to not **** that up. So what are you doing wrong then?

 

Get a clue.

 

Previously, you could look at the bar and immediately tell what was going to be available in the next few seconds. Now, you almost can't see anything until the GCD is finished and then you probably already clicked another attack, greying/blueing out everything again. And to make the matter worse, you have a stupid line going down slowly making it almost impossible to tell skills apart on a Assassin for exemple where everything is red/violet/pink with lightning.

 

And let's not mention when focus is/is not available for a skill. You have no idea the skill became available.

 

Simply unplayable. And top of it, I'm getting headaches now.

Edited February 8, 2012 by RamzaBehoulve

[JustinxDuff]

I have 0 issues with these changes.

[SteveGarbage]

Simply unplayable. And top of it, I'm getting headaches now.

 

For me it's not unplayable, but it certainly is more distracting and more difficult than it was before.

 

I didn't have any issue seeing when my skills were or weren't ready before. Now I do. That seems like it was the exact opposite goal of the change. And especially since I'm usually using my next attack before the "flash" now my entire hotbar is never illuminated like it was before. EVERYTHING is grey, all the time. T

 

hankfully I've just been grinding through some Belsavis quests so it hasn't been a major issue. But I'm concerned about my problems seeing what's available and what's not on Heroics and Flashpoints where I'll have extended battles against tough enemies when my rotations get screwed up due to Cauterize resets and the constant focus need to drop Merciless.

[Kovaos]

This is probably my first and hopefully only complaint with the game. I have an astigmatism in my right eye and this is making things so much more difficult for me. PvPing as Sent is difficult already and this is making it more difficult.

 

This was not a helpful or useful change to deploy.

[Neithian]

At first I didn't like the changes, but after around an hour of playing I got used to it. I actually like the brightness of skills on cooldown as it draws my eyes to them so I don't have to think to do that mid-fight. Longer cooldown skills/buffs are now easier for me to notice instead of having to constantly track them while fighting I just wait for the shiny blue light in the left/right/bottom middle of my screen to turn off.

[madro]

Yeah the new UI is HORRIBLE for abilities. The last hot fix seem to fix most of my lag problems, but now I guess when the abilities come up because they are shaded.

 

Note, my 50 sorc has none the ability problems with this patch oddly enough.

[andrew_b_gross]

The reason it got changed is because enough people *****ed about not being able to tell if abilities were on CD or not. If you played this class enough where you were actually essential to a raid, then you would know the timers on your own for your abilities. Not to mention you would have no issue with focus, because you would've already been good enough at the class to have just enough for everything that you needed.

 

****, I'm pure pvp on this char and I still know my ability's CD enough to not **** that up. So what are you doing wrong then?

 

<shrug> My guild is doing Hard Mode Operations and I kill my boss first in EV Council, so I assume I'm not doing too bad.

 

If you are blessed with the capacity to keep track of multiple timers down to one-tenth of a second precision in your head, then you're gifted, and instead of insulting other people who aren't gifted, you should be grateful and try to cultivate some empathy for those less fortunate. For myself, my internal clock for a 12 or 15 second countdown can be off by as much as 1-2 seconds, which is obviously completely unacceptable for purposes of playing well, as you miss an entire GCD by getting your timing wrong.

 

And even if my internal clock was perfect, that still doesn't help with proc based effects, or effects that rely on other conditions.

 

Your statement about never being low on Focus is simply strange. It is not possible to maximize damage without spending Focus, and in the normal course of a 6 minute battle, thre will be multiple occassions on which you have an ability that is available that you don't have the focus for, and need to throw in a Strike or a Force Leap for Focus generation. If you are never encountering this, then it means you are not spending enough Focus quickly enough to be maximizing your DPS.

[mattnaik]

Can anyone explain why it was changed in the first place? I mean before the 1.1 change (or whatever version they screwed it up first on).

 

What was wrong with the way it was on release?

 

You take something that isn't broken, then you change it and break it for many people. Then you change it again and break it more. Logic would dictate that "hey, nobody complained before, maybe we should put it back the way it was?"

 

I don't get the logic here. Unless I'm missing something and people WERE complaining about the way it was on release?