Numerical Health/Mana/Energy, other UI tweaks..

It would be really nice if you could keep the numerical display on your bars all the time, instead of requiring a mouseover. I personally prefer numerical displays, and it would make it easier to avoid over-healing or over-charging mana and energy with your gems.

In the same vein, it would be helpful for a healing character to be able to see a party member's numerical health and maximum, either on the side or as a substitute to the H/E/M bars.

Other suggestions:

DoT Timers -- Don't remember if this was shot down when DoT gems were first introduced, but it would be helpful for a DoT caster if the icons had some display for their remaining time, either a small bar or a cooldown wheel. With longer duration DoTs, like the diseases, it would be nice to have an idea of the remaining time, to gauge the remaining damage and decide if it's worth refreshing the duration and combining the damage.

Gem Draw Timer -- Another helpful display improvement would be either a small timer bar or a cooldown wheel on your draw slot to indicate when your next draw is coming. Since catrips reset your draw timer, it would help time the use of those gems to maximize your effectiveness. Also, for someone like myself, who plays two caster characters simultaneously, it would make it easier to juggle the gem draws and such.

No Escape Icon -- When you begin a fight in an area you escaped or recalled to, you get the message that you'll be unable to escape from battle. However, the message displays AFTER you begin a fight, making it less of a warning and more of a condemnation. A small icon on your screen (like the escape potion with a slashed circle over it) with a mouseover text explaining that you can't escape would make a lot more sense, so you know what's happenning BEFORE the fight starts.

'Real' Mana/Energy costs -- Just a small number on gem tooltips that show the actual cost of the gem, after taking into account your Staves/Mental Conservation skill and your particular magic skill. Like 27 (17) on a Heaven's Glance Rank 2.

Adding the damage/time left on the damage absorbers would be handy as well. Especially the damage left.

I would love to see mobs hp in numbers when mouse handed over bar...

Originally Posted by Camli

It would be really nice if you could keep the numerical display on your bars all the time, instead of requiring a mouseover. I personally prefer numerical displays, and it would make it easier to avoid over-healing or over-charging mana and energy with your gems.

In the same vein, it would be helpful for a healing character to be able to see a party member's numerical health and maximum, either on the side or as a substitute to the H/E/M bars.

Completely agree with this.

Originally Posted by Camli

Other suggestions:

'Real' Mana/Energy costs -- Just a small number on gem tooltips that show the actual cost of the gem, after taking into account your Staves/Mental Conservation skill and your particular magic skill. Like 27 (17) on a Heaven's Glance Rank 2.

Being a wizard i ABSOLUTELY LOVE this idea. Instead of trying to figure out if you can cast something you would know exactly what you needed to know instead of attempting to cast something then have to wait 2-3 sec for the gem to go through the "cool down" period


Sho, The Fire-Mage

[edgecution]

Very nice idea. Would like to see a Dot timer.

You should be in NASA. Excellent post.