Barrier Makes me Freak Out

I dunno about anyone else, but when i recieve the barrier buff it looks like my health gauge just lost a massive amount of health. I know that the health gauge displays the barrier hp's above in yellow and that the pool appears in white/yellow, (instead of black when you lose health) but i think its the way the HP gauge drops down so that it looks like i've lost a ton of hp's.

This has resulted in me using my healing skill numerous times, in panic that I've atually lost health.

I think a better way to do this would be to make the barrier gauge in a blue color (or light blue) and have it fade out as it wears off (keeping the health pool static). Instead of the health pool gauge plummeting the same way it does when you take damage.

I've been startled by this on several occasions, especially when someone sneaks up on me while fighting and starts tossing around barriers.

@Jumpin Lumpix.6108 said:I dunno about anyone else, but when i recieve the barrier buff it looks like my health gauge just lost a massive amount of health. I know that the health gauge displays the barrier hp's above in yellow and that the pool appears in white/yellow, (instead of black when you lose health) but i think its the way the HP gauge drops down so that it looks like i've lost a ton of hp's.

I have the same feelings. I think we need time to get used yo it.

Same. But now i start to getting used to it. Those numbers should have purple colour or such. Not yellow. Yellow is like warning! danger!

I didn't know what the heck it was at first! But I admit, it's a cool addition to the skills.

Eh, I've learned to quickly recognise it. There's always a few people pouncing off their jackal in group events, so it's something I often expect to see now.

I didn't realize what it was until recently, but my first encounter scared me. I thought it was an offensive condition from a mob that wore off in a matter of seconds. Something akin to a temporary life pool drain, forcing me to work with a lower HP pool for the first several seconds... a few big hits from the same or a partnered mob, and I'd be downed.

Once I realized what it was, I had similar feelings about how it's displayed. I feel endangered, not protected, though I'll get used to it with more encounters.

Samesies!!

I'd like it if only the numbers appeared like they currently do, but the health pool graphic didn't change. Incoming attacks could drain the barrier number first as expected, but really there's no need to dynamically adjust the health pool graphic like we're seeing today.

They should make a horizontal bar ,like necro's life force ,for barier hit points

I have the exact some problem lol.I'm doing a bounty with a large group of people when suddenly I get a lot of Barrier applied to me, and I freak out for a second because I think I'm about to die.

I agree, Barrier is really annoying and also totally useless because I blink once and it's all gone.

I get that they want to position barrier as "totally not a shield mechanic" by avoiding the typical blue colour used for shields like...everywhere else. But blue is a lot clearer for us red/green colourblind people (but clearly, it's not just us that have trouble with the current colour)

@Mea.5491 said:I agree, Barrier is really annoying and also totally useless because I blink once and it's all gone.

This.

Barrier has less duration, and is less effective than good old fashioned block.

As for the graphic, I don't understand why it wasn't just an additional field layered on top of the HP bubble that emptied down. You know, like a shield that uses the same visual language as the HP bubble. You don't need to see your HP when barrier is present. Its values change so fast that you're unlikely to care if it is technically a value over your max HP and you can't tell the difference between 14k barrier and 13K barrier at a glance. because your bar only goes to 12k

@Jumpin Lumpix.6108 said:I dunno about anyone else, but when I receive the barrier buff it looks like my health gauge just lost a massive amount of health. I

I flinch every single time. >.>

Barrier just needs to fill from the bottom, that way it wouldn't look like you were down HP. Problem solved and frankly more intuitive imo.

I feel like making the barrier blue or something would've been so much better, you need the player to instantly know what they received is beneficial, not have a minor panic attack because the colour looks like you've just taken a chunk of health in damage.

I agree , it is poorly implemented into the UI, basically they have shoe horned in it because they lack the ambition to make something better.

Took me a bit to get used to it, I feel the barrier could have been a different colour, but now that I'm used to it it doesn't give me those mini heart attacks anymore.

A couple ideas...

1) Flip it and have Barrier appear at the bottom of your health gauge, this would do quite a bit to stop the initial freakout when it appears.

2) Complete overlay in bright blue. Bright blue is associated with overshields in most online games, so seeing a health overlay in bright blue will instantly tell people "oh, i've got a barrier".

3) a Combination of the two.

I once never had this problem personally.When I saw it for the first time I was wondering "What is this? Is it healing me? What's going on?"After that, I usually not notice it that much or care as my brain already realized "Light area = good, dark area = run the hell away".

I have had the same reaction at times. The barrier often looks like low health and I would like the visual effect to be changed to something distinctive.

It looks too much like Deep Wound looked like in Gw1. And in Gw1, if you got Deep Wound you were about to die.

I've notice the freak out side of this effect im same we'll get used to it one day I try to remebr barrier yellow numbers rather than what hp looks like. I'm bit curious though about this effect on others will this effect cause certain traits to fail and or activate like say you do % ammount of dmg while above 90% health when this effect hits you lose or health ui becomes empty below 90% health in some cases ive seen by 50% until hp ui fills back also on vice versus say trait gives a bonus below 75% hp?

@nekretaal.6485 said:It looks too much like Deep Wound looked like in Gw1. And in Gw1, if you got Deep Wound you were about to die.

This is what I thought as wellDW was Scarry in gw1 except when I was the jerk with the axe giving it to you