Enable Health Bars For Support Roles

[Incarne.4927]

While doing the sous chef achievement I realized the timer used in this challenge, the bars over our heads, would be a great way to implement health bars in order to keep better track of our group members. There needs to be better health bars in the game, now more than ever since support roles are viable in multiple situations (raids, high fractals, open world PvE events, PvP). While the sous chef bars might not be the best "visually pleasing" health bars, I think it is definitely something that is way more important to have in game than the minimalist UI health bar design we have now.

customization options:

• Health bar transparency
• Health bar size
• Barrier (buff) on health bars
• Color options (changes color to Green, Yellow, and Red based on percentage of health)
• Visibility options for 5 man parties
• Option in options to enable, disable, and revert the style of these health bars for party and squad members.
• Red depleting health bar with a skull in the center for improved downed player visibility

I stand for all my support brothers and sisters out there! Our voices must be heard! In all seriousness though, we really need this to better support our group because in the heat of combat it is really hard to find a player that needs to be supported. That adds a new difficulty, which is the UI and that's not a fun challenge :anguished:

Health bars example:

[TEKnowledgy.1760]

been suggested many times since release of HoT. Probably even before then. So far there has been no dice.

[TwilightSoul.9048]

Yup, would be awesome, I have a healing ventari Build, fully equipped but never played because looking back and forth between the small party UI and then searching for where the person in need of healing actually i, is absolutely no fun, as much as I enjoy healing.But yeah I think there was an official statement about this topic somewhere and some point but I don't remember.

[Goettel.4389]

This.And:

• Movable health bars.
• Toggle health bars for all (non-party/raid) players within a set range (900?)

[Einlanzer.1627]

Yeah, not sure why we don't have this if they want support roles to be a thing, and I'm not sure why they wouldn't.

[Henry.5713]

Going to quote myself from the old forums:

_I remember reading a developer statement at some point. Something along the lines of healthbars not fitting the minimalistic UI style they are aiming for.Sounds pretty outdated nowadays with dedicated healers and their need to place a big number of ground targeted healing skills.

Either way, following options would be nice if we are ever going to see proper health bars outside non-compliant 3rd party tools. The latter two seem even more unlikely considering how we are yet to see proper customization options for any part of the UI.

DisabledEnabled for:– Party– Squad– Allies closest to you% TransperancySize_

[Henry.5713]

Going to quote myself from the old forums when we talked about this a few weeks ago:

@Henry.5713 said:

I remember reading a developer statement at some point. Something along the lines of healthbars not fitting the minimalistic UI style they are aiming for.Sounds pretty outdated nowadays with dedicated healers and their need to place a big number of ground targeted healing skills.

Either way, following options would be nice if we are ever going to see proper health bars outside non-compliant 3rd party tools. The latter two seem even more unlikely considering how we are yet to see proper customization options for any part of the UI.

DisabledEnabled for:– Party– Squad– Allies closest to you% TransperancySize

[Curennos.9307]

I tried playing a support role while doing some bounties in a group last night and could not agree more with the need for this feature. Having to mouse over people running around is a massive pain in the butt. It feels like I'm fighting anet' s UI in addition to whichever enemy I'm fighting at the time.

[Incarne.4927]

I made a post on reddit about this a few weeks ago, and a developer responded to it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6wozoc/in_regards_to_health_bars_for_healer_roles/dmal8t7/

[itspomf.9523]

Popping in to ask whether or not the GW2 Party UI (because I almost never use it) allows you to click a name or portrait to target that party member.

I know it did back in GW1 and was awesome for running any sort of healing or support, since you only had to click their name, slap your skill button, and waltz over to heal them.

I understand that we can't autopilot now, but we could get an indicator arrow that points out where said party member is. Or even a beacon of sorts, really, that points to the sides/corners of the screen and homes in on them as we pan around so we can run over to our buddy and get them within range for support. Any kind of visual marker that would help us identify who we're trying to help in a pinch would be amazing.

[Incarne.4927]

@fluffdragon.1523 said:I know it did back in GW1 and was awesome for running any sort of healing or support, since you only had to click their name, slap your skill button, and waltz over to heal them.This game doesn't have any kind of auto running to targets. I'd just prefer visible and customizable health bars. Clicking someone's portrait isn't really the greatest either because you're spending time to have to click on someone's portrait, then trying to find where their location is because of the small health bars/ nameplates, then within that time of just trying to find them they may already be dead. This causes us to just spam aoes hoping that something hits them.

[katniss.6735]

I'm in favor of it being party based. It would be cluttered with a squad. I'd like to see green for 75%+, yellow at 25% plus, and red below 25%, then gray if the player is out of range of all healing (1200 usually). A downed skull icon above the player in downstate sounds good. Nothing if they are dead.

[Incarne.4927]

@katniss.6735 said:I'm in favor of it being party based. It would be cluttered with a squad. I'd like to see green for 75%+, yellow at 25% plus, and red below 25%, then gray if the player is out of range of all healing (1200 usually). A downed skull icon above the player in downstate sounds good. Nothing if they are dead.

I stopped supporting for a while because its really annoying to try and heal people that I cant find. Making everyone stack on me isn't really a great idea all the time either, squishy builds will still be 1 shot regardless of Aegis/ heals eventually.

[Incarne.4927]

This idea could also benefit from visible health bars.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/6962/guardian-staff-needs-a-serious-rework-suggestions

[Incarne.4927]

Related Thread: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/193272#Comment_193272

[Mrs Lana.2506]

@Henry.5713 said:_I remember reading a developer statement at some point. Something along the lines of healthbars not fitting the minimalistic UI style they are aiming for.

Would like to have asked the guy why then does the event bar have to take up so much room without being able to be turned off. A bright orange Hummer blaring Sweet Home Alabama at 2am is more minimalistic than this UI.

@OP I agree with the idea of more visible health bars. As a learning druid for raiding this would aid me greatly. I don't know all the alts my raid buddies use, so I'll have to think about what character is the dardevil that's low and try to find them to heal if they're not stacked, etc. Just having some sort of bar that's not too invasive would be nice.

[Alchofas.8243]

Maybe, just maybe they plan to release this along side with update ui? if ever there is.

[Mrs Lana.2506]

@Alchofas.8243 said:Maybe, just maybe they plan to release this along side with update ui? if ever there is.

I hope they take advice from the playerbase. I mean, ICM is a popular addon for a reason. Also the redone character select screen done a few years back was amazing. Pity I can't remember who did it :(

[sacredninja.5236]

@katniss.6735 said:I'm in favor of it being party based. It would be cluttered with a squad. I'd like to see green for 75%+, yellow at 25% plus, and red below 25%, then gray if the player is out of range of all healing (1200 usually). A downed skull icon above the player in downstate sounds good. Nothing if they are dead.

Completely agree, Also, you know how u can have seperate parties within a squad? well besides only seeing Their health bars, i wish the player name tags had a different color from the rest of the squad.

I often decline squad invites as i hate having up to 50 blue dots on my mini map, and have 50 blue names around me, i want to be able to see who is in my squad and who is outside of squad, but still being able to see who is in the same squad party as me, maybe Squad can be a different shade of blue to party (within said squad) or a different color all together?

[JSmooth.7654]

Totally agree. Support roles should be battling against the game, not battling against the UI.

[Incarne.4927]

@Alchofas.8243 said:Maybe, just maybe they plan to release this along side with update ui? if ever there is.

There was word about a UI update? o_o> @Miss Lana.5276 said:

@Alchofas.8243 said:Maybe, just maybe they plan to release this along side with update ui? if ever there is.

I hope they take advice from the playerbase. I mean, ICM is a popular addon for a reason. Also the redone character select screen done a few years back was amazing. Pity I can't remember who did it :(

Does ICM have a health bar addon?

[Mrs Lana.2506]

@Incarne.4927 said:@Miss Lana.5276 said:

@Alchofas.8243 said:Maybe, just maybe they plan to release this along side with update ui? if ever there is.

I hope they take advice from the playerbase. I mean, ICM is a popular addon for a reason. Also the redone character select screen done a few years back was amazing. Pity I can't remember who did it :(

Does ICM have a health bar addon?

I don't believe so, but I was referencing it more in regards to the "minimalistic UI" comments.

I do wonder if whoever did ICM would consider making something like that, and whether that would be allowed by the devs (I don't see why not, but then again I'm not a dev).

[VaLee.5102]

Knowing Anet, good luck with that. I have more hope on Half Life 3 being released than this.

[Ildrid Ildhjertet.2489]

"I need healing!""Where the kitten are you""Over here!" - then they go down."Sec, my pet is coming..." shouts "Search and Rescue!"

Would be nice to see which person needs help, when 8 people are above 75%, 1 is at 10% and there's no way of knowing who that person is unless you know what every character looks like based on the first 5 letters in their name. Just spamming aoe healing and hoping they're close enough is usually not a viable option either.

[Incarne.4927]

@"Ildrid Ildhjertet.2489" said:"I need healing!""Where the kitten are you""Over here!" - then they go down."Sec, my pet is coming..." shouts "Search and Rescue!"

Would be nice to see which person needs help, when 8 people are above 75%, 1 is at 10% and there's no way of knowing who that person is unless you know what every character looks like based on the first 5 letters in their name. Just spamming aoe healing and hoping they're close enough is usually not a viable option either.

That's actually a really cool idea! I could imagine implementing some kind of in game emoji system that pops up over the player's head indicating different things similar to what you said, and it would be great for a social aspect too.