i dont get it. i have played Aion, i've played WoW, I've played Tera, I've played SWTOR. i should be used to "busy" spell effects, and yet somehow in GW2 i just can't see anything. you get 5 to 10  people in one place and it's a complete clusterfart or spell effects.

i dont know if they are just too fast, or too many, or too elaborate but every time i pvp and get into a fight it's a gigantic tsunami of lights/explosions/circles/colors/numbers.....and i just can't see crap or follow the flow of a fight, i can't even see animations or even characters.

this i just not enjoyable. did they just over do it, or am i getting too old for this type of games?

Originally posted by GreenishBlue
i don't find nothing wrong and I play the game at max settings; spell FX doesn't last long, but I understand if you are around a couple of mesmers

Yeah mesmers are pretty dazzling, when you are in a zerg with 5 of them it's like vegas, 4th of Fire works, and x-mas lights all at the same time.

Playing devil's advocate:

Could it be deliberate? I mean, think about it. In a battle with a dozen elementalists and mesmers hurling magic all over the place, creating illusions and raining fire from the skies, wouldn't it make sense that everyone is dazzled/blinded/can't see?

Just to add something: I am partially colorblind and I have a 79 guardian: I still have to see the first red circle on the ground because of all the effects. Even managed to finish a couple of dungeonruns with my children despite that.

Have no problems in other games.

Not a big fan of the combat; the effects just add to the chaos.

I am with you OP. GW2 have some visibility issues and spell effects is one of the bigger ones.

My favourite classes used to be melee but they are not enjoyable in GW2. Not because of class mechanics but because targets  losing focus, random camera weirdness depending on your race and height and the major one: Spell effect overload!

I would love checkbox options to select spell visuals:

• Own
• Target
• Allies, only combofields
• Allies, all
• Everything

But I guess the camera/FoV discussions have shown us that Anet are pretty stubborn about their games presentation so I will just stick to being a caster and add to the "problem" while I wish for some kind of visual relief ingame.

Because it seems more like filler for the simplistic combat, like the devs thought it would spice things up.  Korean F2P games have been doing it for years.

Lets face it "action" and "flash" has replaced deep and complex game mechanics.

I had the same problems while playing my warrior. Any group content and I lose sight of my target as well as use of my mouse cursor. It's difficult to even see if I'm in melee range without staring at the hotbar.

It should n't be like that.  Spell effects should be to enhance gameplay, not hinder it...

Originally posted by JoeyMMO
I often lose track of the cursor due to all the spell effects in a zerg. I doubt that's really deliberate. While I don't find the spell effects on their own all that overwhelming, not seeing the cursor is a hampering gameplay from time to time.

Same here, lol I thought that was just me.

If you are having problems in Orr, ask you Mom or Dad for a new game.

What you see is about as good as this game gets, which isn't saying much.

ps. good post, It made you sound older :-)  Unless it's just me ...I have multiple nephews and neices and that's how they talk too :P

Originally posted by GreenishBlue
i don't find nothing wrong and I play the game at max settings; spell FX doesn't last long, but I understand if you are around a couple of mesmers

The problem is usually more prominent with melee based classes, when the various effect explosions cover your target entirely and you can't tell what's happening.

Originally posted by JoeyMMO
I often lose track of the cursor due to all the spell effects in a zerg. I doubt that's really deliberate. While I don't find the spell effects on their own all that overwhelming, not seeing the cursor is a hampering gameplay from time to time.

I loose track of it even during calm times. It both disappears which is annoying AND it is just the wrong color.  It sucks because you need it to target spells.

A nice high contrast (black border, white center) cursor would be nice. Not in theme perhaps but at least you can see it.