EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire - Spell/Combat Art FX Revamp Feedback Thread

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Hi everyone! EQII FX Artist Hemophobe would like some feedback from you:We have updated, optimized and standardized every class spell visual in the game. We have not touched AA, NPC, Pet and Entertainment spells yet, and plan to get to them in later game updates.Based on constructive feedback received from the Test Servers over the past few weeks we have made quite a few changes and we invite those that posted to take another look at your favorite spells. At this time we cannot provide an option to use the old spell visuals simply because we don’t have the manpower to support two versions of every spell and combat art. But don’t despair, we will continue to tweak the FX and animations based on player comments and these changes will be released with the next game update. So if you find one of your favorite spells has been altered or removed please let us know and we will internally discuss whether or not a change is possible. Please use the form below to provide us with your helpful, courteous, and constructive feedback.Class:Spell/Combat Art Name:Comment:Thanks very much, and we will see you in the newly updated starting zones!UPDATE: UPDATE: UPDATE: UPDATE: UPDATE:We are very sorry for the confusion, but it turns out that many of the fixes we made did not get loaded to Live as intended. We will have all of these issues resolved and a Hot Fix will be implemented on Tuesday next week.We did listen to your feedback and we did make many of the changes you asked for. Some of them made it in, and others did not. Most obvioulsy the casting rings are missing, and some of the casting animations are still incorrect. Again we apologize and we will get this resolved. In the mean time please hold all feedback until after the next Hot Fix. We will then revist your feedback and adjust them as needed for future game updates.Thank you for your patience and understanding.

<cite>Amnerys wrote:</cite><blockquote>At this time we cannot provide an option to use the old spell visuals simply because we don’t have the manpower to support two versions of every spell and combat art.</blockquote>Even with all the additional revenue generated by Station Cash?That said:PredatorEvasive ManuversThe animation basically makes you fall down for a few seconds mid combat, its really irritating, can it be changed please.

not sure why, but my defiler now has a blue ring circling him. I know enchanters used to cause this to show up with their power regen spell, but its gone for them. Very annoying to constantly see this blue ring.its not anything gear or defiler spell related. also not mount. Only thing i didnt test was potion of enlargement, it has 13 hours left.

Please please fix the paladin spell consecrate effects!!! Its a DoT - and now it continues to go off but there is no longer an effect for the duration of the spell, so you cant tell its going off without searching for the icon in your spells window - its very annoying to have NOTHING happening while a combat spell is going off.The old spell had a shaking/earthquake effect and little blue mushroom clouds that went off with each tick of the DoT - now u get a one second effect when first cast and nothing after.please fix this - DoT spells should have an effect for the entire duration of the spell. And I am lvl 90 with it grandmastered.

Also - cloak rendering appears to be broken. While wearing my guild cloak and standing around a bunch of folks from other guilds in SS - all their cloaks change to altrernate versions of my guilds cloak - then , as i draw closer - it goes to the correct one - moving back and forth u can see two or three cloak designs depending on distance from the person.

Well, I'm sure this won't be considered helpful, courteous or constructive given the responses we received (or didn't receive) in the testing forums. But with all due respect to Hemophobe, this spell effects change has really missed the mark on all levels. I'm afraid that unless you add an option to toggle between old and new effects, or simply revert the change in favor of restoring the old spell effects, people just aren't going to be pleased with this, regardless of tweaking. Personally, I'd like to offer my opinion on what can be changed and fixed, but suffice it to say, the new spell effects look so incredibly underwhelming and simplistic, that overall they would need to be completely beefed up across the board. Tubby posted a perfect illustration of what is wrong with the new spell effects, and it appears that that information went largely unheard. I'll re-quote it here in case it was simply missed:<blockquote><cite>Tubby@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>Have mastered out 90 SK I copied over to test to check these new animations out. Review below.Unending Agony: Green bubbles at your feet, fine. But practically unviewable on the mobs, I have no idea which have been hit. Its way way too fast, and the animation has your shield/weapon disappear instantly as you raise your hands, only to pop back into existance when the arms warp back into place. Horrible.Death Cloud: See Unending Agony. Only thing better is at least your weapons don't disappear.Tap Veins: What is this even supposed to be? Again, no understandable particles on the mobs. You have green streamers that spin? I am a SK, not a cheerleader with a ribbon wand.Doom Aura: Losing my black spinning cloud of horror made me want to weep, revert this. This spell used to be so awesome I would just spam it to see it when bored.Grave Sacrament: Used to be instantly recognizable, unmissable, a ghost would rise from the ground and grow huge on each enemy, amazing. I don't even know if this has particles on the mobs anymore, it looks kind of like a like pink/red blink of maybenothing now.Shadow Coil and Malice: Both now look like an instant puke green 2d crayon quality line that connects to the mob. Upside, unlike the rest of the effects I can actually see this one on the mob. Downside, no one in their right mind would want to see this one at all. Bring back the bluish spinning bolt of energy that flew in an arc to the mob.Taunts (all): All taunts now seem to just bloom a 3 prong 2d pink/red spike above the mobs head, it reminds me of the fireflowers from Super Mario Bros. And every taunt does this, including reactives and procs it seems, its incredible annoying, as a group of mobs will be procing this above their heads every second of every fight I am every going to be in. This effect alone will probably make me want to kill myself from repetition boredom.Mana Sieve: The PINNICLE of old SK graphics, the blue/purple neon-esq lines that actually seems to be alive as they twist from the mob slowly enough to be appreciated back to your hands. You could tell that one was made with love when they revamped the spell before. Now you just glow a little blue, and if anything connects to the mob its impossible to notice. The guy who made the old effect must be crying right now.Dreadful Wrath: Old - a giant bolt of lightning slams into the target from the sky. Nobody could miss it, you knew they just got hit with the snare nuke, period. New - nada so far as I can tell, the mob glowed a bit red for a split second.Harm Touch and Devour Vitae: Before, a huge glowing skull appears above you as it pukes out flaming orange life down onto you for like 5 seconds, a wonderful effect. For HT a skull eats at your target and an identical one opens puking purple lifeforce back on you. Also amazing. Now, a terrible looking tiny 2d green skull ubiquitously appears for a second above the mob for every lifetap. They are tiny, boring, ugly, and identical for every darn lifetap, inlcuding procs it looked like.Devouring Mist: No longer has any spell particles on the mobs, the SK glows blue and does a small sparkly thing, not sure what it was. It used to make a mist of blue/purple particles literally explode out from each target.Unholy Blessing: Used to actually see 3 deathly colored wards/runes go up, and ominously appear and disappear for the duration of the ward. Now you just fountain out a few 2d green spikes a foot into the air and then blink like pac-man getting immunity for a second. I feel like I'm seeing an 8-bit nintendo effect from metroid or final fantasy 1. I am nostalgic as the next person but this change is just mind blowingly bad.Death March: A plethora of neon purple/pink stick figures identicle to those seen on resteraunt bathroom doors flys up from my head...[Removed for Content]?! Used to be you glowed a more and more intense orange red as your floated up into the air arms splayed, character shaking in anger or something, you literally seemed to vibrate. Boggle at the change.Pestilence: Such a unique effect before, black and dark blue expanding bubbles of oil appear, grow, and consume the target. That is the old one. The new one is a neon green glowing mob for a moment with a few more neon green fuzzies leaving it at angles.Grim Harbinger and Unholy Hunger: Not bad, not great, but not bad.Unholy Strength: I glow neon blue while a blue bear foot symbol appears above me...not sure i understant that one. Meanwhile my feet glow red in a red circle. I guess I at least look like an American Flag for a moment...Offensive / Defensive Stances: Total letdown. No more animation at all, zilcho. The animation was so expressive before, your toon looked like someone you don't want to F with when he slammed the sword into the ground. And now you've replaced that in favor of a 2d crossed sword or blue shield for a split second above my head, with ZERO character movement. One screamed what you are doing using body language, this just assumes you are too stupid to know which you pressed.Feign Death: This one looks kind of cool, I am unsure though what is covering your face. Looks like tenticles, wish they lasted longer to tell. And the body changing colors for a while isn't bad, you can tell its hit you.I know I missed a few, too dishearted to even bother with them at this point. Overall you cannot tell what is being cast, what is landing on whom, or if things have even succesfully been cast in some instances. I don't know if my taunt landed, or if the taunt spikey thing I'm seeing was from my damage shield taunt, and that makes a huge difference in things like PVP.It really took losing them to appreciate how amazing the SK effects were, I mean I always like them, but in hindsight you had made some truely fantastic spell effects. Its a tragedy what you are doing to them. Yeah, I can see them in a raid now maybe, but I don't want to, in fact I'm sure I'll turn them all off full time now. It WILL kill my immersion into this game, at least on my SK. Haven't tested the brig and conjy yet.Revert all of them fully, just scrap this, its a joke, but its not funny.Sadly signed,A disappointed SK.</blockquote></blockquote>

<cite>Lader wrote:</cite><blockquote>not sure why, but my defiler now has a blue ring circling him. I know enchanters used to cause this to show up with their power regen spell, but its gone for them. Very annoying to constantly see this blue ring.</blockquote>Clearly your character has learned the fine art of hula hoop and stole it from the chanter.

I'm back from live.The effects of my Paladin have been castrated.No flashy strikes. No neat arcs of lightning as she attacks.Flares of slight gold around the heads of the mobs. That's all that's left of what my Paladin once had.Castigate used to be this huge flash and flare of blue-white light around Pheep and each mob it hit. Now? Flares of gold around their heads, the blue-white light around Pheep only.Consecrate...omg I loved that spell. Huge bouts of flame wh-booming about each mob hit. Now? Flares of gold around the head per flash.Her ward, the beautiful flash of the shield that would swirl around her until gone? Now it's just a brief flash of a ring of gold that spins around in an oval from top to bottom.I remember as I leveled Pheep the "Whoa!" factor when I set off her abilities for the first time. I remember startling my groupmates the first time I set off Consecrate, Smite Evil, Castigate.I remember the same for my Wizard.I remember seeing the rocks tumbling from the sky when I first grouped with a Conj, the sight and sound is why I have been considering a Conj for the longest time. The same for the Warlock's spell which rips rocks from the ground up around the mobs. That's why I made a Warlock.Now all of this, what makes the game fun and neat, is gone.Effects are what make this game beautiful. Now it's ruined.Please, at least have Expert and Master level effects be equal. Not everyone is lucky enough to have plat to purchase masters. Not everyone plays with a mastered toon.The largest thing that's disappointing for me is that after having a computer that couldn't handle midway effects since the game launched, and now that I do, all the neat shiny that I've had for the last few months is being taken away.I raid on Balanced setting with particles and such set to high. I love the chaos of the effects of players and mobs. It truly is an assault on the mob's lair. It's what a raid should look like. The same is true of instances as the players rush in.Please give back at least a bit more effects. Maybe not what we all once had, but enough to make the game fun again.

I checked my other toons, a L90 Wizard, L90 Swash, L85 Warden, L39 Dirge, L22 Warlock.I'm disppointed.I'm unhappy.I really do not want to play the game anymore.It's silly I suppose to be this upset over effects, but for me it was the largest attraction.Seeing what other classes did for effects was a huge draw to play one. Sure, damage and such is important, but where's the fun of doing hundreds or thousands of points of damage if it doesn't look like it hurt?I remember the first time I saw these ice spears fly from a Wizards to stick in the mob. How they vibrated from impact for a moment before disappearing. I amused him with my "Holy **** what was that?!" in chat. That has always been in mind when I grouped with at Wiz. Those spears looked like they hurt.When I saw the Wiz aoe with the ice spears falling down on the mob, same reaction.Effects are an integral part of the game for the vast majority of players. When I chatted with folks at Fan Faire, inevitably the description of the effects went along with how they damaged a mob. How effects looked as their toon cast a spell or CA.Please, reconsider.I want to play the game again.

<cite>Lhunara@Guk wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well, I'm sure this won't be considered helpful, courteous or constructive given the responses we received (or didn't receive) in the testing forums. But with all due respect to Hemophobe, this spell effects change has really missed the mark on all levels. I'm afraid that unless you add an option to toggle between old and new effects, or simply revert the change in favor of restoring the old spell effects, people just aren't going to be pleased with this, regardless of tweaking. Personally, I'd like to offer my opinion on what can be changed and fixed, but suffice it to say, the new spell effects look so incredibly underwhelming and simplistic, that overall they would need to be completely beefed up across the board. Tubby posted a perfect illustration of what is wrong with the new spell effects, and it appears that that information went largely unheard. I'll re-quote it here in case it was simply missed:<blockquote><cite>Tubby@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>Have mastered out 90 SK I copied over to test to check these new animations out. Review below.Unending Agony: Green bubbles at your feet, fine. But practically unviewable on the mobs, I have no idea which have been hit. Its way way too fast, and the animation has your shield/weapon disappear instantly as you raise your hands, only to pop back into existance when the arms warp back into place. Horrible.Death Cloud: See Unending Agony. Only thing better is at least your weapons don't disappear.Tap Veins: What is this even supposed to be? Again, no understandable particles on the mobs. You have green streamers that spin? I am a SK, not a cheerleader with a ribbon wand.Doom Aura: Losing my black spinning cloud of horror made me want to weep, revert this. This spell used to be so awesome I would just spam it to see it when bored.Grave Sacrament: Used to be instantly recognizable, unmissable, a ghost would rise from the ground and grow huge on each enemy, amazing. I don't even know if this has particles on the mobs anymore, it looks kind of like a like pink/red blink of maybenothing now.Shadow Coil and Malice: Both now look like an instant puke green 2d crayon quality line that connects to the mob. Upside, unlike the rest of the effects I can actually see this one on the mob. Downside, no one in their right mind would want to see this one at all. Bring back the bluish spinning bolt of energy that flew in an arc to the mob.Taunts (all): All taunts now seem to just bloom a 3 prong 2d pink/red spike above the mobs head, it reminds me of the fireflowers from Super Mario Bros. And every taunt does this, including reactives and procs it seems, its incredible annoying, as a group of mobs will be procing this above their heads every second of every fight I am every going to be in. This effect alone will probably make me want to kill myself from repetition boredom.Mana Sieve: The PINNICLE of old SK graphics, the blue/purple neon-esq lines that actually seems to be alive as they twist from the mob slowly enough to be appreciated back to your hands. You could tell that one was made with love when they revamped the spell before. Now you just glow a little blue, and if anything connects to the mob its impossible to notice. The guy who made the old effect must be crying right now.Dreadful Wrath: Old - a giant bolt of lightning slams into the target from the sky. Nobody could miss it, you knew they just got hit with the snare nuke, period. New - nada so far as I can tell, the mob glowed a bit red for a split second.Harm Touch and Devour Vitae: Before, a huge glowing skull appears above you as it pukes out flaming orange life down onto you for like 5 seconds, a wonderful effect. For HT a skull eats at your target and an identical one opens puking purple lifeforce back on you. Also amazing. Now, a terrible looking tiny 2d green skull ubiquitously appears for a second above the mob for every lifetap. They are tiny, boring, ugly, and identical for every darn lifetap, inlcuding procs it looked like.Devouring Mist: No longer has any spell particles on the mobs, the SK glows blue and does a small sparkly thing, not sure what it was. It used to make a mist of blue/purple particles literally explode out from each target.Unholy Blessing: Used to actually see 3 deathly colored wards/runes go up, and ominously appear and disappear for the duration of the ward. Now you just fountain out a few 2d green spikes a foot into the air and then blink like pac-man getting immunity for a second. I feel like I'm seeing an 8-bit nintendo effect from metroid or final fantasy 1. I am nostalgic as the next person but this change is just mind blowingly bad.Death March: A plethora of neon purple/pink stick figures identicle to those seen on resteraunt bathroom doors flys up from my head...[Removed for Content]?! Used to be you glowed a more and more intense orange red as your floated up into the air arms splayed, character shaking in anger or something, you literally seemed to vibrate. Boggle at the change.Pestilence: Such a unique effect before, black and dark blue expanding bubbles of oil appear, grow, and consume the target. That is the old one. The new one is a neon green glowing mob for a moment with a few more neon green fuzzies leaving it at angles.Grim Harbinger and Unholy Hunger: Not bad, not great, but not bad.Unholy Strength: I glow neon blue while a blue bear foot symbol appears above me...not sure i understant that one. Meanwhile my feet glow red in a red circle. I guess I at least look like an American Flag for a moment...Offensive / Defensive Stances: Total letdown. No more animation at all, zilcho. The animation was so expressive before, your toon looked like someone you don't want to F with when he slammed the sword into the ground. And now you've replaced that in favor of a 2d crossed sword or blue shield for a split second above my head, with ZERO character movement. One screamed what you are doing using body language, this just assumes you are too stupid to know which you pressed.Feign Death: This one looks kind of cool, I am unsure though what is covering your face. Looks like tenticles, wish they lasted longer to tell. And the body changing colors for a while isn't bad, you can tell its hit you.I know I missed a few, too dishearted to even bother with them at this point. Overall you cannot tell what is being cast, what is landing on whom, or if things have even succesfully been cast in some instances. I don't know if my taunt landed, or if the taunt spikey thing I'm seeing was from my damage shield taunt, and that makes a huge difference in things like PVP.It really took losing them to appreciate how amazing the SK effects were, I mean I always like them, but in hindsight you had made some truely fantastic spell effects. Its a tragedy what you are doing to them. Yeah, I can see them in a raid now maybe, but I don't want to, in fact I'm sure I'll turn them all off full time now. It WILL kill my immersion into this game, at least on my SK. Haven't tested the brig and conjy yet.Revert all of them fully, just scrap this, its a joke, but its not funny.Sadly signed,A disappointed SK.</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>QFE. +7.<cite>Seliri@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote>I don't like how keyboard shortcuts no longer show on hotbars that have an icon size of 22 (pixels?).They used to show, and now they don't.Keyboard shortcuts appear on hotbars with an icon size of 26 at least, but I dunno if they appear within that point differential from 22-26.I also don't like how the cowering animation wasn't fixed for heals like they said it would be.Aaand I'm not fond of how the Doom Judgement or Consecrate spells didn't keep their default effects.The new effects are a LOT worse and it kinda sucks that development time was wasted on these things, but, meh. O_o</blockquote>

I dislike the new illusionist effects, the old ones were much better IMO. I personally hope there are plans to add an option to change back to the old versions.

<cite>Lhunara@Guk wrote:</cite><blockquote>Personally, I'd like to offer my opinion on what can be changed and fixed, but suffice it to say, the new spell effects look so incredibly underwhelming and simplistic, that overall they would need to be completely beefed up across the board.</blockquote>This about sums it up. I went through a bunch of my warlock spell animations and was very disappointed. I know this feedback was already received on test, so I had some hopes that things would be adjusted, but I'm seeing about the same as I saw then.Not impressed in the slightest.

Going to repost my last question on the testing thread. I really would like an answer. We all deserve one.<cite>Hemophobe@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>There are currently no plans to allow players to switch back to the old FX, but we put the new Spell FX on the Test Server first to get feedback and replace those Spells that were deemed “Class Defining” and/or “Most Beloved.” We have gathered the information from players and Devs and have restored those FX to their former glory. </blockquote>So, which ones, exactly, were changed back? Because I really can't find a single instance of one on any of my toons. Rift is still a joke, and i'd say that spell is VERY class defining and beloved. All the reactives for my healer are that pukey yellow 2d PS1 1995 pulsing effect. Reactives for a cleric are pretty..um..class defining.So which ones were "restored to their former glory". Seriously. I want to know.

The new spell-effects are unimpressive, and a downgrade in every regard. Accross the board.If the goal was to get more people to play with them on, then.. I don't know. I just turned them off.

<cite>Pheep@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>I remember the first time I saw these ice spears fly from a Wizards to stick in the mob. How they vibrated from impact for a moment before disappearing. I amused him with my "Holy **** what was that?!" in chat. That has always been in mind when I grouped with at Wiz. Those spears looked like they hurt.</blockquote>Here's an excellent example. The subtle details of things like the vibrations from impact on Flames of Velious and the awesome feel the the effects from Rift gave made casting them fun.The new animations make me feel like I'm playing an old Super Nintendo game at best.

Thank you Sony. When people asked me before what some of the differences were between WoW and EQ2, I always went to "graphics and spell effects" first. I mean, WHO really thought this was a good idea? I played around on my Necro and my wifes Warlock....Necro isn't to bad. Mostly spinning skulls and green puke... I still prefer some of the old effects..Warlock? You have to be kidding me! Rift was reduced to kicking pebbles into the air. No shake effect anymore.. nothing. I am not gonna waste my time going on about each spell and how bad it was turned into..End the end it becomes about greed. Worried with the dwindling population and thinking some of it may be because people could not handle the game on their system, you go and make things.... well you get the picture. The game doesn't need the devs going through and making all spells one name, combinging all crit type, bonus dam/heal, etc into one pool, changing spell effects, etc etc etc. Hell, with flying mounts coming in with the next xpac I am starting to feel like this is just a copy of WoW.. Thanks for wasting all these years and money on a game with a staff that well.. to be blunt.. don't give a crap.

I know someone mentioned this elsewhere, I can't find it, so my apologies.A toggle on/off would be a wonderful thing to have, to toggle these animations to what they once were if that's what the player wants.

<cite>Pheep@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>I know someone mentioned this elsewhere, I can't find it, so my apologies.A toggle on/off would be a wonderful thing to have, to toggle these animations to what they once were if that's what the player wants. </blockquote>It was stated in the testing thread that there are no plans for that, and it isn't going to happen. Rainy day outside here, and a grim day for EQ2 imo.

Class : CoercerSpell/combat art name: AllComments: There was nothing wrong with the spell/combat animations for the past 5+ years of the game and it has not improved any performance that I can notice. It is another unneeded/unwarranted change for the worse for a game that really doesn't need any help in that department.If you want to add this kind of animation to Hello Kitty Online I am sure it would be well received but it doesn't really fit in this game. If it was to make it easier to attract people who may not have the system to push the graphics then set the animations on a lower setting or off when the people install and run it for the first time and give them the option to turn it up if they want, but don't remove the options the vets have had since the beginning.This change is a gamebreaker for me but I am just one person so it wont really matter right?

<cite>Durzin@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Pheep@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>I know someone mentioned this elsewhere, I can't find it, so my apologies.A toggle on/off would be a wonderful thing to have, to toggle these animations to what they once were if that's what the player wants. </blockquote>It was stated in the testing thread that there are no plans for that, and it isn't going to happen. Rainy day outside here, and a grim day for EQ2 imo.</blockquote>They once said that about mounts. Now we can toggle them on/off.Why can't they do the same with effects?I say we keep asking for it. Maybe they'll listen.Sure it's a Han Solo quote, "Never tell me the odds", but there's still that chance.If we don't complain, politely yet loudly, they won't hear that we hate it.Sure on the testing thread there wasn't much said by red names, but this is different. The change is live. Everyone sees this now, not just the testers. So maybe, just maybe, there will be a bit more inclination by those in charge to listen.

Class: PALADINSpell/Combat Art Name: CONSECRATE IIIComment: Out of all the changes to our spells, the only one I truly am sobbing over is Consecrate....please see below...<cite>Kaalenarc@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Please please fix the paladin spell consecrate effects!!! Its a DoT - and now it continues to go off but there is no longer an effect for the duration of the spell, so you cant tell its going off without searching for the icon in your spells window - its very annoying to have NOTHING happening while a combat spell is going off.The old spell had a shaking/earthquake effect and little blue mushroom clouds that went off with each tick of the DoT - now u get a one second effect when first cast and nothing after.please fix this - DoT spells should have an effect for the entire duration of the spell. And I am lvl 90 with it grandmastered.</blockquote>Ok, so there is some confusion regarding Consecrate on my server. I had two paladins tell me that it was exactly the same (as in how it looked yesterday) for them. However, when a few other paladins tested it, their animations look like mine, and just like how you are describing.At Grandmaster (level 84) Consecrate III looks like a flash of yellow light at the first hit, then nothing else, just like you described.Please, please, please can this be addressed.

Hopefully you can be optomistic enough for both of us Pheep hehe.I've been through the SWG CU and NGE, through LU 13 in this game, and now this. I really just don't have it in me anymore to have false hope that they'll listen to us anymore and do anything we request. The mount thing, yeah that did eventually become a reality. After 5 years.

The spell effects could have benefitted from tweaking. But this overhaul is missing the mark by a long way.The focus of these changes should have been on improving gameplay by making certain abilities more obvious, to eliminate the need for everything to be macroed in chat. In many cases this could have been done by slightly increasing the visibility of major buffs and debuffs, ensuring they were visible to all players (and balancing against framerate by making non-critical spells invisible), and making the graphic persist for the duration of the debuff.e.g. what would be good:- Vines/Chains from Root/Snare spells persisting for the duration of the spell- Lights from Mez persisting for the duration of the mez- Pool of blood / dripping blood from a dispatched mob, again clearly visible for the duration of the debuff- Unique sounds and visuals for class-defining big hits (assassinate/fission/apocalypse/etc.)As it was, the particle effects in EQ2 were some of the best in any MMO, clearly done with a lot of time, artistic talent, and thought from the original designers. Their only flaw was that they weren't tied closely enough to the gameplay to make them a useful visual cue in most cases. What was needed was pulling these together, not replacing high-quality effects with lower quality ones for the sake of it :/Incidentally, I think Hemophobe is going to take a lot of unfair personal criticism in this thread. He's really been set up for a fall by development leads asking him to replace particle effects created over 3 years by a large team, with new ones created singlehanded over 3 months. Of course the new ones are going to be weak in comparison. What they need is a coder, not an artist, to tie the visual effects to the durations of spells more closely, and work on a selective visibility system that lets people see the most relevant effects to gameplay reliably.

Class: WizardSpells: AllThere needs to be an option to change back to the old spell animations. Playing my wizard is now less appealing then before, The spell animations are too simple and they all seem to look the exact same. Low quality graphics, I feel like I am playing a cheaply made Free to Play MMO. These new spell animations are a major turn off when it comes to the Roleplay aspect of EQ2 that I heard about before joining the game.

I play a wizard. I've played a wizard for literal YEARS now, nearly a decade.Why are there rocks now every time I cast a spell?Why did you ruin fusion? It looks ... it's pathetic.I just went through the entire line up of my spells, one by one. I feel like my amazing and awesome wizard who I loved suddenly lost her verve. Her appeal. Her shazaam. This was the most awful update I've experienced ... well, ever. Could you not have left it to the F2P server and left us alone? Seriously? The spell effects were impressive, fun, and bright before. I -LIKED- casting spells before. I could turn them down for raids, if I had to, but for regular hunting/grouping, I was fine. It was awesome to fusion a group of baddies. It looked like I was combusting an atom just to see the bad guys shrivel into dust.Now... God. Now, I'm contemplating what the hell you were all thinking.P.S. It's like the NGE of spell effects.

<cite>Finneli wrote:</cite><blockquote>Class: WizardSpells: AllThere needs to be an option to change back to the old spell animations. Playing my wizard is now less appealing then before, The spell animations are too simple and they all seem to look the exact same. Low quality graphics, I feel like I am playing a cheaply made Free to Play MMO. These new spell animations are a major turn off when it comes to the Roleplay aspect of EQ2 that I heard about before joining the game.</blockquote>THIS. It needs to happen tomorrow.

Class: Various Spell: All control effects Issue: Animations should persist the entire duration of the effect. -- Class: Coercer Spell: Destructive Mind Issue: Not a fan of the illusionist-style rainbow effect that covers my character still, can something more creative be thought of? The previous animation did not exactly say "destructive mind" but this one doesn't either. -- Class: Coercer Spell: Spell Curse/Hostage Issue: Looks like I'm swinging a tennis racket on both of these. Annoying by appearance for one, annoying because they're so similar and I personally cast them around the same time frequently -- gets to be very repetitive looking. The spells should have unique appearances, and neither really needs to be a tennis swing.

As far as I can tell, the thread over by In Testing Feedback does a good deal of summary over the effects, since it feels like absolutely nothing was changed for inquisitor after I tried to summarize them there. I will add that my red/black smoke cloud inquisitor ring is gone and I miss it dearly, but I now randomly get blue pulsing rings at my feet that I have since been completely unable to identify what they belong to (how's that for intuitive?). It couldn't be Inquest, since it's gone off when I was casting, if it was reactives they go off long, long after I cast it, and all of this only really happens in battle.This smacks of a marketing decision. Change for change's sake, if you will. After playing EQ 2 for years, I've simply grown to identify the vast majority of spells visually and audibly. Inquisitor particularly feels like I'm going to have to take weeks just casting, recasting, and looking at all of the spells to even figure out what in Norrath is going on. The spell effects alone will be impossible to fully identify, due to the fluctuations (or flat out spells not appearing/bright) of skill level.If nothing else, I'd ask for a list of changes that were claimed to have been reverted. From the sounds of it, the fighter heals have a cower animation (which was claimed to be fixed specifically, glad that was said). If we're not going to be listened to, be honest. If you tell us that changes were made and some were returned to their old glory, uh, at least be specific.

As some of the above SKs already said.The old SK effekt particle effekts fits al lot better to the SK class one as the most of the new ones.I know this change is driven from streamlining the spell effects to make this game more accessible for new players (f2p streaming client etc.) But what this game shouldnt give up is the point that some of its effects look far better then in diffrent games. Some of this things of this are it that motivates players to play this game.The following Spells are those that i will think are the most coolest anmimation from the SK Class.Class: SK/PalaDoom Jugdement !- Old one: a blue glowing black Smoke Tentakle whirling around. This is by far one of the coolest animations for the SK class. please leave it the way it is.- New one: a light blue and Pink Paper Streamer whirling around you.Suggestion: Please let us keep the old animation. It stands for our class ( And forgod sake let even the pallys keep it.. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /> )Class: SKUnending Agony- Old one: A disease cloud that surounded you and your enemys- New one: a Neon Green circle with some boubles pops up to your feet (this animations is shared with Death Cloud)Suggenstion: switch disease cloud animation to Death Cloud, would better fit the name. Keep new Aura for unending Agony.Class: SKLiftaps Spells (Siphon Strike,Devour Vitae, Harm Touch)-Old one Purple energies sparkle around your hands, youre surounded in a blood cloud and a stream of orange glowing life force emerges to a big Green skull who devours it.-New one: Your Hand lights up neon green an a small cartoonish looking Pirate skull symbol in neon green yawns over your head... (Neon Greem Pirate Skull seems to have disapeared ont Test)Suggestion: Please let us keep or OLD Green Life Tap Skull. Its Old ... but its cool...Class: SKMana Sieve:-Old one: A large cool looking swirl of energy is drain from the enemy to the Shadowknight.-New one: Hands glow blue, a hardly visible cone with a zick zack without animation connects enemy and Shadowknight.Suggenstion: please keep the old animation. It was really cool already.Class: SKDeathmarch:-Old one: SK raises his hands and floats of the Ground while firy energys suround him.-New one: White circles soounds SK while some Space Invader looking incons in "pink!" starts from the SKs head. aditional a neon blue symbol pops over your head. (Icons already patched to black. Maybe other Icons and its ok)Suggenstion: How about replacing the Space Invaders with the Ghost skull anmimation that is in game ( see darklight wood fountain of souls, near starting village)Class: SKTap Veins:- Old one: Only the Lifetap animation- New one: a green Paper Streamer whirling around you. Suggenstion: Please dont do that. Better nothing than a paper streamer...Class: SKPestilenz:- Old one: black boubles infect the target.- New one : neon green boubles infect the target a shorte while.Suggestion: let the pest be black...Class: SKGrave Sacrament- Old one: Human Ghost shape rises from SK and all Targets Hit- Ne one: A big Red "Satelite dish" pops in front of the SK...Suggestion: Keep old animation or make something fitting skelletal hands from ground or something like this.

So, why did the devs embark to waste that much time and energy on something that almost every single member of the player base dislikes? All I have personally seen is negative feed-back on this whole spell/ca FX revamp. It was unwanted. There are so many things higher on the list of needs/wants than this that it amazes me how the devs could consider this a priority.If we can't have an option to change them back, how about just changing them back completely? Start a poll so that the players can vote...I for one don't even want to log my wizard anymore because I feel weak, the spell effects are a joke, and I do feel "Wizardy" any more.Can we pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese have our old spell graphics back? I miss my nukes, and my shackles...It shouldn't even be called shackle anymore tbh, what happened to my chains????In short, worst GU so far...and every GU I keep saying that but you guys really know how to surprise me.