Spell/Combat Art FX Revamp Feedback Thread

[Kabahl]

Rothgar wrote:

Please post some specific spell names when talking about changes.  I've looked over some of the feedback and its not always easy to determine what spell you're talking about.

I looked at the Rift and I've played a Warlock for awhile so I'm familiar with the old one which was just big rocks.  Honestly, I like the new one.  It shows a glowing rift in the ground which is kinda cool.  I understand this is opinion and not everyone will agree thought.

As far as the notes for bards, which spells?  Some of the new effects still show the notes when you are casting but don't have the persistant note effects constantly playing.  These were the types of things that had the biggest performance impact because if it was a group buff like Selo's, the notes were playing on everyone in your group and those effects definitely add up.

Please provide some more examples, we aren't beyond making some changes. 

Anything on scout stealth abilities, and the fact that you're still transparent for 3 or 4 seconds while the "spell effect" is doing its thing, even though you may have been pulled, knocked, or otherwise taken out of stealth right away?  I don't need a fancy particle effect for stealth . . . opaque when you can see me, transparant when I"m in stealth . . . 

[Dreyco]

Charn@Guk wrote:

Rothgar wrote:

Please post some specific spell names when talking about changes.  I've looked over some of the feedback and its not always easy to determine what spell you're talking about.

I looked at the Rift and I've played a Warlock for awhile so I'm familiar with the old one which was just big rocks.  Honestly, I like the new one.  It shows a glowing rift in the ground which is kinda cool.  I understand this is opinion and not everyone will agree thought.

As far as the notes for bards, which spells?  Some of the new effects still show the notes when you are casting but don't have the persistant note effects constantly playing.  These were the types of things that had the biggest performance impact because if it was a group buff like Selo's, the notes were playing on everyone in your group and those effects definitely add up.

Please provide some more examples, we aren't beyond making some changes. 

Anything on scout stealth abilities, and the fact that you're still transparent for 3 or 4 seconds while the "spell effect" is doing its thing, even though you may have been pulled, knocked, or otherwise taken out of stealth right away?  I don't need a fancy particle effect for stealth . . . opaque when you can see me, transparant when I"m in stealth . . . 

Honestly though:  On my assassin?  I love it.  It's like he's phasing in and out of visibility.

As far as someone's comment on Magma Chamber is concerned:  It's a Magma Chamber:  Made of fire, right?  Why would it be a giant hammer?

I could see some clerical stuns, however, using the hammer graphic, as it is common for clerics to be associated with hammers.

[Dreyco]

And on that note..

Why did you change the Mystic Single Target ward effect on mystics?  It was awesome!!! Now it's just a few sparkly pyramid particles! 

[Kabahl]

Dreyco wrote:

Charn@Guk wrote:

Rothgar wrote:

Please post some specific spell names when talking about changes.  I've looked over some of the feedback and its not always easy to determine what spell you're talking about.

I looked at the Rift and I've played a Warlock for awhile so I'm familiar with the old one which was just big rocks.  Honestly, I like the new one.  It shows a glowing rift in the ground which is kinda cool.  I understand this is opinion and not everyone will agree thought.

As far as the notes for bards, which spells?  Some of the new effects still show the notes when you are casting but don't have the persistant note effects constantly playing.  These were the types of things that had the biggest performance impact because if it was a group buff like Selo's, the notes were playing on everyone in your group and those effects definitely add up.

Please provide some more examples, we aren't beyond making some changes. 

Anything on scout stealth abilities, and the fact that you're still transparent for 3 or 4 seconds while the "spell effect" is doing its thing, even though you may have been pulled, knocked, or otherwise taken out of stealth right away?  I don't need a fancy particle effect for stealth . . . opaque when you can see me, transparant when I"m in stealth . . . 

Honestly though:  On my assassin?  I love it.  It's like he's phasing in and out of visibility.

As far as someone's comment on Magma Chamber is concerned:  It's a Magma Chamber:  Made of fire, right?  Why would it be a giant hammer?

I could see some clerical stuns, however, using the hammer graphic, as it is common for clerics to be associated with hammers.

Yeah, it LOOKS cool, but when I "phase" into stealth, and get knocked OUT of stealth as soon as I went in, it still LOOKS like I'm in stealth . . . and it has now become a detriment when using concealment and get my stealth attacks off for Fatal Followup.  If I miss, I want to know RIGHT away so I can use something ELSE to get me back into stealth to maximize Fatal Followup.  Now it just makes it much harder to do that.  

[snowli]

the questline sundered simulacrum has a nice graphic when the quest object is used, although I don't want to see it over-used on every mystic cast (the way those ugly blue manga swirls by feet are now) - it would be very appropriate to some shammy spells.

[Javosk]

Ugly blue manga swirls? It looks like spirits circling. Aren't shamans all about spirits and such?

[katalmach]

Vosk@Lucan DLere wrote:

Ugly blue manga swirls? It looks like spirits circling. Aren't shamans all about spirits and such?

The blue sperm circling around my mystic now is not nearly as evocative of spirits as the old animation: violet arcane mists swirling about our feet, summoned from the Grey Fields, the ancestors from whose spirits we draw our power represented by helmets (which subtly represent both the ancestors that once wore them and the fact that helmet = protection = wards).

Fact is, a lot of people find the old animations superior. There's also a minority who seem to find the new ones nice (I don't get this at all, but I respect your opinion). The only way I can see SOE making everybody happy is to allow the players to choose themselves. Like SOGA! Rothgar, I know the devs have claimed you can't support two sets of graphics (though personally I think it's more of "won't" rather than "can't"), but I really don't see why not. For any new spells you decide to bring into the game, give them new graphics, and as for the old ones, just lets us choose whether we want Original or New effects.

My account's been cancelled since GU57 went live, but it's still active until November. I don't know whether I'll ever subscribe again, but I can tell you that if you made it possible for me to have my old spell effects back, it would definitely be a huge positive in favour of re-subbing. I'm not rage-quitting or stamping my feet or anything - just wanted to let you know that the spell effects are a huge deal to me, and I'm sure others as well.

[Kenrod]

One tidbit i'd like to throw in is it seems like a lot of mobs are still using the old spell effects. Was in KC yesterday and the casters were throwing warlock spells, and they were the same as before GU57.

So we've been told the devs can't and won't manage two sets of spell effects for players. But mobs are still using the old ones.

Isn't that managing two sets already?

[Felinu]

Rothgar wrote:

Please post some specific spell names when talking about changes.  I've looked over some of the feedback and its not always easy to determine what spell you're talking about.

I looked at the Rift and I've played a Warlock for awhile so I'm familiar with the old one which was just big rocks.  Honestly, I like the new one.  It shows a glowing rift in the ground which is kinda cool.  I understand this is opinion and not everyone will agree thought.

As far as the notes for bards, which spells?  Some of the new effects still show the notes when you are casting but don't have the persistant note effects constantly playing.  These were the types of things that had the biggest performance impact because if it was a group buff like Selo's, the notes were playing on everyone in your group and those effects definitely add up.

Please provide some more examples, we aren't beyond making some changes. 

Bolded the important part.  The persistant note effects are exactly what I would like back!  I said this earlier in the thread, but I'll put it up again:

Class: Bard

Spells: All Buff Spells

Issue: Where have my notes gone?  I used to have notes up for all the buff spells, and now I have one, lonely little note left from Don't Kill the Messenger.  A note you are probably going to take away when you redo the AA spells.  Please give them back!  Make them a fun spell, make them just effect me, something.  I made a Troub because I loved the persistant notes, now I haven't played her since I logged in to test the "new effects." 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In addition:

Class: Troub

Spell: Selo's Accelarando (no I can't spell, why?)

Issue: This is just nit picking but... isn't Selo's a drum spell?  When I logged in to test my troub's effects (or lack there of), Selo's was using a guitar animation!?!?!?  It's been percussion since EQ1... it was confusing, I thought I'd hit the wrong spell.

[drakkenshie]

Rick777 wrote:

^

HOLY crap, that was one of the biggest QQ's I've ever seen on this forum, and a QQ about someone else's QQ, lol.

Personally I am quite bummed at the new spell effects, they took all the variety and uniquness about casting spells in EQ2 and replaced them with a purple aura, blue aura and yellow aura (at least that's what the majority of my Templar spells are now).  It's quite sad, and we KNOW they won't support 2 sets of spell fx (it's not that they "cannot", it's that they "will not", let's get that straight).

A  lot of the mobs in the game use the old effects, so it seems they are maintaining both sets.

[drakkenshie]

Charn@Guk wrote:

Anything on scout stealth abilities, and the fact that you're still transparent for 3 or 4 seconds while the "spell effect" is doing its thing, even though you may have been pulled, knocked, or otherwise taken out of stealth right away?  I don't need a fancy particle effect for stealth . . . opaque when you can see me, transparant when I"m in stealth . . . 

Actually, in a more general sense, there is a problem with timing on a lot of the new FX.

I play my conjuror with a mystic, and I watch for her wards before sending out my pet.

The timing is off enough now that I can end up tossing aggro to her or even attacking with the ward not up at all.

I've seen spells fail and the animation continues, or animations continue long after the spell worked.

So it seems like a review of timing versus animation needs to be made across the board.

This is double XP weekend but maybe I can put together a list later as I run my various alts.

[drakkenshie]

Uguv@Mistmoore wrote:

The constant bard notes are what people are missing.  They worked fine on the 4-year-old Pentium 4 I used to use, even in a raid on high quality settings.  I think it had an ATI x850? card in it, which isn't exactly top of the line.

Yea, I still have a hard time believing this was done for performance.

GU57 has made my system run slower during group and raid runs.  Its not faster and the animation is lower quality.  If that was the goal maybe something else changed in the graphics system that has negated the benefit?

As far as all the fireworks in a raid... I find the new FX even more confusing.  Tons and tons of very similar effects and lots of yellow, very difficult to pick out unique and important effects.  I'm a very visual person and I used the effects to know what was going on, especially with certain classes like clerics and shamans, and stealth characters.

Now they look much alike, and the timing is off so it can be more difficult to get my timing right in a fight or on a pull.

[Kabahl]

drakkenshield wrote:

Charn@Guk wrote:

Anything on scout stealth abilities, and the fact that you're still transparent for 3 or 4 seconds while the "spell effect" is doing its thing, even though you may have been pulled, knocked, or otherwise taken out of stealth right away?  I don't need a fancy particle effect for stealth . . . opaque when you can see me, transparant when I"m in stealth . . . 

Actually, in a more general sense, there is a problem with timing on a lot of the new FX.

I play my conjuror with a mystic, and I watch for her wards before sending out my pet.

The timing is off enough now that I can end up tossing aggro to her or even attacking with the ward not up at all.

I've seen spells fail and the animation continues, or animations continue long after the spell worked.

So it seems like a review of timing versus animation needs to be made across the board.

This is double XP weekend but maybe I can put together a list later as I run my various alts.

I've actually notice that too, especially that the animation goes off even though the spell fails.  THIS is something that should NOT happen.  A visual cue is one of the first things players look for to know a spell or combat art is successful or has failed.  Trying to rely on thousands of lines of text scrolling by, even IF you have a window with just YOUR stuff in it is not really a viable option.  As it it, I have to figure out the EXACT fail text message the game gives me, then enter it into Advanced Combat Tracker and set up a Text-to-Speech message letting me know . . . so now I have to rely on a third-party program instead of the game itself (and even WITH ACT it's not the best solution, because now I have so many things in ACT it can't speak all of them at once).  

Can you please fix it so animations DON'T happen if a spell fails (or at the very least STOP once the fail condition happens) and (at least for me) stealth and invisibility let's us know immediately when we are in and out of stealth/invis.

[quetzaqotl]

for furies im mostly happy with the changes finally we get some insects on our well insect spells, would be nice however if the insects would continue to swarm the mob until the spell runs out.

Also on starnova I actually like the new graphic the problem is however the damage is done before the fireballs hit the target which is weird its quite a slow casting spell it would be nice if the fireballs would connect with the target at the same time the damage is done (I know you could shoot fireballs and run away which would look weird if the fireballs would connect with the damage I mean but still the way it is now doesnt really work imo, I used to be able to do that in 2004/5 tossing nuke balls then cancelling em by moving looked awesome like machine fire hehe). Also the thunderbolt spell is a bit of a let down as some of our other spells use the same particle the lightning bolt in them call of storms and wrath it looks a bit feeble I had no problem with the red/purple lightning bolt to make it stand out more or maybe in a change of sfx making it more crackle and boom

[Dreyco]

Charn@Guk wrote:

Dreyco wrote:

Charn@Guk wrote:

Rothgar wrote:

Please post some specific spell names when talking about changes.  I've looked over some of the feedback and its not always easy to determine what spell you're talking about.

I looked at the Rift and I've played a Warlock for awhile so I'm familiar with the old one which was just big rocks.  Honestly, I like the new one.  It shows a glowing rift in the ground which is kinda cool.  I understand this is opinion and not everyone will agree thought.

As far as the notes for bards, which spells?  Some of the new effects still show the notes when you are casting but don't have the persistant note effects constantly playing.  These were the types of things that had the biggest performance impact because if it was a group buff like Selo's, the notes were playing on everyone in your group and those effects definitely add up.

Please provide some more examples, we aren't beyond making some changes. 

Anything on scout stealth abilities, and the fact that you're still transparent for 3 or 4 seconds while the "spell effect" is doing its thing, even though you may have been pulled, knocked, or otherwise taken out of stealth right away?  I don't need a fancy particle effect for stealth . . . opaque when you can see me, transparant when I"m in stealth . . . 

Honestly though:  On my assassin?  I love it.  It's like he's phasing in and out of visibility.

As far as someone's comment on Magma Chamber is concerned:  It's a Magma Chamber:  Made of fire, right?  Why would it be a giant hammer?

I could see some clerical stuns, however, using the hammer graphic, as it is common for clerics to be associated with hammers.

Yeah, it LOOKS cool, but when I "phase" into stealth, and get knocked OUT of stealth as soon as I went in, it still LOOKS like I'm in stealth . . . and it has now become a detriment when using concealment and get my stealth attacks off for Fatal Followup.  If I miss, I want to know RIGHT away so I can use something ELSE to get me back into stealth to maximize Fatal Followup.  Now it just makes it much harder to do that.  

I see where you're coming from.  So maybe instead of the current effect, something very similar, but briefer would be appropriate?  So the awesome phasing still happens, but it doesn't "Hang" as much?

[snowli]

I think a lot of the timing issues may well be because a 3 second animation for a 3 second casting spell in the low (eq2X) levels makes a lot of sense, however when you suddenly reach the mega gear flation of SF and everything hits cap, a 3 second animation on a 1.5 second casting spell now looks weird.

[snowli]

aITEM -1661444058 2046241211:[Geographic Simulacrumator]/a

this was the quest item that produced a nice graphic that could be used for some mystic stuff I mentioned earlier in thread

[Kabahl]

Dreyco wrote:

Charn@Guk wrote:

Dreyco wrote:

Charn@Guk wrote:

Rothgar wrote:

Please post some specific spell names when talking about changes.  I've looked over some of the feedback and its not always easy to determine what spell you're talking about.

I looked at the Rift and I've played a Warlock for awhile so I'm familiar with the old one which was just big rocks.  Honestly, I like the new one.  It shows a glowing rift in the ground which is kinda cool.  I understand this is opinion and not everyone will agree thought.

As far as the notes for bards, which spells?  Some of the new effects still show the notes when you are casting but don't have the persistant note effects constantly playing.  These were the types of things that had the biggest performance impact because if it was a group buff like Selo's, the notes were playing on everyone in your group and those effects definitely add up.

Please provide some more examples, we aren't beyond making some changes. 

Anything on scout stealth abilities, and the fact that you're still transparent for 3 or 4 seconds while the "spell effect" is doing its thing, even though you may have been pulled, knocked, or otherwise taken out of stealth right away?  I don't need a fancy particle effect for stealth . . . opaque when you can see me, transparant when I"m in stealth . . . 

Honestly though:  On my assassin?  I love it.  It's like he's phasing in and out of visibility.

As far as someone's comment on Magma Chamber is concerned:  It's a Magma Chamber:  Made of fire, right?  Why would it be a giant hammer?

I could see some clerical stuns, however, using the hammer graphic, as it is common for clerics to be associated with hammers.

Yeah, it LOOKS cool, but when I "phase" into stealth, and get knocked OUT of stealth as soon as I went in, it still LOOKS like I'm in stealth . . . and it has now become a detriment when using concealment and get my stealth attacks off for Fatal Followup.  If I miss, I want to know RIGHT away so I can use something ELSE to get me back into stealth to maximize Fatal Followup.  Now it just makes it much harder to do that.  

I see where you're coming from.  So maybe instead of the current effect, something very similar, but briefer would be appropriate?  So the awesome phasing still happens, but it doesn't "Hang" as much?

That would be perfect, I don't DISLIKE the effect, but, even if I'm soloing a mob, and I use a stealth, it will still LOOK like I'm in stealth for a few seconds before the particle effect goes through it's thing, even though I KNOW I'm gonna be hit out of stealth immediately.  Soloing, it's not that much of an issue ('cause I KNOW it's going to happen) in raids, I can't predict if I"m going to miss an attack, or get hit by an AoE, or another mob, or someone casts something that pulls me out of stealth, or a dot . . . . or a myriad of other things one has to contend with in a raid.  The graphic DOES look cool, just make it stop immediately, and turn me opaque again, so I KNOW I'm not in stealth.

[drakkenshie]

snowline wrote:

I think a lot of the timing issues may well be because a 3 second animation for a 3 second casting spell in the low (eq2X) levels makes a lot of sense, however when you suddenly reach the mega gear flation of SF and everything hits cap, a 3 second animation on a 1.5 second casting spell now looks weird.

The old special effects always matched: the timing, the spell, the animation, the visual indications of over-time effects... they all matched.

Since the old animations matched even when you were hasting, etc, seems like the new ones should.

Also, this is happening with all spell levels in many cases.

Aside: and to be honest, I still can't see the difference between low and high level version of a spell.   It all looks the same on my system and I have all settings turned up to max.  Earlier this morning I got a new apprentice spell for my conjuror and cast it.  Then I upgraded to master and cast it.  The FX were the same in both cases, guild mates thought so too.

[snowli]

drakkenshield wrote:

snowline wrote:

I think a lot of the timing issues may well be because a 3 second animation for a 3 second casting spell in the low (eq2X) levels makes a lot of sense, however when you suddenly reach the mega gear flation of SF and everything hits cap, a 3 second animation on a 1.5 second casting spell now looks weird.

The old special effects always matched: the timing, the spell, the animation, the visual indications of over-time effects... they all matched.

Since the old animations matched even when you were hasting, etc, seems like the new ones should.

Also, this is happening with all spell levels in many cases.

Aside: and to be honest, I still can't see the difference between low and high level version of a spell.   It all looks the same on my system and I have all settings turned up to max.  Earlier this morning I got a new apprentice spell for my conjuror and cast it.  Then I upgraded to master and cast it.  The FX were the same in both cases, guild mates thought so too.

Yeah, old spells effects did seem to time to casts properly, also I can't tell the difference between versions/tiers really either.

[wayfaerer]

Class: CoercerSpell/Combat Art Name: Destructive MindComment: Please return the /cringe emote at the end of the cast, it added a lot of character to the spell and was very noticable since it's usually cast pre pull when everyone is standing around doing nothing.

[Dreyco]

While we're on Assassin Spells...

Class: Assassin

Spell: Death MarkRecommendation:  The spell effect is fine.  What I have a problem with is that my character stops what he's doing to ... point at the mob.  That seems a little corny.  Any other animation would be more appropriate.

[Chefren]

Rothgar wrote:

As far as the notes for bards, which spells?  Some of the new effects still show the notes when you are casting but don't have the persistant note effects constantly playing.  These were the types of things that had the biggest performance impact because if it was a group buff like Selo's, the notes were playing on everyone in your group and those effects definitely add up.

If you add some notes to the self buffs "Death's Door" (blue notes for Dirge) and "Daelis' Dance of Blades" (gold notes for Troubador) only the bards will get them. Alternatively revamp the fun spells "Lyssa's Perpetual Motion" (blue notes for Dirge) and "Brusco's Flavorful Aura" (gold notes for Troubador) to allow people to control this effect separately from the self buffs.

While I'm posting, I might as well say that in my opinion the pre-LU13 Dirge stealth skill "Valim's Dark Song" had the best stealth animation/effect I've seen so far. Singing a song of darkness is a lot more appropriate for a Bard than Shroud or this new glowy thing. So consider bringing it back please!

[Calain80]

My main is an Inquisitor. Most of my spells look OK, but there is one spell that really doesn't. Our group heal "Alleviation". While casting this spell we get some black lines coming out of our back that look more like a graphic glitch then a spell effect. I thought it was a bug for some time until I saw that the Templar group heal has the same spell effect but in gold. Please change that to something different. Either give us at least also the gold spell animation as all other cleric heals share this gold spell effect or give us real black wings or a completely new spell effect. I think it would look cool, if the whole group would get a golden light wandering up their body. It could start at their feet and end going all around the body for a short time.

[Casmack]

Give a option to use old or new spell effects.... The new one flat out suck they are very boring......so give US ( your paying customers ) the option to choose between them or just go back to old ones =)

[Jrel]

Dreyco wrote:

While we're on Assassin Spells...

Class: Assassin

Spell: Death MarkRecommendation:  The spell effect is fine.  What I have a problem with is that my character stops what he's doing to ... point at the mob.  That seems a little corny.  Any other animation would be more appropriate.

Perfect animation for this would be a "slit the throat" emote

[Titigabe]

Class: Wizard

Spells: Immolation, Incinerate, Magma Chamber, Numbing Cold, Fire Storm, Ro's Blade.

theriatis wrote:

 ...

Numbing Cold: Looks very good now....

Please tell me that on this one, it's a joke? You really think this new Numbing Cold effect is good NOW? So, better than the old icy rain effect?

Now, it just a big polygonal white circle shock wave. It's flat, the texture is a total fail. And it's the same for Firestorm, they share the same stupid effect but in red. The effect last 1 second on the screen and is clearly poor for an AOE.

Incinerate and Immolation are too polygonal too. The fire column (not sure how to describe this wow-ish effect ...) is too straight, flat and transparent. Not giving a fire impression. Hey, know what? Just google it, and there you'll have more sources of inspiration ...

Incinerate?

Immolation?

Firestorm?

Magma Chamber?

Ro's Blade?

I've lost any hope to see again our nice particle effects back. A few were really boring and needed an upgrade. I mean, an up to date upgrade. I don't understand why did you do that? When looking at actual visual effects any Nintendo DS video games offer, I can't admit you came to that. I can't admit you decide to downgrade them.

What we have now is flat, uninspired and makes me feel sad. Leaving EQ2 is my last solution, since I'm no more happy with what it has became and were it's going. We'll never have a rollback, they'll never admit it's a big impact on the game experience since this system fits their desire for the EQ2X features. It's now a sale argument for the EQ2X players: you wanna see bigger effects (not to say still sucking)? Then upgrade your account and you'll have acces to Expert and Master versions of your spells.

[Midoriko]

Finally coming in to post here.

With six 90 adventurers and two more over 80...I would have to say that overall, I'm split still.

Overall I find them to generally be lackluster and repetitive. Not a whole lot of diversity. Especially amongst healers.

My mystic is alright, I do miss the green lines on torpor but I can live without. I like the new wards...but nothing else really impresses me. Ancestral avatar, thee bull animation, miss that too.

My scouts...I play three scouts. I would have to say that escape is the stupidest animation ever. Especially on my froglok dirge. He crouches over and flails his arms out looking very...fruity. This is the one I REEEEALLY dislike(see below!). Also unhappy with dirge animations in general. Seems to be a lot of green vomit flying from my mouth onto the mob(these are meant to be songs??) and crotch thrusting at the mob. Which is sortof..dirge..appropriate...if I was Michael Jackson dirge? Just a lot of green suspicious looking fluids flying off my weapons And outof my mouth, on the dirge. o.0 Troub is very rainbowy. Friend called them the new illusionists. Have to agree there.

Coercer, really unhappy here. Very lackluster and not coercer like at all.

Shadowknight stuff is more or less neat, same with warlock. I actually like the new Rift.

Ranger....wow you did something right with my ranger! I like the new animations here.

Druid...my warden now throws leaves at group members! It was sortof funny to just whack group members in the face with explosive green radar pulses that proc LEAFSPLOSIONS but it's just meh now. I find myself missing the old rings. But that's just the main heals...overall meh. Liveable.

Cleric...the reactives look the same? I guess I glow now. Very unnoticeable here.

Oh edit! Bring back Pestilence

[Whilhelmina]

Rothgar wrote:

Please post some specific spell names when talking about changes.  I've looked over some of the feedback and its not always easy to determine what spell you're talking about.

I looked at the Rift and I've played a Warlock for awhile so I'm familiar with the old one which was just big rocks.  Honestly, I like the new one.  It shows a glowing rift in the ground which is kinda cool.  I understand this is opinion and not everyone will agree thought.

As far as the notes for bards, which spells?  Some of the new effects still show the notes when you are casting but don't have the persistant note effects constantly playing.  These were the types of things that had the biggest performance impact because if it was a group buff like Selo's, the notes were playing on everyone in your group and those effects definitely add up.

Please provide some more examples, we aren't beyond making some changes. 

We don't want to revert SOME spells, we wan't the ability to switch between the old set and the new set !

[S_M_I_T_E]

I'm going to steal from Theratis on this one his list is pretty good - Now that I've had a couple of weeks to play with the new effects here's my takeaway -

CLASS: Wizard

Numbing Cold - I liked the thick snowstorm particle effects before

Flames of Velious - I liked the bigger ice before.

Solar Flare - Rare cast, but yeah it's fine

Magma Chamber - I miss the hammer so I know my stun hit -

Shackle - Bigger chains please

Furnace of Ro - I can live with the FPS but I liked the old thicker one -

Incinerate - Ok, matches the rest of the "wow-fied" spells

Storm of Lightning - Ok, rare cast so I'm eh about it

Glacial Wind - Ok -

Surging Tempest - I too wish this was a little bigger -

Iceshield - I prefer the original version

Fireball - This new one is better -

Ring of Ice - Wowified - prefer old one

Fusion - Although the new one looks more "cold" arguably I'd prefer the classic one here made with a blue tint.

Firestorm - I miss the thicker fire

Ice Comet - The one that is on live now is pretty neat -

Ro's Blade - I miss the circling swords upon cast

Sidenote: Honestly with the exception of Ice Comet and Ball of Fire I prefer all the original ones.  I just don't see how you all can't just have our played characters show the original GPU intensive effects and have all other rendered character effects show as "wow-ified"... That or have EQ2X under different GPU effects than Live... The decision ot wow-fy all spells but 2-3 signature ones per class was by definition a comprimise but it sucks for those of us who built machines to handle eq2.

Class: Inquisitor

Verdict - I like the faster dropping gavel now