This has been in the game for so long that I’m starting to wonder if it’s intentional, for an extra layer of “challenge” or “uncertainty” during PVE encounters.
Every dungeon and raid uses the same dull pixelated AOE swirls that show when a dangerous ground effect will land. It’s a very specific visual, and it’s the same generic animation used every time. Every dungeon in TWW season 1 uses it.
The issue is the inherently low pixel count of the animation itself. The borders of the swirls often vaguely blend into the surrounding terrain, and random mechanics that use the animation will often kill you when you’re clearly standing outside of it.
The worst two offenders this season are the Necrotic Wake swirls used by Naz-rudah (the necromancer mini-boss before the bridge section) and the Mists of Tirna Scithe trash mobs during the maze puzzle section.
Even with my spell density and texture options on the highest setting, the swirls seemingly fade at the borders and disappear completely at the edge of their radius, which makes the “safe” area where you can stand completely based on guesswork.
I understand it’s a very old animation, but since it’s still used in literally all new content, I think it’s fair to say it needs to be significantly sharpened. Blizzard has hotfixed some of these swirls for season 1 to clearly define the borders (like the trash pulls before the final boss in Mists of Tirna Scithe that launch you off the platform if you stand in it).
But 90% of the swirl mechanics are still either incredibly dull, vague, or very difficult to see due to friendly AOE or forced camera zooms during hallway encounters.
WoW doesn’t use colour like FF to denote mechanics, it uses shape language. While I have no arguments against that choice being objectively more confusing they do at least keep that consistent.
Filled static swirl / line / object = Avoid
Filled swirl with central plume = soak (Plume disappears once soaked)
Outline Circle attached to player = Spread
Filled Circle attached to player = Soak (These typically either have plumes or are just extremely extravagant)
Arrow = Attached to your location coming from boss, hits everything infront of you.
There might be some very minor deviation from this. Like the soak arrows on houndmaster in Castle Nathria arrows I don’t remember having an indicator that you’re supposed to soak them but it might’ve been on the targeted player.
Best thing to do in WoW is to overcompensate, been that way since Vanilla. If you see a mechanic on the ground, assume the edges aren’t the true edges, move slightly further out.
It’s also 2024 and yet there’s still frontals with zero visual indicator. In the chaos of big mob packs it’s utterly ridiculous that you have zero way of telling where frontals are going.
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