(screenshots below)
I understand that you might want to keep the API restricted, but even if it’s something as basic as these 4 it would be a massive improvement of quality. Please add it to the base UI:
- boss
- mini-boss
- fighter
- caster
- different color based on raid marks or focus
M+ will become unplayable without. Large pulls will be held back purely by the UI. Even if the issue is fixed that names will somehow be readable, there’s no world in which you can read names fast enough to even within 5 seconds figure out which mob is which.
I’ve tried with just names, I’ve tried with name + health, but it’s not going to work. There’s no world in which I can find a caster or priority target in the first pull of Cinderbrew, and don’t tell me to look at the mob, because mobs will stack on the same pixel and there’s no way to even select them. There’s a major disconnect between the nameplates and mobs.
Being unable to play M+ is going to be sub cancellation for me as it’s the primary content I play. Addons are indeed a crutch, but now you’re taking my crutches and not giving me anything in return.
Focus target is really hard to spot.
- Unselected:
https://i.imgur.com/TKeplSA.png, really hard to see
- Selected:
https://i.imgur.com/Ylq9wM8.png, not possible to see your current target is your focus
Here are some screenshots of roughly the amount of mobs in the first pull in Cinderbrew. It’s impossible to see which mob is which through just the nameplates.
https://i.imgur.com/7AbDkL2.jpeghttps://i.imgur.com/5jfzpPW.jpeg, I would never be able to find this caster in 12.0https://i.imgur.com/XB53Rvs.jpeg, even with just names most of them are unreadable
For comparison here’s retail with plater:
https://i.imgur.com/rutGUKR.jpeg, I can see and read the names, but i don’t really have to. Based on the colors I know exactly which nameplate belongs to which (type of) mob. I don’t have to spend half the fight trying to read names.- Unselected focus:
https://i.imgur.com/FBqAWDK.png
- Selected focus:
https://i.imgur.com/PyjZCFT.png
PvP has nameplate colors, so no reason PvE shouldn’t have:
https://i.imgur.com/as35XOX.png- Don’t forget unit frames being class colored in the base UI as well
Stacking nameplates is 100% unusable, for recordings see: The new stacking nameplate variant is horrendous - In Development / Midnight Alpha Test - World of Warcraft Forums. I will keep adding new recordings as the alpha goes on.
74 Likes
To add to this, coloring mobs based on their attack types was a big part of plater for me. Melee mobs are blue, casters are pink made a big difference for me in m+. There should be a toggle that allows “Colorized nameplates by class” or something like.
As a slight aside, another huge feature of some Plater imports was removing the first part of mobs names from the nameplate. I don’t need to know that every mob in a dungeon is a “Silvermoon Mage” what I need to know is that it’s a “Mage”. If I increase nameplate size for readability, all I see in the nameplate for the 5 mobs surrounding me is “Silvermoon…” which is useless. A toggle to shorten mob names so I only actually see the important part (“Mage”, “Warrior”) would be great.
37 Likes
I’d like to add that PvP still has class colors, so there’s no reason PvE shouldn’t have similar classifications.
16 Likes
Some of the issues I’ve noticed so far as a tank - the aggro indicator needs to be more visibly different in terms of color because it’s just red above red. My plater profile on retail has nameplates go green when I have threat and red if I lose aggro so I can quickly see when someone rips aggro. On alpha so far it’s not the same and it’s not visible enough.
13 Likes
I’ve played Fellowship for a bit, and it suffers from many of the same issues that M+ in WoW suffers from, one of them being the inability to quickly determine which mob is which. I just see a sea of blue, and reading the names and finding the right one takes me several seconds each pull.
The TL;DR is that I read the colors, not the names. There’s no world in which I can read the names of 10 mobs fast enough to quickly determine which one I’m aiming for, where as with colors this makes much, much faster and easier.
After a long day of work as a programmer I’m tired of reading. I just want to be able to glance at the nameplates and make a good-enough estimation to select one that’s most likely the one I want. If there’s 2 mobs with the same color, I can still fall back to reading, but then I don’t have to read the names of 9 other mobs because the color already narrows it down.
The lack of nameplate colors is also why I kinda stopped playing fellowship again, and it will be a reason why I stop playing M+ and therefor likely WoW if this isn’t made available.
18 Likes
Nameplates also need to be changed so that Height can be adjusted separately from width. This “fixed” width with height is garbage for people who need a taller nameplate without being so wide that it literally covers the screen. As it stands now, it’s terrible. And let me take the framing box off. I use Kui Nameplates on live & these new limitations you’re insisting we use is MORE than frustrating.
8 Likes
Bumb for visibility. Ion needs to understand that nameplate colors are ACCESSIBILITY.
8 Likes
Blizzard, if you want us to not play the UI but the game, then stop making the UI the obstacle. Give mobs nameplate colors just like you give players a class color.
7 Likes
Nameplate colors are very much an accessibility concern. If players are forced to distinguish by name alone, that could cause big problems for someone with dyslexia. Even without it, having a bunch of useless junk in their names (I.e. “Silvermoon Mage” instead of simply “Mage”) can cause a lot of problems. Perhaps each unit could have a full name (Silvermoon Mage) which shows up on the unit frame, and a short name (Mage) which shows up on the name plate.
Another possible solution: Color nameplates based on a hash of the unit name, such that any units with the same name will have the same color, and units with different names will have different colors.
7 Likes
Sadly it looks like they feel that fighting the UI is part of the difficulty.
2 Likes
The changes aren’t even wild. We already have:
UnitIsQuestBoss(unit)UnitIsBossMob(unit) - assuming this is also true for dungeon and raid bosses. If not, make it true.
Now add the following functions:
UnitIsLieutenant(unit) or UnitIsMiniBoss(unit) or somethingUnitIsWarrior(unit) or UnitIsFighter(unit)UnitIsCaster(unit)UnitIsRanged(unit)
2 Likes
That’s the crazy part isn’t it? Ion and the team seem to have moved from to the other rather quickly and easily: “We don’t want programs figuring out the game, we also don’t want you to figure out the game, and we certainly don’t want the game to make sense”
3 Likes
I agree with this. You should be able to color at least tank aggro nameplate. And I also need nameplate name letter shorthand. If you have multiple nameplates with similar names, it’s hard to find a specific target. Also, the nameplate up-and-down sort function is not complete.
Hey Blizzard, if you don’t want colors to make it easier to recognize the type of enemy you’re fighting, then maybe you should remove them from PvP as well.
Or you know, if 13 different colors for 13 different classes can be used in PvP, give us 13 colors in PvE as well.
https://i.imgur.com/as35XOX.png
1 Like
Nameplate coloring is mindless, that’s why they don’t want it
1 Like
Don’t care why they don’t want it, it’s what makes M+ playable for many players.
2 Likes
It’s mindless, it’s bad for the game
1 Like
Nameplate coloring is as mindless as having terrible visibility and not being able to see what’s going on. It’s not a higher skill game because nobody can see anything.
2 Likes
you shouldn’t be able to walk into an instance you’ve never done and immediately know what mobs are high value, what mobs are casters, and what mobs are funnel targets
1 Like