The problem is for classes where your spell range is 35+ yards and hunter especially where if you get closer than 15 yards you can’t cast at all. That leaves you a 5 yard window to stand in which given tight quarters positioning in many dungeons is simply not practical.
Trying to manually target a specific mob in an AOE pile is impossible, especially with friendly targets standing in front of them. Tab targeting is unreliable and will most often pick targets that are way off in the distance.
But the real nail in the coffin for me is this tells me that Blizzard has no interest in seriously develloping classic, and are just putting in the absolute bare minimum effort required to cash in on nostalgia while killing the private server scene.
They already have the code to do occlusion culling if they are really that worried about a PVP advantage. Marking targets pretty much already accomplishes the same thing so it isn’t really a legit issue to begin with.
But they could have at least set the max range to the max castable spell range if they felt the need to cap the distance of useful information, instead of only letting melee players have access to that resource.
Just screwing over ranged classes with a bandaid fix shows a total lack of effort which I am not inclined to support, especially with no communication on these type of issues whatsoever.
Let me again tell you about the magic of tabbing. If you tab and something is in the vicinity of your screen, it will mark the target even beyond your actual ability to attack it. If it’s WAY in the distance it will not, but it will if it’s say, even 10 feet beyond your targeting range. Even if it’s not directly in front of you it will mark it. You’ll have to pan around to find it, but it’s marked and well out of its range for attacking you! It doesn’t work if it’s above or below you, though.
This makes for a more ‘realistic’ world experience in my opinion. I have the camera able to zoom out as far as possible and even in forested areas I can see and target anything around me. This should not be any trouble for anyone.
I think we’re just being a little spoiled here. Learn to play it a little differently than you’re used to and you’ll be fine.
Awareness?? fighting multiple mobs, how am I suppose to be aware of another mob casting an interruptible spell unless I’m constantly at 20y range?!
No, this fix doesn’t stop mages from casting spells obviously but it forces you to be at 20y minimum otherwise you won’t see other mobs health/buffs/casts apart from the one that you’re actually targeting.
Sure, 20y should apply to player nameplates but with NPCs it should be at least 30 or 40y.
I see that you’re a very experienced vanilla hunter player…
Leaving that aside, you just have to target using the tools the game gives you. This includes focus targets, target of target, next/previous target, clicking the mobs, etc. picking targets in large packs is hard, I agree. I disagree that it should be easy though. I play a hunter too.
Have you considered that maybe you’re not supposed to be aware of that? Particularly good players might become aware by seeing the animation, but if you don’t notice it then you didn’t notice it - that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Let’s stop the “supposed to be” talk one way or another, the comments are either subjective for why it’s a good thing or fallbacks to no changes while we have already had several changes.
I would just like to know whether they would be willing to consider changing this back or not, or be able to open a discourse into the merits of a longer nameplate distance versus shorter.
The best thing we can do is respectfully voice our concerns and hope for a new system, and let Blizzard give us the final reply.
You’re absolutely right! 5mobs stacked together, clipping through one another and I’m sure you’ll be able to see a casting animation from one of them from 30yards…
I already explained why clicking mobs isn’t an option. When you have 3+ in a pile plus melee characters, you can click all day without randomly hitting on the one you want (the one marked with skull).
i am having a REALLY hard time believing the limitation was 20 yards in vanilla. i played a warlock in vanilla and regularly used enemy nameplates while standing close to max range to cycle through dots on trash packs. it was DEFINITELY at least 30 yards, if not closer to 40.
See, this is what I remembered, too. I played a mage, and I remember looking at nameplates in raids…and I stood at max range routinely. We all did.
I admit that was a long time ago, but this 20-yard thing seems wrong. I mean, I’m gonna work with it if that’s what we’ve got, but I just don’t remember this limitation.
This is why just slapping a 20 yard barrier on this arbitrarily, screwing over range players while letting melee enjoy the benefits of the feature, tells me Blizzard are not actually serious about investing in developing WoW Classic.
Any blue communication whatsoever would help to convince me otherwise, but that is pretty much absent as well. What other conclusions am I left to reach other than to accept it is a phoned-in attempt at best?
I would really like to see them make more of an effort to communicate and consider a more reasonable compromise to these type of issues. Maybe they will, but so far I am shall we say, less than impressed.
Google ‘focus classic’, it’s an addon for classic wow which will give you a focus target. Then you can set it to the skull and use that to target it.
I know clicking mobs in a pack is hard, but you have tools for target selection. Personally I use a combination of clicking and next/previous target. Works fine.
This. Rogues and warriors and pallies get to use the nameplates. Ranged classes (including most healers) don’t.
And if this is how it was or there is a defined reason for the limit, then I get it. I’d like to have it explained, however, instead of hotfixed in the middle of the night with no comment.
From a PVP sense, sure it does. As it has been pointed out multiple times in this thread that nameplates need a hard coded limit between players. To prevent them from being utilized to detect hidden characters. That doesn’t just apply to Rogues. A Mage or Warrior could just as easily be lying in ambush and they shouldn’t be detected because you have nameplates toggled on and extended with a command.
It is quite obvious to me why this change was made. Though I do see a place to compromise when it comes to mobs/npcs.
So are Blizzard devs really that lazy they can’t add one single variable to their code to set the hard 20 yard limit for hostile PVP targets and not for harmless PVE targets?
Really? I should pay them for that level of effort?
yep, i remember it specifically because when we were progressing on KT, a combination of nameplates and standing at max range in the center of the room was integral. TONS of mobs in that early phase and tab targeting was a recipe for disaster. standing too close meant aggroing an entire corner of the room and a wipe. tab dotting the wrong mob, same effect. long range enemy nameplates helped avoid this.
this wouldnt have been possible with 20 yard nameplates.
