So according to an interview, Blizzard are introducing context pings here.
For those unfamiliar with the ping system from games like LoL, Overwatch or Apex Legends, it basically lets you give context based alerts on common things that your teammates would notify you about that is easier to type out.
So you can use it to ping stuff like enemy missing, on my way (to a specific location), caution, or to target specific people in the middle of the fight, like killing the ADC just kinda hanging out picking his nose instead of focusing the tank. Plus some other specific stuff like spamming pings whenever someone screws up their flash.
What pings do you think WoW should use?
Some pings I would like:
Context target pings. So we can ping a target for either “Focus first”, “Interrupt this mob” or “CC this mob”.
Ground based pings like “Stack here” and “Avoid here”.
Defensive pings: “Use defensive abilities/health pots/etc” or “dispel allies”.
Or we could get more advanced pings like “hold cooldowns/stop DPS”.
I saw the announcement but was there a video or pictures? I’m curious how obvious they are. Leagues are like in your face and loud vs something like world markers that certain colors blend in with things.
Probs lame and obvious, but I hope for a personal color coded ping. I’d like to be able to ping a specific gold pile in Nelth, for example, without conflicting with other info based pings.
Something to get a dps to taunt some specific mob if possible for keys. If the tank is about to die and the dps can save it like if they can bubble taunt. Or like press earth elemental. Basically I don’t want to be micromanaging people but if dps aren’t going to pay attention to their group’s cds (and to be honest they shouldn’t have to) at least let me ping them.
Or just give me like 2 extra action bars and more macro space.
Nah, the only picture so far is a mockup made by WoWhead.
I think an audio aspect is 100% necessary to make any ping system work. It’s too easy to ignore small icons or text otherwise.
If you’ve played any amount of LoL or Metal Gear Solid, you can hear that icon.
I think Apex Legends does this REALLY well.
You have all sorts of pings you can use, but the real heavy lifting of ping systems like Apex is the generic ping which changes context based on what you’re pinging.
If I use the generic ping on a target, it tells my teammates to target them. If I use it on a zipline, or geyser, or any other sort of environmental object, it tells them to use it. If I use it on an item, it lets them know there’s a weapon or other sort of item to pick up.
In WoW, a generic ping could be something like:
Enemy: Focus fire, or if it’s casting something interruptible, to kick it.
Ally: Use defensive maybe? If you ping a healer, maybe ask them to heal you, a tank to Taunt for you, and DPS to purge (if their class can do it?)
Empty ground: I’m going here
Hazard on the ground: Avoid, unless it’s a meteor style effect, then stack.
Hazard you need to soak: I am soaking this
Helpful effect on the ground: Stand in it.
Interactable item (like the treasure on last boss of Nelth): I am using this
We don’t have any idea on how pings will be implemented in WoW, so I can really only explain how other games use pings.
Functionally, pings are much more specific than marks but a LOT quicker to use. They usually have two ways of using, a generic context ping that you can activate by hitting F or whatever the keybind is, and it’ll give a ping based on the context of whatever you’re targeting.
“Go here” if it’s on the ground, “use this” if it’s an interactable object, “target this” if it’s an enemy and so on.
Then you can hold down the ping keybind and it brings up a more specific set of pings. For League of Legends, some options to ping are:
“Enemy Missing”
“On My Way”
“Enemy has Vision here”
“Be Careful/Danger”
And more.
The main difference between pings and marks is twofold.
Marks require explanation, pings explain themselves. In a coordinated group, this isn’t really an issue. You and your friends know that you kill skill, trap square and bait the boss ability on X. But it had to be explained to you at one point or another. Marks are a lot more explicit, you don’t need to be told what the big crosshair on Dragon means, or that if you’re getting a bajillion !!! pings from your team, you should probably back up.
Pings are reactive, marks are proactive. Yeah, you can keybind marks, but it’s annoying and they’re a lot easier to use when you’re setting them up out of combat (or using an addon to auto-mark stuff). Pings are designed to be used in the middle of a fight and their usage should not interrupt the flow of combat whatsoever. Not to mention that using marks in combat still relies on everyone knowing what those marks specifically mean.
Yeah, but everyone had to have marks explained to them at one point or another, even if it’s super obvious what Skull means, it’s less obvious what stuff like ground markers mean.
In either case, I forgot the third point: Pings have sounds.
Here’s a video that shows how a ping system looks in LoL.
Everything has a unique icon and sound-effect so you can easily and instantly communicate more complex tasks than marks alone would let you do.
