Community Inquiry: Buff Process

Dev-Cole

Administrator
Staff member
We can make the following change if it is something the community wants:

When a player casts a self target buff and your buff slots are full, it will overwrite your last beneficial spell rather than failing.
eg. you vah back and your free slot got sniped. Instead of failing it would overwrite your last beneficial buff.


There is no change in power and we can assume the player wants the self target buff by nature of casting it. We would make this change only if the community believes it would be a good thing.

Thanks
 
This is probably fine but I suspect there will be a relearning process on a few buffing habits. As a corollary, I think that self-only buffs should not follow the shorter buff timers and should last at least an hour if not more (a few obvious exceptions exist such as rujik drum). I can understand wanting to ensure that buffs get used in a group and can be a part of class identity (ie the vision/etc) but having to recast short duration self-only buffs (ie combine buffs) is purely tedium and does not add fun, friction, or anything else to the play experience.
 
Yes please. I have had that vah back situation happen countless times: getting random buffs from who knows where and being unable to vah back.
 
This sounds like a good idea, and I'm generally in favor of it with the following reservation:
  • DO NOT ALLOW AOD OR BOND TO BE BUMPED OFF BUFFS BECAUSE SOMEONE HITS A CLICKY OR SELF BUFF. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD.
  • There are other spells out there that should also maintain a priority and be excluded from this rule (Call of the Blessed, Sacrifice, etc).
In practice, it is can be difficult to keep these on the right targets for certain fights anytime something extra needs to be stacked (resists, potions, etc). While the idea is good, assuming people practice buffing in a sensible order, certain spells need to stay where they are, regardless of buff order and not be removed from the active buffs. If we expand on the original idea, one could add an additional tier such that: regular buffs < self cast buffs < essential spells. Doing this would build in a "super overwrite" priority for this kind of effect.
 
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This is not what is being asked, but I feel that increasing the song limit and migrating <1 min self buffs to the song window would correct the cumbersome gameplay of slot-juggling. Not sure if this is possible in the current client. I would just love to not have to micro manage this mechanic at all.

I’d include things like Soul Shepherd recourse and Healing Waters as well.
 
This sounds like a good idea, and I'm generally in favor of it with the following reservation:
  • DO NOT ALLOW AOD OR BOND TO BE BUMPED OFF BUFFS BECAUSE SOMEONE HITS A CLICKY OR SELF BUFF. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD.
  • There are other spells out there that should also maintain a priority and be excluded from this rule (Call of the Blessed, Sacrifice, etc).
In practice, it is can be difficult to keep these on the right targets for certain fights anytime something extra needs to be stacked (resists, potions, etc). While the idea is good, assuming people practice buffing in a sensible order, certain spells need to stay where they are, regardless of buff order and not be removed from the active buffs. If we expand on the original idea, one could add an additional tier such that: regular buffs < self cast buffs < essential spells. Doing this would build in a "super overwrite" priority for this kind of effect.
The proposal is this simple implementation:
if (all_buff_slots_full && buff == Self_Target) -> Overright last beneficial.
 
The proposal is this simple implementation:
if (all_buff_slots_full && buff == Self_Target) -> Overright last beneficial.
I think this approach has the potential to create as many problems as it solves.

Why not work to increase the songs window buff limit as Occatio says and move all short duration buffs (including things like AOD, Bond, Soul Expansion, etc) there?
 
it probably helps players with poor buff management (i think? im not really sure) and doesnt effect people who werent vah backing into the void anyways. likely a net positive change to the game but doesnt really address the root of the problem (theres too many buffs / short duration buffs for the amount of buffslots available).
 
it probably helps players with poor buff management (i think? im not really sure) and doesnt effect people who werent vah backing into the void anyways. likely a net positive change to the game but doesnt really address the root of the problem (theres too many buffs / short duration buffs for the amount of buffslots available).
Definitely this: it only dodges the root of the problem - buff limits, which inherently make some ideas about what each class brings to the table moot because people block their buffs. If there was some way to increase the buff limit, or move 1 or 2 critical things to songs and increase that limit, or put stuff in aura, or combine some buff spells, or even some weird stuff with combining buffs when multiple buffs get cast into new lines, it would be great.

Speaking of, I would gladly click off AoD for the vah back burn phase as a wizard, since AoD is nowhere near as good as it was, and vah back is insanely good as a wizard (especially considering the nature of how wizard spells work along with curses). I know people already block the chromatic runes too.
 
Speaking of, I would gladly click off AoD for the vah back burn phase as a wizard, since AoD is nowhere near as good as it was, and vah back is insanely good as a wizard (especially considering the nature of how wizard spells work along with curses). I know people already block the chromatic runes too.
Cries in Enchanter. Please expand songs window and start moving short things over there. He's right about the chromatic runes, it's actually more efficient to just alternate relic nuke and insanity because the lv 61 nuke is better than the lv 65 chromatic when people block the (non-scalable) rune.
 
this is a good idea, but as Tevinter says, if you already have not terrible buff management it won't move the needle much. Keeping junk buffs where they belong is definitely a skill check. It'll help more if the same self buffs that folks complain about getting overwritten stop getting overwritten, too.
 
if it overwrites a soulbound buff (ie. Body of rekaj potion, Haste, Etc.) as my last ben buff slot I am against it, RIp Lady.
 
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