A quick introduction – I started playing EQ during beta and played through SoV. During PoP, I came back for a brief period, but I quit again pursuing other games with my guild. Four months ago, I came back and created a heroic character (druid) and a PL’d another (mage). Previously, I played a cleric as my main and was surprised to find out they no longer exist (outside raids). I picked a J5 healer merc and I was off, or so I thought… I quickly found out that my healer merc is a better tank (holds agro well and heals itself) than healer – it spams delayed heals and HoTs and cannot keep with the DPS of mobs approximately the same level. My druid clearly out heals the merc and the only advantage the merc has is the HoT spell that it does not know how to use. Frooooak the healer merc - I decided to play a healer again. However, there is something majorly wrong with playing a healer, and it is not the classes. It is the god awful UI that everyone uses on a daily bases. I cannot believe this game has not had a major UI update since the customizable upgrade during Kunark area. The UI is as broken as ever. There is no point trying to list all the problems, I will just leave my suggestions… 1. Tabbed chat box, 2. Simple “/” command for targeting group members and pets, 3. Fixing all the targeting issues. I should be able to reliably target any legal player or NPC, 4. Simple offensive and defensive targets (major fix; see Vanguard). I think my last suggestion would make a HUGE difference in making the healing classes palpable again. Secondary assignments make or break the class. Now, I have read a dozen or more threads about the UI problems and seem the Dev’s complain that fixing the issues is too cumbersome. Well, if as much effort in fixing the problems were spent over the last decade than complaining about the issue, we would have a decent UI today.
And, with the number of expansions, fixing the underlying game engine should have been a MAJOR undertaking years ago. As a former software developer, I know that this game could have been re-vamped, only if SONY had bitten off the bullet and said, we are going to FIX this DAMED thing ONCE and FOR ALL. Lets quit patching the game, and fix the underlying infrastructure. Modern databases make this much more reliable than what they have now.
Something I really want for UI's is a "Are you sure you wish to close this chat box" command when you click close on the chat box >.>
/tar name will target a person are npc with a /slash command. Cycle PC, NPC, Corpse can be set in options F1-F6 will cycle party hitting F# key for twice will cycle that persons pet.
Not good enough. I should NEVER have to change macro because someone joins the group. There should be simple commands, slash, to target a group member or pet regardless of there name. I will go even further, they need to eliminate the lag that occurs using the slash command. Doesn't happen with the "f" keys. It's NOT realistic to make a healer hot bar etc with the current setup. Even poor old Vanguard had this functionality.
You have got to consider all the errors that occur using the "f" keys. I will not be makes that mistake with a healer hotbar. Also, many healers have spells that help heal but require the mob to be targeted. Those spells become worthless because it's not worth continuously swamping PC to NPC.
I have played a cleric as a main on raids and in groups forever. The damage spells you speak of that you target the mob and it heals the target of the target are really for solo/group purposes and not so much for raids. I rarely use those spells anyways. Instead use Virtuous Intervention to heal your target and it will nuke your target's target. /tar group # (example, /target group 2) The default UI is terrible. I use custom made ui pieces UI's from eqinterface.com for a healer interface. You might find something there you would like.
Who says we are talking about raids and clerics only? Druids have spells beneficial to heals that require targeting of mobs. Yes, the pure priest classes are broken - a large part of that is the lack of useful secondary roles. A huge part of that is tied up in the broken UI. It's too bad Vanguard is gone, the difference is obvious there.
I don't see how hitting F1-F6 isn't simple. You can make a marco /assist key followed by casting a heal on target mob is hitting with /cast # for heal. You can designate your Tank, Puller, Assist and then /target Tank, Puller, Assist followed by a heal but would need to make separate for each. You can also just trust the cleric merc to heal. What exactly do you want your marcos to do?
I don't know who said we are talking about raids and clerics only. While the UI needs plenty of improvement, you can customize it to better work for a healing.
I agree, there shouldn't be a need for a player to search UI pieces from EQInterface. There should be UI's to chose from in game by Class. And yes, target issues suck. I don't like the fact I have to click a horse hoof to target a player. Then relate to mashing a key to target a player because of it. Ex UI Author on EQInterface.. and currently a Cleric. ps, no UI requests please.
Just set Style_Closebox to false in your EQUI_ChatWindow.xml and then you won't accidentally close a chat window. If there is a chat window you need to close, you right click the title bar, select "Esc to close" then press the escape key.
One of the things I've done while boxing, is to set up extended targets for all of my three chars, and then two more, for puller's target and tank's target. Then I have five macros that just have "/xtarget #". So I can have all three chars quickly target each other or pick up group targets easily. The other thing I have noticed, since using the extended targets for tank's target and puller's target, is that the UI acquire's the target much fast than targeting the tank (or puller) and hitting assist. The other nice thing is that you can save extended target profiles (just like spell sets), so you can easily set it up once it's configured the way you want it. Tat
Since the introduction of the extended target window, many things can be preset to be targets in it, and slash commands to select those targets. /xtar # is the main slash command, but their are others to customize the extended target window. Simply right-clicking a slot is a faster / easier way, if you want them to be semi-permanent and not change with every macro. Sorry if this was already mentioned. Yther Ore.
To make a long story short, the x target system suffers from the same fate as using player names. It's annoying constantly adjust macros depending latency and various other things. It's not like I don't already spend an hour logging in, getting a group, buffing, and traveling. I shouldn't have to twink my macros every time I log in. It's no wonder people use third party programs like [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] even if they are not boxing. EverQuest is a veteran MMO - the UI should be absolutely polished. We are here today because no one on the dev team (past and present) wants anything to do with the UI.
LOL. Too much latency to right-click a group member and select Role? If you do just that, you can use the same extended target window settings for every group, or just use the /target <role> command in your macros. Sorry but, that just made me laugh, that 10-20secs (depending on how fast / slow you are) of time is too much to have to deal with, but adding in more commands to do the same thing is better? Also, using the roles, you don't need to change / tweak macros at all. Yther Ore.
Please read what I said. Assumptions make you look stupid. Using /target PC or x target almost ALWAYS requires a pause in a macro. Using the "f" keys does not. The object of the macro is to be efficient as possible. Therefore, I keep the timings a quick as tight as I can. If more lag today, I have to adjust the pause between the target and heal.
