[Request] Make Shadow of buffs not infinitely long duration

Then I want illusions that have stat buffs to stop casting the illusion part, its a waste of a perfectly good buff slot.

They aren't a problem for me personally. For other players on open raids, casuals, yes. It's a superficial limitation. The shadow buffs aren't even instant, find better fodder buffs and stop placing superficial limiters on folks who don't know better or don't care to look that deep into their buffs, or to consider buff caps.

Teach the players about the buffs that they should be keeping and which ones they should not. If they are keeping shadow buffs around they are likely keeping other buffs that are also of no use to them.

It would be much better to help them learn about buff management instead of just ignoring the problem by removing some buffs.

Added intricacy. There are a hundred better things I could coach about rather than hold someone's hand about shadow buffs that do nothing. EQ is already clunky enough, this is a simple thing that could be removed to help all players. Permanent buffs that are dispellable kind of defeats the purpose of any dispell mechanic anyhow.

Fix the shadow buff problem and you will find that they have other buffs that they shouldn't and you can't just fix those by removing them from the game. This is something that can be easily fixed by players and there is no reason to nerf/remove these buffs when others find them useful.

You appear to be looking for a bandaid fix instead of fixing the real problem of players not knowing or caring what buffs they have that just take up space or cause other issues.

Other buffs that don't actually do nothing. What's the problem with using other filler buffs? Shadow buffs do nothing and cause issues, the end.

I guess clicking off buffs after upgrading those clicky items is complicated for some.

Some of the shadow buffs are instant-cast and is a perfectly viable strategy to handle dispelling raid-dragons. I spent many hours farming those, please don't remove them.

Apparently it is. Have you ever raided with less than optimal players?

Or we could scrap the AAs and go back to players clicking the buffs every 30 minutes to an hour like it used to be, the trade off for the clickies being an AA was the shadow buffs which players had the choice of keeping up or getting rid of. There are times I want mine to stick around, there are times when I don't. Before when they were buffs, there were some i clicked which had no use to me unless I wanted them for dispell.

It should be down to the individual player if they want them up or not, choice is good!

And that is what we have now.

If you don't know about the choice then perhaps spend a little more time on your character. Or listen to others. I have noticed a large amount of new and even some returning players do not want to listen when they ask for help in the chats.

And not everyone wants to look stuff up. So....buyer beware......ignorance is no excuse.........grass is greener etc

On a related subject, if shadow buffs can be permanent then why not auras? Our aura fades if we are in the same zone more than 90 minutes - and without a text warning.

Auras are created by an invisible npc and not something directly on the caster and when that npc despawns it fades and also why there is no warning.

Well then, I guess the question is why are they are able to make other npcs stay up more than 90 minutes and not this one?

Because these are special NPC's that follow the player around? I don't know the reasoning behind it just what they have said in the past about it.

If a raid force is having trouble figuring out how to manage junk buffs for a raid employing dispel ... you have MUCH bigger problems to worry about than Shadow of ____ buffs.

Unreal.

The skinny of the situation is people who raid want to keep this because its a permanent thing they dont have to think about. They do not want to have to dig up their clickies and click each one every time they die.
Groupers really dont need this and a lot of them are oblivious to them and hinder themselves at times because of it.

Could we just leave it as it is, but give us a choice in general tab like (See Helm)

I would think both sides would be ok with that.

I must admit I don't see the need for change, the shadow buffs already state in their description that they have no effect. Everyone who thinks stuffed buff-slots is a problem can sort it out themselves imho.

There is a difference between user-friendliness and being idiot-proof, and being idiot-proof often have unintentional disadvantages...(not to mention that it is an unrealistic ideal to be idiot-proof)

Hold my beer!!

So the problem is that they used to matter, but now they don't, and they don't expire, and the problem keeps coming up since we are limited on buff slots. Also, as a healer, I hate having to tell people to click them off just so I can see if Promised Heal is on them or not, without making the target window huge. Plus anybody who knew they used to matter will now question it and then you have to have that conversation over and over again.

Really, the bigger problem is that we all have reasons for wanting them to stay or go, and so nobody's problems get solved. But the solution here is fairly simple, infinity is a long time, there are multiple options for duration that solve all of the pro buff people's problems without forcing the con buff people to be stuck with infinite durations.

#1 Keep the persist through death mechanic, if it's up and you die, it stays up. Keeps the pro buff people happy, doesn't affect the con buff people.

#2 Make it a long duration, something like 24 hours or more, it's only going to tick down when you are online and not in PoK/GL/GH. Again, pro buff people lose very little here, they have to click it once in a while. Con buff people get to see it go away, and maybe not come back much.

The thing is that when you have a ton of buffs on you, you might not go through every one and determine what it is. But if it looks like buffs are missing, you might look to see what they are and where they went. After clicking and putting them back up, you might actually read them and then not have to worry about it anymore.

I don't think there is a single good reason to keep it permanent. That doesn't mean I don't respect the uses people have for them. It's just that this is one of those things where the answer lies somewhere in the middle, and the answer could keep both sides pretty happy.