Feedback Buff icons and Debuff icons

It's been a while since we introduced the concept of two rows of buff icons, and during this time, we've received various suggestions and feedback about the system.

The original idea was simply to split certain "passive" icons, meaning ones that aren't expected to be manually monitored and cancelled frequently, from the rest of buffs.
This would in theory solve the issue of certain classes having too many icons on one row, which would end up hidden behind the clock during boss expeditions (and which was one of the reasons the split idea was worked on to begin with), without however needing to figure out a more meaningful distinction between the rows, which at the time didn't seem too relevant. Active Berserk was not a thing yet.


Currently, these are the buffs that are displayed in the bottom row:

• Monster Rider
• Spaceship
• Battleship
• Beholder's passive buffs (5 icons that Beholder auto-refreshes)
• Assassinate charging timer (the actual Charged buff is in the regular top row)
• Energy Charge (a later addition coming from a suggestion)

While this separation does get the job done, when it comes to simply shortening the top row, it's far from ideal when we look at what else it could potentially help with - that is, more visual clarity and organization of the information.

We want to ask the community for their input on whether this system should change, and if yes, how.

A few potential variants could include:

• Splitting between party buffs and personal buffs;
• Splitting between regular buffs and objectively "important" buffs (as in, buffs that are critical for the player to know the state of: for example Magic Guard, Meso Guard, Hyper Body, Holy Shield, Berserk);
• Keeping the current splitting, but adding more buffs to the "passive" row;
• Any other variation you could think of.

Also, suggestions may include multiple configurations to hide behind a .ini file option, with the current live layout being the basic one.


Links to existing suggestion threads about this topic:

• Moving Active Berserk to the 2nd line
• Appending fresh buff icons to the left of their line, and potential third line addition
• Moving Consumables to the 2nd line
• Moving attack-related buffs to the 2nd line

If there are existing suggestions that I forgot to list, please do reach out and they will be included!


For simplicity, we will provide a list of all the personal buffs and the party buffs, which might help any planning.

Spoiler: Personal Buffs

Common
Recovery
Nimble Feet
Monster Riding
Weapon Booster
Spaceship

Warrior
Iron Body
Power Guard
Combo Attack
Elemental Charges
Power Stance
Enrage
Dragon Blood
Berserk
Beholder
Hex of the Beholder buffs

Magician
Magic Guard
Magic Armor
Invincible
Mystic Door
Summon Dragon
Mana Reflection
Infinity
Elquines
Ifrit
Bahamut

Archer
Focus
Soul Arrow
Puppet
Silver Hawk
Golden eagle
Phoenix
Frostprey
Blind
Hamstring
Concentrate

Thief
Dark Sight
Shadow Partner
Pickpocket
Meso Guard
Shadow Stars
Assassinate (charging)
Assassinate (charged)

Pirate
Dash
Oak Barrel
Energy Charge
Gaviota
Transformation
Battleship

Spoiler: Party Buffs

Echo of Hero
Maple Warrior
Rage
Iron Will
Hyper Body
Meditation
Bless
Holy Symbol
Holy Shield
Sharp Eyes
Haste
Meso Up
Speed Infusion

Additionally, we'd like to discuss the idea of adding more visual information about player debuffs too.
For debuffs, we have two important factors we need to consider:

• Player's own debuffs (which should be easily visible at all times, regardless of map clutter);
• Party member debuffs (knowing them might help managing buffs and healing effects).

The reason we're bringing up debuffs in this thread is because one of the suggestions for them was to add a third row of buff icons, which would be used solely for them. This is a recent suggestion that is worth discussing.

Alternatively, other options could be adding icons to the party HP indicator window (suggestion that was also brought up before), and/or including them in spots closer to the bottom status bar.


Please keep in mind that, while a reordering of buffs in the two rows will potentially be coming live in the next patch, debuff changes will require more work.

Thank you!