The way I look at this issue. I posted this in another thread. That arguably the two most important factors in this game that need to be learned are Guard and Assisting.Luth wrote:The problem is imo:
It requires the new players to install that "autoassist" addon too. To do this they must be aware of assisting and could also simply just press the normal assist macro with "swiftassist".
I don't think this is any help to new players at all; "mastering the game" takes some time and experience, it can't be done via addons.
This addon probably would only give them the feeling/illusion that they made a big step forward and got better, but actually they didn't move (or even moved backwards).
Neither of these are currently supported in a real way IN GAME. The only support around assisting are self made macros that require pre-planning as to who you want to assist. This is just poor design IMO. I think back to my old WoW days from 2006-2007 and even that game had a "target of target" function where you could click an ally, it would show their targets name, class, HP, etc. AND! You could click on that icon and now be targeting that.
Guard is a similar way. On the "BASE" game with no add-ons there is no real way to tell who you are guarding, if being guarded, or if attacking someone guarded. And BEFORE you say "well it shows the buff" that buff DOESNT tell you if the tank is in range or not for guard to actually take effect.
People can say L2P all they want, but in reality, unless there is some "in your face" in game support for these two functions, you cant ever expect PUG groups to perform better. You can have the best players in the game in SCs together, but chances are most people wont /assist non friends/guildies let alone guard and FOLLOW their guarded target.
At the end of the day, I think of most games that I have played, have had easier target acquisition, and in game support for assisting and KEY abilities (like Guard is here), I gave the WoW example above. Another would be Neverwinter Online, that I played for 2 years, same deal. Showed a "target of target".
Neverwinter also had a "guard" called "knights Valor" and you think guard is OP here, in Neverwinter Knights valor was line of sight (meaning NO range) and applied to the ENTIRE PARTY.... But guess what, you could tell when a tank was within range and using this because there was animation (a blue glowy shield thing) around your target so you KNEW he was taking 50% less damage and it was split to the tank.
So I think a higher level of NON-ADD ON, In game support would be a huge QOL increase for the PUG games. It would atleast be harder to ignore those aspects of the games.... If you want better SCs, this is where it will start, not a "solo vs premade" Que. The best thing you can do are provide better TOOLS for PUGs to coordinate. That is NOT lowering the skill cap as some people claim, its merely using a different method to accomplish the same result.
Heck, one simple solution to each of these would be a "target of Target" function under your defensive target. Then also having the "guard" buff only actively apply when you are actually in range of the tank. Right now if your tank is 500 feet away or 20 feet, itll show that buff. Ideally it would only show guard if a tank is close enough to where it would be applied. The NEXT step from that, that I think would be smart, would be to extend the animation of casting guard, so that if a tank is near his guard-ee that animation shows on the player he is guarding so people know.... Then you can instantly look at your SC and say "2 tanks are guarding" by looking for that animation. Its harder to ignore and you can hold people more accountable.
I just think both these functions need better support in game, without add ons. Again, not to lower skill cap, but to give better TOOLS that are harder to ignore and easier for PUG groups to use some level of coordination.
