Wayfarers of Veeshan

Here's a general topic which I hadn't much thought about until someone brought it up last night.

What do y'all think about "casting messages"? Useful? Distracting? Something else?

Since the first day (nigh on 9 years ago now) that I was taught to play EQ, I was taught to
use hotkeys with casting messages to the group-speak, ala:

/g ROOTING %t!
/cast 4

or

/g DoT (fire) on %t!
/cast 5

etc etc.

I do group-speak messages for everything, honestly...casting, /follow, /assist, pet commands, INC messages. Part of it is for informational purposes so my group knows what I'm up to, part of it is a way to express my personality. But it does cause group-speak to scroll pretty quickly during combat.

I have noticed over the years a declining use in this method of play, but am curious what everyone thinks about them. A lot of you have grouped with me, so you've seen the verbosity. Are they annoying, useful, or some mix or what?

Just a discussion...thought it'd be interesting to hear everyone's take on this.

Drex

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Drexxell , 71st GNecrOMancEr -- Wielder of ()
Druul , 60th Troll Shaman () + Wielder of and
Driss, 51st Dwarf Priestess of Brell Serilis
Dralia, 36th Erudite Enchantress

There is so much scrolling text in the game nowadays - even with separate windows for battle spam - that I have gotten down to the bare minimum of casting messages. I use heal messages (so my group knows I'm paying attention), and they are especially helpful when there are two healers in the group so we don't waste mana casting the same heal on the same tank. If you're in a new group it's good to know that someone is snaring the mobs, but when you play with the same people, it's not necessary. I KNOW Maden is always going to snare.

INC messages are always necessary, IMNSHO. So is mezz information.

To answer your questions, it would probably fall under the "slightly annoying" category for me to hear about every spell that's being cast, but since I like you it wouldn't cause me not to group with you. :)

imo..

Useful: Heals, mezzes, evacs, incomings, resists, adds, afks..

Not: Assists, snares, attacking, nukes, etc

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In my opinion the only spell that needs to be announced is mez. If you're the snarer, healer, or buffer I can tell if you're doing your job, I don't need spam telling me that you're doing it.

Calling out incoming or adds is different than casting, because it's useful infomation that makes the group run smoother.

like adegax said i can tell if its slowed /snared on my sk and it dosent matter if my wiz knows
so less spam is easyer to pick out what needs to be known

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Snowcap lvl 85 High Elf Wiz / 102 park circle , Elm woods

Snowdark lvl 90 Dark Elf SK / 103 park circle , Elm woods

I agree that Mezzing is about the only thing really NEEDED, and while I do not really use any Groupsay utility messages, I use a ton of emotes along with my casting etc. They can be annoying, but I do not really mind.

-Poxx

The only things I always announce anymore are afk's and porting. It gives people a chance to yell, "WAIT!" Sometimes, depending on the situation, I also use an incoming cure message. This is mainly because I've had people think before that I wasn't curing them, when actually it was just taking multiple casts. I appreciate a pull message from the puller, especially if it includes multiple mobs when we were expecting one, or a named.

Honestly, I think the mez message is a bit outdated. One, a lot of times you can tell if something is mezzed - it's not hitting anyone. Two, you can click on a mob (as long as you have at least 3 people in your group) and see the mez "buff."

Messages for heals (except with multiple healers), nukes, dots, snares, etc. are not needed. If I look at my group and it contains a wizard (for example) - I sure hope you're nuking, and if you're not you'll be leaving the group soon.

Anyway, I think the introduction of being able to see a mob's "buffs" has made a lot of messages very outdated.

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~Honey~




Don't just stand there and bleed! I forgot to mem succor... RUN!!
"It ain't easy having pals." Charley Bowdre, Young Guns

I'm glad I brought this up then...it really has made me realize there isn't much need for most of what
I've been doing. The only ones that I really still feel strongly about are:

Feign Death -- usually it tells people that the "widdle and weak" caster is getting his butt handed to him and please save him

Root -- I like this for no other reason than if the mob is chasing someone in my party, they likely would want to know when
it's safe to stop and turn around again.

Pet attack -- Just to let folks know when and against what it is engaging, for the purposes of aggro and pull control

And of course INC and AFK are still critical...though I've played with my share of pullers who NEVER use an INC message and I think that's probably one of the most unforgivable oversights a tank/puller can make. The INC message sets the pace and gives heads up.

Drex

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Drexxell , 71st GNecrOMancEr -- Wielder of ()
Druul , 60th Troll Shaman () + Wielder of and
Driss, 51st Dwarf Priestess of Brell Serilis
Dralia, 36th Erudite Enchantress

Hey everyone, here are a few thoughts I have on group messages.

One click automatic type group messages as they are currently used are almost always unnecessary. Maybe its just me or my role as a wizard, but I don't want to be spammed when the chanter is mezzing, the shaman is slowing, or the cleric is healing. Good groups don't need to communicate all the details, we can figure it out or we will ask you to tell us.

I think you only need one automatic group message as an /assist and help kill member of a group, and that's only if you can evac. If you have a typical role in a group, I don't need to hear about you doing your role successfully. We've played this game enough to know when a pet is attacking, when a mob resisted slow and you are recasting it, or even when you fd cause you boobooed and got agro. The reason I take this position is if you say the same group messages every pull, you aren't really telling us anything we didn't already know. Having those same messages spammed makes conversation more difficult and limits my ability to see other messages that are more important (oom, evac us, add, nice crit). If your mana bar appears low, we can see that. No need to tell us for the sixth time 'LOM medding.' unless you are the only healer and the puller starts taking off to grab another six mobs.

Personally, I only want to know what is being tanked and when the healer is afk for more than 30 seconds between pulls. And while we are on the topic of group messages, it's not just what that can be overkill, it's how... witty group spam messages aren't that witty after the 3rd time seeing it. Keep it visible, accurate, and simple and everyone is happy.

I don't like this message... JoSchmoe tells the group "<<<<<IIIIIIIIII<<<< INCOMING#$%% a sewer rat >>>>>>>IIIIIIII>>>>> OMG its gona keeel meee saveeee meee pleaseeee". Takes my older neurons a few dozen centiseconds longer to decode the bs surrounding the info I need. But hey, if it floats your boat to tell me that every dang time you pull, I can deal with it.

I like this.. "Inc a sewer rat" ... maybe <<< inc a sewer rat >>> if the puller thinks I need the help seeing its an inc message by surrounding it with decoration. That's ok by me if its consistent.

And here's the real kicker for inc messages anyway.. They are just a head's up for the tank IMNSHO and I don't really need them anyway. People have just gotten so used to seeing them they expect them. I don't get why people want to pay attention (watch chat) to be told to pay attention (see tank engaged on display). My cue to fight is the tank beating on something, not the puller pulling something. I've been in some great groups that didn't use inc messages, the puller just pulled them and the group reacted well because they were paying attention anyway.


I think most people who are successful in my role as support dps can't depend on group chat to know what the target is anyway. The accurate method of getting a target is clicking /assist and seeing what comes up in the target window. If I am assisting, and the targeted mob starts losing hp, then I am green light to cast. That's all I need to know 99 percent of the time. Inc messages dont tell me what the tank chooses to kill, clicking assist does.

Finally, I think it boils down to this: The only good reason to use group spam messages is because someone expects it to be said. If no one wants to know, then there is no need to clutter chat.

I've just built a new special set of hotkeys for next time bten and I group. Here's just one of them:

/g Hey, I was thinking about casting....
/g Hm...I have this new DoT now, so thought I'd try it
/g But it's poison based, so if this mob is poison resistant, this may not connect
/g I also have a disease based one, so I can try that later
/g Ok, here goes...
/g CASTING....
/cast 6
/g Did ya see it? Isn't that a cool effect?

hehe

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Drexxell , 71st GNecrOMancEr -- Wielder of ()
Druul , 60th Troll Shaman () + Wielder of and
Driss, 51st Dwarf Priestess of Brell Serilis
Dralia, 36th Erudite Enchantress

/auction WTB spot in group when that scenario is played out.

:)

lol Drexx...that would be awesome!

I have to say, I cannot remember when he last time I saw a message (pull, tank, etc) used in a regular exp group. Bten is right when he says we've all played long enough to know.

Of course...some people like the messages and that's okay with me too...but nothing works better than /assist and cast!!

-Poxx

Another one I remembered that I often /gsay is when I'm mending with my monk. Usually only when the cleric/healer isn't broadcasting heal messages - that way I don't waste a mend in the middle of their cast, and they don't waste a cast that hits just after I mend.

I really think a lot of this is group specific though.

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