I have an idea for a way to allow healers to watch and heal according to the action rather than their party UI (down with wack-a-mole!).
It would use a SCT-like implimentation (which is why I'm suggesting it here) to scroll, rather than your damage numbers, the health values of your party members according to a set of rules.
Function rules:
F1. Periodically display a person's health value if their health is below max (or below a user set "safety threshold").
F2. Immediately display a person's health value when it changes according to display rules.
F3. Scrolling messages should be displayed according to user-set priorities.
Display rules:
D1. A person's health should not be displayed unless it falls below a set "safety threshold" that defaults to 100%.
D2. If a party member's health value is changing repeatedly and frequently health need only be reported at regular intervals (once every second and a half).
D3. If a party member's health value becomes 100%, a simple "Full" message is all that needs to be displayed.
D4. In large groups the healer should be able to limit the players that get their health totals printed to his screen.
D5. If the subject of the display message is the current focus target, that fact should be displayed.
D6. If the subject of the display message is the current target, that fact should be displayed.
D7. If the subject of the display message is in a different group than the healer that fact should be displayed.
D8. If the subject of the display message is the healer, that message should not be displayed. That functionality is already handled by SCT.
Feature Description:
If you've ever healed you know that you eventually learn to train your eye to look for the health bar that is different from the rest. You look for the uneven bar in the group, the bar that's yellow instead of green, or the short bar that's red. Unfortunately all this leaves healers little time to actually watch what's going on and can be quite disheartening. The purpose of this feature is to allow a healer to see what's going on by watching the action around him rather than by gluing his eyes to the party UI.
Function Description and Requested Message Formatting:
This feature needs to display messages periodically if the subject's health satisfies certain criteria, and immediately if it satisfies certain others. A basic description of it's funciton is like this...
You're healing a 5-man heroic and you're targeting the tank. While his HP is full (24,000 hp for example) no messages would be displayed.
If your "safety threshold" was set for 95%, then no messages for the tank would be displayed unless his HP fell below 22,800. So, if the tank got hit for 500, no message would be displayed because the HP deficit is insignificant.
If your "safety threshold" was set for 2500hp (we'll assume you manually set it to the aproximate value of your Flash Heal) and the tank gets hit for 1,250 then no message would be displayed because the HP deficit is insignificant.
So finally Deathmeister (the tank) gets hit for significant damage when a mob lands a blow for 4,500. Now a message would be displayed saying...
<Deathmeister> 19,500 (81%)
Let's say now, that Deathmeister is getting beat on by a number of mobs. Instead of printing a message every time the tank's HP changed, because that could quite quickly fill your screen to the point of uselessness, message throttling would kick in and some additional information would be provided to help the healer do his job. We'll say the tank is taking repeated blows from four mobs averaging 575 damage each every 2 seconds. The fight started with deathmeister at full HP.
We're assuming the throttle has been set by the user to one message every 2 seconds and his safety threshold is 2500 hp. When throttling the subject's incomming DPS is calculated and displayed for a peroid over two messages.
His present hp total is 21,700 and is not below our safety threshold. No message is displayed and present damage per second is 1,150 for this message period.
Two seconds pass. 19,400 hp is below our safety threshold. Also, present damage per second is 1,150 for this message peroid. (1,150 + 1,150) / 2 = 1,150 DPS
<Deathmeister> 19,400 (81%) [1,150 DPS]
Two seconds pass...
<Deathmeister> 20,250 (84%) [1,150 DPS]
Two seconds pass and the group's DPS kill one of the mobs before it can land a blow...
The past two message periods tracked 1,150 dps and 1,150 dps. This time however, we're 575 damage short of the last posting and (1,150 + 862.5) / 2 = 1006 DPS
<Deathmeister> 18,525 (77%) [1,006 DPS]
Two seconds pass and all three of the mobs manage to crit (deathmeister's defense sucks...the noob) (862.5 + 1,725) / 2 = 1,294 DPS
<Deathmeister> 15,075 (63%) [1,294 DPS]
Two second pass and after two of the three remaining mobs have dealt their damage but before the third hits for his 575 you land a critical heal for 13k bringing Deathmeister back to above the safety threshold...
<Deathmeister> *FULL*
Additional Messages:
Displaying this base message in different circumstances: <Deathmeister> 15,075 (63%) [1,294 DPS]
If this were a 25 man raid and Deathmeister was in your group...
<Deathmeister> 15,075 (63%) [1,294 DPS]
If this were a 25 man raid where you are in group 1, Deathmeister is in group 3, and no throttling...
<Deathmeister> 15,075 (63%) <Group 3>
If this were a 25 man raid, Deathmeister was in your group and was taking a beating from multiple mobs...
<Deathmeister> 15,075 (63%) [1,294 DPS]
If this were a 25 man raid, Deathmeister is in group 4, you are in group 2, and no throttling...
<Deathmeister> 15,075 (63%) <Group 4>
If this were a 25 man raid, Deathmeister is in group 4, you are in group 2, and he is taking a beating from multiple mobs...
<Deathmeister> 15,075 (63%) [1,294 DPS] <Group 4>
If this were a 25 man raid, Deathmeister is in a different group, but you are targeting him (doesn't really matter what group he's in), and no throttling...
<Deathmeister> 15,075 (63%) <Target>
If this were a 25 man raid, Deathmeister is in a different group, but you are targeting him (doesn't really matter what group he's in), and beat by multiple mobs...
<Deathmeister> 15,075 (63%) [1,294 DPS] <Target>
If this were a 25 man raid, Deathmeister is in a diffferent group, but he's your focus target, you're not targeting him, and no throttling...
<Focus> 15,075 (63%) <Deathmeister>
If this were a 25 man raid, Deathmeister is in a diffferent group, but he's your focus target, you're not targeting him, and throttling...
<Focus> 15,075 (63%) [1,294 DPS] <Deathmeister> |
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