Why do minstrel hands glow in dissonance stance?

[Twiggar]

It always seemed unnecessary that the minstrel's hands glowed when in dissonance stance; it was just a distraction.

Fortunately, I could turn off the effect in my Options.

But I realize that the glowing hands is actually a distraction to people, especially the RP inclined.

Was there ever a credible reason for having the hands glow?

Do you think people would object to having the flow removed, altogether?

[Enzdid]

The glowy hands were actually removed once a long time ago, been so long I can't even remember if it was intentional or a bug, but either way a ton of people clamored to have it brought back so they put it back in the game and I'm confident it will remain. Regarding a reason for the glow hands, nothing lore-wise as I'm concerned, the only functional part is to make it extra obvious that you are in DPS stance vs. not.

[Erennor]

I did not know that it was actually removed at a time.

And indeed it can be very distracting, as well as too flashy modern magic-like, something to which the setting of LotRO does not belong to (or certainly not to such a common level that is seen everywhere - that is given to players).

At the very least, it could be made more subtle, rather than so obvious.

[siipperi]

Dont you dare to #### up the warspeech. This is one of things that should stay ultimate unchanged, no options to change or alter. Its here, if you dont like it play different class.

I did not know that it was actually removed at a time.

And indeed it can be very distracting, as well as too flashy modern magic-like, something to which the setting of LotRO does not belong to (or certainly not to such a common level that is seen everywhere - that is given to players).

At the very least, it could be made more subtle, rather than so obvious.

no. This is not even subject to talk about.

[Twiggar]

We already have a toggle, so that a player can choose to not see the effect (neither on their own toon, nor on other minstrels), but others can still see the effect.

An improvement would be to replace the toggle with the following two toggles:

A) My hands do not glow - This allows a minstrel player to simply not have glowing hands.

B) I always see glowing hands - This overrides (A), in case a player has a tactical need to observe what stance that other minstrel is in.

[Arabani]

I absolutely dislike glowing hands, but since I never play in dissonance I do not care much.

They removed the glow once, but the rage of pesky hobbits was tremendous. So they brought it back.

[siipperi]

I absolutely dislike glowing hands, but since I never play in dissonance I do not care much.

They removed the glow once, but the rage of pesky hobbits was tremendous. So they brought it back.

Because that's the warspeech minstrel. It's like ripping hunters their bow or LMs their staff and say play it.

[Arabani]

Because that's the warspeech minstrel. It's like ripping hunters their bow or LMs their staff and say play it.

I see no connection between a minor animation effect and actual weapon, but I guess it's a hobbit thing

[Dinara]

We already have a toggle, so that a player can choose to not see the effect (neither on their own toon, nor on other minstrels), but others can still see the effect.

An improvement would be to replace the toggle with the following two toggles:

A) My hands do not glow - This allows a minstrel player to simply not have glowing hands.

B) I always see glowing hands - This overrides (A), in case a player has a tactical need to observe what stance that other minstrel is in.

Where is this toggle found?

[Twiggar]

Where is this toggle found?

I’m away from my gaming system, but I’ll look it up for you later.

From what I remember, it has an odd name, and is grouped near the option for turning off the glow of LIs.

[Maryam]

And indeed it can be very distracting, as well as too flashy modern magic-like, something to which the setting of LotRO does not belong to (or certainly not to such a common level that is seen everywhere - that is given to players).

At the very least, it could be made more subtle, rather than so obvious.

Meanwhile...

[Twiggar]

Where is this toggle found?

Currently, you can turn off the display of minstrel glowing hands, but it's for *you* only:

Options > UI Settings > Enable Combat Hit Effects = OFF

[Dinara]

Currently, you can turn off the display of minstrel glowing hands, but it's for *you* only:

Options > UI Settings > Enable Combat Hit Effects = OFF

Thanks for going through the trouble of looking for this! Much appreciated!

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

Currently, you can turn off the display of minstrel glowing hands, but it's for *you* only:

Options > UI Settings > Enable Combat Hit Effects = OFF

Keep in mind this turns off a LOT of visual cues needed in raids and instances.

Like eyes over your head, induction circles, etc.

If you're just a casual player and don't care about stuff then by all means use it. But if you're grouping with other people you may want to have it on.

[Herwegur]

I don't think it causes any harm... It's a good visual distinguisher that this healing class is in DPS stance. As a raid/instance leader, I appreciate this effect as it tells me immediately when some mini in a PUG is disregarding request to go heals. Shiny hands are immediately obvious and aren't lost in the clusterfudge of group pulls. And had this happen so many times at low-level runs especially, there's always some hellbent kamikaze mini with a death wish in Great Barrow PUGs haha.

As a roleplayer, I'm not bothered by this effect: when playing in a cooperative group, everyone can coordinate not to use Dissonance for story purposes, then it becomes a non-factor. As for seeing other random players with shiny hands, it's their prerogative so why not, I'm not gonna control how others want their toons to appear. Some lighthearted social RPers enjoy the shiny hands effect, on hobbits especially it kinda makes them look like fireflies. It's fun for some, others who don't find it so have an option to disable it from displaying on their screens.

Edit:
But from a lore perspective, I like the tiny floating Tengwar letters that swirl around the hands in warspeech, that was a nice touch Perhaps this visual effect was a creative way of illustrating the power of light (main mini damage type) at the fingertips of a Valar-inspired singer, in spite of the darkness of the Enemy. Creative to the point of controversial possibly, but I like this a lot.

[CaerArianrhod]

Was there ever a credible reason for having the hands glow?

Do you think people would object to having the flow removed, altogether?

You don't know what you are asking for, do you?

The history of the glowing hads is this:
It was there since the beta in 2007, however ... for many years ago a dev just followed a side suggestion from a player in a beta. The issue wasn't recognised until it had gone online. That was the point where things started to get really bad. The dev who made the changes, have had a lot of problems with the code he wrote for the game. Whatever he did, it seemed "cursed". Was full of bugs or just didn't worked at all. We had that time a lot of hotfixes. But nothing helped really. I know it from a very credible source, that a forensic IT company was hired to find out if there was any hack to the server or otherwise to the code base. It was wasted money, they didn't find anything. Approximately after two years with ongoing issues the same Dev brought back the glowing hads. Short after that he left the company. As far as i know he is not anymore in the gaming industry, not even in any kind of IT and there was some rumors that he didn't wrote a single line of code since. This all my be a kind of urban legend, but there is one thing for sure and many old player from that time still remember it. and that is, what happened to the player who made the suggestion. The RNG begunn really hate all his charcters ingame. Within a few monts he was known as the player who never rolled better that 12. For a sort time it was fun for him, because he was invited to lots of groups and raids, because everyone knew he wouldn't roll high enough for the good things. I mean that it was a really short fun. He deleted some of his alts and created new ones, but he wasn't able to reach level 20 with them without dying. If he was in a group for the Great Barrow (at that time it wasn't split apart and it was the instance where one used to go around at lvl 18-22) the whole group whiped. Other players then begunn to get around him. He quit then the game, maybe 8 months after the glowing hands have gone. A friend from the server he played said once, he made some attempt a couple of years later with a new account and new chars, but the problem with dying before reaching level 20 was still there and as seemd he hadn't much luck with loot either.

I'm not the kind of guy, who get issues when a black cat is crossing the street just in front of me, but if I were you, I would think twice to ask to remove the glowing hands.

Just my 2 cent. I thought you should know.

[Laubgaenger]

Great, a Urban Legend is born.

For me, with my Minstrel i would prefer, that my hands would not glow.

For my other Classes, i think it is a good indicator so see what i can expect in Random groups.

[Macroscian]

Keep in mind this turns off a LOT of visual cues needed in raids and instances.

In a roundabout way, this is why I like the glowwy hands: in instances, it's very easy to spot who accidentally left their self-heal solo stance on.

[TiberiasKirk]

I remember that when Minstrels got buffed to become DPS machines that creeps complained big time on the forums. An answer was to put glowing hands on the minstrels so the creeps would know what stance they were in.
I supposed that helped them determine who to kill first as if the mini was set up for healing they would be the prime target.