The Paragon Team sent out a quick word about the HUD changes coming to the game with the v.44 patch. When rebuilding it, the developers had two goals in mind: to prioritize critical combat information and to clarify what is going on around players. Everything got changed to reach those goals: elements got moved, the art style has been refreshed and new features such as Team Frames have been added.
Other features changed to better emphasize what you need to know in the heat of combat. For example, when you attempt to use an ability that is on cooldown or costs too much mana, you’ll now have a more prominent alert near your reticle.
We’ve also opted to be more explicit about various game states. Buffs have moved to the top left where they now spell out what status effects are currently applied. We also added text like “slow” and “stun” over Heroes to more clearly communicate status effects on allies and enemies. We’ve found that this has greatly helped players understand what is happening during combat.
The new HUD will provide players with a wide range of options to customize it and make their own. It can take some time getting used to, but the team is sure it is worth it. However, there still will be options to restore some of the old behaviours from previous HUD versions.
Other things the developers want to include in the upcoming patches are Hero-Specific UIs, context-sensitive pings, incapacitate alerts, quest progress notifications and more.
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