Talk:Barrier

duration vs amount

Currently the effect states that Barrier stacks duration and not amount shielded. Is that right? Stacking the amount that is shielded seems to make more sense to me. (Irukard (talk) 22:21, 2 August 2017 (UTC))

Changing Stacking effect to intensity. Source: https://youtu.be/FOr-LO38Mts?t=1h48m20s (Irukard (talk) 04:37, 3 August 2017 (UTC))

I made it into a skill fact, it should work correctly now Zolaro (talk) 02:41, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

"Barrier is probably better suited being described as a mechanic and not an effect"

Regarding this edit: I disagree.

An effect is "any kind of status that alters the state and standard characteristics of characters or NPCs". Barrier is essentially increased maximum health, which certainly fits the decription (in fact, before the game's release, it was even a boon). By definition all effects are game mechanics as well, in fact basically any function that's a part of the game is a game mechanic, and as such that category and description should only be directly used for things which don't fit any narrower definition. But "increased maximum health" fits nicely with the likes of "reduced skill recharge", "increased outgoing damage", "lower movement speed" or "inability to use skills". It has an effect on the character, it has an icon and skill fact mentions, it stacks, I simply don't see why it shouldn't be considered an effect... 17:27, 5 August 2017 (UTC)

Sorry, worded that badly, I meant it should be considered as both. I've done a lot of editing with it and so far I've kinda made it in a way that it is (both). Right now it works as a skill fact, though I'm not 100% sure it belongs with the rest of the "effects" (on wiki page) as those all have icons that show up on the skill bar when they're in effect, and barrier shows up over the health bar unlike any other thing (maybe life force, but that's a different mechanic). Zolaro (talk) 02:40, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

Control effects don't show up with an icon either, but the point is they are all lasting yet temporary changes to the parameters of your character. Endurance regeneration is a mechanic, but increased endurance regeneration is a change to the standard state, i.e. an effect. Damage is a mechanic, but increased damage is an effect. Movement speed is a mechanic, but increased movement speed or inability to move is an effect. Why should increased health not be an effect, then?

I understand that the lack of an active status icon would be unusual for an effect like this and I'm not going to start an edit war over this if no one else comes to comment on it, but I just feel that categorizing it as a game mechanic doesn't really help anyone. 07:52, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

I'm in agreement with Noxx on this matter. Barrier fits the description of an effect, as it causes the character to have more effective hit points that make them harder to kill. It's effectively a lasting - though not indefinite - change in vital statistics, and thus a change in status for a period of time. In contrast, healing is a similar gameplay mechanic that instantaneously increases current health if health was missing. Barrier feels more in-line with effects such as protection, regeneration, and aegis: ongoing and often temporary effects that make a character harder to kill when applied.

Another way to look at this is to imagine if barrier did have an associated effect icon. A character certainly could have one while the character had barrier, and it would vanish along with barrier's expiration. In a PvP setting, this immediately would tell attackers that "Hey, my foe just had a barrier applied. My attacks are going to be mitigated while he has that barrier." Of course, the effect icon doesn't give as much information as a change to the health bar itself, and having both the icon and health bar change could be seen as redundant. Nicoli20 (talk) 15:30, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

I think you have me confused with someone who is disagreeing with either of you. As I said, I was not 100% sure whether or not it belonged on the Effects page, as literally every effect listed there shows visually on the skill bar. I am fine with either definition, what I was saying that it can be classified as both. Including it on the effects page would be confusing, however, as it is more of a subtle effect that isn't explicitly shown as one. If you want to add the others as well, since they are (and I agree with you) "effects", that would make it less confusing overall. Zolaro (talk) 18:29, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

Apologies if my statements came off as a direct attack against your position. Mine was more of a general response to both the uncertainty of the classification of barrier and my interpretation of Noxx's last statement as a request for others to give their input on the matter. I simply wanted to give a good argument for barrier's classification, and I made it in mind for others who wanted to join the discourse. Nicoli20 (talk) 19:22, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

No apologies needed! I'm sorry if I seemed angry, I was more confused than anything. Your input is certainly most welcome! Zolaro (talk) 18:37, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Healing power scaling

I just tested some more skills, and it seems like there's not a fixed scaling factor, but it's skill dependent. Sand Flare looks like it has a 1.5 scaling, for example. --Tera (talk) 08:09, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

For me it was ~0.912, not 0.75 or 1.5. The F. Prince (talk) 08:27, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

The wiki page currently claims that it also scales by Vitality, but by my (limited) testing that seems to be false. Except for 50% of max health being the cap. LastDay (talk) 13:14, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

Outgoing Healing Effectiveness on Barriers to Allies

If this hasn't been tested yet, we'll likely have to wait until release, but does anyone know if outgoing healing effectiveness affects barriers given to allies? Nicoli20 (talk) 01:05, 22 August 2017 (UTC)

Testing it after release I can say with 99% percent certainty that direct outgoing healing increases don't effect barrier. --71.168.146.129 05:45, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

Feedback 2017/09/29

Could you please add some official sources to this article, if they exist? Currently the mechanics of barrier is quite obscure. During the normal gameplay a player can unexpectedly see two values on the health orb and strange 3-coloured health bars on the foes, among the traditional orb and bars. And in the combat situation player should spend some time attempting to realise what does it mean at all. But neither this article nor Health (in Gallery, in particular) has the corresponding illustrations and descriptions. I think that it was a developers' mistake to make change in such basic mechanics without good informational support, but now we have to live with it anyway, so the explanation and illustrations here are very important. --109.252.107.32 14:38, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

I believe there are none. It seems the feature was added to the game with no dev explanation whatsoever. The only reference to barrier I could find in patch notes from PoF release was this (that may not even be related to the effect here):

  Scourge—Scourges channel their life force into the desert sands to summon biddable shades that damage enemies and create barriers for their allies. They use punishment skills to torment enemies while wielding torches that light the path to their destruction.

Other than that, there are a few mentions in November, 7th patch notes but with no much explanation, like:

  Barrier: The duration before decay begins has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds. The time for the barrier to decay has been reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.

I couldn't find any news article, from around the time of PoF release and later, about it as well.

In fact, even myself came to this article seeking about what's this weird yellow stuff that started to show over my Health bar called Barrier O.o --Txonä Atan - (talk) 18:52, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Feedback 2018/03/21

Images of a player's health orb with barrier and a foe's health bar with barrier would be helpful. 76.84.39.34 22:26, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Nice suggestion. Added a pic of the health orb. My guild let the time run out on the arena, so gonna have to wait on enemy barrier, at least in my case. Anyone else, feel free to post it.--Rain Spell (talk) 06:55, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Legibility Criticism

What is the "Coefficient" in the equasion? Is that the number on the tooltip? Or is that the base value? 80.42.231.110 01:53, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

An explanation page or link may be useful, yes. E.g. in Sand Flare, it's the (1.5125)?. ~ Fishrock ^(talk) 04:14, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Thank you SO much. That number was always a mystery! 80.42.231.110 12:13, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

What is the actual "base value" stated in the formula given at the start of this article? What would it be for an engineer, for instance?

Clarified that coef. and base value are parameters of the skill itself. DJemba (talk) 09:32, 13 September 2021 (UTC)

Feedback 2022/03/09

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Barrier_Blast

The 3rd hit of skill 1 on mace gives a barrier for mechanism. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.50.159.226 (talk).

Fixed, thanks for the feedback. Warming Hearth (talk) 09:39, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

Barrier and Death Shroud

I may be mistaken, but when I gain barrier from Blood Bank or the Rune of Sanctuary, it seems the barrier takes the hit before the shroud bar does --GoingMenthol (talk) 15:27, 13 September 2022 (UTC)