Negative level overhead indicator.

[Yskuma]

Good idea.

/signed and +1

[Aztek]

I'm going to categorize this as a nice-to-have, but low priority.

If it's relatively easy to put a negative level icon (generic, no numbers) based on existing icons, go for it.
If you can put actual number, even better, but not if it takes a lot of resources away from the bigger list of fixes/improvements needed that have been reported by players.

If they can't do it, well, we've survived 3+ (?) years this way and it's not super hard to type "neg levels" or "hey, everyone with neg levels get around the cleric cuz I'm about to holy burst your neg levels away"

While i get where the one-step-beyond suggestion is coming from (someone wants to be a proactive, heal everyone's problems cleric), I can't get behind cluttering up the UI with a bunch of conditions. MAYYYYBE negative level would be ok.
First, I agree with the poster who commented about our confidence in Turbine to get this right without breaking it or making the party bars way too cumbersome/user unfriendly.
Second, I think players need to take some responsibility and not expect healers to fix every little problem all the time (there are always exceptions). Putting poison, remove curse, etc. on the bar (in addition to the head icon and "examine character" window) *I think* will only encourage the players who expect healer types to fix every little problem instead of stocking curse pots/clickies/wands/etc. on a regular basis.

Finally, communication is never a bad thing. Especially for example in the tougher Shrouds, if you don't communicate and just go by health bars, you can end up with clerics burning through SP way too fast because they were healing at the same time instead of overlapping. The same thing is possible if you put these conditions on the health bar and don't communicate (cleric and player both remove player's curse at same time, wasting resources OR player stops fixing themselves and cleric is expected to fix everyone alllll the time).

[MartinusWyllt]

The only real issue I would have is that after about 3 neg lvls it seems to get a little cluttered....maybe just a set icon would be better as you could still see who has them but nobody ends up with a leaning tower over their head from 19 negs ( hey it's possible lol)

Hopefully someone watching red bars might notice your max hp dropped to like 40 at lvl 20.

[darksol23]

It's already in the game. It was added in the U11 UI update, it's just completely transparent.

[TempestAlphaOmega]

Saw the thread title and say yeah a big black arrow facing down over my head would be nice.

Opened the thread and saw the picture and said right on target there.

Right now my biggest indicator is my HP (or the HP of others when I am healing). See someone's max HP drop down from where we started and I can guess that one of three things happened:

* The person's Con/False Life/HP item broke.

* They have negative levels.

* They decided to up the challange and turn the run into a "naked" one.

[Templarion]

I agree we need this.

/signed

[countfitz]

/signed

With a small exception, I'd like the devs to do a cooler job with the look of it. No offense OP, awesome idea and great job with the animation, but they're getting paid, they can snaz it up a bit.

[zeonardo]

/signed

OR.............

1 - Let them scream for help!!!
1.1 - HJEAL!!! HJEAL PLEAZ!!!1!OnE!
2 - Run toward the aggressor and finish the mob slowly with your clumsy heavy mace (+1 and paralyzing for more awesomeness)
2.1 - Make sure not to face the mob properly and have a tower shield up (eventho you may not be pro with it, -4FTW)

3 - Hjeal yourself up from time to time as you receive more damage than you deal.
3.1 - I know you might be thinking: BUT IT WAS PARALYZED!!!!UNO!!1 THAT'S NOT FAIR|!!|!!1!
3.2 - You hit so slowly and unsteady, that they save from the para and hit you so fast before going para again, that you don't even see the hit animation! They are that fast! Take your time.

4 - Watch the poor soul die in agony!
4.1 - Make sure to face them while they die!
4.2 - Make mental bets on how far from their dead bodies the soul stone will land
4.3 - Realize how funny it is when they are hasted and running and get smacked on the back of their heads and the death animation is slow and the moving speed is so fast that they faint to theirs knees here and lay flat and stiff miles and miles away!

5 - Type in party chat: "Sry! You were blocked from my hjeals! Try not to stay behind pillars next time!"

6* - Res but don't hjeal them, throw some silly buffs like Eagle Splendor, Spawn Screen or Mage Armor to compensate for the death and possible loss of buffs.

* number 6 is optional.

[mournbladereigns]

/signed but only if the neg level indicator looks like a beholder. the de facto neg level indicator

[EpiKagEMO]

/signed

but right now, if you keep straight at the new hp bar(looks like something you dont have ), the cleric should be able to memorize it. short term stuff.

[Nefariosis]

My idea for a sign for neg lvls would be something along the lines of 1 black arrow as you depicted but with a number next to it or above it. Could just be me but on my healer I prefer to know how many negs someone has so I dont heal 12 neg lvls with individual restorations or heal 3 negs with a greater or not heal the person who never speaks up about neg lvls even though he's 1 energy drain from a pile of dust. Also, for things like fatigue/exhaustion I think the symbol for symbol of weakness(the green handprint) would suffice nicely.

[Vellrad]

Sorry, I'm against it. I like it the way things are now. The fact that someone needs to actually communicate with a party member in order to get cured of ailments is a good thing.

So, how monsters are going to inform us for number of their levels drained?

[Airgeadlam]

/Signed. I think is a nice feature to add.

[Yan_PL]

Sorry, I'm against it. I like it the way things are now. The fact that someone needs to actually communicate with a party member in order to get cured of ailments is a good thing.

while I may or may not support your "communication with party members is so nice, that game should force you to do more of it" vibe, I also want neg lvl indicator for enemies, for offensive use. Unless I overhear mobs saying to their healer "4 negs" "2 negs" "thx", which, FYI, doesn't happen very often, I can't really be sure which one got drained, and how many levels did I hit with that drain. Now try to coordinate multiple casters spamming drains/enervations all over the place and instakilling mobs afterwards. Indicating neg lvls would lead to quite a lot of saved resources.

Most people see negative levels as nuisance, I see them as day to day debuff tool, used by me and sometimes against me (rare situations I get killed/shrined/dispelled/ran out of time on Death Ward, and forget to rebuff). Yet I always try to carry restoration scrolls for those occasions, and have some degree of success with them even with couple negs.

[Robai]

I prefer smaller indicator, but the idea is great anyway.

[Yan_PL]

Bump. Also, a reminder: offensive casters with drain, enervate, and symbol of death need that!

[DeadRabbat]

/signed

As one who went from 479hp to 89hp from stupid beholders... i agree completly.

never again w/out my anti-beholder trinket.

[SirValentine]

Hopefully someone watching red bars might notice your max hp dropped to like 40 at lvl 20.

Hope away, but I wouldn't hold your breath! Consider yourself lucky if it's noticed when your bar is 1/2 red and 1/2 black. If it's full red, who would have time to read the numbers?

[SirValentine]

We have indicator for curses, separate one for bane, crushing despair, curse, fear, shaken, heal dampening curses/cursed wounds... Now we need visual indicator of negative levels to show up overhead both enemies and friends alike, showing how much neg levels does this being have.

Signed! We have this for poison and curse, but not for neg levels?

[SteeleTrueheart]

Maybe signed... if implemented properly.

But remember, negative level is a state you can intentionally put yourself in and it would be annoying to have an icon over your head the entire time in that case.