Right now the base area is red and the additional area through Intelligence is yellow.

 

My suggestion:

1.) - for spells/abilities that affect only friendly targets (like AOE heal) -> the entire area is green or blue

2.) - for spells/abilities that hit only enemies -> the entire area is yellow

3.) - for hostile spells with friendly fire -> the system that is used now (red base and yellow additional area)

 

This means:

green = you want to be there

yellow = you want your enemies to be there

red = get out of there

 

The only problem are spells that affect friends and enemies differently (like the priest ability that heals nearby friends and damages nearby enemies).

 

This is just a suggestion that may be nice to have, not something very urgent. I have never seen this in another game. But PoE is the only game I know with the mechanic described at 3 (A stat increases your Area, but the additional area deos not cause friendly fire). In all cases except 3 the difference between base area and additional area is irrelevant.

Edited March 27, 201510 yr by Madscientist

So THATS what does different colours mean? I thought the red was full/higher dmg and the yellow area was lower dmg due to distance. lol