Guild Wars 2

Currently the game features the ability to control the direction a player dodges in by simultaneously pressing either the forward/back/strafe left or strafe right keys. Would it be possible to open up this same functionality to leaps, evades, and other instances of automated player movement?

This would cause Closers and Retreats to become functionally the same thing. But, they kind of already are if you bind the AboutFace and LockAutoTarget hotkeys.

It just seems to unnecessarily make something that could feel pretty intuitive and fluid into a multibutton barrel o’ awkward.

Closers and retreats are different in ways other than which direction they toss you. One has offensive aspects, and the other defensive. Letting these skills become both offensive and defensive gives players more versatility than desired for balance.

It also makes it harder to use the skills as intended: you have to remember to hold forward with your closer, else accidentally throw yourself in the wrong direction.

I like this idea. I could imagine several skills being changed to have ground targeting like whirlwind attack and fiery whirl.

@ Gulesave: It’s already possible to use certain closers/retreats as “both offensive and defensive.” I often use phase retreat/withdraw/hornet’s sting get closer to my target even though the tooltips for those skills imply differently. As the OP points out, however, using those skills in this manner requires a unintuitive workaround in key binds.