Guild Wars 2

I’d really like to see a range display added next to a targetted enemies’ name so you can tell what range they’re at from your character. Particularly for stuff like the Ranger Longbow or the Mesmer Greatsword, where you really want to attack at absolute max range, I find myself constantly starting to attack an enemy (usually from out of range) then inching forward little by little until I actually start attacking and hitting, and it seems like a goofy approach, but its the only way to do it unless you’re godly at distance approximation. And I can’t count the number of times I’ve thought I was in range, tried to use a skill besides “1” to start combat, and gotten an “Out of Range” message, wasting the skill and needing to wait for cooldown.

An actual distance reading would be perfect, but if thats deemed “too much” as a break of realism or whatever, then maybe at least a simple indicator which will tell you whether you’re in range or not based on the range of your basic attack would help at least.

Maybe you haven’t noticed, but under every weapon skill there is a read bar which disappears when you are in range for that skill. Although, a number in metters somewhere on the targeted enemy icon on UI would be helpful for people who can remember the skills range numbers. (yes, skills show range numbers)

I think that you may have misunderstood the point that the OP is trying to make. Its not a matter of whether you’re at max range or not, its that on certain skills (such as mesmer greatsword) the further you are from the target, the more damage it does.

Therefore, its not simply a matter of can I hit them or not, its a matter of could I back up a bit and do even more damage to them..

I’ll have to look more into the red bars on skills. I’ve definately noticed them before, but they’ve seemed… off. But maybe I just wasn’t watching them close enough.

Electro.4173:

I’ll have to look more into the red bars on skills. I’ve definately noticed them before, but they’ve seemed… off. But maybe I just wasn’t watching them close enough.

They are “off”. Specifically, they have several problems as follows…

1. They are difficult to see.
2. They are non-existent for ground-targeted AoE skills even when AoE auto-cast is enabled.
3. They are inaccurate. There are some skills that you can use and still hit even when the red bar is present, even some auto attacks like ranger longbow auto attack (although they will not auto attack until the red bar goes away, they can still be used and will still hit). There are other skills that you will get a target out of range error even when the red bar has disappeared.

Having the option to enable a graphical range display, attached to target HP bar and showing distance to target, could be very useful to a lot of people I think. But any improvement to range indicators would be welcome.

+1 to the OP

Having a “range finder” located somewhere along our skill bars would be a big benefit to all classes, not just ranged.