Guild Wars 2

Let me preface this by saying this is only my opinion. I’m not a developer. I have no intentions of ever becoming a game developer. I don’t know how easy or difficult this crap is to program. I sure as hell don’t know what others’ experience with the tab targeting system is, but I do know one thing. I am going to present my opinion as not only fact, but as the majority opinion as well. It is the American way.

That said, the tab targeting system is nothing short of awful. This is one of those “little things” that can really show polish when it’s good. Moreover, few will notice when this little feature is good, but it is very easy to tell when it is bad. And tab targeting in Guild Wars 2 is really bad. I’ve been spending the past [since the game was release] trying to put it to words. The only game I noticed that seemed to always pick the target I wanted when I tab targeted was Star Wars: The Old Republic, and I still can’t put my finger on WHY it worked so well. Meanwhile, Guild Wars 2 has the worst tab targeting of any MMO I’ve ever played (and I’ve played a LOT of free-to-play trash). Again, I have no idea how this feature actually works. But after putting a lot of thought into it, I think I might have a solution.

Basically, make tab targeting follow a sort of priority system.

1. Is an enemy attacking me? If yes, tab to it.
2. Is a potential target hostile or non-hostile (red or yellow)? If hostile, tab to it. If non-hostile, tab to it only if it’s attacking or there are no nearby hostile targets in front of me (1500 range seems about right). If a non-hostile enemy is auto-targeted by using an attack command, it should require pressing an attack key again before attacking.
3. Proximity.
a. Target the nearest enemy to me.
b. Target the enemy closest to the center of my screen.
4. If several attacking enemies are within close proximity (300 range or so), ignore the proximity priorities and target the weakest enemy.

The third priority is obviously going to cause confusion, so I’ll try to be as clear as possible. Basically, this priority will require lots of tweaking. It’s to make sure you attack a target you are facing and not random targets off to the side that you can’t even see. Along with accidentally targeting non-hostile enemies during events (in particular the Harpy event in the Plains of Ashford), this is the most common problem with tab targeting for me.

Now, before anyone gets on my case over nitpicking, let me clear the air. I am not saying Guild Wars 2 is a bad game. I am not directly insulting developers (though I did consider checking the credits to see who programmed tab targeting because I wanted to personally insult him or her, but took several weeks to “cool down”) and I am not claiming some major design philosophy is broken. All the same, this is not one of those “minor details” that I can name a million of that would make Guild Wars 2 a better game (like area looting and removing World vs World player kills from the monthly achievement); this directly hinders my gameplay experience unless I go back to MMO third grade and go back to cursor targeting, which itself is inefficient for completely different and can’t be “solved”. Tab targeting might not be a make or break for a game’s sale, but it sure as hell is a huge quality-of-life issue and I think Arenanet should look into remaking it from scratch at this point.

Wait, you liked Swtor Tab targeting? You must have been the only one :>. All you ever heard in chat was how bad it is.

Well it all comes down to preferences. Tab targeting in Swtor was one of the worst experiences i had myself. At least they offered option to Tab target people in your view from left to right. So that was actually useful (predictable). Original one never worked for me and i ended up using either focus target or tab from left to right.

Now there is a reason, why games offer you a lot of different targeting keys to bind. Everyone has their own preference. Such a huge priority list may work out for you, but 90% of the other people would cry about it.

To be honest, in GW2 i don’t even use Tab targeting 99% of the time. It has such a good support for assist fire, that in PvP or dungeons you end up using that most of the time anyways.

Also there is not many keys to bind, so you can easily bind couple of more keys for targeting, like target nearest enemy.

Tab targeting certainly feels worse than in the original Guild Wars, and definitely, to me at any rate, not as useful as it is there or in other MMOs. I find myself getting to my target quicker just by mashing "closest target" as I run into battle or clicking on the enemy (though with right-click also selecting targets for whatever reason as I move my camera view I also tend to highlight allies in melee range).

edit: Yes, the amount of times it tabs to some random mob, especially when it does it to a neutral/yellow mob, not even in the fight is frustrating, as well!

As an elementalist this thread pleases me. Too often have I pressed tab only to find myself drawing in 3-4 adds from 50 feet away.

gw2 logic:

1. you’re being attacked by four enemies at close range? better target that rabbit 30 yards away.

2. oh you’re kiting? better switch target to the full hp enemy instead of the one with 2% left.

it does these things all the time! it should lock on one until A. it dies or B. you switch targets.

Talve.9027:

Wait, you liked Swtor Tab targeting? You must have been the only one :>. All you ever heard in chat was how bad it is.

Well it all comes down to preferences. Tab targeting in Swtor was one of the worst experiences i had myself. At least they offered option to Tab target people in your view from left to right. So that was actually useful (predictable). Original one never worked for me and i ended up using either focus target or tab from left to right.

Now there is a reason, why games offer you a lot of different targeting keys to bind. Everyone has their own preference. Such a huge priority list may work out for you, but 90% of the other people would cry about it.

To be honest, in GW2 i don’t even use Tab targeting 99% of the time. It has such a good support for assist fire, that in PvP or dungeons you end up using that most of the time anyways.

Also there is not many keys to bind, so you can easily bind couple of more keys for targeting, like target nearest enemy.

Well, it has been a while (over nine months), so maybe I’m getting a little grass-is-greener syndrome? I know I’ve never had problems like Guild Wars 2 is giving me, and Guild Wars 1’s tab targeting was pretty solid, as someone else pointed out. At the very least, I can probably count the number of times that tab targeting screwed up on me in World of Warcraft on all my fingers and toes, but I can only use the same number to count how many times Guild Wars 2’s tab target DOESN’T pick the “wrong” target. I understand that other people might have different ideas of what the “right” target is in the same situations, but it seems we’re coming to a consensus here. It’s unacceptable that tabbing targets non-hostile enemies while you’re already being attacked.

I agree entirely (well, apart from the SWTOR bit because I’ve never played it). My squishy elementalist has this knack of targeting something tens of yards away (both via tab and via auto-targeting) when I’m being assaulted by a mob no less than a couple of feet in front of me and it’s incredibly frustrating.

Equally annoying is when I’m being attacked by a bunch of harpies but my elemantalist conveniently targets that veteran cave troll half a mile away instead and all tabbing does is find anything but the mobs actually attacking me.

I think your priority list is pretty solid and would not mind if tab targeting was changed in this way.

i have to agree so much on how bad targetting system is here…. my problem isnt too much with the target priority on tabbing but mainly with the fact that the target is lost every 2 seconds :\ and what is worst is that i often find my game autotargetting even friendly npc =.=‘’’ seriously, even today in a dungeon i found my target changing from a veteran to the pet of the ranger in my party ……. WHY ? wasnt pressing anything nor tabbing, just using AoE spells, and target switched alone to the pet, many times, other times on party members…. o.0.
The funniest and most annoying case is on my mesmer in spvp….. cause sometimes it targets my own clones =.= …. thats ridiculous really.
Target system need some help… first of all players and npc from same faction should not even be on the targetting options (unless u click on them on purpose), and then target lock should be more solid.

I think it’s fine as it is.

Well, the default tab target is set to “Next Enemy”, which is kinda kitten Personally, I swapped that out for “Nearest Enemy”, which is actually much more useful.

The thing is, the tab target should be an aid, not an auto-aim. Your suggestion would be kinda like putting auto-aim into a first person shooter game. Because let’s be honest: the game is not supposed to pick your targets for you. That’d just be silly and make the game very dull.

A lot of the stuff that you suggest is actually already achieved by the Nearest Enemy targeting option. What it doesn’t do is ignore non-hostile monsters, nor target the weakest. Both of these things are actually good in my opinion. They breed mistakes and that’s what separates a game from a machine. Because let’s be honest, if you could just tab and it would automatically pick the best possible monster for you to target, it would get really, really boring really, really fast.

Olba.5376:

The thing is, the tab target should be an aid, not an auto-aim. Your suggestion would be kinda like putting auto-aim into a first person shooter game.

The thing is, if you’re in the midst of a battle, you tend to only have one finger free to hit tab. Manually clicking on mobs is difficult when there’s a lot of particle effects on-screen and you’re trying to rotate the camera at the same time to see what’s attacking you from behind.

Olba.5376:

I think it’s fine as it is.
Personally, I swapped that out for “Nearest Enemy”, which is actually much more useful.

I also did this, as it is far more useful for targeting relevant enemies (imo). I wouldn’t mind being able to have it filter out non-hostiles, though.

Olba.5376:

I think it’s fine as it is.

Well, the default tab target is set to “Next Enemy”, which is kinda kitten Personally, I swapped that out for “Nearest Enemy”, which is actually much more useful.

The thing is, the tab target should be an aid, not an auto-aim. Your suggestion would be kinda like putting auto-aim into a first person shooter game. Because let’s be honest: the game is not supposed to pick your targets for you. That’d just be silly and make the game very dull.

A lot of the stuff that you suggest is actually already achieved by the Nearest Enemy targeting option. What it doesn’t do is ignore non-hostile monsters, nor target the weakest. Both of these things are actually good in my opinion. They breed mistakes and that’s what separates a game from a machine. Because let’s be honest, if you could just tab and it would automatically pick the best possible monster for you to target, it would get really, really boring really, really fast.

Breeding mistakes through poor controls is the exact opposite of good. Challenge should come from…you know…the game actually being challenging. Not having to fight past crappy controls. Though I had no idea that “target nearest enemy” is a completely different button from “target next enemy”. This is a great example of something that makes literally no sense whatsoever. At least have tab target be target nearest enemy than this wonky next enemy mess.

Truhan.8912:

Breeding mistakes through poor controls is the exact opposite of good. Challenge should come from…you know…the game actually being challenging. Not having to fight past crappy controls.

That’s kinda my point: there should be a challenge. If you could automatically tab and it would always pick the optimal target in a rather inhumane manner, that turns killing monsters into a boring tab-attack-tab-attack cycle.

Truhan.8912:

Though I had no idea that “target nearest enemy” is a completely different button from “target next enemy”. This is a great example of something that makes literally no sense whatsoever. At least have tab target be target nearest enemy than this wonky next enemy mess.

I had the exact issue of the tab targeting going to weird places at bad times. By mere coincidence, I noticed in the controls that the targeting for Tab, by default, is “Next Enemy” rather than “Nearest Enemy”. I instantly swapped that.

Olba.5376:

Truhan.8912:

Breeding mistakes through poor controls is the exact opposite of good. Challenge should come from…you know…the game actually being challenging. Not having to fight past crappy controls.

That’s kinda my point: there should be a challenge. If you could automatically tab and it would always pick the optimal target in a rather inhumane manner, that turns killing monsters into a boring tab-attack-tab-attack cycle.

And my point is the challenge should come from enemies being challenging. If the game made you go backwards by pressing w, it wouldn’t be challenging. It would piss me off. This is pretty close to that level of annoyance.

The target system in GW1 worked really well for me.

My biggest gripe about the target system in this game is that nearly every time I press the tab, it targets a friendly creature and attack. And then all of a sudden, I get a mob of moas running towards me. I don’t like killing the friendlies if I don’t have to, but the tab always makes me.

I don’t mind having to manually choose my target, but this just annoys me!