Guild Wars 2

there are moments where my character is confused or his target if reflecting projectiles and i end up either having to turn around, reaching down to shut off auto-attacks, or killing myself.

I’m curious as to why there’s no key to simply stop auto attacking til another attack skill is used.

There is…its called Stowe Weapon Good luck and have fun

You can also hit escape to stop targeting the mob.

Ctrl+rightclick on the skill n°1. Do it again to enable autoattack.

I support the OP’s suggestion.

There are two things called “auto attack” in the game:

1. The skill (usually ¹ or otherwise chosen by the player) that is the default attack. This can be stopped by using “stow weapon” or “escape”
2. The option called “auto-attack” which is extremely useful in mob fights, but terrible at other times. I would like to bind a hotkey to turn this feature on/off.

Here are some examples when auto-attacking requires something better than “stow weapon” or “escape:”

• When an elementalist uses air-staff-4, she will begin attacking foes using her auto-attack skill — even though this skill is primarily used as an out-of-combat speed boost, it will put the ele in-combat, after which it is too late.
• When a mesmer is attacked and uses veil to hide, he can find himself auto-attacking the nearest foe and break stealth. Again, it does no good to stow the weapon at this point.
• A guardian using greatsword-3 to reposition herself will instead leap to the nearest foe.

Naturally, some people hate the auto-attack option for other reasons and never want to use it. But for those of us who enjoy its positive aspects, being able to bind a toggle key for it would prevent 90% of its current issues.