Guild Wars 2

It would be really nice if wall type abilities (Spectral Wall, Line of Warding, Wall of reflection, Unsteady ground, Flame Wall, etc.) wouldn’t snap to the enemy we are targeting when we are in action camera. Unlike ground target abilities, these are not meant to be cast directly on an enemy. While you can get them to unsnap by looking far away from enemies, if you need to cast them in the direction of the enemy your only choice is to toggle out of AC for a bit, which makes them awkward. Several of them are ineffective or minimally effective if they are cast on the enemy instead of between you. It would be better if this kind of ability were just excluded from the snapping in the first place. If it must snap, it would be better to snap to a point between you and the targeted enemy, rather than on the enemy.

You can turn off snapping in options, or set a hold-down-to-toggle keybinding.

Artanis.4963:

You can turn off snapping in options, or set a hold-down-to-toggle keybinding.

But if you turn it off, you turn ALL of it off. Snapping is extremely helpful for using ground target abilities in action camera. But it breaks a lot of the wall type skills. Hence they need to separate or change the snapping functionality. It’s a case of one size fits all not actually working.

This is more complicated, I think. I agree that wall skills in general shouldn’t snap to a target like they do. It doesn’t make sense when the wall is supposed to provide a shield against projectiles for instance. The snap-to-target functionality should not apply to them.

But… I have seen a video by Wooden Potatoes where he designs some kind of fire ele build, I think, which uses a wall on a target to get extra damage. In that circumstance, snapping to the target is actually very useful.

So.. here’s my suggestion: All skills except wall skills should respect the snap-to-target option, as they already do. Walls skills should never snap, no matter what the option is set to – EXCEPT when a certain key (which the user can bind) is held down (not toggled). Toggling is tricky and easy to get confused if something is toggled on or off in the heat of combat. I’m thinking you’d be punching your key skills as normal with most skills snapping to target and walls skills not snapping.. but in the special circumstance where you need a wall to snap, you’d hold down an extra key while pressing the wall skill key.

Then again.. a much simpler solution: just keep everything as-is and snap the wall half-way between you and your target if snapping is turned on.

Just my 2 coppers.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

Artanis.4963:

You can turn off snapping in options, or set a hold-down-to-toggle keybinding.

But if you turn it off, you turn ALL of it off. Snapping is extremely helpful for using ground target abilities in action camera. But it breaks a lot of the wall type skills. Hence they need to separate or change the snapping functionality. It’s a case of one size fits all not actually working.

This is not quite correct. I’ll elaborate.

There are two settings here:

1. A Boolean option in Combat/Movement “Snap Ground Target to Current Target”
2. A keybinding in Targeting “Toggle Snap Ground Target”

The first you have enabled and it’s harming your ability to correctly place some ground skills.

The second is a toggle. If #1 is enabled, holding that keybinding disables snapping. If #1 is disabled, holding the keybinding enables snapping. This is exactly what you want: the ability to enable or disable target snapping for any individual skill you desire.

ArenaNet does not need to change anything here because there’s nothing to change. Every player is going to have a slightly differing opinion on which skills should snap and which should not. It’s not all walls, or even just walls. I’d want Firewall (Ele Focus Fire 5) to snap, so it hits my target, but Meteor Shower (Ele Staff Fire 5) shouldn’t because I need to position it to hit a group, not just whichever enemy is targeted. Someone else (or even myself at a different time!) might want Firewall to not snap, because they’d rather place it so an enemy runs through it, or so others shoot projectile finishers through it, and Meteor Shower to snap because they’re fighting a single and/or immobile enemy.

There are too many uses for each ground-targeted skill for ArenaNet to satisfy everyone. Instead, we have all the tools to make the judgments and implement them ourselves.

Artanis.4963:

Boogiepop Void.6473:

Artanis.4963:

You can turn off snapping in options, or set a hold-down-to-toggle keybinding.

But if you turn it off, you turn ALL of it off. Snapping is extremely helpful for using ground target abilities in action camera. But it breaks a lot of the wall type skills. Hence they need to separate or change the snapping functionality. It’s a case of one size fits all not actually working.

This is not quite correct. I’ll elaborate.

There are two settings here:

1. A Boolean option in Combat/Movement “Snap Ground Target to Current Target”
2. A keybinding in Targeting “Toggle Snap Ground Target”

The first you have enabled and it’s harming your ability to correctly place some ground skills.

The second is a toggle. If #1 is enabled, holding that keybinding disables snapping. If #1 is disabled, holding the keybinding enables snapping. This is exactly what you want: the ability to enable or disable target snapping for any individual skill you desire.

ArenaNet does not need to change anything here because there’s nothing to change. Every player is going to have a slightly differing opinion on which skills should snap and which should not. It’s not all walls, or even just walls. I’d want Firewall (Ele Focus Fire 5) to snap, so it hits my target, but Meteor Shower (Ele Staff Fire 5) shouldn’t because I need to position it to hit a group, not just whichever enemy is targeted. Someone else (or even myself at a different time!) might want Firewall to not snap, because they’d rather place it so an enemy runs through it, or so others shoot projectile finishers through it, and Meteor Shower to snap because they’re fighting a single and/or immobile enemy.

There are too many uses for each ground-targeted skill for ArenaNet to satisfy everyone. Instead, we have all the tools to make the judgments and implement them ourselves.

Thank you, Artanis. That’s really cool. I didn’t know it worked like that. And it addresses the problem admirably. I’ll have to try that tonight when I get on.