Guild Wars 2

Why is it that every time I activate a speed ability it engages me in combat when I have mobs around?

I know the option to auto select a target, but this should only affect abilities that do damage, not speed or buff abilities without damage.

It is so frustrating and annoying casting Retreat on my Guardian, just to be slowed down because I auto-attacked the nearest mob…

Please make it so that abilities with no damage component do not seek targets.

Anyone else frustrated at this too ?

you can bypass this problem by setting a “stow weapon” command on a hotkey.

i play a guard and i hotkey that stow weapon command on F4

you can find the “stow weapon” command in the hotkey options.

but oddly, i no longer auto attack when i cast retreat anymore. might be a recent patch or something.

Zackie.8923:

you can bypass this problem by setting a “stow weapon” command on a hotkey.

i play a guard and i hotkey that stow weapon command on F4

you can find the “stow weapon” command in the hotkey options.

but oddly, i no longer auto attack when i cast retreat anymore. might be a recent patch or something.

Stow weapon does not affect anything with retreat because casting it will make your weapon active again.

I am using scepter and when I cast retreat I shoot a missile to the nearest mob and it is really annoying because all I want is to cast retreat to run faster between the mobs without aggroing them, it is even more frustrating because casting retreat even agroes non aggressive mobs!

Arghh!

yes, casting retreat will make your weapon active, but you can stow it immediately after that to prevent auto attacks, assuming you haven’t shot.

turning off autoattacking might also help.

not having a target selected when casting retreat also helps.

Zackie.8923:

yes, casting retreat will make your weapon active, but you can stow it immediately after that to prevent auto attacks, assuming you haven’t shot.

turning off autoattacking might also help.

not having a target selected when casting retreat also helps.

While I apreciate your reply, you are still not getting the point of how annoying this is…

Obviously I know that I should NOT have a target selected when I cast it… which to be honest should not have mattered as it is not a damaging ability but oh well…

Secondly, if you equip a scepter and you cast retreat it IMMEDIATELY shoots the projectile, and there is no point in stowing the weapon anyways as you are immediately drawn to a combat state.

This is clearly an oversight from the developers as buffs that only affect you or your party should not make you go into combat state and even worse, auto attack the nearest mob.

Try yourself with a scepter and position within 600 range from a mob without anything selected and then casting retreat…
You will immediately shoot the mob and slow yourself down, thus rendering the buff useless.

I hope they fix this as it is getting a bit game breaking for me.

PS: I have no problem with auto attack on damaging abilities, thats whats it for and its very very useful as it selects your nearest enemy, but this should NOT affect self buffs like Retreat, etc…

Afaik this is caused by the “targetting assist” or auto-select target, this doesn’t happen on my Guardian (though I can’t recall it happened when I had that option on).

I turned it off so I can use leaps etc. into the direction I’m running rather than the game selecting a target for me and actually flying in random directions >_>

Furesy, thats what auto targeting is for of course. It selects a nearest mob you cast a DAMAGING skill on!

But we are talking about a non damaging self buff. There is no damaging or debuffing component on it whatsoever, which should not trigger the auto attack and auto target.

You know what I mean now ?

The leaps and such, if you see the tooltip they do damage a mob so they should work with auto attack and auto target because even though some people use it to gain some terrain advantage, they do still damage the mob.

Retreat and other buffs with no damage should never be affected by this.

Turn off targeting assist. It will make your game experience far more enjoyable, and it’s great in dungeons when you want to skip mobs.

Uhkapian.7068:

Furesy, thats what auto targeting is for of course. It selects a nearest mob you cast a DAMAGING skill on!

But we are talking about a non damaging self buff. There is no damaging or debuffing component on it whatsoever, which should not trigger the auto attack and auto target.

You know what I mean now ?

The leaps and such, if you see the tooltip they do damage a mob so they should work with auto attack and auto target because even though some people use it to gain some terrain advantage, they do still damage the mob.

Retreat and other buffs with no damage should never be affected by this.

I know :P sorry I didn’t make my point that clear! I just meant that this doesn’t happen to me in the case of >retreat<, and I just tried to hint what might be the reason for it (auto-targetting) and that I couldn’t remember it happening when I had auto-targeting on back in the day!

But I get your point, it’s annoying that would happen to non-damaging skills. Then again I find the fact you lose run speed when in combat just as annoying >_>

I saw this post and instantly thought of my ranger. Call of the Wild seems to agro whether I have a mob targeted or not, which then causes my pet to attack. Switch to my main, a warrior, and neither warhorn skills will agro.

Have been hoping for a fix for a while but its not a huge deal, I can live with it.

colesy.8490:

Turn off targeting assist. It will make your game experience far more enjoyable, and it’s great in dungeons when you want to skip mobs.

But targetting assist is very useful to me, while casting damaging skills that is… lol

The problem is that the Devs should have made it affect only damaging skills and not buffs, because why would we need to start auto attacking a mob and getting into combat, when all we do is buff ourselves with some speed (or any buff for that matter) ?

I will probably take off auto targeting anyways, but honestly we shouldnt as its very handy when out and about doing some farming.

Just target using tab then. Removing the auto assist is just so useful, it means you don’t leap in to random mobs while running through zones like I used to.

colesy.8490:

Just target using tab then. Removing the auto assist is just so useful, it means you don’t leap in to random mobs while running through zones like I used to.

I usually do this when I’m melee. But when you’re ranged. It is a disadvantage to turn it off. Wish we could toggle it depending on the weapon we have active.

In the options, Auto Targeting says:

“If you use a skill with no target selected, the game will automatically select a valid target within the skill’s range and in the direction the camera is facing.”

So, when I cast RETREAT it should select NO ENEMY as an enemy is not a valid target for Retreat.

So why is this option not behaving as it should Anet ?