Guild Wars 2

3 Simple suggestions really:

1 – Show in or out of range indicator on target skills like there are for regular skills. If you must keep the AOE circle indicator as well place it in the top right corner of the skill symbol instead.

2 – Give us a drop down menu on each and EVERY target skill with the below check boxes to choose how the skill will be used when used (basically removing the need for the options via settings):

A – Cast on target.
B – Cast on myself.
C – Bring up a target field and cast where I place it.

These options would add a whole new dimension to the game I think and add a whole lot of quality of life to the combat system. Some good examples:

I am an Engi I could:

A – For my Elixir Gun Kit I could choose my skill 5 (which is an aoe heal/remove cond and light field) to always fire on myself.

B – Choose my Flamethrower Skill 4 (Fire field) to always fire on my target.

C – For all of my Mortar Kit skills to fire where I aim the circle (the better option since it fires slow and you need to lead the target somewhat).

With the current options we have in settings all of this is not possible. It’s either 1 and the rest suffer. With my suggestion we can cover ALL of that and make the combat system (when it comes to target skills anyway) far more intuitive and more simple.

3 – Alongside the right click option for every Target (as well as every other skill) an added option to select weather or not that skill will auto target an enemy if no target is selected. Atm we have a separate option for this in the settings which covers ALL skills. I can see this being helpful for some certain skills – think Engi Rocket Boots, any speed skills where you simply want to get away fast and not draw any aggro etc.

Thanks for reading and please support if you have similar issues with the current system.

So no one else have any issues with the current way Targeting Skills work, or is this mainly an Engi thing? I understand a lot of people probably don’t even change the settings and try the “use on target”, “cast at cursor location” or even the “instant cast” options. But surely those who have, have come across similar situations where you forgot you had one or the other on or you used a skill expecting something entirely different but because of the current system, it just wont work.

I also understand that for PvE this would not be too much of a problem. However in WvW and PvP an idea like this could help greatly to many people. Also since Anet are trying to push their Esports and attract that crowd to the game you would expect they would want the combat to be as fluid and intuitive as possible.

So again, please post here if you have had any similar experiences.

Honestly I don’t see any problem playing engi with the current targeting system. That’s not the problem anet should work on. There are enough other more serious ones in my opinion.

lolobum.3082:

Honestly I don’t see any problem playing engi with the current targeting system. That’s not the problem anet should work on. There are enough other more serious ones in my opinion.

Well of course there are other things that should be worked on and more important. But that does not mean they can’t or shoudln’t look at things like this. After all I should imagine it would only take 1 or 2 people at most to do the job. Look at the guy that did the Action Cam, sure yes it took well over a year and in his spare time but it was something that he thought would improve the game to no end and so he gave it a crack.

I can see this sort of being the same sort of thing. Not really a major improvement or even for many of the player base. But still, having it there for those who will use it and make the game more easier/enjoyable for them would make it = worth it in the long run.

Also again I would bring up the Esports, it could/would be a great improvement there. Not only that, but with an improvement like this just imagine the possibilities for new future skills/mechanics they could bring in to the game to take advantage of this.

Thanks for your imput.

The current target system has been awkward since launch — ANet’s fiddled with it from time to time, usually making it worse (imo).

I think the biggest problem is that not everyone agrees what a targeting system should do. Every suggestion I’ve seen has generated major disagreements.

• Should ‘biggest’ targets (such as champs) be prioritized? I hated this at first (since: easier to find in the first place). Now that I’ve accepted it’s here to stay, I’ve found it’s a useful feature that I take advantage of often.
• Should ‘nearest’ targets include those behind you? I’m still against this one, but I’ve seen lots of people describe how handy it is in their game play.
• How much should range and terrain matter? Lots of people want nearby foes that are just a tad out-of-reach to be easier to target; some people think that’s unfair and/or leads to bad gameplay.

Normally, I don’t feel ANet needs to discuss mechanics with the community — this is one case in which I think they’d benefit from collaboration, e.g. describing the various options, let us discuss them, and then ‘vote’ our preferences and make changes accordingly (much as they’ve been doing with WvW linkages, maps).

tl;dr it’s been some sort of issue forever; it hasn’t prevented most of us from enjoying combat and lots of us have gotten used to it —> probably not something ANet needs to worry about any time soon.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

tl;dr it’s been some sort of issue forever; it hasn’t prevented most of us from enjoying combat and lots of us have gotten used to it —> probably not something ANet needs to worry about any time soon.

Well not unless their Esports DOES take off and people join the game en mass for that and start complaining how “awkward” the targeting system is. I have always been the kind of guy that prefers the “prevention” more than the “cure” but hey that’s just me lol.

As for a couple of other things you touched on. I am on the fence about the priority of champ target vs regular mobs. Sometimes it helps sometimes it doesn’t. Targeting creatures behind me now is a pain. Way back in the day when it would NOT target creatures behind you I thought that sucks I wish it did. Now that it does I can’t stand it lol.

Edit – My post/suggestion is more aimed at how the Targeting skills (usually aoe fields etc) work than tab targeting or any other type of targeting.

If you play a class with snap ground target mode on and you have an AoE skill intended to buff yourself in some way it would be nice to target yourself. I know there is kind of a work around by tilting the camera up, or you could turn snap off, or even use the cursor to target yourself, but sometimes those aren’t the best choices. This is not a critical QoL feature, just for convenience. Heck if you can rearrange your UI buttons through an option change due to a Youtuber’s inconvenience, this is something that can be looked at too, right?

You missed one other option — put your cursor over a UI element, be it a target portrait or your hotbars, whatever — then tap the hotkey for the skill. That will drop the aoe on your feet rather than on your target. It’s a bit slow for me at times since I mouse move and thus have to stand still a moment to move my cursor, but it saves having to toggle snap to target off and on (which is also doable, you just have to keybind the toggle, though then you are turning a single skill press to at least three key taps).

Just thought of another addition that would be nice:

Alongside the right click option for every Target (as well as every other skill) an added option to select weather or not that skill will auto target an enemy if no target is selected. Atm we have a separate option for this in the settings which covers ALL skills. I can see this being helpful for some certain skills – think Engi Rocket Boots, any speed skills where you simply want to get away fast and not draw any aggro etc.

Added this to first post.