Guild Wars 2

In both PvE and PvP, when my character is fighting a group, sometimes a different opponent is targeted between shots or hits. Sometimes I’ll get re-targeted after every shot, despite repeatedly clicking on the desired target.

This is a disaster in regard to focus fire. And in PvE, it can bring wildlife into the fight when I’ve already got my hands full.

I’m new to MMOs; I could be fat-fingering a key somehow, but I don’t think that’s the entire explanation.

Anyone else see this? Any ideas as to how to avoid it?

Thanks!

According to a friend, there is a UI option to lock targeting on a mob until it’s dead. It’s probably on the initial Options click box screen. I don’t use it since I mainly play melee characters, but it could be really helpful for certain character builds.

Tick the option ‘Promote skill target’ and see if it gets the desired result for you.

Are you using the left mouse button to look around? You could be encountering the issue where pressing the left mouse button targets anything at the cursor, even when you do not release the button. This means that you could be accidentally changing your target while trying to look around.

@Drevin.6534: I tried the button. No joy, but thanks for the suggestion. I’ll keep trying stuff.

@Aseyhe.2948: I do use the mouse button to look around, but that’s not culprit, or at least not always. This AM I was firing away at a target and out of the blue my character did a 180 turn and shot at another NPC, which much to my chagrin brought it into the fight when I already had my hands full.

A good option is to use ctrl+click to select your target manually then press t to lock on.

You can click on the target and it will stay targeted, or set a keybind to select nearest enemy and it will keep the target with all the moving around. If you do not do either you end up auto targeting the mob in front of you. It is handy that you do not have to actually click on a mob, but as you say it can be annoying at times.

Yeah, they make you go through an unnecessary step to lock a target. The option is in your Keybinds.

Not sure why they didn’t make it a tick box like every other game ._.

I’m used to WoW’s way of handling targeting in a lazy fashion— auto target on first attack, then keep attacking the same target til it’s dead. If I try to do the same thing here in GW2 with multiple nearby enemies, it does what the OP is describing and keeps reselecting targets for each attack.

@SeedsOfYggdrasil.6315: you wrote use ctrl+click to select your target manually then press t to lock on.

I will try that, but darn, that’s a lot of keyboard work. Thanks!

@Drathanne.7261: you wrote: You can click on the target and it will stay targeted

This is inconsistent with my experience. Maybe I have buggered my settings.

You also wrote: set a keybind to select nearest enemy and it will keep the target with all the moving around

I’m at work and my rig is at home. I might be remembering something I did for SWTOR, but i think that I have tried the option of auto-selecting the closest target and then disabled that because of the random retargeting. What I have tried has not stopped random retargeting, but I have not remapped any keys.

…and you wrote …It is handy that you do not have to actually click on a mob

Amen to that!

ZenBones.1759:

I’m used to WoW’s way of handling targeting in a lazy fashion— auto target on first attack, then keep attacking the same target til it’s dead. If I try to do the same thing here in GW2 with multiple nearby enemies, it does what the OP is describing and keeps reselecting targets for each attack.

SWTOR was my first MMO, and apparently it uses WoW style targeting, ‘cause what I’d like and expect is what ZenBones describes but that’s not the behavior of GW2.