Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing a warrior, and considering trying other professions. I know ele has a lot of AoE skills, and I’m a little nervous about it. I have a hard time with AoE skills (like the warrior burst skill for warhammer, or LB skills), because when I want to do that skill, I have to move my mouse around to the target, and that slows me down. I even have trouble with the Whirlwind Attack sometimes, with the direction of the attack pointing in the wrong direction. I watched a WvW video where someone was playing warrior with LB and he would have the green AoE circle show up on the screen for like a milisecond before confirming the location. It was like his mouse was already in the right place, so he just had to hit the key for the skill then LClick to confirm. How do you do it so fast? Maybe it’s because I use mouse RClick held down for camera control? When I want to use AoE skill and the green circle shows up, I have to find it first (b/c with mouse RCLick camera control, it’s hidden when held down), then move it to the place I want, all while trying to move at the same time. Is it just that I need more practice? Maybe the RClick camera control is bad? Maybe there’s a trick I’m missing?

Thanks!

Maybe I’m not understanding it correctly.

In options you can choose how you want your ground targeting to be :
-the default option is :
1)You use your skill
2)The green circle appears
3)You move your mouse wherever you want
4)You click again to trigger your skill

-there’s an option where instead of having to click again, as soon as you let your click go the AoE triggers (probably what you saw in your video)

-the last option is to cast your skill instantly, without even seeing the green circle. In this case, the circle will be centered on where you mouse pointer is (if your pointer is on your skill bar, it will center the AoE on your character).

I have the default setup. I guess I just never have my mouse where it needs to be to be on a target. Like, I just hold down RClick and move the mouse around to rotate camera. When I want to use an AoE skill, I have to let go of rClick (no longer controlling camera), find where the mouse/AoE is (this takes just a sec, but it could be anywhere), hit the key for the skill (I don’t ever click my skills), move it to where I need it (anticipating enemy movement of course), and then click. I guess my biggest problem is I never know where the pointer is going to be when I let go of RClick and hit the key for the AoE skill, so I waste time moving it where I need it… does that make sense?

Hmm well I’ve been playing with insta-cast for so long that it’s pretty natural for me to do it so I can’t even recall all the movements I do to execute a skill.

But play around with the different options and find the one you are really more comfortable with.

I could be wrong about this but when holding down right mouse button, the pointer disappears but remains in the same relative position on your monitor screen.

So if the pointer is near the middle of the screen when you start holding RMB, it will appear in the same spot when you stop holding RMB. So after targeting the AoE, if you immediately hold down RMB the pointer will be where it was (on the screen) after activating the AoE.

Just what I’ve observed, not sure if it’s always the case.

you’re right VT, i just am not in the habit of always keeping it in the center. Sometime sill let go of rclick for various reasons and will just rclick again to regain control of the camera. RedStar, do you use rclick to control camera? if so, do you left go, then move your pointer to where you need it and then activate skill?

Yep I use right click to control camera. I think I generally stop moving the camera around to more accurately place the AoE. My pointer is generally ahead of me, or at least where I’ll need to use my skills should something happen.

So let’s say I see an enemy, I turn my camera to get him more in my field of vision, slightly move my pointer to be under him and use my skill.
Since my pointer generally isn’t too far from where I need to hit and by now I know the size of all my AoE skills, it’s really faster for me than both other options.

It’s practice. When I first started playing back at beta and for some time after, to do an AOE spell I had to stop moving, find my mouse pointer because I normally had no idea where it was, bring it over to the spot I wanted then hit the skill button. Now it’s pretty much automatic and I can do it while strafing. So, practice. It will take time but you will be able to do it without thinking.

Use key binds. I have my f1 (warrior) bound to “E” so that i can keep my mouse on the person and just click them while simultaneously pressing E

I play with instant cast on my mouse cursor, it’s pretty fast. Just move my mouse to the mob, cast the skill, and move on with my life.

It’s seriously poor design. The fact that the cursor vanishes when you mouse-steer is the worst thing about it. If you stand still and cast, it’s not too bad but if you are trying to move at the same time, tough!
The recent change to ground targeting improved matters but it’s still far from perfect.

One thing that helps is an addon called gw2cursor (google it). It overlays a non-vanishing cursor that’s actually big enough to see and that doesn’t disappear under all the particle effects.

Contiguous.1345:

It’s seriously poor design. The fact that the cursor vanishes when you mouse-steer is the worst thing about it. If you stand still and cast, it’s not too bad but if you are trying to move at the same time, tough!
The recent change to ground targeting improved matters but it’s still far from perfect.

One thing that helps is an addon called gw2cursor (google it). It overlays a non-vanishing cursor that’s actually big enough to see and that doesn’t disappear under all the particle effects.

It vanishes but it’s exactly where you left it. It’s easy to get used to that position.

Thanks a lot everyone! Looks like I’m not missing a trick, I just need to practice. I’ll also check out gw2cursor if I continue to have trouble.

I didn’t know there were GW2 addons. WoW has TONS of things that almost completely change, well, everything. I thought GW2 didn’t have that kind of stuff. Are there some like, essential addons I’m missing out on or something?

Addons are a no-no. That overlay one might be ok because it doesn’t change game play but ask ANet directly before using any mod lest you have your account banned.

I mouse move and thus have huge issues with ground target aoe. The change to let me see the green circle until I let go, but not have to click again, that was great and I’m much more effective than I used to be but still have my cursor all over the screen as I move around. Practice has helped tremendously, however, even for this sorry reflexes old fogey.

I think it’s one of those things that just comes down to practice. When you don’t normally use AoE’s you don’t need to know where your cursor is, so you don’t think about it. But when you use them a lot you get used to keeping track of it without really thinking about it.

A bit like changing your keybindings, or any other part of how you control the game. For example when I first switched from the default skill bindings to using the number pad it felt really weird and I almost gave up on it. After a few weeks I wasn’t even thinking about it, I’d just decide to use a skill and press the button without being consciously aware of remember which one was which or finding it with my fingers.

“or example when I first switched from the default skill bindings to using the number pad”

How do you do this? You take your hand off WASD or the mouse to hit skills?

With my warrior, I JUST switched to a new keybind, from default to having 6=Sh+E, 7=Sh+A, 8=Sh+S, 9=Sh+D, and 0=Sh+W, where Sh=shift. That way, I don’t even have to take my fingers off WASD to do them. Thoughts?

sirrealist.1360:

“or example when I first switched from the default skill bindings to using the number pad”

How do you do this? You take your hand off WASD or the mouse to hit skills?

With my warrior, I JUST switched to a new keybind, from default to having 6=Sh+E, 7=Sh+A, 8=Sh+S, 9=Sh+D, and 0=Sh+W, where Sh=shift. That way, I don’t even have to take my fingers off WASD to do them. Thoughts?

I don’t use WASD at all. I use the thumb buttons on my Naga Razer for movement.

All the combat and utility skills are re-mapped to keys that fall naturally under my left fingers so I can play without any gross hand movement.
(I even have a little bit of tape stuck on the #1 key so I can feel it with my pinkie – helps me keep my hand position)

sirrealist.1360:

“or example when I first switched from the default skill bindings to using the number pad”

How do you do this? You take your hand off WASD or the mouse to hit skills?

With my warrior, I JUST switched to a new keybind, from default to having 6=Sh+E, 7=Sh+A, 8=Sh+S, 9=Sh+D, and 0=Sh+W, where Sh=shift. That way, I don’t even have to take my fingers off WASD to do them. Thoughts?

The important missing detail is that I’m left-handed, so it’s my right hand that’s on the keyboard. Which means I can have my thumb on the arrow keys to move.

Although out of combat I normally use mouse movement.

I use the mouse for movement unless I am putting an aoe down in which case I use wasd. Wasd is remapped to buttons that I like for example the walk backward button is on my mouse and the strafe left/right buttons are on ahem the foot pedals. Whether this is very effective or not idk.