Guild Wars 2

Right now, the only way you can see the radius of AoE skills is to disable fast-cast ground targeting (which is something most serious players will never do in most situations).

I know there are devs in the team that have played (or at least know) League of Legends. That game had smart-casting, but there was an option to also show you the radius and range of all your attacks:
i. when you hovered your mouse over the skill in the skill bar
ii. when you held down the skill button but didn’t release it
iii. it shortly flashed the radius and range when you used the skill

I think this system will fit GW2 as well. At least, I would like to see the green / red targeting circles that players see when they disable fast-cast ground targeting in the same situation that LoL shows them.

I find it very annoying that I need to ‘guess’ what the maximum range of my skills is in the actual field (in LoL, this was a blueish circle with your character in the center) and my grenades and mines will end up or if they will catch the enemy in their radius. You can see all this if you disable fast-cast ground targeting.

One moment when having the good ol’ green / red range circle is crucial: when trying to land the Engineer’s rifle leap precisely at one spot. I use this a lot during jumping puzzles, where you need to jump on narrow branches / small rocks / etc. Using the small circle in the range / radius indicator will get you in the correct position all the time, in contrast with trying this with fast-cast ground targeting enabled, which will probably get you killed.

Also, right now players have to ‘guess’ what the radius of their mine explosion is. When an Engineer throws a mine (or a ranger his trap) he will see the detection range of the enemy. However, for mine at least, you can choose to detonate it early and the radius is much bigger (even much, much bigger when traited) so it will hit the enemy before he walks on it. Players have to guess just how large that radius is, and right now even I am not sure what the maximum radius actually is.

Showing this to players should also be an option, and a Mine should show 2 circles : the white one for detection and a lower profile light blue one (or whatever color you choose) for the explosion radius. This should be a separate option. Some players don’t need or don’t care about this, and I doubt they will appreciate the “circle spam”.

Personal feedback: I have enabled fast-cast ground targeting since day one. Just like in LoL, it has sped up my reaction time by a lot. However, unlike in LoL, I must live with some disadvantages because of that.

Thank you for this great game. I hope that together we can make it even better

I would also like to add that it’s also possible not to add a circle with the player in the middle for skill range, as if we do see blue / red range/radius circle even with fast-cast ground targeting enabled, we can just hold down the skill key until it turns green. So that’s one less circle to worry about

That range circle however would be useful when showing skill range when the mouse cursor is viewing the skill tooltip from the skill bar. (much like in LoL)

This is a great idea. In LoL, it was essential to know your range of attack. It would be great if they could implement this.

I’m glad to see someone else taking interest in this I think it’s a much needed addition to the game. If someone reads please, please share your thoughts. This thread gets buried instantly, it’s currently a day old and has ~35 views. The number of suggestion threads is very high, but I think this suggestion should at least be seen by the developers if not acted upon.

Another reason I’d like to see the range indicator circle is because most classes have a Leap type skill that needs to sometimes be used in jumping puzzles (or difficult vistas) but can only do guesswork on where their destination will be. Unlike Engineer, who can just Disable Smart cast and go where he pleases.

In short, a range indicator would also make life easier for the classes that only have leap attacks that aren’t ground targeted as an added benefit.