Guild Wars 2

It appears grenades are still the go-to weapons for engineers in pve, and despite all the problems condition builds have atm, I’d still like to use them, but find it absolutely unbearable to hammer my #1 for hours like that, because unlike all other professions, grenades do not have an auto attack toggle.

So that’s why I’m asking: would it be possible to put an entirely optional toggle on the grenade kit that would make it a standard target-locked aoe instead of gtaoe for #1 at least? I see the benefits of manual targetting, and I know that, if anything, that toggle would actually be less precise then manual targetting, but that’s a sacrifice I’d like to make since at the moment, I can’t keep using my engineer for more then 1 fractal each play session.

I’d like this too. I can understand manual targeting for 2 – 5, but for the basic attack as well is aggravating.

I was thinking about this too, and we should be able to switch between manual targeting and locked targeting. Locked targeting makes a grenadier turn into complete garbage in wvw, but a godsend in pve, so I think it would be neat to be able to switch between both.

I think grenades should work like the Necromancer’s staff. #1 is autoattack, but the rest are ground targeted.

The targeting issue is the one and only one reason I wont use grenades. Underwater they are fun all a kitten on fire, I use them even without talents, but on land they are the single most annoying weapon in the game.

Imperatora.7654:

The targeting issue is the one and only one reason I wont use grenades. Underwater they are fun all a kitten on fire, I use them even without talents, but on land they are the single most annoying weapon in the game.

Agreed. It’s the only reason I don’t use them.

I don’t even use grenade kit for the tedious 1 skill. I use it for the utility granted by the 2-5 and tool belt skills and swap over to my rifle and bombs to deal most of my damage.

The button mashing is very annoying.
I personally wouldn’t want a normal auto-attack for #1.
I would rather the skill be a channeled skill that just throws out nades while you hold it down.

Or if I could change the game anyway that I wanted I would make it so equipping kits changes your #2-5 skills normally but the number one skill is a combination of your kit and weapon. Like a Weapon attachment.

In the case of Grenade kit with Rifle/Pistol the #1 skill would be more like a gun mounted grenade launcher attack that shot out a single more dmging grenade at the target.

But ya…..Anet did okay too I guess.

i agree…give us a choice for auto firing.

I guess I’m in the minority here. I like the way nades are set up as is. Aside from the damage nerf awhile back. Can I have that damage back please?

Do not change grenades, having to require more skill to land #1 is what drives me to stay Engineer among it’s other higher skill cap features. If it was dullled down I would quit.

Yorgmeister.9146:

I’d like this too. I can understand manual targeting for 2 – 5, but for the basic attack as well is aggravating.

110% agree. I would definitely dust off my Engineer if they would just make Skill #1 use sticky targeting!!!

What you ask for is very reasonable as those who like it the present way may continue to play it that way by not toggling it. I wonder though if turning on that toggle would be harmful in your ability to play grenades in the long run though. Most of the art in grenade tossing is involved in anticipating where your target will be after your longish time in the air grenades arc to the target. If you autoattack a moving target, your grenades will always miss as he runs out of the last place. It would make zero sense to curve the grenade flight to track a moving target.

Furthermore it is the habitual and routine use of grenade 1 without autotargetting that helps you properly lay down grenades 2-5.

But it certainly would be nice for those times when you want to autotarget a stationary object and play around with your inventory, or build…

CriSPeH.8512:

The button mashing is very annoying.
I personally wouldn’t want a normal auto-attack for #1.
I would rather the skill be a channeled skill that just throws out nades while you hold it down.

ANet should implement this on all the skills with zero recharge, rather than the current ctrl+right-click auto-attack thing. Would make jumping into necromancer lich transform and such so less painful, and avoid quite a bit of pointless skill linking in chat (i keep getting left and right click confused when i find myself required to set the auto-attack on a skill in the middle of a fight).

Heck, with that and a camera movement lock (please ANet!) i could alternate bind #1 to left mouse and play ranged builds like a third person shooter.

Honestly i find myself thinking again and again that the action part of the game mechanics were a late in development introduction, after some lead dev or other had a weekend session with TERA.

Kolisch.4691:

I was thinking about this too, and we should be able to switch between manual targeting and locked targeting. Locked targeting makes a grenadier turn into complete garbage in wvw, but a godsend in pve, so I think it would be neat to be able to switch between both.

Yes please. Seconded.

Having to manually autoattack is the only reason I dont use grenades. Automatic attacks on all my other characters have spoiled me to the point of no return. I don’t care if #2-5 are manual targeted.

I would definitely LOVE a auto- attack grenade option, but I think that this is Arenanet’s point of view on the matter (which I somewhat agree with): "If we make grenades auto- attacking, then they’ll be too op. The entire point of us giving targeting to grenades is because they’re a powerful weapon, and to use them you need to have “skill” in targeting them to get the “massive damage” from the grenades". Just my thoughts on why Arenanet might not do this. Any thoughts on my interpretation of Arenanet’s view?

I asked for this back in beta, never got any where with it sadly.

2 new keybinds:
“While holding down [insert key] ground target attempts instant cast at targeted enemy – if target is out of range display out of range message”
“While toggled [insert key] ground target spells attempt instant cast at targeted enemy – if target is out of range display out of range message”

(In other news, if you use your mouse to click a ground-targeted spell, when you click it twice it auto targets directly at your feet!)

If they implement an auto attack for this, it makes this require less skill, thus, it will be weakened

Just practice it. It’s powerful because it’s difficult to use. God forbid.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

If they implement an auto attack for this, it makes this require less skill, thus, it will be weakened

Just practice it. It’s powerful because it’s difficult to use. God forbid.

I’d much prefer something slightly weaker that isn’t painful to use. My #1 key needs a bandaid by the time I finish a dungeon with grenades.

Quality of life > 10% extra damage for 133t players

I think an auto attack is a must for this kit. However I think a person should be able to toggle it off on the fly.

To everyone who wants an auto attack,

Please realize that an auto attack will come with a damage reduction and YOU WILL COMPLAIN AND THREATEN TO QUIT MORE!

^ I think most ppl will be satisfied with an auto-attack in the sense that you press the key once and it auto-attacks on your ground target untill you cancel it.

This shouldn’t come with any damage reduction at all since it doesnt really require more skill to hit a key once or to constantly mash a key over and over.

Now if ppl want to be able to target an enemy and have the grenades automatically fly at them, then I have to say Nah.
And in that case Orion the Cursed is absolutly right, that would almost certainly come with a damage reduction. Because it would also have to come with an increase to Grenade travel speed of Skill #1 otherwise you would always miss moving targets. Thats why right now you don’t aim right ontop of a strafing enemy you aim infront of them.

Nah. Personally I like to run leaving a trail of grenades behind me. It can have some nice versatility if you can master it, being able to run and fire without the speed decrease of running backwards or sideways.

Thats why we want a toggle for all ground target skills. toggle. Not replace grenades with targeting only. Not replace even one skill with targeting only.

Not decrease damage because its auto target (why would they do this?).

And don’t give me “requires less skill so I don’t want it”, a toggle lets you choose how you use ground targeting skills, with the higher DPS ground target mode (higher dps because you hit more often because you lead your targets) or lower dps, lower button mashing target-mode [once toggled on] that is auto-castable[but still targeted! just auto-targeted at their feet!].

That is all. Cake, and eating it too. Not removing anyones cake.

Like other have said, the auto-attack must and will come with another damage nerf. The reason grenades get the damage they do is because of the skill component required. Give it an auto-attack and it would just be the same as exploding shot. The ability to toggle it doesn’t help it’s damage situation.

It’s fine as is.

skill component…o m g.

use macro or mash buttons like idiot. this is skill? really?

Current implementation of engy is the one and only reason I stay intersted in gw2. I hope they leave grenades as is.

Its targettable because its aoe.. how can you predict to maximize your damage if it auto-tracks whatever you have targetted?? You just gonna hope your target positions “well”? Pure lazy, imo.

1) its far less annoying with the reticle turned off

2) who has this much time to autoattack? If its necessary and bothers you, why not auto with your weapon?

Isn’t that a good trade off? You get your QoL auto attack but lose the ability to lead your targets.

I would gladly settle for an attack toggle on grenade skill 1. As in “do no change ground targeting, just keep throwing grenades where my pointer is until I press 1 again”.

That would be a QoL improvement for everyone using fastcast (aka anyone serious about using grenades at all), and not diminish the skill element of predicting your target movement.

If the grenades would use targeting, it could be that you won’t hit your target every time it moves, because the grenades fly quite slow compared to other number 1 skills. That way it is actually good that you can aim ahead of your target, so it will run into the grenades.
Besides that for me the 1337 skillz of being able to never stop moving while hitting my target with grenade spam feels very rewarding. It would be very boring to let the game do the work.

I can’t see a drawback to having an optional autotarget, as the OP suggested. Using the option would make grenades LESS effective in PvP/WvW, so I can’t see that they would need a damage nerf. No one is complaining about needing to land “skill shots” in PvE, it’s simply a QoL fix that wouldn’t change the dps/effectiveness at all (as long as it was optional).

I’ve been saying this for months. I made a forum post about this too, about a week ago:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/PLEASE-fix-the-grenade-kit

Spamming the 1 key over is boring, redundant, and unnecessary.

NO. NO. and NO. this is a HORRIBLE idea. you would NEVER hit a moving target. also this would call for MASSIVE nerfs to grenades in pve. hell arennet would probably remove every trait for them.

I’m pretty sure Grenades has already been nerfed to match other targeted auto attacks anyway. A-net doesn’t seem to differentiate between the damage and the skill to use at all so I’m all for a toggle of some kind to save my fingers.

As mentioned above, in PvE auto target is needed, and in PvP you would still use manual button mashing.

Khezekiah Bellamy.5016:

NO. NO. and NO. this is a HORRIBLE idea. you would NEVER hit a moving target. also this would call for MASSIVE nerfs to grenades in pve. hell arennet would probably remove every trait for them.

So; you don’t hit anything and they will nerf the damage because you do so much zero damage that it has to be nerfed?

Logic astounds.

I would also love a toggle for this kit, auto attacks on the nades works great underwater (the only class I like underwater) but it isn’t overpowered, so why not give us the option on land?

I am aware it wouldn’t always hit fast moving targets but that’s why it should be optional, if I had 3 arms so I could move, aim and fire the right grenades it wouldn’t be a problem, I can do it all now but its very difficult and so awkward to pull off for hours of game play time – or maybe I’m just not hardcore enough.

In short, people like options… also pushing buttons and seeing explosions :-D

First, all for this idea. I lose more dps from not bothering with auto attack than i would if I didn’t have to think about aiming it constantly.

Also, it’s the only standard (ie class weapon, not counting enviromental bundles/random elite abilities) that does not have an auto attack feature.