Guild Wars 2

Hello all!
I have a, “I just want to make sure I’m not crazy question” regarding Illusionary Leap. I’m a relatively new player and I’ve noticed that when I cast Illusionary Leap on a target accidently outside of range, the skill will go on cooldown, my character will do it’s animation but it won’t generate a clone. Obviously the skill is meant to be used in range but I just found it odd that the skill will still go off regardless of range.

Wikipedia’s notes on the skill say, “If this skill is used outside of range, no clone will be created and swap will be unavailable. However, any pre-existing clones made from this skill will still dash ~800 range units towards the skill’s target and cripple. " So I guess this is supposed to be…a thing.

So, I guess my question is, shouldn’t this be considered a bug? I would prefer the skill to not work at all until I’m in range and inform me that I’m out of range as it is a bit frustrating to lose the element of surprise and to aggro a mob with the skill essentially fizzling out and on cool down as you run in thinking you’re in range. I’m just really puzzled behind the purpose of having a skill that still goes off wasting cooldown but doesn’t actually work unless in range.

tl/dr, Illusionary Leap skill used outside of range doesn’t create a clone do you feel this should be fixed to not work until in range and/or is this a bug?

Working as intended. The only skills that won’t cast if out of range are ground-targeted skills. Everything else will cast, fail, and go on cooldown.

For example, try casting a phantasm, arcane thievery, or any other ability that requires a target, while out of range. They will cast, fail, and go on cooldown.

EDIT: That’s an interesting factoid on illusionary leap though, that if the previous clone using that ability is still up, he will leap again when you cast it again, doubling the cripple duration. Didn’t know that, probably because I always end up shattering the first by the time the cooldown is up.

However….
If you cast it on top of your Focus 4 skill it still gives retaliation. Many times if I am running into a fight I use this to pre-buff retaliation.

Indeed, though I’m not sure putting curtain on cool-down is worth 4 seconds of retalliation.

It is part of my combo I use to engage and is back up by the time my opening combo is finished so for me it works =)