Guild Wars 2

Often while casting spells and phantasms, I get the “obstructed” message even though I can see the other guy right up to their knees. This happens if they’re slightly elevated like in the Foefire sPvP map and the other person is standing on the quarry or waterfall.

It doesn’t make sense. I’ve tried jumping while casting and it doesn’t help. It essentially means I have to run right onto the platform before I start casting giving the other guys plenty of time to do their own damage.

If it’s obstructed for me, it should be obstructed for them too! But no – the person on the platform can cast spells on me with just a foot of elevation.

Does anyone know what exactly constitutes "obstructed?

Actually, jumping while using a skill does help to prevent “obstructed”, at least in certain cases. Anyway, from experience I’d say that if you can see >50% of someone you will likely hit him/her, BUT sometimes you will get “obstructed” message randomly when your target is not really obstructed (seems to happen often in WvW).

For the most part, any minor change in terrain will cause it.

The ‘projectile’ that spawns phantasms seems to travel the same way staff projectiles used to in beta. ie, along the ground.

As a result, you will get obstructed in places where other professions ranged attacks will work. The auto attack on the greatsword seems to follow a similar path, so testing your position with that before trying to summon can help.

Forefire and Forest are two maps that have huuuuuuge issues summoning phantasms in, especially on capture points.
Sometimes they can also ‘miss’ as well, like with projectile channel skills.

All these bugs were introduced when summoning phantasms without los was decidedly gamebreaking overpowered and phantasms were changed to their current state.

Of course, there is also the old summoning bugs where they just didn’t spawn, or spawn dead as well.

In general, I’d avoid using phantasm builds in spvp because of this.

i usually cast my auto attack first if I have any doubt about LOS. unfortunately, it draws attention to my attack and many times they back up and I still fail to cast. Then it resets the timer. That part sucks….

So something needs to change with the extreme amounts of “obstructed” that we get. :/

Make sure you jump during the “hit”/activation of the spell, not just while you’re casting.

If you’re not sure, make sure that you’re mid-air during the moment whatever it is spawns/hits. If it’s a Staff1, make sure you’re mid-air when the projectile touches them. If it’s a Phantasm, make sure you’re mid-air when the cast time finishes. If it’s a clone, it goes off regardless of obstruction (unless it’s something similar to GS2).

I haven’t pvp’d yet but having to jump several times just to cast a skill is frankly ridiculous. The problem will not go away either due to the LoS nerf. I wonder if the devs have tried this themselves.

Every time your character is blinking. Would explain a lot.

Funky.4861:

I haven’t pvp’d yet but having to jump several times just to cast a skill is frankly ridiculous. The problem will not go away either due to the LoS nerf. I wonder if the devs have tried this themselves.

Honestly, I find it ridiculous that your skill goes on cooldown if out of range, LoS not there, obstructed, and all of that kittenuff, making phantasm spawning an extremely finicky trial. That, and spawning things is also super picky.

Say I start casting my Phantasm while out of range. If I get in range before I finish the cast, it will spawn.

Now let’s say I start casting a Clone while out of range (Sword3 is one of the few Clone-spawns that requires a cast). If I get in range before I finish the cast, it will spawn.

Inversely, however, if I start casting my Phantasm while in range and get out of range, the Phantasm will not spawn.

If I start casting a Clone while in range and get out of range, the Clone will still spawn (occasionally… >.>)