Guild Wars 2

Anyone else find that these skills can be a pain to target with and often completely miss if you miss-judge the targeting rectile even a little a bit? I think lowering their cast time’s to near instant would help tremendously and I don’t really see how it would be overpowered. Am I the only one?

yes you are the only one
being skills that apply 2-3 bleeding stacks (4-5 depending on procs from sigils and traits) along with cripple (really powerful CC) and Weakness (another powerful,but overlooked CC) the cast times for them are perfect,and the difficulty is there for a reason
giving them “near instant” would be ridiculous,because just attacking 3 times with Scepter 1 and then launching those 2 in succesion would be disgustingly large AoE and single target bleed and crowed control effects
getting used to them there’s really no issue with targetting
try using Death Shroud skill 2 and then using Scepter 2,then Dagger 5,it should be easier that way,or Staff 3

Also:
you should try turning on instant-cast auto-ground-targeting
it may be difficult to get used to,but with practice,with your issue of “miss-judge the targeting even a little bit” may get fixed,since the split second it takes you to hit the skill AND mouse click may be the problem

It would be a really strong change, though I dunno if I’d call it purely overpowered.

While we’re at it, part of me wants a cast time on Corrupt Boon – just a small one! – so that I’d be able to at least cancel it when I notice the enemy has just begun blocking/dodging in the instance that it’s casting.

while i agree with this,as i’ve had that thought cross my mind,i have to admit,in a chaotic battle,you really would not notice that and manage to cancel it fast enough,unless your reaction time is just that good,with no latency lag,and the instant cast nature of it currently could mean weather you apply Burning from someone’s Aegis,(which as a necromancer,who DOESN’T want to hit a target with a huge truck-hit from Burning with all the condition damage) or having a big attack be blocked on them by one of your allies
(in a theoretical point of view,of course,but i definitly had my fair share of Aegis’ stripped with it that’s for sure)

Some other professions have just as powerful if not more powerful instant cast targetable abilities. Mesmers chaos storm for instance is easily more powerful than enfeebling blood and has no cast time. Rangers barrage has a similar cast time to grasping dead / enfeebling blood (for the damage to start at least) yet it has a gigantic rectile, cripples and has incredible range. Despite your arguments for it being overpowered with the suggested change, I still think a lower cast time or perhaps a bigger area of effect would align these abilities more closely to what other professions have.

“Powerful” is subjective. If I don’t stand in the Chaos Storm field, do I take damage? Nope. Powerful? Nope. Benefits from instant cast? None, or maybe one pulse of damage.

That said, Chaos storm and Barrage are fields where the enemy has to remain in to take damage as it pulses. Grasping Dead and Enfeebling Blood are not fields and as long as the target is in the reticle when cast, they take all the damage from the spell unless cleansed. So I think you’re comparing apples and oranges here.

To answer your original question, I don’t think decreasing the cast time would help in any way. If one is bad at placing the reticle, then nothing (not even instant cast) can help except more practice and anticipating your opponent’s movements. If you’re using a mouse, you can expect to get good fast. If you’re using a keyboard to target, well, you’re asking for it.