Guild Wars 2

Tonight was the umpthillion time I died because I was immobilised, I tried to cast a Reaper’s Mark or a Putrid Mark at my feet to save myself, and the skill just didn’t go off.

I was not dazed/stunned/kitten. The skill was definitely not on cooldown. In fact, when I push the key mapped to it I could see the skill icon getting depressed. Not depressed because it doesn’t feel pretty, depressed as in the “button getting pushed down” animation that skill icons do when you activate and start casting them. However, the casting animation never began. I definitely wasn’t interrupted during the cast because the thing never went on cooldown, it just wouldn’t go off!

This has happened to me A LOT. Almost every other match I play, and I’ve been pvping since launch. Until tonight, I used to think that this a network lag issue: the client detects the keypress and shows the skill icon get “pushed down”, but the signal never makes it to the server. I get this a lot in WvW so I know it’s an issue, plus when I watch streams of people playing I see them repeatedly mashing skill buttons a lot, and I suspect it’s because it’s happened to them too.

However, tonight I started suspecting another reason for it: IMMOBILIZE. This MOSTLY happens when I’m immobilized! So I’m thinking: do Marks require LOS? So far I thought they didn’t, because when I’m moving, I can target an area behind my character and therefore out of my LOS, and the mark casts just fine. However, if I try to cast while standing still, my character will turn to face the area I’m targetting with my cast.

Can anyone confirm whether Marks need facing or not?

They do not need facing, when running. However as you said when standing still you do turn. The issue might be since you need to turn to cast the skill while immobilized, and you can’t turn while immobilized. So you press skill, character goes to turn to cast skill, can’t turn, skill fails.

But you CAN’T turn to face when you’re running! So either marks are bugged, or they behave completely differently depending on whether you’re moving or not!

It’s these little inconsistencies that annoy me about this game… how can you expect us to treat this thing seriously as an e-sport when there is no consistency or predictability in the way abilities behave? I’m not complaining about the fact that some skills need facing and others don’t, that’s ok, although it really SHOULD be noted on the tooltip. But when skills have DIFFERENT REQUIREMENTS WHEN YOU’RE RUNNING AND WHEN YOU’RE STANDING STILL, that’s inexplicable and borderline moronic!

GW2’s combat is a beautiful, fluid dance, but its underlying rules are a huge wet sloppy mess. It’s like each line of code in the game was coded by 25 different people who all switched workstations every half line. While stoned. And blindfolded.

ANet need to understand that the most important thing about esports is consistency! It’s knowing that when you activate X ability against an opponent with Y effects on them, Z will always happen. A small amount of RNG is ok, but when kitten behaves seemingly randomly the whole thing becomes a joke!

Also how do you expect to have a healthy, evolving metagame when each class has so many hidden and undocumented inconsistencies and foibles that it’s impossible to just pick up a class and play it effectively without months and months of training? It’s not just necromancer, I’ve been looking at attunement-dependent elementalist abilities on the wiki, and it seems some of them proc the effect of the attunement you started the cast in, and others proc the effect of the attunement you finish the cast in, with no rhyme or reason (OR DOCUMENTATION!) about which is which! It’s not even dependent on ability type either – glyphs are split right down the middle, and there’s no way to know what each will do unless you look it up on the wiki!

I have never had this problem with marks and I don’t think it is in any way related to game mechanics.
When you’re immobilized and cast a skill that requires facing your target in the wrong direction, it will put your skill on a 5 sec cd like when being interrupted.
So a skill not being cast at all can only be lag related, would be my guess…

No, if you cast Doom, which doesn’t need line of sight, it works just fine. This MUST be a bug, they just work differently depending on if you#re moving or standing still!

That’s exactly what I said. When moving the skills don’t require facing, when standing still its not so much that they “need” facing as much as your character is told to turn then cast, and can’t turn. Since the attempt to turn fails, the cast of the skill fails.

Yeah I got tthat, it was more in response to flow saying it’s nothing to do with game mechanics.

I spent nearly 2 years thinking it was lag-related. When the penny dropped the other night I was absolutely furious. It’s such a moronic problem, it’s never been documented anywhere, and it’s been in thge game since launch! I honestly felt like the developers don’t give a crap, they just do things at random!

I think you’re confusing line of sight with the requirement to face your target when casting.

Doom needs LoS but not facing your target. It will tell you “Ostructed” if your target is standing behind a wall but never fail because your target is standing right behind you.
It’s the same with marks.

The mechanic Bhawb mentioned – your character turning in the casting direction when standing still – will not interfere in any way with skills that don’t require facing your target in the first place. Not when moving and not when immobilized.

I don’t know what else to say here, the problem just isn’t what you think it is and I’m not sure what else if not because of lag.

Yeah you’re right, I did mean “facing” rather than “LoS” throughout. But the issue remains that Marks DON’T require facing while you’re running (you can target the ground behind you and the skill works), but they DO require facing if you’re standing still, causing them to fail if you’re immobilised. That to me can’t be deliberate, it must be a bug! Doom NEVER requires facing, it still works if I’m immobilised and the target is behind me, so why do marks behave one way if you’re moving and another if standing still?

Oh and btw, when I say the skill “fails”, I don’t mean it goes on a 5" cooldown or anything, I just see the skill icon activate for a moment, as if the cast has started, but the casting animation never even starts.

The only workaround to this would be moving your cursor down to the very bottom of the screen, so thatthe mark gets cast at your feet. But when you get immonilised and jumped on you have a very narrow window to react in, so youj’d need practice to pull it off.

Any ranger that has ever popped his elite skill, that roots people, can tell you that some specs are just completely shut down once immobilized.

..not to mention that half the classes in the game have no way to kill the roots.

…and stability won’t help you either.

manveruppd.7601:

but they DO require facing if you’re standing still, causing them to fail if you’re immobilised.

No, they always work.

Ezeriel.9574:

Any ranger that has ever popped his elite skill, that roots people, can tell you that some specs are just completely shut down once immobilized.

..not to mention that half the classes in the game have no way to kill the roots.

…and stability won’t help you either.

A Ranger and Well bomb Necro working together is just obscene.