Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, in a PvP or WvW environment should I disable auto-attack?

If so, why?

What do you do?

thanks

I do not do PvP, only WvW, so I will talk for WvW.
It is good to keep auto attack because many times at WvW the fights last for a long time. You will soon get tired of pressing 111111, even more if you fight using shortbow, or pistol mainhand.

That said, I think it is mandatory to disable “auto targeting”. Auto targeting can many times make you use skills on the wrong things, even mobs, especially when you fight classes that stealth, or blink.

I do not turn it off. As Kanenas said, you’ll get pretty bored of pressing 1111 in the long run.

I have short bow auto attack on. When you’re cluster bombing, having the auto shots going while you wait to detonate your bombs really ups your DPS. However, it might also pop you out of stealth if you’re timing is off. Also, retaliation/confusion is an issue too, especially for thieves.

I usually leave Melee auto attack off, unless I’m PvEing.

Auto attack should always be off in a pvp environment unless you are playing a non stealth build.

Is there anyway to disable it for certain weaponset? Mike having melee off and shortbow off?

I’m gonna run d/p in PvP/wvw

Why should I have it off? Can you explain it to me?

Thanks again

lazycalm.5186:

Is there anyway to disable it for certain weaponset? Mike having melee off and shortbow off?

I’m gonna run d/p in PvP/wvw

Why should I have it off? Can you explain it to me?

Thanks again

Auto attack is either on or off. You can not disable it based on weaponsets. I run with it off to avoid it breaking my stealth. If you run d/p then you would definitely want it off as you will be popping in stealth more often and auto attack would break stealth.

Disabling/enabling auto attack is weapon specific, you can have it on for one set and off for another. Just ctrl+right click the skill. This can also be done for utilities, a good candidate for this is “For Great Justice”. When on auto attack, it will activate on cool down as long as you are attacking something.

As Shikamaru said, thieves with auto attack can be at a disadvantage. I have at times AA’d out of stealth instead of backstabbed due to timing. Or you will Backstab immediately upon entering stealth and hit them in the face, doing less damage.

With weapons with long auto attack animations like sword, it can throw your timing off and your other skills will be delayed or not activate because you were in the middle of an attack animation. Disabling auto attack gives you greater control and you’re less likely to mess up your rotations, at the cost of pressing the one key more often.

I disabled autoattacks the moment Perplexity became fotm.

There were/are a number of issues with targeting and auto-attack. But most have been fixed and I don’t Backstab a pet or a minion nearly as much as I used to.

I don’t get the automatic Backstab much either that would occasionally trigger without player input.

So yes, I use auto-attack since the game requires you to spam is so much otherwise. My poor “1” button wouldn’t survive a week of GW2 if I played without auto-attack enabled.

I’ve always left auto attack on personally. Never saw a reason to turn it off with how I play.

I don’t like having auto attacks force me wait for animations to finish when I need to do something quickly, so I prefer to keep it off. The more control you have, the better.

Luto.1938:

lazycalm.5186:

Is there anyway to disable it for certain weaponset? Mike having melee off and shortbow off?

I’m gonna run d/p in PvP/wvw

Why should I have it off? Can you explain it to me?

Thanks again

Auto attack is either on or off. You can not disable it based on weaponsets. I run with it off to avoid it breaking my stealth. If you run d/p then you would definitely want it off as you will be popping in stealth more often and auto attack would break stealth.

This is not true, it is entirely dependant on your weaponset.

I would suggest always having it off and instead getting used to using your skills yourself. Get in to good habits as early as you can.

Luto.1938:

Auto attack is either on or off. You can not disable it based on weaponsets.

Yes you can disable it for certain weapons. I have it off for d/p and on for shortbow.

OP,
The main reason why I disable auto attack on d/p is so that I can get more control over my backstabs. If it doesn’t connect immediately, I don’t sit there flailing around. Instead I could be doing something like shadowshot+backstab. Auto attack delays actions like that. I leave auto attack on for shortbow because small strafes to the left and right can stop a lot of projectiles from hitting you. I need that free finger to do that.

Important to note: If you don’t have auto attack on for pistol main, you can about face withdraw (to use withdraw as an advance instead of a retreat) a LOT easier. Of course the trade-off is the need to constantly press 1 to maintain your damage.