Guild Wars 2

There are times when I go to activate a ground targeted ability and, instead of getting the ability to chose where to place it, the ability instantly casts itself centered on a random enemy nearby. For example I’m running through an area and go to cast symbol of swiftness so I can get through faster. Instead of the ground targeting symbol appearing, the symbol just instantly appears under an enemy. Usually aggroing the enemy, putting my down to combat run speed, while denying me my swiftness.

What’s going on ?

This doesn’t happen every time so I doubt it’s a setting issue. But it’s always annoying when it happens.

Sounds like you might accidentally be tapping your key twice. Hitting the attack skill for the second time on a ground-target ability will cause it to cast. So if you are trying to mash the skill out because it’s not letting you target yet, it will just cast where you were targeting when the key was hit for the second time.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

Double-clicking will cast it wherever your mouse cursor is, also if you have “Fast cast ground targeting” turned on in options, it will automatically target the mouse cursor. (Effectively it treats it as if you double-tapped the skill.)

Speaking of which, will the issue with camera look (holding down RMB) + fast cast ground targeting ever be fixed? Currently, while in camera look mode, fast-cast causes ground-targeted skills to be cast at the location of the (invisible) mouse cursor, instead of being cast at the point the camera is looking at (as in every other game).

It’s been like this since a related bug was fixed (in late beta). Before that bug fix, some skills would cast on the player (instead of casting on the cursor), but now they all cast on the cursor even when the cursor is invisible.

Virtually everyone I know uses mouse look mode for 99% of the time (i.e., mouse turning), and this bug makes fast-cast kind of useless (or at least much harder to use).

If for some reason the game engine can’t figure out where the camera is aimed, at least leave the cursor visible on the screen while in camera look mode (ex., as a crosshairs), so people can actually aim their ground-targeted skills without having to interrupt turning, looking for the cursor, positioning it, casting, and going back to turning.

I find it hard to believe that everyone @ Arena Net is a keyboard turner, so surely someone must have noticed this (if not the various threads / bug reports about it).

What ever happened to reading comprehension? The poster said “happens sometimes”. They described the circumstances.

Obviously, that means they are not using Fast Cast Ground Targeting. It also is highly unlikely they are double-mashing, because then they would miss their Swiftness buff but it would not be centered on an enemy. It would just be off to the side before they swung their cursor in place.

I suspect all these bugs that have existed for a year now (and 6 months after release) are because Anet is ignoring the reports and assuming the player did something other than described.

I use Fast Cast all the time, so never noticed if not having it on causes bugs. I’ll test it out by turning it off and seeing if Necromancer gets the same issue. Or, I’ll test out on my Guardian for you if Necro ends up clean.

I hate when Fast Cast is turned off because my Engineer would bug out 100% of the time with Grenade Kit. Instead of casting after seeing the green circle, it would toggle off. Basically, you double tap to cast, but instead nothing happens, so you waste time mashing over and over until it finally stops toggling and goes off. It just refuses to cast if you are too fast. Never figured it out, besides “I’m casting faster than the game can understand”.

The “invisible cursor” bug is annoying. No clue why it still exists.

Hsinimod.5784:

What ever happened to reading comprehension? The poster said “happens sometimes”. They described the circumstances.

Obviously, that means they are not using Fast Cast Ground Targeting. It also is highly unlikely they are double-mashing, because then they would miss their Swiftness buff but it would not be centered on an enemy. It would just be off to the side before they swung their cursor in place.

I suspect all these bugs that have existed for a year now (and 6 months after release) are because Anet is ignoring the reports and assuming the player did something other than described.

I use Fast Cast all the time, so never noticed if not having it on causes bugs. I’ll test it out by turning it off and seeing if Necromancer gets the same issue. Or, I’ll test out on my Guardian for you if Necro ends up clean.

I hate when Fast Cast is turned off because my Engineer would bug out 100% of the time with Grenade Kit. Instead of casting after seeing the green circle, it would toggle off. Basically, you double tap to cast, but instead nothing happens, so you waste time mashing over and over until it finally stops toggling and goes off. It just refuses to cast if you are too fast. Never figured it out, besides “I’m casting faster than the game can understand”.

The “invisible cursor” bug is annoying. No clue why it still exists.

I read his post. It still sounds to me like he might be mashing out the key.
I personally play a Grenade Engineer, do not have Fast Casting on, and my Grenades have never failed to respond to my second click, no matter how fast. I have never encountered an issue where the game does not cast my grenades due to how fast I press my keys. Sorry, but I am personally not aware of that bug and have never heard of this issue from any of my friends, either. For these reasons, I believe the OP might accidentally just be clicking a second time without realizing it, and his mouse cursor is just hovering over mobs when it happens.

AlietteFaye.7316:

Sounds like you might accidentally be tapping your key twice. Hitting the attack skill for the second time on a ground-target ability will cause it to cast. So if you are trying to mash the skill out because it’s not letting you target yet, it will just cast where you were targeting when the key was hit for the second time.

Wouldn’t that cause the skill to be cast where the mouse is pointing ?

Not centered on an enemy that is no where near my cursor. Sometimes the enemy it centers on is behind me, meaning it isn’t even on my screen when the bug hits.

There some terrain which seems to confuse the game for ground targetting. One location that I can remember is the entrance/arch on the ship in Arah story mode where you have to defend Zojja. It’s the spot next to the chest. If you are standing inside and try to case a ground targetted spell just outside then the game will keep insisting that you are going to put the AoE on the ceiling.

I also remember certain instances(but I didn’t remember to remember those locations) where attempting to put down an AoE causes the targetting circle to jump between where you are trying to put it and where you are standing.

Khisanth.2948:

There some terrain which seems to confuse the game for ground targetting. One location that I can remember is the entrance/arch on the ship in Arah story mode where you have to defend Zojja. It’s the spot next to the chest. If you are standing inside and try to case a ground targetted spell just outside then the game will keep insisting that you are going to put the AoE on the ceiling.

I also remember certain instances(but I didn’t remember to remember those locations) where attempting to put down an AoE causes the targetting circle to jump between where you are trying to put it and where you are standing.

I’ve seen the fist issue you speak of. I haven’t seen the second.

But both a different to my problem.