Currently, these are not effected by line of sight rules that apply to most other skills of this nature and can go much farther than the skill is supposed to be able to. I believe all you need is a player/siege targeted and they can be casted through solid objects. They can go up walls too.
Other skills that have had these issues were quickly fixed but so far not with this one.
I am not sure if this is intended.
Anyways, here’s a screen shot of what I mean. The mesmer(s) in question were beyond the gate and sending them through the door/wall. Also note they can go farther than this.
Not a bug, nor do mesmers want this changed, being an ele there you have crap that does exactly the same, like the staff 5 ability for fire, and a bunch of other aoe abilities from other classes work that way as well.
Elementalist cannot do this. We have to have a LoS to cast single target skills. Yes AoE goes through doors/hire elevations (it is not exclusive to Eles btw) but the range of them is no where as far as this. PB is a target ability much like say Fireball; the difference is that I cannot shoot through walls and hit people. I have to have LoS.
Mesmers can and with a bit of practice they are able to send PB through walls and often they will go beyond 1200 m when chasing the target.
That is the issue and I question if this is intended.
p.s. of course mesmers don’t want this changed lol.
hey this is not a bug. you have to target to cast for effect like this. so it simply means you were seen. no mesmer can cast this overwall without having a target selected there. and it’s not blocked by gate because it’s not a projectile style skill. it just summons beside the target.
hey this is not a bug. you have to target to cast for effect like this. so it simply means you were seen. no mesmer can cast this overwall without having a target selected there. and it’s not blocked by gate because it’s not a projectile style skill. it just summons beside the target.
To my knowledge, all other abilities require a line of sight if it is a targeted cast(like a fireball spell or other single target abilities and most ranged attacks that does not use cones and other form for AoE. This is not exclusive though).
Most often, if you dont have line of sight(objects blocking a direct line to the target), the target is obscurred and the ability have no effect and goes on a cooldown(not sure if it is full or partial).
That PB can be used in spite of having no line of sight(succesfully using the ability on a target, despite of said target being behind a wall or otherwise out of sight) seems to be a bug.
If it is not a bug, I would like Arenanet to make it clear on ALL abilities which ones require line of sight and which ones that does not.
This allows mesmers to be the only class that can attack without LoS with a targeted ability. Most other skills is subject to LoS rules except this one.
More and more every day I am seeing Mesmers abusing this to attack siege and players that no OTHER class can do.
edit. I just figured out how they are doing this: you can fiddle with and the pan camera just at the right angle while against solid objects and make walls/doors totally invisible, thus allowing you to use PB through them. Mesmer PB are NOT subject to LoS rules. So you combine the two and you have a recipe for exploitation.
Screen shot below is me hugging a wall and viewing out. This is partially how they are doing it and they can thus target and DPS anything inside a keep/tower that they can see. This is what is called “wall hacking” in FPS games.
It’s worth noting that ever ground targeted AoEs (such as meteor shower) DO require line of sight. I could not attack a catapult inside a keep, even if I can see it, without elevation. Just panning the camera up doesn’t work, it has to be in LoS from my character’s PoV.
On the phantasms… it also seems like they’ll chase their target further from the spot where they were originally summoned. So a mesmer outside the keep can target you, summon it on you in the courtyard, and it will then keep attacking you if you up deeper into the keep or up the stairs. Perfectly fine, and even essential in PvE/sPvP, but a bit ridiculous in WvW defense.
Khyla Shadowsong ~ Charr Ele, Engi, Mes, Ranger, Guard, Thief, War, Necro
Northern Shiverpeaks ~ [dO] Drop Otter
I pointed this out in the WvWvW forum regarding Mesmers chucking those blighted things up onto the spawn platforms in the underground area in EB. The mechanic is pretty broken to be honest, yet the Mesmer players who have commented about it seem to think they’re above reproach saying things like “working as intended”.
It’s not working as intended.
As noted it’s the only (or one of very few) skill(s) that doesn’t require LOS, so to fix it you either fix each instance in the world where the skill has an undesirable effect, or you fix the skill.
this is definitely not working like it is supposed to. If it is, then why aren’t all of the other phantasm skills working in the same manner? I know that if I use the warden on the gate, it will also hit any targets standing near the gate as it’s AoE, but it wont chase the gate down. If I try to use it on targets behind the gate, it will not work.
I can’t chase you down, stop running away from me!
Swords of Villianousity [SoV] ~ SoS
