Yes, im calling it a bug. This is unquestionably one of the largest downfalls of the game. It has been overlooked by the developers for too long. This issue should have been taken care of in Beta and never have been released as such.
I actually posted this on Reddit and was surprised by the fact that my presentation of this issue answered a large number of peoples confusion over why they seem to ‘loose’ their target in the middle of battle.
I asked the Reddit community,
*’Does anyone else hate the fact that when you release the right mouse button, it selects whatever you are hovering over?’ *
I was surprised at the 140+ comments that quickly came after in support. Seems virtually no one knew why they lost their target, yet everyone is frustrated with the fact that it happens constantly.
and here are some of the responses…
" …. that explains literally all of my in combat targeting issues and that’s the major contributor of my combat screw ups."
“This problem is indeed the source of all targeting problems. It took me a while to realize why I was losing my target for no reason all the time, and this problem is actually the reason.”
“Seriously, I had no idea why my target kept switching all the time, now I do. So aggravating to be in combat then all of a sudden I’m targeting my ally for some reason. This seriously needs to be fixed.”
“Its such a horrendous design error, Im still amazed the game was released with it.
Also note that you cursor turns invisible while looking around like this, meaning its technically impossible to know wtf you are aiming at.
It really annoys me that such a good game has tons of these small annoying things. It adds up.”
Etc, etc…
Please, Arenanet, you were so good at listening to your player base at the beginning. Take a look at sPvP. Its failing, big time. I hate to see such a good game loose so many people over such simple problems with easy fixes. Is not targeting in combat one of the most vital aspects of the game?