Guild Wars 2

Since the other thread was deleted for whatever reason, caps? Thought I’d continue here since it is still terrible and needs looking at.

Brisban Wildlands – Dual Axe Warrior.

I opened one of the Wintersday presents and Skritt popped out, I killed 3 and of the two left, one was standing slightly out of melee to my left (I was almost facing it) and the other was pretty far to my right, off camera and couldn’t see it. I hit throw axe assuming the appropriate target would be the only skritt on my screen. Alas I was mistaken and I chucked my axe at the one offscreen. Couldn’t get a screenshot.

Everywhere – Dual Pistol Thief

Obstructed targets or out of range enemies are chosen as appropriate targets except when in fights where it’ll be yellow named targets that become priority.

Yeah, I was following and trying to keep that thread on top too. But whatever was the reason for the removal, let’s try to keep this one on topic and help them with details and such. Screenshots help too if it’s possible to take them.

[sub]I think the reason was some post in it was considered being rude or attacking staff, although I can’t recall any of that in there. But anyhow, let’s keep this one on topic and not cursing or badmouthing (even as frustrating as the issue can be)[/sub]

As we were discussing, the targeting often prioritizes yellow/neutral mobs over something as big as the Claw of Jormag. It will often pick targets that are further away than what you are directly looking at. See below, the issue with the dreaded White Moa getting a higher priority than the Claw.

The bad targeting has been a plague upon the game’s combat system since launch. A fix is really over due. You can’t expect this game to ever become some sort of an esport, as long as players are losing matches because bad targeting drew some kind of ambient mob into a fight, instead of hitting their opponent.

Many months ago I also posted about something that happened to me in WvW. I was fighting a warrior, and doing quite well. I didn’t have time to fiddle with the targeting, so I just aim the camera directly at him and activate my Flesh Golem charge. The Flesh Golem charges right into some random raptor instead of the warrior. So now I’m fighting a warrior AND a raptor. So I manage to kill the raptor, but fighting two at once has taken quite a bit of health from me. The warrior runs off at some point, and I quickly aim the camera at him again, and activate the charge. The Flesh Golem races after him, right into another raptor next to him, and the warrior + raptor proceed to beat me to a pulp.

Also fun bugs like the CoF path 2 boss (the big flaming rock thing) which simply cannot be targeted at all if you are in melee range, unless there’s a called target on the boss…

You have to remember to target the boss before you run up to it, because you certainly can’t target it afterwards.

draconx.3102:

Also fun bugs like the CoF path 2 boss (the big flaming rock thing) which simply cannot be targeted at all if you are in melee range, unless there’s a called target on the boss…

I think see what you mean. Once while fighting Behe I lost aim for some reason that I can’t recall, then I tried to aim it again but I was a bit close to it and targeting system couldn’t pick any target for a few secs (I tried just trigger a skill as well I tried to use Tab to switch targets), even though my camera was faced right to Behe. Trying to click it also didn’t help, not all parts of it are selectable for targeting.

Same happened when fighting a dragon during Retribution personal story, it kept aiming mobs under its feet and hardly aimed the dragon, I only could aim the dragon when moving my camera to cam from ground to sky.

In another thread someone said something I think it can be what happens here. They said it seems there is some “leftovers” of some crosshair based system. I have noted it’s true as once I tried to click a mob that was close to me and there was another mob a bit far up at a platform (based on 3D world vision). But the one close to me was farer from my screen center (my char location on screen) than the one up on that platform. What it targeted when I tried to aim? Yes, the one up on the platform. >.<

With this in mind I have noted I get better results (I said “better”, and not that it “solves”) when camming the ground from above, what makes me think that theory above may be true.

/signed. it’s a nightmare to target anyone when you see 3 minion masters.

Here’s another from my Warrior. I was doing a PS mission and got attacked by 3 spiders, I pressed 1 to attack one of the remaining two (circled in red) beside me after I killed the first and look what I target (circled in white). Even if I was ranged I don’t think I could’ve hit that. Luckily the spiders were close so I kept auto attacking but that’s not really the point.

its even worse in wvw. it either targets an engi turret or even a critter. i was attacking thief, hea stealthed, i lost target, when he reappeared he was right in fron of me and my sgs hit the chicken that was way further away. since this patch i’ve noticed that the teargeting prioritizes critters, turrets, minions and non hostile creatures before anything. very annoying! it is supposed to be the other way around like it was stated a few patches ago.

Want to hear something funny?

I was at the Godslost Swamp. 3 Putrid Skelk (red mobs) in front of me, some Fireflies (yellow mobs) around. You know what happens? The “Target System” picked a Sparkflie (ambient creature) -_-

That is so typical. Yeah it happens all the time. And lets not forget that clicking to target is even worse. You can click directly on bosses that fill most of your screen, and the game selects random nearby trash mobs.

Just make it so we a have to actually click on a non-threatening mob, white or yellow.

It’s driving me mad…………

It consistently happens that when I’m trying to click on one of the tentacles of the Jade Maw, that it selects anything surrounding the tentacle. I’m starting to think that there is a very basic thing wrong here with how the game determines on-click events. It as if the game draws an incorrect line towards the enemy it is supposed to select. This may be tied to the problems with targeting priorities.

I’m pretty sure that not letting us target what we are actually fighting and instead having us unintentionally agro everything else on the screen is the devs way of introducing new challenging content.

I mean people were complaining about how boring it is fighting big blobs of health for so long. Now we have the added fun of not being able to target the big blobs of health and drawing in more adds!

This problem occurs in most champ fights for me, or world bosses, it just refuses to target the champ/boss, it will scroll threw every other selectable target in the area but never the target needed.

I just find it amazing how I just click innocently off on the terrain (by accident or just not thinking) and I lose target.. its messes me up all the time in pvp and pve and I really don’t understand it.. just another pet peeve I guess.

Jim Hunter.6821:

I’m pretty sure that not letting us target what we are actually fighting and instead having us unintentionally agro everything else on the screen is the devs way of introducing new challenging content.

I mean people were complaining about how boring it is fighting big blobs of health for so long. Now we have the added fun of not being able to target the big blobs of health and drawing in more adds!

It would make sense yes adding more challenge by grabbing more mobs to fight you.. but why the h**k grabbing/targeting ambient creatures (white mobs) then? Yes, it has happened to me a few times. About world bosses or champs, yeah every time I try to click bosses that are taller than my field of view I’m not able to select them. I would not even select anything if no mobs are nearby.

worst thing is ranger axe 1 bouncing off of yellow or white creatures, kittening trees in tixx workshop, or even dead bodies of already beaten enemies, instead of REAL threats.

just because of MAJOR bugs like these, which EVERYONE notices, this game still looks beta. so much of a shame.

Latest while mapping Hirathi Hinterlands. I’d already hit the two ghosts attacking me with rebounding shots from the ghost on the floor. Instead of auto target finishing them off, I target a ghost I can’t see because it’s completely behind a wall.

I don’t think targeting is “broken” so much as the current AI used to prioritize targets generates too many unintended consequences. Put another way: it’s probably “working as intended,” but I think they should intend something else.

1. Players should get to choose whether monster level (legendary > champ > elite > vet > normal > yellow) takes priority.
2. Players should get to choose whether non-hostile foes (yellow or white) are auto-targeted.
3. Players should get to choose whether proximity takes precedence over line of sight (the foe next to you, but obscured by a catapult versus the completely visible at 900 units away).
4. Auto-targeting, [tab]-targeting, and ©-targeting shouldn’t depend on the height of the hit boxes, e.g. you shouldn’t have to click on the Dragon Crystals (during the pre-Clawr of Jormag events) to target them, especially when directly next to them.

I doubt any of the above things are easy to adjust — simple, perhaps, but the testing alone will be very time consuming.

I do think it’s fine for AoE damage to aggro mobs (hostiles or neutrals), and that includes throwing axes or bouncing mesmer staff auto-attacks.

Also: that feeling when you’re fighting a world boss, and have to re-target every fifteen seconds. Grr.

Ikr! One more for the tales of auto targeting… Yesterday I was walking around at Queensdale at the area near where Champion Boar respawn. That area is full with angry Veteran Boars and one of them just began to attack me while I was passing by. While I was fighting it I walked around it and at some point I turned 180° and it got out of my view. Since I was already attacking it I believe it could lock target until the mob got defeated. But what it did? It lost target and targeted nothing since there wasn’t any mob in my view at that moment. So soon I turned my back and got it in view it was targeted back. Now I wonder what would happen if there was some yellow mob at my view when I turned and lost target….

targeting is def.weird. also in wvw, it will target pets and turrets first and then the players the furthest away from u. even if u are attacked by someone directy u will have to manually target in order to get the right target and not some critter or something random.

Just bumping it, no happening to tell about it :P

and bumping again… issue still happening..

and bumping again as this thread is being buried on forum…

still happens a lot… Here area few examples I Love about it…

Dredge Fractal… non bomb side, you come around the corner / fighting by the sonic towers, and “C” keeps targeting the yellow Door that is barely in view, while Dredge are chewing on your face.

Ascalon Fractal… coming up on door with Dulfy, ballistas, burning oil…. “C” keeps targeting the Arrow Cart on the very room of the place, that I believe you can only AOE hit.

Dredge Fractal… Boss in middle room, where vets try to push down the town folk… “C” keeps getting yellow Earth Totem even if it is on other side of room…

Dredge Fractal part 2… End “Ele Shaman” boss… many times, only when she shells, no matter how hard you try to click on her to target her, you cant… so if you don’t all target on him someone in party probably will not be directly attacking him.

Mai Trin – Randomly times in the end room, when you press “C” you will get a Vet on the wall that isn’t even in combat… Or, you will be in mid face to face combat with Mai Trin, and it will retarget a Vet or the guy with the cannon….

The list goes on and on….

The sloppy targeting struck again last night. I was in the Thaumanova Reactor in Metrica Province, and I was climbing the tower of the cold room. There was one Ice Elemental standing right in front of me, within melee range, and there was another out of range, on the other side on a ledge, behind it.

I press “target closest”, and guess which of the two got targeted? You guessed it!

It also happened to me while fighting The Shatterer. The dragon is right in front of me, I choose “target closest”, but it refuses to select the dragon. I hit tab, but it targets everything but the dragon. I directly click on the dragon multiple times, and it just won’t select the dragon. Finally I had to tilt the camera upwards, and directly click on those targeting crosses that appear, to select part of the dragon.

I usually not complain about things and find a workaround, but this whole targetting issue is ridiculous. Just how hard would it be to make it so that target priority goes something like:
1. Closest Enemy Player.
2. Closest Legendary hostile.
3. Closest Champion hostile.
4. Closest hostile.
5. Neutrals.
And also making it so that these rules apply only to enemies within a radius of, say 2000 Units.
If possible, when downed, also make it so that it prioritises the closest enemy with the lowest remaining health.

Also, there’s also this bloodboiling issue. Why not make HP bars non-interactive? I can’t count the times I’ve tried to place a Temporal Curtain behind some hostiles only to have my character cast it at her feet (I use Instant ground-targetting).

Really, ANET, I like your game quite a lot, but these issues have been around forever and they always cause a great deal of frustration.

Oh, I forgot to point out the retargeting “feature” when lets say… Ranger Great Sword 3… the swoop… I cant count how many times I have a target, 400ish away, I press 3….

Ohhhhhh You really really mean to have this thing over here targeted…….

This also happens a lot when you are calling target I have noticed…. “Oh, Mossman is back!,” ok, Ctrl T… “WTF, Why did I call that wolf over there?”

FenrirSlakt.3692:

I can’t count the times I’ve tried to place a Temporal Curtain behind some hostiles only to have my character cast it at her feet (I use Instant ground-targetting).

Not to mention the countless times I try to cast Chaos Storm (the 5th skill from scepter, not sure if the name is correct) a bit away from me and it casts just on me, usually when near bumpy or irregular terrain (also using Instant ground-targeting).

Despite having the correct game options set to give me control over my targeting and locking my target in, My favorite targeting bug is when my target that has not vanished or done anything to cause targeting to drop, for whatever reason is no longer targeted and my ranger is shooting off at nothing.

I had the most awful problems trying to select the Jade Maw yesterday. It has become a standard tactic now for someone to call the Maw as a target. Not because he is the boss. But because when you do need to target him, it is such a huge hassle. I’m pretty sure this is the reason that everyone targets the Jade Maw. You can directly click on him, but unless you click directly on one of his cross-hairs, he will refuse to be selected. So we always keep the Maw as our primary target, so that when we do need to throw those crystals in a hurry, we can just press T.

But that is not a good thing. It is a way that circumvents the core issue of bad targeting. And it seems to have become a common strategy now. That is how bad the targeting is.

just bumping it… getting buried…

+1 to these experiences. Automatic targeting is really wonky. It should target the nearest enemy instead of a new target that’s further away. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve pulled in new enemies because it auto-targeted an enemy that was out of aggro range instead of the closest next enemy I was already fighting.

again.. bumping it….

Targeting the burrows in Ascalon Catacombs was really difficult today, as it has always been. Try selecting one of those burrows when it is surrounded by dozens of gravelings. Argh, this targeting!

Topic was removed due to the amount of hate and trollism that the thread had inside of it. Keep it clean.

HykCraft.4610:

Topic was removed due to the amount of hate and trollism that the thread had inside of it. Keep it clean.

Helpful. Thanks for sharing your targeting experiences.

Hate and frustration are not the same thing.

Recently I went through some hard time with targeting (again) during Claw of Jormag. I lost the target for a little as I turned and clicked something else for a few and then when I tried to select the claw again it took me a few tries to get it. Clicking didn’t work and using Tab required me to press it about 4 or 5 times.

You know the targeting system is whack when you stand a couple of inches away from a 30 foot tall dragon and it wont cycle to it.

Lexandro.1456:

You know the targeting system is whack when you stand a couple of inches away from a 30 foot tall dragon and it wont cycle to it.

Yeah, so true… I had that hard time when doing a personal story at Claw Island…

True story bro. Bugs that are not fixed

Paul.4081:

I got feared so long on the 2nd Claw Island that when I get to the dragon I go afk and let the npc’s kill it on my alt’s.

Yeah Ikr! That was the part I was talking about… it kept targeting risens all over the place (some even feet away from me) instead that big dragon a few steps from me… (aren’t we spoiling here, are we?)

Paul.4081:

Joking aside………Not one reply from Anet Would be nice to know if they consider this a big enough issue that deserves attention.

Yes, even a simple “Hey, we have acknowledged it and we are studying/considering it.” would be great…

Hermit Crab!

Frickin’ Hermit Crab!

Priorities!

Please can we get some Dev reply here? This issue killed me earlier. Mining ore, mob aggros, my camera is toward the cliff wall I’m mining and my Tab key will not target anything until I walk 10 paces away from the cliff. Why? Because my camera decided to behave as if it was inside my character’s head, looking outward and the game decided that meant I can’t “see” any target. I have dropped to 60% health by then, and walking out aggros 2 more Risen to whittle away my remaining health.

Target Nearest…shouldn’t that hit the risen thrall standing practically inside my character, chewing on my ankle?

I’m gonna test this again, if I get the chance to find a ganking thief between woodhaven an Bay in WvW. Could be they like this area to gank and stealth because of the any animals in the area that you target first when they get out of stealth.

Trying to target Shadow Behemoth, pressing Tab cycles through… other players. Green after green after green… can’t target SB at all, or any of the portals etc, except by going a loooong way away – and then it drops the target again as soon as I get close enough to start fireballin’.. Even from way back it seems to prefer sparkflies.

Also can’t target Claw of Jormag, Jungle Wurm or Golem (anything bigger than Wolfmaster in fact). Tab just cycles through irrelevant stuff inc other players. Sometimes I’m going through whole events and getting no credit at all due to not having targetted a single thing. (It was particularly bad in my first and only attempt at Scarlett’s Marionette thing – disastrous, couldn’t target anything at all and just died ALL the deaths) I’ve tried just fireballing madly in the hope it would autotarget something, but either nothing/other players gets targetted – even in the middle of mobs – or I incinerate bunnies or pick fights with moas.

Never used to have this problem, it seemed to start around 6 months ago, or so..seems to be getting worse though, if that’s even possible.

Priority seems the following for interaction targeting… even if you have a target selected that you want to interact with, the game does not care….

Banner Pickup
Resurrection
Interaction with world item.

Prime example is Cliff Side Fractal…
Warrior puts banners where we stand, hammer runner goes down where we are… you can target the hammer (if your are lucky) but you, and everyone else who follows target will not pickup the hammer until all the banners are moved, and the guy is resurrected….

Greyhound.2058:

Trying to target Shadow Behemoth, pressing Tab cycles through… other players. Green after green after green… can’t target SB at all

You mentioned using Tab cycles through other players instead mobs, are you sure that Tab is key-binded to Near (or Nearest) Enemy and not Near Allies? I just wonder if it’s the case, but it’s binded to Enemy indeed then just ignore what I’m saying.

But yes, I know that feeling. I had a hard time trying to target a huge dragon in front me during personal story and autotarget insisted to target a Rotmouth a few steps far at my left.