Auto-Attack Skill? Yeah!

What I'm thinking about is an option you can turn on and off, that would allow you to set one specific skill on your skillbar to be your 'auto-attack'. This would benefit casters/ranged characters more than melee attackers, methinks.

So to enlighten the idea, an example:

You are an Ele, and your skillbar has Flare / Shock Arrow / Stone Daggers / Ice Spear on it. You can set your 'auto-attack' to use that skill instead of your current weapon. So, whenever you attack an enemy, you will cast that spell automatically each time it's recharged until you cancel the attack, as opposed to attacking with your staff/wand.

Another one:

You are a Necro, and your skillbar has Vampiric Gaze. You can set this to be your 'auto-attack' skill. So each time it's recharged, your character automatically casts Vampiric Gaze.

Stipulations: You would only be able to use one skill as your 'auto-attack', and you can only choose that skill while in a town/outpost. Once chosen, you can toggle it on/off anytime. Also, if the skill is set to be activated while you are casting another skill, it is buffered to cast when that initial skill is done, just like attacking. This would count as casting a skill/spell, not as an attack, so skills like Empathy would not have an affect with the 'auto-attack' skill activated.

Reason: Simply to take a little of the load off when you're trying to keep up a rapid-firing skill/spell.

<EDIT>In response to anything about bots or macros - they can already do this, it would be pointless to use an in-game function to aid what the programs can already do (and are made to do). This is primarily for the average player, not any kind of botting function.

What do ya guys think?

It could work.. but not really sure how many people would use this function...
I guess would be good for the spell spammer.

well... atleast right clicking on a skill bar right now have no function, and could use for what is suggested....

I will sign if you draw me a purrty picture...

Are you trying to improve touchies?

No, didn't even consider them. I am, however, trying to come up with a better alternative to wanding/staffing. There are good spammable skills that can easily replace the crappy attacks casters have access to.

casting flare in such a regulated way will make the caster very suseptable to interuption, thus daze or something like "Distracting Shot" which would totally diable the auto attack. Spinal Shivers would also be a rather good way to really defete this. Backfire could be very leathal as well. Once one of these things happened, the caster would then have to scramble to disable the auto attack.

personally the only time I really wand is when I'm trying to save or rebuild energy, so this would be counter productive in that case.

It's not hard to stop auto-attacking. Besides, if any of those things happen to you, it means you have pressure on you and you're going to want to move anyway, thus cancelling auto-attack. You move to shake off aggro (PvE) or to kite (PvP), either way, it cancells this out and you're good to go. I don't see that any more 'exploitable' than smashing your hotkey over and over as it is now. It's just meant to ease your hyper-clicking or smashing.

Also, think about other implications than just spammable spells. Think Needling Shot for the Ranger. As long as the toggle is quick and easy, you could go from normal attack to Needling Shot spam auto-attack with one button. This goes for, of course, any skill, but only that one you designate, so it's a part of your strategy.

/notsigned
I'm against anything that automates the players job.

/notsigned

and make it easier for botting?

/not signed

I dont see how its required really, just press a number on your keyboard

Yar, let me constantly barrrage without wearing down my 1 key!


Other than that I'd have no use for it;

/notsigned

/signed

My domination mesmer said that he likes about auto skill activation

/signed

The next best thing to farming with bots.

/not signed

Dont need to make the player's job easier

/not signed for the reasons said above....

Latter.

/notsigned

too easy to turn this into a reliable farming utility.

and farming is bad for what reason?

u want stuff u do stuff for it... if u need money u farm, if u need certain stuff u farm... theres really no other way to get what u want... id hardly trust luck to give me what i want

i wouldnt propably use this muyself but i coud se the use for it as in flare or such...

/signed

Makes life way to easier for diversion mesmers and interrupters.

You never want to be predictable in PvP, so noone will use it in PvP.

In PvE you don't really have that much to worry about (as in positioning, movement, watching other players, keeping fingers ready to catch spikes with infuse, etc.) to really have to have a button to press. All you ahve to do is spam 1 for a fraction of a second every second and you're good.

/signed

I'm too lazy to mash flurry every 5 seconds. Easy on and off commands are a must though, to have quick reactions to hexes, and because nobody spams flurry with no enemies around...

What he means is, this would make it way easier to create automated bots.

/not signed.

OK, I'm not going to counter the silly "making the player's job easier" arguments, as if that was the case, you might as well have no GUI at all. The whole purpose of a GUI/minimap/hotkeys/etc is to make the player's job easier.

As far as the 'botting' statements, I thought I addressed that in my OP. *looking* oh, yes I did. But to clarify for those of you who don't get it:

A bot or macro program will already have this feature as a fundemental operation, implementing this into the game will not make that program any easier to write or use. In fact, they'd be better off not using this in-game feature as it would only complicate the program. It's easier to just tell the program to hit 'space' (attack) 1,1,1,3,2,5,5,4,1,1 over and over than to tell it to hit 'x' (key to toggle auto-attack skill), 3,2,5,5,4, hit 'x' again, attack, 'x', and so on.

Besides, I think it's safe to say that bots mostly (if not entirely) use 55 monks, and as far as I know there is no particular skill you 'spam' over and over again the second it's recharged, otherwise you'd be short on energy in no time.

Aside from that, I see no real arguments against this besides what vinegrower wrote. TheOneMephisto did bring up a similar point, in that it would probably not be used in PvP. Maybe, maybe not. I can agree that it is a distinct possibility. But either way, the point is that people have the choice to use it or not, just like many other things already in the game.