Decide where AoE hits

I think that it would be nice if we could place where we want our caster spells to hit. I know that they probly couldn't be implemented(?) until gw2.

example: I have an enemy targeted and he is running around, so if i just cast meteor shower on him the rocks will fall where he was standing. If I wanted to cast where he is running to I would click and hold on my skill bar and just drag ms to where i want it to cast. It would work kind of like flagging your heros.

Thoughts?

Would be hard and unnecessary to implement, and would make it far too easy to counter skills like Shadow Form and Spell Breaker.

/notsigned

I'm positive this is one of the reasons for GW2.

Something like click skill, pointer changes to 'select location', click.

I think this is something more for a strategy game than an online rpg.

- Ganni

Sounds like an annoying interface to me

It used to be this way. It was changed for a reason.

/Not signed.

you can choose where to hit

a Tank Warrior always marks the spot (much like the X in I.Jones movie)

you can calculated where your meteor shower showers actually, with experience and careful calculation, i would say, for a warrior thats charging at you, 1.5 inch approximately before he reaches you, my ele can do that in AB, kill unsuspectiing warrior, but not for pve monsters, cos they like to run.

Another thing you can do is, cast and then run to where the meteor shower is. works well for me cos the melee monsters will mostly follow and gets knock down, works well on berserking monsters in EOTN. cos they like to charge at you, even the priest, auroch and shaman. not good for ice imps. the meteor shower need to be cast not far away from you so you can safely runs towards it, again this need careful calculation. usually 1 inch before melee reaches you. sneaking up on them to cast meteor shower is usually a waste of energy as they will be knock down probably once (50%) chance and the rest of the metoer would be wasted.

another way to do is, target melee with some skill, you have to call target on this target, when all your heros and hench is killing this melee, you switch target and meteor shower the monk(healer), by which time, the melee will be half dead, and your heros and hench's slow reaction by now will be charging towards the monk(healer), and this is when you fireball/immolate your melee enemy to death. approximately 2 fireballs usually. The heros and hench slow reactions will probably not react in time to come back to attack the previous melee target, they will usually kill the healer first, by which time you can target the next target, and if not mistaken, they usually comes in pack of 5-6 (with exception) and you are already down with 3 and thats 3 more to go without a healer. If you have either Olias/Master of Whisper/Livia as MM with you, you would have 3 more minions to fight with you. off course this works as a group of 8 with heros and hench and you as the elementalist.

practice, its quite fun when you have master it.

/notsigned. I don't want to do more stuff.

Thanks for the feedback. I didnt know that the interface used to be something like this. And I'm sure they changed it for a reason.

signed ... people which don't sign this are either too blind to see the improvement of the cast system by this or are either too lazy just to click 1 time more, before they start casting the spell....


To chosse SELF, where the aoE should be casted gives the player much better possibilities of strategic combat...then just to cast seplls there, where the target stands...which makes all AoE's in the game a joke...when you can't just cast them whenever you want, because you need ever first an enemy target in your near ...when the real target IS the Area around YOU...

thas why those Spells are called AoE's ..because they have no special enemy targets..they affect simple the area around you and damage anything, what is in this area....

How AoE Spells should work in GW imo and hopefully at least later in GW2, show older MMORPG's, like Ragnarok Online ...

There when you cast your AoE..the player chooses FIRST the spot, where AoE should be casted ..and then the spell gets casted.... thats just only 1 silly click more...

Giving Eles thias ability to manually select the spot of where the aoE should be casted would heavily increase the strategic usage of Elementalists, because they can they also be used, like similar trappers...

get to a place with a tight walkthrough, where monsters have to go through for example. ..get to a safe spot and wait..till the monsters come and then cast the aoE into the tight area when all monsters come, right so, that the cast will be finished and the AoE starts damaging ,when all mosnters are in the tight place...thats TACTICAL USAGE of AoE ...and not just only stupidly pressign of Skill Bar Buttons and casting aoe's to fixed spots, where targets stand in the moment of finishing the cast...


We play here a fantasy MMO Game, that requires both in PvE and in PvP especially tactical thinking and strategy...to win.... we play here not only a game, thats alll about only stupidly button smahing which results in senseless bloody massacres only, where you need not to waste on 1 Second of your life on ever thinking what your doing >.>

So the gameplay could imo really need and improvement of the gameplay, espcially for the fight system, including the cast system for AoE's giving them a strategic touch....

We play Guild "Wars" ...

and fighting in Wars is everything all about STRATEGY ...

Only real disadvantage I can see is that nagging wammos will get even more annoying after the caster fails to predict where the frantically kiting enemy tank's gonna be in three seconds. I kinda like the way it is now -- knock them down, maybe even cripple or slow them somehow, then I spray them with a bunch of little burning bits or a few big burning meteors. :P There's still plenty of thought behind it without turning the game into FF:T. :P

Dunno... I can see where it'd be useful, if almost as time-consuming as the cast was in the first place (3-5 seconds is a long time in the heat of battle!), but I kinda like the way it is now. With a tank that has decent aggro management and/or anyone who can slow an enemy somehow, this isn't necessary.

I kind of agree with that, though this would still be soo nice to have.
The OP actually suggests to keep the area on foe system and add a location choosing system along side that.
With both that actually saves me work and time, it means I can spam away on the melee coming towards me, and when I want to hit a group I don't have to TAB through foes to find the one standing in the center.
It would make ele's sooo much more fun to play.

(Can't find that English Lion picture... )
He is right, an (A)rea (O)f (E)ffect and is not the same as (A)rea (O)f (F)oe.

Right. I was thinking if you want to just cast on a foe, then hit the skill, just like it is now. If you want to target a certain area on the ground, then click the skill and drag it to where you want its effect to be. This way you aren't wasting time if you are in a rush (someone used a wammo example) but if you have the time, you can use it to your advantage, instead of casting and just hoping the guy stops when the aoe hits.

3-5 seconds to drag a skill from your skill bar to the screen?!

I think you need to turn the sensitivity on your mouse wayyyyyy up. It would only take maybe 1 sec to do this. And you still have the option to just cast on foe.

Area of Effect according to Guild Wars Wiki AoE

If theres no target how do you triger the skill? it would then have become a trap.

If one learn how to body block, there's pretty much no where a foe can run away to after you cast the AoE skill. Also corners are very good place to group your foes before you AoE them.

Just something to think about.

Umm... that is the point of the suggestion.


Anyway, /notsigned. This sort of stuff works in real time strategy games like WarCraft 3 and Diablo where you have the camera angle to do so, but in this game it would be too tedious and very difficult due to the interface. Also the game play is very fast paced and having to click where a skill is cast after you cast it takes away valuable seconds that could be used doing something else in the fight.

How is it any different than having to click on someones name to heal them?

And to all the people saying it would be to hard to implement....... let the designers worry about that. not the players. Also, I dont understand what you mean by the camera angle is not right. Guild Wars has a lot more camera freedom than any RTS (except Sup. Comm.....maybe). I have my camera angled to look down on me usually, so I can see as much of the battle as possible.

And if you didn't feel like using this control, you wouldn't have to, just as stated in my above posts.

you seem to me, as if you never have played any other MMO...then Guild Wars ...or you are just a bit small minded..sry to say that... how about simple casting it ...click and cast ... there is absolutely no need for AoE's to have foes in your near to target them, only to be able to cast your spells....because AoE Spells have NO direct enemy targets...the target is when the AREA, where the Spell should do damage..


@Hawk

I lol'ed

As if anyone can do something within 1 Second, that is of more importance, than it needs to click ONCE more to set the place where the AoE should be casted.

The stuff you talk about the camera angle is bullshit....the camera play of GW is good enough for this...you can easily turn the camera whenever you want around with the right mouse button being hold....

Al this not signed stuff here comes imo really simple only from people...which are too lazy to click ONCE more, just for having an improves AoE System, that would give the game more and better strategic gameplay options...
I can't really understand it, how to not sign this idea...then just being to lazy to click 1 signel time more ....

clicking twice instead of ones is ya such hard work *sarcasm* we could break all us our fingers..if we would be able to click twice to set AoE self ... *rolleyes*

/not signed

I'm for this. Being able to choose where a spell will be cast I think would make the game a lot more interesting. Being able to accurately judge where to cast a spell would be something one could develop through thought and strategy. It would be fun to try and determine where to best location to cast a spell will be. Where will enemies be in 5 seconds? What are the chances that they would go there? Things like this, I believe, would make combat with AoE spells much more entertaining and thoughtful. Sure one may sacrifice one second or so to plan out where to cast a spell, but it will pay off because one is capable of developing more of a plan than just cast this spell on this target.

One thing which could be done to appeal to both groups would to have a button one could press while casting an AoE spell which would enable one to choose the location which it will be cast. Otherwise, the spell will act as it normal function is and just target a player. This would enable to strategist to choose locations for their spells, while still allowing those who just want to choose a target to have their wish. I would be very pleased if something like this appeared in Guild Wars 2.