Spirits not attacking lately

So I used to have this problem where my spirits won't attack in Glints Challenge. I realized that if the foes were uphill, the spirits would just refuse to attack. I solved this problem by summoning my spirits further away from the hills instead, or on a higher point.

All was fine until recently. Even when the foes are on the same level, my spirits will sometimes refuse to attack. There's a spot that's slightly higher than the foes (middle area for Glints challenge) where the spirits would never ever bug out if they were summoned there as they would be higher than the foes. However today they refused to attack even when the boss was just below them and well within range.

One of my alliance members was complaining about his spirits not attacking recently too. Does anyone know what's up with this?

No idea about bugs, but I do get the feeling that the spirits don't attack until their owner attacks himself. Given that the range of a wand is much shorter than the range of a spirit, and that height difference modifies the ranges further, maybe the reason is to be found there?

Nothing to do with this. My heroes and I were attacking (either wands or spells) in all those cases where the spirits refused to attack. We even killed a level 28 boss and none of my 9 spirits even attacked it once when they were sitting right next to it.

I can't remember where I saw a discussion about this before, where people were describing this same behavior. It was probably here on Guru.

Every once in a while my spirits just sort of sit there... when they do that, I move a little bit (making sure I'm in aggro range) and summon them to me. That always gets them attacking again.

Occationally mt rits spirits wont attack even tho the enemy is well within range.
There was a discussion going where some ppl suggested it might be caused by the spirits targeting an enemy way out of sight, even on the minimap, and therefore does nothing but sits there.
When i have this problem, i usually move a couple of steps and then summon them. This usually snaps them out of their lack of action and gets them going with attacking the enemy they're suposed to attack.

The other thread was probably by me too. I found ways to overcome that problem by placing them further at locations where they'll either engage foes on an equal level or from higher ground. Those positions worked fine for the spirits until recently.

Moving spirits isn't an option for me unfortunately as I'm an elementalist and it's my heroes who summon the spirits.

This can't possibly be the problem because there was only 1 enemy in the whole map and it was right next to them.

Edit: It just happened again. Only one enemy left, within wanding distance, everyone in my team was attacking it but none of the spirits would attack it.

I hate to ask, but is your Rit hero set to avoid combat?

Guard.

12char

Spirits have longbow range (essentially they are equipped with longbows) and need to be closer to attack enemies that are located higher than the spirit.

Spirits will sometimes lock onto a target while the target moves outside of the spirit's range; however the spirit does not switch targets quickly enough to something within its range. It will look like the spirit is doing nothing but its just waiting for the target to be within range.

Did you not only try attacking the target but also calling it? (ctrl + space)

yeah spirits behave a bit strange sometimes. As previously mentioned, they are longbow thus if enemies are uphill, their range decreases, and sometimes they just don't want to attack even though enemies are within range. The 2 things I do to try to get them to start is moving them around and wanding. Sometimes it takes a few tries, but that's the best you can do.

I also feel that they sometimes runout of energy, could cause theer problem and if up against any mesmer they can get intrupted so if a high end mesmer has an intrupted that disrupts skill cast for a long time then they cant attack evenif they wanted too.

yesterday went out solo farming got into allsorts of troubel when windriders just keep intrupting spirts consently, so thats where my train of thought comes from. A few skills will slow down rechagre time of casters so really if all of them cause theer bunched get wacked they will just sit there with nothing to cast.

only way i get round is too recast spirts seams too help

Spirits use ranged attack skills that cost no energy and cannot be disabled by a skill like Distracting Shot. Energy problems are non-existent for spirits (I drain all their energy all the time with Spirit Siphon).

As darthlight said, they may be trying to hit a target out of range and being slow at adjusting.
Also remember, they do projectile attacks, like a ranger, so sometimes their "view of target" is obstructed, just like a ranger's arrows. It can be hard to determine, but target being visible on screen is no guarantee. There might be some structure (tree, wall, rock) or a slight edge in the terrain blocking their shoots.
Also, is some cases you face the old problem with bridges etc, where the vertical axis is kinda messed up. I had it today while farming manes for Nicholas. I stood on one of these large logs that act as bridges, surrounded by my spirits and being hit by a lone maguuma warrior. He was adjacent to me, we were both on top of the bridge. He hit me with his sword, but the spirits were not hitting at all. I tried wanding, and yes I got the "obstructed view" message. Really annoying.
But there is an easy solution for all this: Move a step or 2 and summon spirits. It forces the spirits to reconsider the target and it usually solves any problems with "obstructed viev"