Fix the damn casting bug...

Ever been casting and just have the spell 'fizzle' on you for no reason?

It consumes the energy, doesn't cast the spell, and the spell is still fully recharged, but nothing happend? Just a sound that happens when you try to shoot through the ground or something and it says 'you can't shoot this, the view is obstructed'.

So ****ing annoying, I hate this bug. It wastes so much energy.

For instance, today I was trying to heal my party. Couldn't do it, heal party 'fizzled' twice and there went 30 energy.

This happens all the time when I'm backfiring with my mesmer.


Anyone else get this bug? I was talking to someone about it an apparently they got it too so I guess it's a game bug and not just me.

it is NOT a bug....if you try to move right after trying to use a skill it will cancel the skill and use the energy, adn the "view is obstructed" should be left as is because you DO cast teh spell, you are just too stupid to get a clear shot on them...so it SHOULD waste your energy.

But none the less this is not a big, a disrupting attack or attempted movement will "fizzle" your spell

I get the fizzles a lot, but never when it wasn't supposed to happen. If you move while casting, or get interrupted, then it's supposed to happen. I think losing the energy is perfectly reasonable, I actually like it (and this is coming from an elementalist ) It's very strategic to have to cast correctly. For example, in PvP, it's a good strategy to cast an AoE spell to make your opponent run and cancel his spell when you don't have any interrupts. If the interuptee didn't lose any energy, it would make combat too bland.

As for the "Your view of the target is obstructed" thing, this is perfectly reasonable. You should not be able to fire a projectile and hit your target when it's blocked by a wall, or whatever (and again, I do play ranger also.) It happens all the time with arrows, but all you have to do is move into a better position and attack. It would be nice if your character automatically moved to a suitable location before firing (if there's an obstruction) but it's not really an urgent thing, as all the player has to do is spend half a second to see if the shot is clear and then walk a few steps.

I get it when it's not supposed to happen.

I mean I'll just be running up to a rift to cast backfire and the first one never goes.

I'll get a video of it later. And I'm not moving while casting either.



Edit: And guys I was never arguing against the view thing, I was merely using that as an example for the sound that the casting disrupt makes.

Sheesh.

if you're running (using the keyboard) and then try to cast something and have it fail, it's not a bug but rather a latency issue - the game still thinks you're running when you cast, so it interrupts the spell. Not much is going to fix this unless they take away the ability to break out of a spell by moving - which i think we can all agree is a *bad thing*

The best solution i've found for this is to use the attack function to move toward the enemy rather than the WASD controls - that, or, simply select your spell and move in - your avatar will move in automatically and cast the spell without interruption, every time.

Bah. Never played Ultima Online, Padre? If player characters could move while performing actions, the game would be much more fun. Warriors would actually now have some strategy to execute in battle rather than simply hacking and slashing. Rangers could do moving shots at the expense of accuracy. Monks would be able to act more like field medics. Elementalists wouldn't be forced to unrealistically tank to effectively cast AoE spells. Mesmers would, uh, I don't know. Never played a Mesmer. Plus, then you could pick up items while escaping a demonic horde instead of stopping, bending over, and waiting for your enemies to give it to you straight. Casting serious spells, however, would require concentration though, and those spells would be the only ones which require the character to stop to perform the spells. To balance the power between players versus monsters, non-player entities could perform actions while moving too, which would add a whole new realm of action, strategy, tactics, challenge, and difficulty to Guild Wars.

I don't agree, except possibly for the ranger thing with (heavily) reduced accuracy. As you said, only serious spells should require you to stand still. Consequently, these serious spells are already the ones that have long cast times. From what you're suggesting, it seems like you should be able to move when casting spells like flare or orison of healing, in which case it makes almost no difference anyways. Besides, if elementalists and monks didn't have to stand still, they'd even more unstoppable than they already are (running/spiking = you'll be dead before you even get within several meters of them and running/healing = you'll never be able to kill an enemy monk unless you 8 on 1 him )

Not quite what i meant there... When i said

What i meant by that is, if an elementalist decided to cast meteor storm, he was comitted and had no way to end the casting until it was over - sometimes moving to stop a spell is a good thing, i.e. if a group of fighters decides to aggro you halfway through or your spell would aggro a group and your group needs you to stop for some reason.

I only get the casting bug when I am using autorun or click-to-move immediately before casting, without making sure I'm stationary.

Standing still while casting doesn't bother me. What does bother me is that if I want to cast a 1/4s cast Reversal of Fortune or Divine Boon, I can't do anything else for another 1/4s. It seems like EVERYTHING in the game (even movement) has a 1/4 universal cooldown that activates after using a spell. If that cooldown started when you start casting a spell, rather than when you finish casting it, it would be much nicer (although it would double the damage my Zealot Channeler does ).

...which is why balancing needs work and the skill point system needs to be replaced with a skill use system. For example, you would increase the power of Flare by increasing the number of successful kills with the spell.

That's not a good idea, as it rewards time played, not skill...

yes, and the first thing that popped up in my mind are invincible air elementalists. I certainly do not want to get hit for 5000 damage simultaneously.

No, that system benefits skill usage. Again, haven't you ever played Ultima Online?

I find it problematic when because of the camera posistion you can clearly see your focus and you think you can cast, but in reality you cannot as "Your view is obstructed" there is no real way of double checking this, having to zoom into FPS view in and out to make sure you have line of sight isn't very intuitive. It should make the check beforehand, obviously your char would know if they had LOS not due to the posistioning of the camera.

The rubberbanding spell cancel is also extraordinarily annoying, where you are moving and stop to cast except the server rubberbands you a step backwards and your spell cancels.