Does direction of attack make a difference?

I've read where elevation can make a difference on some attacks when determining where an enemy is struck. I was wondering it the same is true if I attack from the left, right or behind? Are there any advantages? For example, if I attack an enemy from the enemies right hand side, and the enemy has a shield in his right hand, is there a better chance for my attack to be blocked than if I attacked from the left?

arrow do more dmg shooting down.
although I am pretty sure that arrow do less dmg shooting up, but I cant recall for sure.

oh yea, and other than that... I dont think you can do more or less dmg from the back or anything.

I've read it somewhere too. Elevation is helping the ranger. About right or left hits, I guess it doesn't change anything.

Yep, I knew elevation made difference. But I had read on another side where shields protect a radius of 120 - 150 degrees on the side of the body that is was on (which means direction is important). Now this may be bogus which I was checking to see if anyone here had read anything on direction.

You do have a distinct advantage when attacking from behind, just like you have an advantage when attacking from high ground. All the details on facing aren't exactly known - just as how elevation scales up - but there certainly are benefits.

Peace,
-CxE

what about shields? i dont think i understand exactly how they add to armor..

So, to the best of my knowledge, shields work on all attacks that 'autohit', and all attacks that come from the 'front'. Autohit is anything that'll hit the chest unerringly - either single target skills that can't be manually dodged, or area of effect skills that autohit if you're caught in the blast. Shields always apply their AL bonus to that.

Front is a bit more nebulously defined - there's some solid angle over which a shield works, and all attacks coming from directions within that angle are affected by a shield's defense bonus. Attacks from outside that angle ignore the shield entirely.

I haven't spent even a second testing the angle of effect on a shield, so besides 'attacks from the front use the shield, attacks from behind do not' you're on your own.

Peace,
-CxE

I believe the direction that attacks come from have a slight difference in where you're likely to hit the player- i.e. different armor locations. Someone attacking from the side is more likely to hit the arms, someone attacking from a lower elevation is more likely to hit legs/feet, etc. This generally doesn't make a big difference, since armor sets have the same armor for the different pieces, but if you upgrade nearly all your armor but have starter footgear, having someone attacking you from a lower elevation might not be a good idea.

Yeah, that would make sence. Anoteher reason this game is great, it makes logical, honest-to-God sence! I would hope attacking from behind would do more damage, I mean come on, if I snook up behind you adn slashed you with a sword you wouldn't have a chance to defened or eveade so yeah... anyway, good information, thanks. And Ensign.... IS THAT A PIZZA THAT HES HOLDING! ISN'T IT SUPPOSED TO BE A BLADE OR SOMETHING?!?!? HAHAHA Thats funny... good stuff.. anyway... yeah, I would think that different angles and points of your target would have different effects from attacks in a game such as Guild Wars. It said that alot of MMORPGs don't have this.

and not to forget: hitting from behind and target running away gets assessed as "fleeing" - causing the attack to count as "critical" hit.
So stay and be a (wo)man !

When I used to play my W/E, dmg used to increase if I were hitting players from the sides, and increases even more from behind. Goes for monsters as well.