Staff weapon targeting broken

Mystrius_Archaion

I noticed odd behavior with my lightning staff on PTS today. I thought it was the lightning staff bugs already on the forums, but this is different and is very easy to reproduce. I also confirmed it does not affect live.

Staff weapons on Live have what I call "smart targeting". You can hold heavy attack and sweep your cursor left to right across the area and they will fire off at the first target the cursor crosses. Lightning heavy attacks will just stay charging until you target an enemy and the beam connects. This also works on inferno staves as they can be started without choosing a target and will fly off at the most recent enemy targeted before the heavy attack charging completed.

Lightning and restoration staff weapons on PTS no longer have this for some reason. They actually do the opposite. You can hold down heavy attack and then move your cursor over an enemy and the attack will never target them and never fire.. Inferno staff blasts will go right through the target sometimes but actually do still have the smart targeting somewhat.
Lightning and restoration staves are completely broken in functionality on PTS. This is horrible.

Mystrius_Archaion

I thought this would get some responses. Right now this makes it a lot harder to target enemies in a big group and attack, especially on the "easy mode sorc" build that relies on heavy attacks.

Zophix

I've also run into this problem when I'm using a restoration staff. If this change is intentional please reconsider.

Slick_007

so when they changed bow a while back to not be able to sit fully charged waiting for a target, does staff not do the same? when fully charged it goes off, target or not?

feyii

Same here. I've only used a Restoration Staff on my PTS char yet, but this change is very noticable and makes it hard to use the staff effectively. I often stand there doing nothing (expecting to heavy attack), when on live my character would actually channel a heavy attack.

@Slick_007 for me the charge never goes off, it this happens. It just stays on the staff until you release the attack button. Then it's gone, without hitting anything.

schattenkind

Already reported several times in official combat bug thread

Mystrius_Archaion

Slick_007 wrote: »

so when they changed bow a while back to not be able to sit fully charged waiting for a target, does staff not do the same? when fully charged it goes off, target or not?

You misunderstand.
It does go off, but it does allow you that charging time to pick a target on live servers. It works just like bows currently work on live for staves like ice and inferno.
Also, lightning and restoration staves don't actually charge up anyway. They just start ticking damage firing at the target as soon as you point at one if you are holding the button.

The problem is they removed the ability to even recognize that you are pointing at a target anymore. You start holding the button and it no longer fires off whether you are pointing at an enemy or not. It just looks like you're trying super hard to attack and not doing anything.
The target recognition is broken.

Numerikuu

This issue has been going on with live as well for a long time, though with flame staves it's even worse. It's been happening ever since the heavy attack change to bows happened. Basically, for too long. Add on top the increase to charge time with flame staves, and yeah... fun... not.

Mystrius_Archaion

Numerikuu wrote: »

This issue has been going on with live as well for a long time, though with flame staves it's even worse. It's been happening ever since the heavy attack change to bows happened. Basically, for too long. Add on top the increase to charge time with flame staves, and yeah... fun... not.

Have you been on PTS since Summerset went on there? When was the last time you used a lightning or restoration staff on live?

Right now, lightning and restoration staves work fine on live. You can hold down attack and it will keep firing at targets and switching targets as you move your view around, making dolmens actually possible to do more than just wait for the boss to drop.
On PTS, the lightning and restoration staves will never attack anything unless you release the attack button and click it while you have perfectly aimed your crosshair on the target you want to hit, more like a light attack has always worked.

Numerikuu

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

Have you been on PTS since Summerset went on there? When was the last time you used a lightning or restoration staff on live?

Yes. And all the time. Most of my characters are staff wielders.

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

Right now, lightning and restoration staves work fine on live. You can hold down attack and it will keep firing at targets and switching targets as you move your view around, making dolmens actually possible to do more than just wait for the boss to drop.

Then I want whatever version of ESO you play lol. Ever since the heavy attack change to bows (I forgot which patch that was, but it was quite some time ago now) lightning staves stay on the target I aim at unless I release fire. Same for resto. They also tend to lock up, not show any indication at all that I am doing a heavy attack, or lock into a heavy attack despite using a light attack. Makes healing and bar-swapping at times so, so fun. I'm not the only one that's been experiencing this as well. Every single one of my friends has come across this.

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

On PTS, the lightning and restoration staves will never attack anything unless you release the attack button and click it while you have perfectly aimed your crosshair on the target you want to hit, more like a light attack has always worked.

This is exactly what I and many others have been experiencing on live for months now. Though it sounds even worse. Joy. [headdesks]

Flame staves are the worst though, because they do the above, plus you could be aiming right at your target only for the heavy attack to completely miss them or phase through them. And yes, before you ask, I am within range.

Mystrius_Archaion

Numerikuu wrote: »

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

Right now, lightning and restoration staves work fine on live. You can hold down attack and it will keep firing at targets and switching targets as you move your view around, making dolmens actually possible to do more than just wait for the boss to drop.

Then I want whatever version of ESO you play lol. Ever since the heavy attack change to bows (I forgot which patch that was, but it was quite some time ago now) lightning staves stay on the target I aim at unless I release fire.

I should clarify....

It stays on the same target until the heavy attack is complete or the range is too far or line of sight is broken, on live, and then will target the next targeted enemy for the next channeled heavy attack.

On PTS, it just doesn't target anything unless you are perfectly aimed before you press the button, which sucks a lot for these staves making them nearly impossible to use.

Raiyjne

Same problem on PTS as well. targeting/lock-on is broken for lightning staff.

Aedaryl

@ZOS_GinaBruno

Mystrius_Archaion

Still broken after patch 4.0.1
The patch claimed to fix something with heavy attacks, but it did not fix this issue which is severely hurting lightning and restoration staff heavy attacks.

Mystrius_Archaion

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

General

• Fixed a rare issue where holding down the Heavy Attack button would not cause you to perform a Heavy Attack.

This is still not fixed for lightning staves and restoration staves and is completely common, not rare at all. It happens every time you hold heavy attack before you have your crosshairs on an enemy and then move them over the enemy. Nothing fires.

This needs fixing ASAP!

Mystrius_Archaion

Further testing:
It does "half" detect the target as your character actually turns toward the target, but the heavy attack still doesn't fire.

What the hell was broken here?

AndyMac

Did a vMA run tonight - or tried to - died on the last boss and couldn't rez.

I noticed heavy resto attacks didn't work there a few times - pressed the button and nothing happened.

Doesn't look fixed to me.