Current beta spell glitches

[agracul]

First of all, i really like guild wars and can't wait for gw2. But I dont understate some things:

1) I've watched numerous videos over the past week and have noticed that most of the spells ignore objects, like in this video. Spells flying through walls, houses, anything and probably damaging oponents isn't really a good idea. Is this done intentionally, or will that be fixed in release?

I know in gw you dont care about objects unless the spell is a projectile, which is always clearly stated in the description. GW mechanics allows to damage anyting in your radius (well those who played gw can agree that watching compass is more efficient that watching screen there). But it appears to me that even projectiles would ignore anything in their way in GW2, right?

2) I remeber a year ago ANet stated that you lauch a spell where your character faces. Here in all the videos spells always lauch at character's target, which is clearly not what has been stated in the previous sentense. Did anything change over this year, and I have missed it? Or was i mistaken from the very beginning?

3) Connected to that, I've seen characters casting from their backs (hello GW), is that the case? One really does not need to face anything, spells lauch at their targets, whoa should we be playing by watching only compass again?

[DrunkenBeard]

1) Obstacle question : It has been asked in the last WvW AMA and the answer was that yes you will be able to hide behind stuff to avoid damage.
2) Targeting question : There are some skills that will lock the target, but most of avoidable abilities depend on your direction. I think the way they are doing this is that there is a zone around the character where hits still count as if they actually touched the character. I think that's why there is an Evade effect on dodge, so if you dodge before the ability lands you're sure to take no damage even if it landed inside that "zone".

No idea about casting from the back though.

[Spl4sh3r]

I will only answer question 2 since I don't know the others. The thing about launching spells where you are facing only applies when you don't have a current target. If you target something it will always shoot towards it (unless said target is friendly). So if you want to shoot where you are facing don't target the enemy and you can go nuts and shoot everywhere. If you want more precise aiming you target the enemy. There will be occasions where not targetting the enemy is actually more beneficial aswell. Think of places that have lots of objects where someone can run behind to avoid being hit. If you target an enemy you would keep shooting at said object if he stands behind it.

[agracul]

I will only answer question 2 since I don't know the others. The thing about launching spells where you are facing only applies when you don't have a current target. If you target something it will always shoot towards it (unless said target is friendly). So if you want to shoot where you are facing don't target the enemy and you can go nuts and shoot everywhere. If you want more precise aiming you target the enemy. There will be occasions where not targetting the enemy is actually more beneficial aswell. Think of places that have lots of objects where someone can run behind to avoid being hit. If you target an enemy you would keep shooting at said object if he stands behind it.

now that sounds really strange, but really great indeed

[DrunkenBeard]

It is also worth mentioning that skills that have a traveling time (like anything involving projectiles) do damage only when they hit the player, so even if the enemy is targeted he can still avoid them if he knows when to dodge. Targeting in this case doesn't mean that the ability will necessarily "follow" the target.