At the moment it’s kind of this weird thing where you can mouse over an enemy and have them technically be “targeted”, but this only really matters for direct target spells such as Lunge. For ranged spells that fire projectiles like, say, Fireball, it doesn’t seem to actually do anything. It still fires where your cursor is, which means that the projectiles can actually just skim past enemies unless you are aiming directly at the middle of their feet.
I don’t know if this is intended or not but it makes ranged spells feel very awkward. Not just on large enemies, but on regular sized enemies too. And no it’s not dodge either, I can do this very consistently. It would be nice if it was closer to how Lightning Blast functions, but with a less extreme lock-on; just point the cast at the targeted enemy.
I think the reason why this is happening is because most skills don’t require targets to cast. Like you mentioned, Lightning Blast goes on the targets even if your cursor is not directly on them. But with Fireball and Static Orb it doesn’t do that, it just goes in a straight line even if sometimes you have the cursor on the target it will start moving and you’ll miss.
I think if they made the skills like these basic ones to require a target to cast it would fix this “issue’”, or do it like in D3 you can hold shift and it will cast freely. I tried with the Wizards Magic Missile and you need a target for it to cast and it will never miss.
Basically every skill in LE require no targets to cast and it gives us this issue where kiting bosses or any enemy makes it a little bit harder with long range spells.
Side note to this ;
I did find it tricky as well when using skills like Fireball or Rip Blood with the Lich that most of the time unless you have boots with a LOT of movement speed, the enemies get to you way to fast and you need to run click run click run click for every cast. With enemies that take a really longer time to kill, it makes it harder even more with spells that just “misses” the target. It might just be something to get used too but it is what I experience with it.
Either way I do enjoy the game and it will get better with time just have to be patient and enjoy it with what we have for now
I don’t think making it require a target is the way to go. It just needs to aim the cast at a targeted enemy. If one doesn’t want to do that, one can aim without the cursor over them, or hold shift as you say. I believe both D3 and PoE use targeting for projectiles like this while also allowing you to fire them freely, but I’m not sure on specifics because I haven’t played either for a while. I just know it works, and when I’m targeting something, I’m aiming at them. Unlike in Last Epoch, where targeting an enemy might as well not exist unless you’re using melee or using specific single target abilities.
just have to be patient and enjoy it with what we have for now 