Engineer's magnet

#1 - July 25, 2013, 7:44 a.m.
Blizzard Post

Since the patch magnet goes on interrupt recharge when you cast it with your back turned to your enemy or when you turn your back to your victim while casting magnet. Is this a bug or an intended change that didn’t get included in the patch notes?

And if it was an intended change, why?
The cast time and animation warrants enough of a warning to potential victims.
With everyone moving around so much it’s very frustrating to see it go on interrupt recharge because they dodged to your backside as you are casting it.
Magnet is hard enough to land against players who are familiar with the skill as is.

And as a side note, to be sure, I tried it out in hotjoin on the (magnificent) skyhammer map. It seemed to just interrupt and drop enemies at their position a lot, rather than dragging them to me. Magnet has always been wonky when there is a height difference in play, but it seems to have been worsened now.
Might be a perception thing because of the change, but that’s what it feels like.

What gives? Did anyone really considered magnet to strong?
I’m not saying it’s useless now, but it was a powerful tool that has lost (to) much of it power as it stands now.

#2 - July 25, 2013, 12:48 p.m.
Blizzard Post

This was an intentional change. The previous behavior where the pull succeeded regardless of facing, was inconsistent with other pull skills like Scorpion Wire and Spectral Grasp, as well as most other ranged targeted attacks. It’s still a useful skill. Yes it has a longer cast time than other pull skills, but it’s unblockable and brings all of the other tool kit skills along with it.