Arto Faciong And Channeld Vs Thief

Online, July 25, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Q:
Hi, i just made a quick post about this matter in another thread but i believe it deserves it´s on thread and deeper analysis. (Mostly in PVP environment)

As we all know and Devs keep pointing out, the Thief class is all about positioning though vast mobility tools at the thieves disposal.
Unfortunately, most of the times the thief's effort to get advantage though positioning is in vain due to the Auto-Facing mechanic.
Thieves may use Flanking strikes but the target player will automatically turn in your direction, same thing for Leaping Death blossom... you leap behind your target evading 1 attack but as you land your target is facing you again due to Auto-Facing, and if it is a channeld ability you will evade the first tick of damage but end up eating the rest of the chain.

Imo they should get a message on the screen saying "you have to be facing you target" or target is not in line of sight".

At teh end of the day, removing Auto-Facing would require more skill, concentration and awareness from the players, which is a good thing i believe.

Now about channeled abilities vs Stealth. At the moment if a thief goes stealth wile being targeted by a channeled ability, it works like if the thief were visible, ending up taking all the damage and showing the thief's exact location.

Imo, as a thief goes stealth (braking line of sight) the channeled ability should cancel immediately as if you hidden behind a wall / rock / whatever. I don't know if this is a bug or intended but it has been around since the first beta and haven't been touched so far...

TL;DR
I'm sure that not only thief but many other professions in this game would benefit from the removal of the Auto-Facing mechanic. Also the stealthy professions like thieves, mesmers, engineers would also have they're gameplay improved if the channeled abilities would cancel on losing the target though stealth.

What's your opinion about these issues?

A1:
I do prefer to keep my whole freedom of movement too. So no point for autofacing except for some tough situations, but occasional. In the heat of a fight I highly doubt anybody is always reactive enough to autoface with no flaws. If it's that annoying (I never been worried by autofacing til today) maybe they could restrict its use, .... don't really know.

A2:
I agree since it both diminishes the value of positionals and stealth at the same time.

Anyone knows if auto-facing was introduced late during the closed beta or not? It feels as if it is a late addition given the system clashes that currently exist with the auto-facing feature.

A3:
I didn't roll a flanking Thief, so I can't comment on auto-facing. However, that channeled ability thing made me rage quit once. I was 1v1ing a Ranger in WvWvW (we just kind of walked into each other) it was a great duel, and I used my heal to stealth, one backstab would have finished him off. However, he used that channeled longbow skill and it killed me while I was in stealth. I was so mad I just logged off. It has to be a bug, it wouldn't make sense as a mechanic.

Sources:http://www.gw2gold.net/news-info.html?n=2543&c=97