For players who play a Guardian character or go up against them frequently in PvP, here’s an interesting bit of info that you may have already realized– the visible range of the Shield of Absorption bubble (for shield offhand) varies based on the racial size of the character who’s casting the ability. This essentially means that charr and norn absorption bubbles will appear much larger than asura absorption bubbles (check here for a comparison).

Does the size of the Shield of Absorption bubble affect the actual range of the spell? The answer to that question is a definite no, as confirmed yesterday on the official forums. Here is what was said by Karl McLain:

Hi there, I’d like to clarify a bit on this issue (and figured I’d do it in the original thread):
The size of the actual skill is the same, regardless of race. What I see in the video is that the asura’s first Shield of Absorption pushes back its maximum (and closest) 5 enemies, then the next Shield of Absorption pushes the rest out of the skill’s radius. The skill’s visual effect is what’s dependent on the size of the character and will be fixed shortly, but the actual area of the ability is static.

The video in reference is this video, which was referred to in the original thread. What some players presumed to be a knockback difference as a result of the size of the character hit boxes is actually just a result of the second Shield of Absorption knocking back the closest available five targets, which were farther away than the five mobs that got knocked back during the first cast.

We got a chance to ask Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer, Eric Flannum, a few questions about the game ranging from World vs World, class balance, PVP vs. PVE progression and more. We’re very excited to share this with, especially on the same day that Arenanet has announced that the game’s launch is August 28, just two months from now!

GW2 Junkies: Guild Wars 2 has some amazing character models, ranging from gigantic norn to tiny asura. With any competitive MMO, players worry about hit boxes and how character models affect gameplay. Since a player can get hit by stray damage, how have you designed the hit boxes for all the varied sizes and shapes that GW2 has to offer—asura are short, norn are tall, charr are wide (and low to the ground when they are running), etc.?

Eric Flannum: Every player character in Guild Wars 2 has the exact same sized collision cylinder. For asura this means that the cylinder is larger than they are and for norn it means that it is smaller. Very early in the process of making the game we knew this was going to be the case, so the min and max sizes of our races are heavily influenced by this.