I have the auto option selected in settings for self-cast which means that if I do not have a target selected any appropriate friendly spell will automatically target my character. But, frequently, I will be unable to cast on myself on multiple characters. I will press the button and the hand cursor will become highlighted waiting for me to click to place the spell on a friendly player. Mage arcane intellect, priest PW:Shield, Shaman buff, etc.
I found a post on reddit from almost a year ago that said the bug was related to having the enable interact key option selected, and the self cast option will not work if you are near something you can interact with. I use the interact key option more frequently now due to accessibility issues, since Brann and other players frequently block my ability to click items, so that would make sense that the issue is more prevalent for me now.
Sometimes I will be running past a targetable NPC on my priest and my PW:Shield will go on them instead of myself even though I was not mousing over or targeting that NPC and was not using the interact keybind, which is even more problematic. As long as you are within about 30 yards of an interact target, the spell will be cast on that NPC even if you have nothing selected. I am testing in Ironforge now since you can buff and heal the guards. You do not even need to be facing them directly for them to be an eligible interact target. If the NPC can not accept the spell, and you are in range of an eligible interact target, it seems to instead turn your cursor into the highlighted hand to place it on an eligible player. This could explain why it never works in the hotel in Undermine.
This does not seem to be an issue with player characters in vicinity, or at least I don’t think so, although I’m not sure why I frequently have the issue so often in raids, as well. There could be an NPC somewhere that I don’t see, or another potential interaction. (Edit: was just considering it could be like a lock gate or something similar, but will have to do further testing now that I’m aware of it).
Please fix this so that players can continue to use the interact key for accessibility issues and actually cast on themselves.