So far engaging enemies in 1.18 feels very clumsy....

[Eekiki]

I'm kinda flustered with the whole thing about being in distance of the mob in order to AA. Why don't they just put an "attack" button or something that immediately locks on, and with the push of another alternative button, can lock off, that way we can scale around the monster. I think I need to just get used to it. lol

Once you get used to it, you'll see that's actually how it works. You click once to target, click again to engage.

If you change the target setting to "floating" the arrow above the targeted enemy is solid when you first target it, and when you click again the arrow becomes an outline. That means you'll AA when you get close enough.