Oerden's watch echo, enemies hard to hit next to the crafting bench

I am playing Shield Throw and the enemies close to the crafting bench (fountain thing protected by a force field) are almost impossible to target and if targeted the shield rebounds don’t happen. Possibly has to do with the hit box of the crafting bench or the force field being to big and preventing projectiles to hit. Having ranged enemies who will not move from that spot only makes things worse. AOE abilities like Shield Bash seem to be able to hit all mobs around the bench with no issues.