Attack Emotes

Now correct me if I'm wrong but I am quite certain I have seen other people perform the animations of their attacks, but not actually do the attack since they weren't targeting anything and could do them repeatedly without any apparent recharge and I was simply wondering how one would go about doing this (if it is possible). I would look at the emotes menu if my keyboard wasn't broken and the default keybindings for stuff actually worked anyway, thanks in advance.

What animations, specifically, did you see?

Well, while in a team waiting for everyone else to arrive, one member a dual blades scrapper/stalker was doing regular 'waiting' emotes (dancing etc.) but then he pulled his swords out and began performing the animations for some of the first tier dual blades attacks, power slice, nimble slash etc. yet there was no enemies near us at all, it looked as if he was just attacking the air.

I'm also sure I saw someone with DP performing the animation for Empty Clips at some point despite there being no enemies in range or even to target.

There are plenty of aoe powers that come from the center of the character, and are not target-based. Thus, simply clicking the attack should perform it whether or not enemies are present. This works the same for any aoe attack where you place the target circle when you use it (like rain of fire) - there don't actually have to be any enemies there for the attack to go off.

There's a few early level Dual Blades powers that are clicked, and then intended to 'catch' anyone adjacent to you. You can click these and they will go off even if no one is.

Look into Demorecord if you want that kind of control over your screenshots.