Assist vs. Focus Speed

[Savage]

Is there a speed difference for target updating? I use Assist with all of my abilities and kind-of stayed away from Focus because I hate hitting a button BEFORE every enemy. Assist just lets me spam and tab. Basically what Im saying is, with my current setup, if I tab a few times, the Assist doesnt update right away, so my shamans might LB a few targets back if I attack right away.

[Savage]

Focus:

Main updates target --> server update's main's target --> alt clients update

Assist

Main updates target --> server update's main's target --> alt clients update

;)Ah, thanks!

[sqeaky4100]

It's all the same speed isnt it?

I personally use: ( I like focus because it doesn't go away, so I focus my leader and forget about it )

/cast [target=focustarget,harm,nodead] Lightning Bolt




It's the exact same as ( minus the conditionals ):

/assist focus ( or a name )
/cast lightning bolt



I just prefer putting everything in one nice and tidy line.



So basically, whoever the main is targeting in EITHER of these two macros, and you cast the lightning bolt macro, the slaves will target whoever the leader is targeting... it'll never be a few behind.

[Savage]

It's all the same speed isnt it?

I personally use: ( I like focus because it doesn't go away, so I focus my leader and forget about it )

/cast [target=focustarget,harm,nodead] Lightning Bolt




It's the exact same as ( minus the conditionals ):

/assist focus ( or a name )
/cast lightning bolt



I just prefer putting everything in one nice and tidy line.



So basically, whoever the main is targeting in EITHER of these two macros, and you cast the lightning bolt macro, the slaves will target whoever the leader is targeting... it'll never be a few behind.Well, with assist, I have to make a macro for every attack. So I have

/assist Onesavage
/cast Lightning Bolt

and so on. Kinda the downside, but then you dont have to worry about setting focus. I guess its preference, but I tried using focus and I couldnt do it, I dont know why.

[Frosty]

It took me a while to change over to using focus. I really like it though, and I have a few ideas to try out that I'll share (if they work) later.

I have 2 keys, one for /follow focus and one for /assist focus.
This allows me to change leader to another focus, and all of my macros on all toons still work.

[Drizzit]

/assist Onesavage
/cast Lightning Bolt

What happens when Onesavage is dead... the macro will not work anymore


Focus has it's ups and downs like everything else. The reason i use focus i because my macro wont be as long example
(off the top of my head)

1 button press once everyone is in group and when toon1 dies before others to control them, etc...
/focus [target=toon1, exists, nodead] [target=toon2, exists, nodead] [target=toon3, exists, nodead] [target=toon4, exists, nodead]

LB macro
/cast [target=focustarget] lightning bolt

CL macro
/cast [target=focustarget] chain lightning

With focus i only use 1 line of code for each macro. I don't use assist so don't quote me on this but wouldn't an assist macro look like this for each macro:
LB macro
/assist [target=toon1, exists, nodead] [target=toon2, exists, nodead] [target=toon3, exists, nodead] [target=toon4, exists, nodead]
/cast lightning bolt

CL Macro
/assist [target=toon1, exists, nodead] [target=toon2, exists, nodead] [target=toon3, exists, nodead] [target=toon4, exists, nodead]
/cast chain lightning

[Xyl41]

I actually use the following:

/cast [target=Piillila-target] Lightning Bolt

This allows me to free up my focus for PvP so that I can LB one target and immediately focus an NS - EM - CL on another target.

[Savage]

/assist Onesavage
/cast Lightning Bolt

What happens when Onesavage is dead... the macro will not work anymore


Focus has it's ups and downs like everything else. The reason i use focus i because my macro wont be as long example
(off the top of my head)

1 button press once everyone is in group and when toon1 dies before others to control them, etc...
/focus [target=toon1, exists, nodead] [target=toon2, exists, nodead] [target=toon3, exists, nodead] [target=toon4, exists, nodead]

LB macro
/cast [target=focustarget] lightning bolt

CL macro
/cast [target=focustarget] chain lightning

With focus i only use 1 line of code for each macro. I don't use assist so don't quote me on this but wouldn't an assist macro look like this for each macro:
LB macro
/assist [target=toon1, exists, nodead] [target=toon2, exists, nodead] [target=toon3, exists, nodead] [target=toon4, exists, nodead]
/cast lightning bolt

CL Macro
/assist [target=toon1, exists, nodead] [target=toon2, exists, nodead] [target=toon3, exists, nodead] [target=toon4, exists, nodead]
/cast chain lightningI dont die :)

In all seriousness, when my guys die, I target the mob I want to kill, turn the other ones with Q/E as needed and blast away. Now, when I get into PvP this wont work, but then Ill have to change over I guess.

[Drizzit]

In all seriousness, when my guys die, I target the mob I want to kill, turn the other ones with Q/E as needed and blast away.How do you target the mob so all the other toons target the same mob? assist is on your main and your main is dead. If you use tab there is a chance that your toons will target other mobs... sry for all the what ifs (i'm a programmer and always have to ask the what ifs and think of ways to break stuff).

[Schwarz]

In all seriousness, when my guys die, I target the mob I want to kill, turn the other ones with Q/E as needed and blast away.

This works out ok for pve but what about pvp when you are in a bg and your main dies and someone is smart enough to loot your mains body to force you to release spirit? Now you have 4 guys standing around doing nothing b/c they can't get a target from your main.

[Savage]

In all seriousness, when my guys die, I target the mob I want to kill, turn the other ones with Q/E as needed and blast away.How do you target the mob so all the other toons target the same mob? assist is on your main and your main is dead. If you use tab there is a chance that your toons will target other mobs... sry for all the what ifs (i'm a programmer and always have to ask the what ifs and think of ways to break stuff).When you die, you dont release right away so I just click the mob on the main guy.

[Frosty]

Change is good. Don't fight it...embrace it..

/hippy_tree_hugger_mode off

:P

[Savage]

Change is good. Don't fight it...embrace it..

/hippy_tree_hugger_mode off

:PYour Profile Picture is awesome, by the way.

[Frosty]

Change is good. Don't fight it...embrace it..

/hippy_tree_hugger_mode off

:PYour Profile Picture is awesome, by the way.Thanks, but I can't take credit for it. I found it randomly on the internet one day.

[Eteocles]

There is a difference in speed, noticeably if your eye is lag-trained enough as mine is; with Focus, in PVP especially where Patience checking targets is a luxury you don't have, I noticed my Focus target takes a solid second+ to update and more often than not my Main was spamming by himself or 1-2 of the 5, while my alts were on wrong/old/no targets; with my newer Focus-less Assist-based setup, the update time has been in view and in practice noticeably quicker, particularly in pvp where it boils down to bullet-time reactions. After I switched my targets were updated quicker and more reliably every time.

[sqeaky4100]

There is a difference in speed, noticeably if your eye is lag-trained enough as mine is; with Focus, in PVP especially where Patience checking targets is a luxury you don't have, I noticed my Focus target takes a solid second+ to update and more often than not my Main was spamming by himself or 1-2 of the 5, while my alts were on wrong/old/no targets; with my newer Focus-less Assist-based setup, the update time has been in view and in practice noticeably quicker, particularly in pvp where it boils down to bullet-time reactions. After I switched my targets were updated quicker and more reliably every time.
How often do you change your focus in pvp?

Also, how can assist be used to switch "mains" in pvp? ( for instance, if you use an /assist based setup , and your main dies... how do you switch everyone over to follow the next in the line up? )

[Eteocles]

My Main char was my Focus and assists were based off assisting the Focus in pvp and pve alike; I didn't change Focus at all(which was a problem when my main died and I tabbed over but I was still a tri-boxer then so no big loss)

I now use a macro based off targeting/assist:
/tar (target=Main, nodead), (target=Alt1, nodead), (same for alts 2 3 and 4), (target=Main){without the nodead tag it defaults to him if the entire group is dead so I can still corpse run, but uses the highest living alt as lead so I can alt-tab through them if I lose my main}
/follow
/assist
/stopcasting

That is my "Big button" courtesy of Zyzzfxzxczxfcs(or whatever his name was lol) and has worked quite well so far as a single button solution for both Assisting and Single same-key Lead-switching ;p

[Sarduci]

Well, posting here so i can find this later tonight. I I've been using nothing but focus going 1 to 65.

[Ticks]

My main spell casting macros consists of:

/cleartarget
/cast [target=focustarget] Chain Lightning

My "slaves" never target anything, they only use the "master's" focus target. This is a little of an advantage in pvp because players that have my slaves targeted, don't realize that I have them in my sights until it's too late.

I have a heal spell that goes like this:

/stopcasting
/cast [target=focustarget,help.nomod][target=focus,nomod] Lesser Healing Wave
/cast [target=player,mod:alt] Lesser healing Wave
/cast [target=focustarget,help,mod:shift][target=party1,mod:shift] Chain Heal

This is a modified version taken from the Wiki. I added /stopcasting because I hate waiting for a spell to complete first and I added party1 instead of a toon name. This mother of all heal casting macros will heal my main's target if he has a target and if he doesn't, they will heal my main. If I hold alt, everyone heals themselves. If I hold shift, they cast chain heal on my main's target if the target is friendly, if not, they cast chain heal on my main.

But as far as the topic is concerned, I think the "speed" difference between assist or focus is subjective. For example, I was shocked when I read above that someone had a good experience with /assist over /focus. My experiences have been the opposite.