Assist or Target=Focustarget?

[Stealthy]

Hi all,

I'm trying to tighten up my dps macros for BG's & PvP, where I have multiple targets and need to cycle through them quickly. And I was wondering which is better (faster to acquire target?)?

This:


/assist focus
/cast lightning bolt

Or This:


/cast [target=focustarget] lightning bolt

Or are they pretty much the same?

Cheers,

Stealthy

[Falkor]

either of them is just as fast but I suppose the second one might be a few millaseconds faster since its 1 process where as the first macro performs 2 processes.

Hope that helps :)

[Stealthy]

either of them is just as fast but I suppose the second one might be a few millaseconds faster since its 1 process where as the first macro performs 2 processes.

Hope that helps :)

Well when you are playing from Australia where 400+ ms latency is a way of life, every millisecond counts! Thanks for the reply. :)



Cheers,

Stealthy

[Djarid]

also the 2nd one would free up target for use in CC

[Team Squishee]

I just use spells normally without macros, but have /assist main on my thumb button on my mouse and i spam that every time i change target.

My 3 slaves also have 'set focus' on F4, F8 and F12 , and using trinity bars i can Ctrl + spell to cast on the focus.

So for CC i can set 3 different focus targets on my 2 warlocks & mage, have lock1 focus fear on Ctrl-R, lock2 focus fear, on Ctrl-T and mage focus sheep on Ctrl B whilst hitting my spells keybinds without Ctrl to attack my main's target. (i wrote macros for these so they /target lasttarget after firing off the cc)

I also have keybinds on Insert and Page up to /assist pet1 & /assist pet2, so for PVE where i have time to 'assign' targets before i commence a fight I can effectively switch between up to 7 targets easily - focus1, focus2, focus3, focus main, pet1 target, pet2 target and main target.

Seems to be working well so far for Pve, but I am not sure how easy it will be to use this system in the midst of a hectic pvp battle.

[Diamndzngunz]

/cast [target=focustarget] lightning boltUse that one.

So you set your focus target, then make all your macros do /cast [target=focustarget] SPELL
and your good to go. By far the best way you can Multibox.

[bugilt]

I was wondering if this will cause any problems if added to healing and damage spells without having a non focused one? Right now I have to click a assist macro before I cast. It has been a pain in the round fleshy part on my back side to do this, but for some reason I keep thinking it leaves the door open for options.

[bugilt]

I added
/cast [target=focustarget] lightning bolt to all my spells yesterday. I was wondering how you go about healing with a 5xshaman group? Do I assign one to healing and make separate keybinds for him? I tried just using them all for the same task whether it be healing or dps, but it seems to waste mana when it comes to heals.

[TEEJ]

I added
/cast [target=focustarget] lightning bolt to all my spells yesterday. I was wondering how you go about healing with a 5xshaman group? Do I assign one to healing and make separate keybinds for him? I tried just using them all for the same task whether it be healing or dps, but it seems to waste mana when it comes to heals.

i'd use /cast [target=focustargettarget, help, nodead]; [target=focustarget, help, nodead], [target=Tankname, help, nodead];[target=Thischaracter'sname] Heal

it heals your tank's target's target... so by default it heals the tank while tanking, but if the mob switches target it heals the mob's new target (whoever got aggro). by manually targetting a character and hitting this button , it heals them due to them being the tank/main's target. if nothing is targetted, it heals the tank, unless the tank's dead then it heals the toon casting heal. it works best when playing 4 or 5 alts who can heal. so, 4 shamans/priests can stop dps long enough to LHW the same target 4 times at once.

the way i do it (5 druids, 1 feral 4 balance/resto hybrid... i will possibly go 1 panzerkin 4 balance/resto hybrids once i have panzerkin gear). go panzerkins!

i use /castrandom [target=focustargettarget, help, nodead]; [target=focustarget, help, nodead], [target=Tankname, help, nodead];[target=Thischaracter'sname] Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth

it's bound to "2". so with tank in bear form and 4 alts in caster form, i press 2 and i get 4 random heal over times on the tank. if i press it repeatedly i get a bunch of hots, then switch to a similar dps macro that i spam by pressing "3". 3, on the feral tank does a similar random bear ability function. swipe is my friend. i'm still fine tuning, and still leveling, still tweaking macros, but that works great. i typed it from memory so sorry if syntax is off.

once i'm 70 solo farming heroics, i'll probably lean toward /castsequence rejuv/rregrowth and have a separate button for lifebloom stacking. i do recommend to anyone using feral tank with 43/0/18ish druid alts (take subtlety for less threat with all nukes/heals).



while this works great for my druid setup due to heal over time fire and forgetability, try this with your shamans (i also have a 5xshaman group but like my druids more)

/castsequence [target=focustargettarget, help, nodead]; [target=focustarget] LHW, LB, LB, LB, LB

on shaman 2 make it LB, LHW, LB, LB, LB. shaman 3 make it LB, LB, LHW, LB, LB.... and so on. it will have 1 shaman at a time cast heal on your main shaman's target's target and the other 4 LB your main shaman's target.

use 2 macros, a regular "everyone bolt my target" macro, and this macro for light spot heals. when you don't need a heal just use the origional macro, when you need slight healing use this macro i suggested. also when shit hits the fan i recommend a good "everyone chain heal the guy next to you" macro. like this

toon 1 use /cast [target=toon2] chain heal, toon 2 use /cast [target=toon3] chain heal, toon 3 use /cast [target=toon4] chain heal, toon 4 use /cast [target=toon5] chain heal, toon5 use /cast [target=toon1] chain heal.

chain heal jumps will smartly heal people who need healing more than others. also you can stand in different patterns to make decent crop circles.

panzerkin - n - a boomkin with 284whatever resil to be uncrittable, lots of armor gear for 75% mitigation on physical attacks, 14k+ health, and the "cast wrath while getting hit" talent. boomkin natural high threat and no vanish/soulshatter/invis can keep great threat and tank from any range. main weakness is multimob tanking, which tab/moonfire+insect swarm can handle decently. barkskin+hurricane is decent for weak pack initial threat, but not good to use frequently.

[bugilt]

ty TJ, I'll have to try this when i get home.

[Molt]

With my 1xPala + 4xShaman team I currently have three different healing schemes:

* The Shamans have a simple macro to drop a Lesser Healing Wave on the tank. This is the main one I use.
* The Paladin has Clique installed to help me to click-heal the Shamans, this oddly enough is often enough to get aggro back from an (un)lucky Shaman crit, and if not then at least the Shaman gets to survive.
* There's an emergency healing button for when multiple characters are taking damage and we need to get sorted as soon as possible.. with this the paladin heals the first shaman, the first shaman heals the second and so on until the final shaman heals the paladin. The idea here being that whoever's being hit should get a heal. I'm even considering a shift version of this to reverse the order in case two people next to each other in the order are being hit.

I am seriously considering replacing the heal tank button with the macro earlier in the thread though, that looks as if it could be nice and shiny.

[Djarid]

I take it you mean


/cast [target=focustargettarget, help, nodead]; [target=focustarget, help, nodead], [target=Tankname, help, nodead];[target=Thischaracter'sname] Heal


I think I prefer the following but then I use focus as my tank (you can substitute focus for the characters name if you don't have the flexible focus approach)



/cast [target=focustargettarget, help, nodead][target=focustarget, help, nodead][target=focus, help, nodead][] Heal


the last option could have target=player if you really don't want the heal to behave as if there were no conditions and just heal the caster.

see http://www.wowwiki.com/HOWTO:_Make_a_Macro#Modifier_variables for a better explanation

[bugilt]

I got to excited last night as I approached lvl20 and forgot to setup the macros. I should have plenty of time this afternoon. Yay for clearing MH and BT in 2 day.