Killing Mob 1 while Tank picks up Mob 2

[pinotnoir]

I was just thinking about this and wondering what I am going to do seeing how all my macros are based off the focus target. If my tank is fighting one mob and has to tab and pick up another, how do I keep dps on the orginal mob I was fighting? Do you need to constantly tab back to the original mob then dps? Let me know how you all do this because I see this being a problem in some instances where my tank needs to grab multiple mobs. My tank is a druid. I do have a 70 pally if using him would be much easier to tank.

[Anahka]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something but once your dps has a target why would you have them re-assist your tank for every attack? Have them assist the tank on mob 1 and start spamming their attack while the tank goes off to hit mob 2 in the face. Once mob 1 dies assist the tank again and start pewpew?

[Gallo]

He's not "assisting". He has his DPS macros set like "/cast [target=focustarget] Fireball" which means that whatever his Tank is currently targetting, the DPS will always focus on it.

As for the OPs question, I'm not sure its really needed. When I was running my PVE group i never had a problem focusing on 1 and a time. If you need to gather aggro on multiple mobs, just hold off on the DPS while you go through the different mobs.

[pinotnoir]

Yep I am using target=focustarget. I just hit outlands so I will give it a test with hellfire and see how it goes.

[kllrwlf]

I would suggest having just 1 macro:

/assist focus
/follow focus

Then for all your spells, you don't need a macro. It'll just cast the spell.

When you want to change to your current focus target, hit that one macro, then use all your spells as normal.

In later levels, I found myself doing the following.

/assist focus macro for all my toons

Everyone starts attacking the mob, when it gets down to about 15%, my tank moves on the to the next mob, while the other are still dpsing until that mob dies. When the first mob dies, my tank already has some agro on the 2nd mob, hit the macro for the /assist focus to the 2nd mob, then start wacking him down.

[Dezeral]

One of the macros from the stickies works well for this. I use it extensively in combination with a normal /assist focus macro for swapping targets.

Useful multi-boxing macros ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=188')

Relevant macro:


There is one other variation I've thrown into the mix:

/cast [exists,harm,nodead] fireball
/stopmacro [exists,harm,nodead]
/cast combustion
/stopcasting
/assist party1
/cast [exists,harm,nodead,combat] fireball; [exists,harm,nodead,nocombat] pyroblast

This will allow you to acquire your party1's target and proceed to cast pyroblast first followed by fireball until the target is dead. Once the target is dead, it will assist party1 to get a new target and again cast pyroblast followed by fireball until the target is dead.

In my case, I edited for use with my shamans and to use my focus as assist instead of party1:

/cast [exists,harm,nodead] Lightning Bolt <----Second and consecutive spell cast on existing target or first spell cast on any manually acquired target
/stopmacro [exists,harm,nodead] <----Stops macro from executing the remainder of the commands if you have a target, it is an enemy, and it isn't dead
/assist focus <----Acquire the focus' target
/cast [exists,harm,nodead,combat] Lightning Bolt <----First spell cast on new target

This allows me to acquire a target with my paladin; get the shamans casting on that target; swap targets with my paladin to build agro or stun it; all while the shamans keep on dps'ing the first target. When the first target dies, the shamans will automatically swap to the new target and keep on casting. The paladin can switch to a new target once the shamans have started casting on his current target.

If I need to switch the shamans over to a new target before their current target is dead, I use the standard /assist focus macro. I also use a /cast [target=focustarget] Frost Shock macro to kill runners and a /cast [target=focustarget] Earth Shock to interrupt casters without having to swap the shamans off of their current target .

[The IT Monkey]

I run with two locks and a mage... the mage stays on target until the target is dead but the locks target travels with my warrior, putting dots on them as I go. I find it effective.

[Djarid]

Pinotnoir, the simplest way for you to modify your macros is through


/cast [target=target, nodead, harm][target=focustarget, nodead, harm] spell

and maybe have a macro that just sets focustarget to your target


/target [target=focustarget, nomodifier]
/cleartarget [modifier]

if you need to tab target, just hit this macro first, it will assign your tanks target to your followers as their target allowing you to change target willy-nilly hitting the macro again with a modifier will clear their target, resuming normal operation

[thinus]

Do a search for "sticky targeting".

[pinotnoir]

Thanks I will try some of the suggestions and see how they work. I did a search for sticky targeting only 4 results show. I didnt see anything that would help me with my macros in the results. All my macros use "/cast [target=focustarget] spellname. I am just to the point of doing some 5mans so I didnt have this issue present itself until now.

[thinus]

I did a search for sticky targeting only 4 results show. I didnt see anything that would help me with my macros in the results.

They named it "sticky targetting". The basic idea is that your current target "sticks" until it is dead.

I see you use the "[target=focustarget]" in every macro approach. Sticky targeting only works if you have a "/assist" approach or if you are attacking your focus directly.

Using a pally tank makes this issue non-existant. With Retribution aura and consecration your pally builds up solid aggro on all the adds without the need to switch targets.

[pinotnoir]

Better results from sticky targetting. I have a 70 pally so I guess if the suggestions dont work well I can always tank with him. My druid raided up to Teron in BT so he has sweet tanking gear. I dont raid on him anymore but he would make heroics much easier than my pally.