Assist trouble

[unit187]

I just cant understand how does it work. So, I have a macro binded on "F" key on my toons, and macro is: /assist Main_char_name

Basically, it works in like 60% of times.

On my main client I target a target and press "F" key so all toons must assist me but sometimes they just dont. I see on other screens that assist button is pushed but they somehow dont assist. When I press "F" key 2nd time - they assist. Same crap with AHK and Keyclone. Any ideas how the hell can I fix it?

[MrLonghair]

I prefer focus and macros using focustarget over assist. I do experience the thing you mention though, sometimes I have to doubleclick to get something working, like autoshot over several hunters or wand over several clothies.

[unit187]

I prefer focus and macros using focustarget over assist. I do experience the thing you mention though, sometimes I have to doubleclick to get something working, like autoshot over several hunters or wand over several clothies.
Yeah I will make focus macros after I get my salary and upgrade my accounts to BC so I can make draenei's :)

Any ideas what the hell is going on, is assist function in WoW bugged or something?

[Morganti]

I don't have a problem usually if I double tap my macro that uses focus' target. Maybe a latency issue?

Where I've run into trouble is when my main targets something, then something else and i try to cast on target 2...for some reason the assist or target focus wants to hit the first target instead of the second. I find myself hitting my "follow" key anytime I switch targets and want to make sure all my guys are targetting the right fellow (follow key is a target your focus, follow, assist, stopcasting).

[Bena]

I usually get a bit of lag when 'assist'ing my main. Pressing assist button a few times before I start casting usually fixes it. With AHK it was much more pronounced; with keyclone it seems better. Not sure where it's coming from as the resources on the machine are not maxed. Only thing I can think of is that since my /follow clients are minimized they get lower priority ??

When following my main I noticed that if all windows are visible none of the characters lag behind.. if the windows are minimized then sometimes some are left behind.

[unit187]

Only thing I can think of is that since my /follow clients are minimized they get lower priority ??
nah, I have the problem with 2 clients maximized, same with 5

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Yep, on super-low-latency connections it usually takes my alt PCs about 1-1.5 seconds for the clients to "realize" that my main has changed targets. The performance of your secondary account PCs affects this as well. My one box is a laptop that gets abysmal framerates and 75% of the time if I'm retargeting mid-fight, that one client will flay the previously targeted mob the first cast.

Not just you or your setup. ;)

[Picticon]

The way assist works in WoW is that you target something, your client tells the server, the server then broadcasts it to the other players. So, when you switch targets there is a slight delay. The pros to this is that if you've had the target for a second or two, the other player's /assist will be instant. This works fine for a regular group, but causes problems for a boxer... because they will change target and hit assist almost at the same time (in the world of network communications).

The way assist works in DAoC is that when a player hits /assist, it requests the target from the server, which then requests it from the main-tank. This sucks because *everytime* you hit /assist, there is a slight delay before the target changes. But... you are guaranteed to get the assisted target (eventually). Just be thankful it doesn't work this way... I played for 5 years like this. :(

[zanthor]

This is very accurate and can create wonderful situations when coupled with macro's such as:

/cast [target=party1target]Fireball

I targeted a mob straight ahead of me...
Hit my fireball macro as teh pally agro'd the mob... both mages cast fireballs on DIFFERENT mobs... so what was a nice 1 pull turned into a very exiciting 5 pull since both sides had adds...

[unit187]

The way assist works in WoW is that you target something, your client tells the server, the server then broadcasts it to the other players. So, when you switch targets there is a slight delay. The pros to this is that if you've had the target for a second or two, the other player's /assist will be instant. This works fine for a regular group, but causes problems for a boxer... because they will change target and hit assist almost at the same time (in the world of network communications).

The way assist works in DAoC is that when a player hits /assist, it requests the target from the server, which then requests it from the main-tank. This sucks because *everytime* you hit /assist, there is a slight delay before the target changes. But... you are guaranteed to get the assisted target (eventually). Just be thankful it doesn't work this way... I played for 5 years like this. :(

okay now I see how it works, everything becomes clear

Talking about delays. Does jumping work the same way?
Like I press my Space key, all my toons are jumping in the same time on _their_ screens, but on my screen I see other chars jumping with a delay. Same goes for toon's screens' - the alt char jumps right when Space key is pressed, but all other chars are jumping with a delay.

[Sovereign]

unit, on jumping, say if you hit jump for all your characters, if I were watching you I'd see them all jump at the same time, much the way you see them jump at the same time on their individual screens.

But if you're just looking at say, your main's screen, you see the jump command after it passes through the server and gets back to your main's computer. So there's some latency there.

The true jump for the server is the keypress, your position is recorded then, so on your screen when you jump at the very edge of something you won't fall because of lag. It just takes time for the server to receive it and spit it back out.

[unit187]

hehe never thought about how does jumping and assist etc. works :) kinda tricky

[Otlecs]

I favour "hit my target" over "hit your focus" for casting, because focus is far more valuable when used for other means (crowd control, for example).

Apart from anything else, the chance of dropping a focus command is just as high as dropping an assist command, so you really don't gain anything. In fact, I see this alot - when I'm assigning sheep focus targets to my drones, I have to mash the key several times to make sure I don't get any surprises!

Anyway, the way I have my DPS targetting set up is as follows:

KP3 on my main machine assigns a SKULL to my current target.
KP3 on my drone machines invokes a "/assist <mainName>" macro.

Using XPerl, I can instantly see if everyone has the right target (because I can see the skull on the party target bars). If they don't, I just bash KP3 a couple more times.

I also unbound TAB from all my drones to make sure that the worst thing that could happen is that I'd end up with one of them not DPSing, which is easily fixed by "re-broadcasting" my target, wheras before I unbound TAB I often found myself cleverly attacking multiple targets.... *cough*....

My next favourite method would be the "/cast [target=blah-target]" method. I shy away from this because...

a) I tend to mix'n'match my teams, so the target isn't always the same and it's less painful to change a follow, assist and focus macro than to change all my casting macros.

b) I can't just use party1-target because I like to PvP, and in BGs the character I want my drones to assist is rarely party1 :)

So, in short, what you're doing is fine and your observations are pretty much par for the course. Just get used to mashing F a few more times before opening up, and/or use a unit frame mod to confirm targetting.

[Los]

if you are in bg's you are in a raid, isnt it true that you still are also in the party and thus the party1target should work? Or is this a wrong assumption? Havent tried it myself, just lvl 14 so need a few more before ill start asskicking in a wsg :)

[Kopitar]

I have the same problem, i will target a mob, send in both pets, sometimes one of the pets will wander of and attack another mob. I will quickly spam the attack macro and the 2nd pet will switch to the main characters mob. The really weird thing is that after that mob has been killed, that the 2nd pet will go towards the mob it had originally targeted (but not hit or come close enough to grab agro) . I'm using keyclone with multibox btw

[Bradster]

This happens to me once in a great while. You can even see it happen in my pvp vid, while at SM I targeted the one person but the person next to him also got dotted. , I'm running all hardware as well. I think its more or less lag. Once in a while a toon or two will not switch targets, but targets something next to the intended target. Also might be positioning, maybe that target was in range, while the other one wasn’t.

Could be a number of things. I’ll stick with the easy answer of lag =)

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Apparently there is a partypet1target variable you could use.

[Fallenfaith]

I just cant understand how does it work. So, I have a macro binded on "F" key on my toons, and macro is: /assist Main_char_name

Basically, it works in like 60% of times.

On my main client I target a target and press "F" key so all toons must assist me but sometimes they just dont. I see on other screens that assist button is pushed but they somehow dont assist. When I press "F" key 2nd time - they assist. Same crap with AHK and Keyclone. Any ideas how the hell can I fix it?

The way I do it is set the main to target, then do a macro /assist party1
/cast fireball

One thing you have to remember is that it will happen stright away, there can be a slight delay, also try and make sure all chars are not moving when hitting the assist button.

Faith