Focus vs FTL

[Lax]

As in changing focus till all yer chars have acquired the new target. When switching focus it first has to acquire from the server the new focus then acquire the target with ftl it just gets the new target
it'll also depend on how yeh implement it, what will also affect it is how much lag yeh have if yer lag is really low yeh might not even notice a delay but with any good amount of lag say over 150 yeh start to notice it

As far as I can tell using /assist focus is about the slowest way of getting a new target
The fastest seems to be using [target=char_name-target] within the cast macro.

No idea, thats just the way it appears to me meh need more coffeee :P

I went over that, and I'll point you back to my post:

There is no difference -- at all -- between the amount of time it takes for the other characters to acquire a target. Either way, the main character sets his target, which is sent to the server, and then back to the other players before they can acquire the new target.

Whether it's /assist focus, [target=focustarget], [target=mychartarget], or otherwise, it's relying on the current client having the other character's target information. It doesn't get it from somewhere different if you use FTL than if you use focus, the only difference is how it is referenced in the macro -- the word "focus" versus the character name. All your client is essentially doing is converting the word "focus" to your character's name (not literally, but the result is the same).

If you notice a difference, it's from other variables, not whether you used focus or FTL

[thinus]

As in changing focus till all yer chars have acquired the new target. When switching focus it first has to acquire from the server the new focus then acquire the target with ftl it just gets the new target
it'll also depend on how yeh implement it, what will also affect it is how much lag yeh have if yer lag is really low yeh might not even notice a delay but with any good amount of lag say over 150 yeh start to notice it

As far as I can tell using /assist focus is about the slowest way of getting a new target
The fastest seems to be using [target=char_name-target] within the cast macro.

No idea, thats just the way it appears to me meh need more coffeee :P

I went over that, and I'll point you back to my post:

There is no difference -- at all -- between the amount of time it takes for the other characters to acquire a target. Either way, the main character sets his target, which is sent to the server, and then back to the other players before they can acquire the new target.

Whether it's /assist focus, [target=focustarget], [target=mychartarget], or otherwise, it's relying on the current client having the other character's target information. It doesn't get it from somewhere different if you use FTL than if you use focus, the only difference is how it is referenced in the macro -- the word "focus" versus the character name. All your client is essentially doing is converting the word "focus" to your character's name (not literally, but the result is the same).

If you notice a difference, it's from other variables, not whether you used focus or FTL

He is not talking about the time required to acquire the target, he is talking about the time it takes to switch mains. You can change your main locally with FTL, you do not need any server interaction. With a focus based setup you need to change your focus which requires server interaction.


EDIT: In other words if I want to change mains to CharB in a FTL setup I hit my CharB key and I can immediately assist off CharB and get CharB's target. In a focus based setup you need to change the focus of all characters to CharB (wait for server) and then you can act on your focus target.

[Pocalypse]

He is not talking about the time required to acquire the target, he is talking about the time it takes to switch mains. You can change your main locally with FTL, you do not need any server interaction. With a focus based setup you need to change your focus which requires server interaction.


EDIT: In other words if I want to change mains to CharB in a FTL setup I hit my CharB key and I can immediately assist off CharB and get CharB's target. In a focus based setup you need to change the focus of all characters to CharB (wait for server) and then you can act on your focus target.

Changing your focus does NOT require any server interaction. Focus is a client side setting.

The only different in speed between FTL and focus based methods is focus based methods require an extra key press. This key press does not need any server response, so is only limited in speed by how quickly you can hit your 'set toon x as focus' key.

Example:
FTL: move mouse to window B, click on window B to move it to front, target mob, wait for other clients to update toon B target, hit dps key
Focus: move mouse to window B, click on window B to move it to front, hit focus toon B key, target mob, wait for other clients to update toon B target, hit dps key

Both of those have the same server lag of toon B targetting something, and the other toons waiting for the server to update with that target (bolded). This part is the only part that requires waiting on the server, and it is the same wait in both methods.

Of course, this difference only comes about when you switch your main. If you tend to use one character as your main, there is NO difference in speed between the two methods.

[thinus]

Changing your focus does NOT require any server interaction. Focus is a client side setting.

Are you sure about that? So if I type "/focus garbage" it will work? It doesn't check if "garbage" actually exists?

EDIT: Confirmed, you can type "/focus <anything>" and it won't give an error so it seems to be completely client side.

[Pocalypse]

Changing your focus does NOT require any server interaction. Focus is a client side setting.

Are you sure about that? So if I type "/focus garbage" it will work? It doesn't check if "garbage" actually exists?

EDIT: Confirmed, you can type "/focus <anything>" and it won't give an error so it seems to be completely client side.

It might give you an error saying "unit not found" or something similar. But such an error is from the client, not from the server.

[Lax]

Even if Focus was server side, it would be the same. When any given client selects a target (focus target or otherwise), the client is instantly updated. You don't wait for a server round-trip to acquire a target. If you did, then any time the server lagged you'd click, and have to wait around just for the target frame to update.

If you experience any delay in setting the Focus Target, it's your method of setting the Focus Target (e.g. the software used to broadcast), not a delay in WoW updating the Focus Target. You can act on the new Focus Target instantaneously.

[wowphreak]

Then it may be just the way I setup things.

The problem I ran into initially I had a separate assist key(using assist focus) and a dps key(just a basic castsequence). if I hit the assist key then if I hit the dps to fast what would happen is one or more other chars wouldnt have a new target when they dont have a target and the dps key gets hit it'll just start casting on next target which may or may not be the target I was going after. For the longest time I couldnt figure out why some of my chars would get the wrong target.

When I switched to a /assist char_name macro it happened less frequently but still on occasion one would get the wrong target.

When I switched to castsequence [target=tank-target] never really had a problem.

What I have now is an ftl setup which does /target char_name basically forces a target and then /assist plus in the castsequence macro I have [harm][target=char_name_tank-target] basically what this does is if there is a target keeps casting if no target get the tanks target.

There is definitely some lag between when yeh /assist till the char gets a new target. I think if yeh have yer assist in the same macro as yer dps it'll wait till the target has been acquired then start cast but if you have a separate assist and dps then what happens if the target hasn't been acquired before yeh hit the dps it'll just do a "next target" and start casting.

The higher my ping the worse it got.

[Lax]

I shall explain!

The issue you're describing comes from the client not having the other guy's target in order to attack. If you have no target (or maybe more accurately, if your target is dead) and you start spamming attacks, the game will sometimes pick a target for you -- very annoying, and I'm pretty sure it's a bug in the game. This is, as you describe, more of an issue when using /assist than when using [target=x], because (I believe) the game will no longer pick a target for you.

So the issue is not at all related to Focus. The same problem is experienced if you put your [target] in the /assist line instead of /assist focus, e.g. /assist [target=tank] -- this would be if you use FTL modifiers with a manual assist key. The problem happens because you hit assist (or assist+attack) faster than the round-trip time -- the time it takes for your main to pick a target, have it sent to the server, and back to your other clients. All you can do is try to mitigate that, either with /stopmacro, or by using [target=x] as part of the /cast, /castsequence, /castrandom, etc.

What I do in my attack macro is put this at the top (or after /assist):

/stopmacro [target=target,noexists] [noharm] [dead]

This works around the issue of the game randomly selecting a target, and would have pretty much the same behavior as /cast [target=x] y, but with my additional conditions.

Hope that clears it up a bit.

[thinus]

/stopmacro [target=target,noexists] [noharm] [dead]

Why target=target, isn't it the same if you just omit it?

/stopmacro [noexists] [noharm] [dead]

[Lax]

I'm sure it is the same if omitted, yes. It took me several renditions to figure out how to get the conditions working correctly for this one in the first place, and once it was working as needed, I saw no reason to change it.