/assist vs /cast [target=focustarget] spell

[Catamer]

some PVP points to remember....

/assist focus
clears in personal target you have set, so in a pvp situation where you get seperated from your main you can't fire... period.
example, my main dies and the body is looted so it's back at the wintergrasp rez point, the rest of the team is now dead.

this works better for a PVP situation, the [ ] allows my solo player to fire on his local target if the main is gone
/cast [target=focus-target,exists,nodead] [ ] xxxx

you might use this as a backup, it at least lets the PvP player fire on something
/assist focus
/targetenemy [noexists]


====================================
as far as advanced functions go such as having a mage sheep, pally repentence, shaman hex, warlock seduce goes
you need to keep the ability to have personal targets.
if I have a mage on the team and want to sheep something I set the mage to have his own target and have a "sheep" button.
/cast polymorph
while the mage DPS button has
/cast [target=focus-target] yyy

[falsfire3401]

falsfire3401:
/cast [target=player] Heal would cast max rank Heal on self
/cast [target=party1] Heal would cast max rank Heal on the next partymember (if you are partied, else won't work)
/cast [target=toonname] Heal would cast max rank Heal on "toonname" if you are partied with "toonname"

check if you're partied with "toonname"

Even the heal on [target=player] didn't work when I tried it in a macro...so I switched to targeting toons by name to heal them...

[sedory]

The [target=player], [target=party1], etc all do work. I've used them several times in that past. Unless they've removed those target variable names, doubtfull, then they should still work.

As for Ughmahedhurtz's quiz.. both are odd. In the /assist version as it's entering the macro and the focus's target is reset, then it will reset the sequence (which is likely expected behavior.) However, if you wanted to say.. use the toon's local target for casting CC spells (Hex, Polymorph, etc) then the [target=..] is a bit more usefull for all other spells.. keeping your CC target in the toon's local target.

It all depends on what you wanna do.

[Darelik]

falsfire3401:
/cast [target=player] Heal would cast max rank Heal on self
/cast [target=party1] Heal would cast max rank Heal on the next partymember (if you are partied, else won't work)
/cast [target=toonname] Heal would cast max rank Heal on "toonname" if you are partied with "toonname"

check if you're partied with "toonname"

Even the heal on [target=player] didn't work when I tried it in a macro...so I switched to targeting toons by name to heal them...

the word player stays AS IS when making the macro. it doesn't mean player as in "the player's name." it means you/yourself (or whoever is using that macro...ie the active toon).
so when u have the [target=player] parameter in a macro, it would always refer to you/yourself/active toon.

party member variables for use in a macro's "[target= ]" parameter:
player = yourself
party1 = leader
party2 = } the rest
party3 = } of the
party4 = } party

note: party5 does not exist (!) as there are only 5 members in a party. hope that helped.

[Maxion]

There is another very important difference between "/assist focus" and /cast [target=focustarget]" type macros. Consider the following two macros:

Macro 1:

/assist focus
/castsequence reset=combat/target/5 insect swarm, moonfire, starfire, starfire, starfire, starfire

Macro2:

/castsequence [target=focustarget] reset=combat/target/5 insect swarm, moonfire, starfire, starfire, starfire, starfire

Pop Quiz: Which of the above two macros actually works as intended?

Answer: Macro 1.

So, if you prefer to have your macros reset to the beginning of a lengthy castsequence when switching targets, the only one that works is the /assist focus type macro. I'm sure some folks will find creative ways to work around this.

To get Macro 2 to work, just replace the "target" in the reset part with "focustarget"

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Macro2:

/castsequence [target=focustarget] reset=combat/target/5 insect swarm, moonfire, starfire, starfire, starfire, starfire

To get Macro 2 to work, just replace the "target" in the reset part with "focustarget"

Really? Dang. Hadn't found anything that fixed that problem. I'll have to give this a shot. Thanks for the tip.