Focus Macro Not Working as Expected

[Boylston]

Here is what I have currently:

/clearfocus
/focus Boylston
/stopmacro [target=focus, exists, nodead]
/focus Boylbee
/stopmacro [target=focus, exists, nodead]
/focus Boylcee
/stopmacro [target=focus, exists, nodead]
/focus Boyldee

I think I'm running up against the character limit (in-game, this is taken from my macro cache textfile). Regardless, here's my question:

Do I really need the "/clearfocus" in the above code? I'm having a hard time thinking why I would want/need that in the macro.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

No, you don't. The /focus command works properly whether or not you already have a focus set.

[Boylston]

Ok, so I have tweaked this macro to be the following:

 /focus Boylston
 /stopmacro [target=focus, exists, nodead]
 /focus Boylbee
 /stopmacro [target=focus, exists, nodead]
 /focus Boylcee
 /stopmacro [target=focus, exists, nodead]
 /focus Boyldee

Assume that Boylbee,cee,dee are in a group together with just the three of them and that the Boylston character is logged off. Boylbee is my normal leader in these situations, and indeed hitting this macro button will assign everyone's focus to Boylbee. Next, poor Boylbee dies. (He's such a gimp, I don't know why we make him leader!!) Press the macro again and as hoped, the remaining shamans select BoylCEE as their new focus and the killing continue.


Everything is working as intended, but if BoylBEE is rezzed or reincarnates or somehow becomes alive again, pressing the macro DOES NOT re-assign everyone's focus back to Boylbee. (Or more likely, that it is either /stopmacro-ing either too soon or too late. It was late last night, but I tried putting a /clearfocus at the head of the macro again and I believe it restored functionality that I was hoping for.

Head's not clear after a full night of playing, maybe someone can help me figure out what's going on here?

[Boylston]

Edited-- Understood why I was confused, but macro still doesn't behave as expected. Will keep working to refine this...

[Boylston]

I almost think this might be better if it was written in the following manner. Assume your priority for characters to be focus was A, B, C, D (with A top and D lowest priority)

/focus [exists, nodead] D
/focus [exists, nodead] C
/focus [exists, nodead] B
/focus [exists, nodead] A


As long as everyone is living and exists, it should quickly assign each character as focus and then end on the last one, A. If anyone in the list is dead, the command won't execute for that line.

Maybe I just need to lrn2macro... Any help?

[Boylston]

Slightly off-topic, but a good thing to remember (that I learned the hard way troubleshooting this):

The /focus command will take a "unit_ID" argument, like "target", "party1", "targettarget" etc. It will also take a player's name, but only if that player is a person in your party or raid!

Try this on town on someone not in your party. You can type /focus someguynotinyourgroup and not have them selected, or you can target them and type /focus and they'll highlight right up nicely.

[maqz]

I almost think this might be better if it was written in the following manner. Assume your priority for characters to be focus was A, B, C, D (with A top and D lowest priority)

/focus [exists, nodead] D
/focus [exists, nodead] C
/focus [exists, nodead] B
/focus [exists, nodead] A

I think you can shorten it to:
/focus [exists, nodead] A; [exists, nodead] B; [exists, nodead] C; [exists, nodead] D
( or even /focus[help,nodead]A;[help,nodead]B;[help,nodead]C;[help,nodead]D if you need the space 8) )

I don't know if it works better, but it makes more sense to me to only focus once, rather than "overwriting" several times. Anyway, what was the problem with the macro above exactly?

Slightly off-topic, but a good thing to remember (that I learned the hard way troubleshooting this):

The /focus command will take a "unit_ID" argument, like "target", "party1", "targettarget" etc. It will also take a player's name, but only if that player is a person in your party or raid!

Try this on town on someone not in your party. You can type /focus someguynotinyourgroup and not have them selected, or you can target them and type /focus and they'll highlight right up nicely.

Hey, that must be why my follow macro won't work until I group. I've been wondering.

edit:

Everything is working as intended, but if BoylBEE is rezzed or reincarnates or somehow becomes alive again, pressing the macro DOES NOT
re-assign everyone's focus back to Boylbee. (Or more likely, that it is
either /stopmacro-ing either too soon or too late. It was late last
night, but I tried putting a /clearfocus at the head of the macro again
and I believe it restored functionality that I was hoping for.

Hey, I think I know. The first line fails since boylston is still dead. So Boylcee is still the focus. That makes the first stopmacro line true, so you'll never reach the focus boylbee line.