Synced group layout add on?

[Ehmgee]

I run a tank on my main box and one or more healers on off boxes. In EQ1 I maintained the order by always being group leader and inviting the healers first. So I knew the tank was always F2, the healer was F1, and then F3-F6 was the same on the tank and the healers screens and I could quickly hit the right heal. This however doesn't work in WoW. Is there an add on currently that somehow keeps the same group order on all boxes? If not I'm thinking of a WoW-Ace/Pitbull add on to have the group leader broadcast his order and a second 'party' frame open on other boxes running this add on, then having F1-F5 be 'Select the leaders party spot, if he hasn't sent info over select local group of the same slot.'

[Xzin]

This would be a helpful addon but nobody has done it.

However there is a way if you have not created your team yet:

Naming

Believe it or not, the names you pick for your characters make a difference. By picking logical names you will be quicker to react and it will be easier to tell your characters apart. I personally choose Azin, Bzin, Czin and Dzin for my mages names because they are easy to tell which is which. Xzin is my priest - nobody is going to confuse X with the first few letters. Some people choose A,B,D,E as their secondary characters and C as their main, or A,B,C,D as their secondaries and E as their main. The choice is up to you, as long as you are able to differentiate which is which then go for it. I don't personally see why E,F,G,H and Z could not work - but it just seems to make sense to make this as easy as possible. You will have enough going on as it is and fast and accurate recognition of who needs healing when is critical. Also, by picking X as a main, you reduce the chances you will randomly target somewhere else when / if you ever /follow x. Not very many characters names start with X.

The TRULY devious will pick names that sound nearly the same over Vent/TS to better obfuscate target "training" and subsequent burst damage as well as generally foul up target selection against you in BGs and arenas. This can take the shape of either names that are very similar in pronunciation like wilboor wilbour etc or nonsensical names like lillilili and liililil etc.

Also keep in mind there is now a name change service.

Ziran pointed out that the order your characters will appear in a group is determined by when you create the characters.

WoW orders the party in the reverse order of the absolute character creation time. In other words, you want to make your "main" last, and your others in reverse order.

If you want:

Xzin
Azin
Bzin
Czin
Dzin

you need to make them in this order:

Dzin
Czin
Bzin
Azin
Xzin

Also of note: you can reserve names by creating level 1s with whatever name you want. Upon deletion, that name is freed up for (presumably) you to take. This is helpful to ensure all 5 names are available.

[thinus]

If you have macro space you can create 5 macros to target each one of your group members. Bind the F1-F5 keys on each clone to these macros.

Or, if you are using AHK you can use sleight of hand to save on macro space. In AHK when you recieve a F1 you can send a F2 to the clones etc.

EDIT: Scrap the AHK comment as you are running multiple machines.

[Ehmgee]

Ya I'm aware of how you named your chars and thought it was brilliant. But I also dual/tripple in 5 mans where I may be the tank and primary healer so that isn't an option in that case. Macros could work but would require a lot of juggling and looking around... "Ok right now GroupMember4 on main box is GroupMember3 on off box <update macro> crap he left and new player arrived that drops the order!"

I wonder if Ora could help, assign by Main tank order, it self syncs and there's a target by tank box already I believe.

[thinus]

The more and more issues I run into where something is definitely possible via Lua scripting the more and more I am tempted to start my own multi-box addon toolkit.

[Xzin]

Do it!