The No Focus Manifesto v0.1

[Zzyzxx71]

I am using the follow macro at the beginning for sure. But the issue is I have to keep pressing it after almost every kill. The alts change targets when looting and skinning. I am in the Barrens still and so I am skinning after almost every kill, not to mention grinding through the collect quests.

Its not a huge deal, but I essentially have to retarget the "Brain" on one of them after each kill. The use of a /focus macro would fix this perhaps. If I set the focus on all alts to the "Brain" their target doesn't matter when dpsing and such, correct? So I could loot and skin and save myself a key press with each mob.

Hate to dissapoint you but regardless of whether or not you use a focus or non focus method, if you "unstick" your main - either to skin or dance or /rude someone in particular, you're going to have to /follow in 1 way or the other, be it with focus or non focus - /follow still has to be in there somewhere.

Re read the layout of the big button listed above, you don't have to manually target your main again after each "un-follow" - just hit the big button again.

Get used to mashing that button about 900 times a minute.

[Trama]

Obviously I am not explaining myself correctly. Thanks for being patient. ;(

Typical Fight:

All Slaves have the "Main" targeted and are ready to go. I target a mob with my Main, press my "PEW PEW" button and everyone unleashes a barrage of nature based damage at the Main's target. Now I have a dead mob that needs to be looted, skinned, kicked or spat upon by someone. If I do any of these things on any character but the main, I have to "release" that slave's target. Its no longer on the Main, its now on the dead mob. So now I have a empty/skinless mob laying on the ground and a slave with no target.

Off I go on the main (everyone is still on follow) and target another mob to kill. The slave with no target just sits there as the others dps. I have to mash the Big Button again after every kill essentially to get everyone to target the main again. Its not a follow problem, its a target problem. So, my question was, would the use of /focus and setting the Main to be /focused by all Slaves solve the requirement to keep mashing the Big Button simply for the purpose of having everyone target the main? They would dps their focus target's target always, regardless of what their actual target is at the time.

I think that I know the answer and its that if I want to use a Target of Target style macro set, then I will indeed have to hit the Big Button macro after every fight where looting by a slave is involved.

[Zzyzxx71]

No, with focus you still have to

A: go back to your main after skinning, dancing, spitting, kicking
B: select another target with your main
C: assist with your slaves
D: /focus on the assist
E: /follow

Focus or no focus, the big button typically facilitates all these.

[r0guenj]

i wanted to register and say thanks to everyone. the simple yet effective macros in this thread have let me jump right into multiboxing........and have gotten me hooked again on wow!

[magwo]

Problem: meelee and autoshot (on hunters). You can't have your leader targeted if your are going to meelee or autoshoot.

Or?

[Zzyzxx71]

Melee no,

/cast [target=targettarget] [] Auto Shot

?

Someone mind testing that?

[magwo]

I'm fairly sure I tried and failed this with my twink hunters, which is why I switched to focus based stuff.

[Knobley]

Zzyzxx,

I've been digesting this thread over the last couple of days and plan to give it a thorough try out tomorrow. I'm curious why you didn't respond to Negative1's comment above. It seems like a cogent objection to me (though I admit that i haven't given your no-focus philosophy a playtest yet.)


Knobley

[Zzyzxx71]

Zzyzxx,

I've been digesting this thread over the last couple of days and plan to give it a thorough try out tomorrow. I'm curious why you didn't respond to Negative1's comment above. It seems like a cogent objection to me (though I admit that i haven't given your no-focus philosophy a playtest yet.)


Knobley

Currently I use no CC, since I haven't used focus as my main form of control - I don't really have a good reference, but from waht I've heard from others - the no focus method tends to have a public opinion of being a little faster regarding slave target switching and lag in general.

Again, I don't have any personal experience with this - just relaying what others have said.

Personally, I haven't had any (major) issues with inadvertantly popping the wrong target. From the way I've seen most all inclusive operate, I don't see how focus is "safer", but my opinion (notice - opinion) is from the outside looking in, and making assumptions.

No focus isn't for all uses - there are situations where it appears focus is required (as posted above, it appears that to successfully run a hunter team, you need focus due to autoshot).

[zendarva]

I'm in the process of converting Cofused, cosumed, and codemned to using this style of macro, and from the little testing i've done so far, i'd say it works pretty well, especially with trinity bars, and the immense amount of macros it gives you access to. (Heh, finally dragged me away from bongos2)

However, as noted previously, i can confirm that this does not work with autoshot for hunters, nor does it work properly with Shoot for Mages, Priests, or Warlocks. For wands, it fires once, and then you have to mash your wand button again to get it to fire again. If your main is a wand user, they will of course keep firing.

I guess it doesn't completely kill the utility of wanding, just makes it more useful for a finishing touch than anything else. Annoying while grinding though.

Other than that, i'm loving the responsiveness of this sort of macro as compared to focus macros.