Some Helpful Targeting tips for PS3 and PC Alike!

Hello all!

I've been playing XIV for a little over a week now and have been loving every minute of it, and would like to pass along what I've learned about targeting to other new folks like myself who suffer from what I'm calling "control panic":

You'll notice that displayed just above your hp bar is one of several words - if you're just standing around in town, most likely it's "All," if you're in a fight, probably "Enemies." That is what target filter you're currently using.

If you're a hack-and-slash(and punch and poke!) DD, odds are you've had absolutely zero problem targeting what you want with either the tab key or the R2/L2 + R1/L1 controller cycling(more on that in a minute); however, if you're a healer, you'll most likely have only been able to quickly target party members with the D-pad and have had no luck at all in targeting PCs outside a party (in a Fate, for example).

Here's where we go about changing that.

From the character config screen, select the "Target Filters" tab. At the top of the list, you'll see one for "Weapon Sheathed" and another for "Weapon Drawn." There are additional customizable filters available here as well, but for now, let's just talk about these two. As stated earlier, if you're on a job who never has a need to target another PC during a battle, the "Enemies" filter is just fine for "Weapon Drawn." If you're on a mage job, you might want to re-assign the "Friends" filter to that position. You can even modify it to include NPCs and such.

With this done, you'll discover these things: you can now exclusively cycle mobs via the tab key(or the trigger combo mentioned above) and still target any PC you like using the number pad(or D-pad), whether they're in your party or not.

I know this information might be old news to a lot of folks, but I just wanted to throw it out there for any other newcomers like myself who've yet to discover it.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the tip, I never knew about it. I'll be messing around with it after maintenance.

I may need to look into this myself. I asked my FC about how to heal people outside my party (because once in battle mode, locking onto random friendlies is no longer available, only enemies). They suggested the use of macros. But this filter option sounds just as good too! I'm copying/pasting this topic onto my 'FF faq' file for reference. Once the maintenance thingy is done I'm gonna give it a whirl. :) Thanks a lot for sharing!

Glad to help, guys! ^^

Also, this has the added benefit of letting you use the actual "Cure" action instead of a macro to heal either yourself or anyone else in need, as in the absence of a target, it cures you by default :P

I gotta say, it was really good thinking on SE's part to make the target circle(that thing we see before confirming a target) take precedence over a "locked" target. It fills the role of XI's <stpc> and <stnpc> placeholders quite nicely.

Also, you can access 4 different filters on the fly using L1 and the 4 controller buttons, so you can swap back and forth as necessary. I found that one out by accident . . .