Assisting the tank on PS3

I have a couple questions for some of the PS3 interface experts out there, just so I know what to suggest if it comes up in the future.

First, is it possible to set a focus target at all? I know you don't get the UI element for it. But can you use /focustarget and /clearfocus? If so, do you get the special overhead arrow on the thing you've set as focus? Do macros using <f> work?

Failing all that, how easy is it to rearrange the members of your party in the party list?

The reason I'm asking is to make it easier to reliably target the tank's target in parties. If you can set a focus target (even without getting the HUD element), and use an /assist <f> macro, that would make things easier than having to always manually target the tank and then assist.

Failing that, if it's easy enough to rearrange the party, you could always put the tank in the second spot in the party at the start of a dungeon, and then use an /assist <2> macro.

Just curious if either of these would work at all on the PS3 and/or be worth the effort.

There isn't any way to control Focus targets on PC using the gamepad, so I can imagine it is the same for PS3. As far as I know you must use the keyboard shortcut for it and there's no way to target the Focus Target without the use of more shortcuts, macros don't work, unless that was added recently.

You can easily rearrange the party list by going into the Social Lists menu's Party tab, then just picking their name and moving them up or down. I have started putting the tank at the bottom of my party list so they are easier to see and it's easy to get to them quickly.

If it helps at all ...
/assist, /as
USAGE: /assist "PC name"
Targets the target of another PC. (A target must be specified.)
Assists current target when not specified.

I guess this would need to be altered when name of tank changed.

Its excruciatingly easy to target your teammate on the ps3 using the up/down DPAD to scroll through your party list. At this point you could use a <tt> (Target of my target) macro.
Alternatively, you could target any given mob (Assuming your tank is doing his job) and use a <tt><t> macro.

I'm a PS3 tank, so I don't typically worry about these things and haven't used the above macros myself, but I see the above often mentioned. As a PS3 user I suggest recommending to the PS3er to setup their targeting filters to effectively do what they need, there are tutorials out there, I've written one myself for a fellow forumer elsewhere.

Something else you could try is marking your tank with one of the placeholder targets not commonly used for marking mobs like "/mk Triangle <t>". You could then use a macro to assist any tank with a "/as Triangle" macro.

The only downside is if the tank should turn it off for some reason, otherwise, it works great.

Since I'm a new healer, maybe I'm doing it wrong but all I do dungeons with is macros.
List of my macros I have

Heal Tank= /ac "Cure" <t>
Stone on Tank target= /ac "Stone" <tt>
Thunder on Tank Target= /ac "Thunder" <tt>
Aero on Tank Target= /ac "Aero" <tt>
Heal 3rd party member= /ac "Cure" <3>
Heal 4th party member= /ac "Cure" <4>
Heal Me= /ac "Cure" <me>

this allows me to never stop targeting the Tank in my party....I find it better than scrolling through each member of the party. I always put the Tank as the 2nd party member. What this does also is if the Tank dies my macros work on whoever I've got targeted.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reauland

Something else you could try is marking your tank with one of the placeholder targets not commonly used for marking mobs like "/mk Triangle <t>". You could then use a macro to assist any tank with a "/as Triangle" macro.

The only downside is if the tank should turn it off for some reason, otherwise, it works great.

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I dunno about you but I'd really not like a triangle over my head for an entire dungeon lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Estellios

I dunno about you but I'd really not like a triangle over my head for an entire dungeon lol

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I wish they'd actually made the "button" markers only visible for the person who placed them. They could make for some great and versatile target placeholders if only they weren't so . . . aesthetically challenging . . .

you can target a Focus by using a macro after you had set up a focus
/target <f>

and select the target the focus is targeting with
/assist <f>

Quote:

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Originally Posted by johnbeck1000

Since I'm a new healer, maybe I'm doing it wrong but all I do dungeons with is macros.
List of my macros I have

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I use <tt> macros as a healer as well. But that's a different situation. Because as a healer, it's a lot more important for me to focus on the tank's health and debuffs, and my damage isn't high enough to make much of a dent. As long as I'm not waking anything up or pulling anything extra, it doesn't matter that much if I Aero/Stone one of the side mobs instead of the priority target.

For a DPS, it's important to stay focused on the right mob until it's dead. Using <tt> macros will only work with tanks that don't switch targets mid fight. Granted, I've seen a lot of tanks as a healer recently that stay on one target the entire time; unfortunately, that means I've seen a lot of mobs stay in the orange on the aggro list a distressingly long time. And that means I've had to be Scrooge McMeagerHeals to keep them orange instead of red. But as a DPS, I like to be prepared for tanks that actually give a crap about maintaining enmity on all targets. I don't want a macro making me suddenly punch/shoot/stab an off target just because the tank switched to check his threat level.

Which is why, on PC, I roll with /focustarget <t> on the tank at the start of the dungeon, followed by /assist <f> once per mob, then /ac "Teh Damage" <t> (or just straight-up abilities) until it dies. But if /focustarget and <f> don't work at all on PS3 (as opposed to just not being displayed), then I can't bank that as a blanket suggestion.

Thus wondering how easy it is to rearrange the party list on PS3. Knowing it's about as easy as it is on PC at least makes it possible to just keep an /assist <2> (or <4> or whatever) macro that doesn't need to be changed.

I'm sure I worry about this far more than is really, really necessary. It's also just straight-up curiosity. I'm not (yet) curious enough to buy a PS3 just so I can fiddle around with things myself. :D