Targeting Tips

Hello again, all! So I've been playing the game for about a month now, but one thing that seems to cause me trouble in dungeons and trials is the targeting system in this game. I play on PS4, and generally I use the X button to cycle through targets. This gets to be trickier in those situations since there's lots of allies and mobs running around, and more often than not if a mob dies I'll end up losing out on DPS trying to shift targeting to another foe instead of an ally who happens to be farther to the right side of the screen. This is even more of an issue with me since I started playing as a Red Mage, as I'm usually trying to cast spells and when things start dying, the rest of the party ends up finishing most of the trash mobs off while I'm retargeting. Bosses that teleport or become temporarily untargetable also give me trouble for similar reasons. So I suppose what I'm asking is, is there a more efficient way of managing targets, or any tips to make it easier?

When I play casters I will not touch a mob <10-15% as there is a large chance it'll be dead by the time I cast, just move on to the next (if multiple mobs. This also applies for all jobs if you have 2-3 mobs and one is 10% with DOTs, ignore it and move on and let DOTs finish it up)

For PS4 you can use the D-pad to cycle targets.

Holding R2 and pressing R1-2 will cycle in ther respective direction.
D-pad up and down for party members, left right to soft target mobs.
Also there are very few situations where your targeting control needs to be exact target in a crowd of mobs. If your are paired with non casters good rule of thumb is if it is "already dead" about 10% or under, start cycling to the next target.

Oh, okay so there is a way to differentiate the targeting between party and enemy. Good, that should help a lot, especially once I get Vercure/Verraise and ever need to help with healing later on. That's also not a bad rule about the mobs either. I usually get so nervous about keeping the damage output going casts that I never really thought too much about trying that.

You can also apply filters to the target cycling when your weapon is drawn versus sheathed. This will allow you to remove party members, objects, NPCs, etc... from the D-Pad left / right cycling when you are in combat.

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Originally Posted by ChameleonMS

You can also apply filters to the target cycling when your weapon is drawn versus sheathed. This will allow you to remove party members, objects, NPCs, etc... from the D-Pad left / right cycling when you are in combat.

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That could help a lot too! I actually figured out how to set up my hotbars so I can shift to field actions (mounts, teleport, etc) when sheathed, and to hide that bar when unsheathed so I can just cycle between my two battle sets. I think I should be able to figure out how to do that for the targeting too. I really appreciate how fast you've all been able to help me out!

You should check one or the other (not both) of the boxes:
Character Configuration -> Control Settings -> Filters -> Enable Target Cycling
or
Character Configuration -> Control Settings -> Filters -> Enable Customization

The first lets you configure two settings according to whether your weapon is drawn or sheathed. The second lets you configure up to four settings you can alternate between manually by pressing L1 + one of the right-side face buttons. (Someone who only plays tank or DPS can maybe do ok with the drawn/sheathed pattern. For anyone who alternates jobs or plays healer, and so may want to at times target friends during combat and at other times enemies, I'd recommend the four manually controlled filters.)

Once you have customized fiters, of either type, the left and right controller buttons will cycle only between targets matching your current filter.


Oh, and apart from those filters, up/down cycles through your party list, and L1+ up/down cycles through your enmity list. (If you want to specifically target the enemy with the least or most health, or for tanks wanting to grab the one they're losing enmity on, going by the enmity list is often helpful.)

I changed my L3 to assist. Assist has you target what your target is targeting. Good for healing the target of a boss or selecting the mob that the tank is currently targeting.
R3 you can change to macro #99 and use something like the following sprint macro.


A simple Sprint macro is just
/ac Sprint

A more complex Sprint macro is

/ac sprint <t>
/mount "Main Mounts name"
/ac Sprint