Getting the fairy to heal a highlighted player.

On console. Does anyone know the macro command for a highlighted target? I'm a scholar and I'm trying to create a macro to get my pet to heal the target I have currently highlighted. All of my macros with my own player actions using <t> will heal whoever I have highlighted, but the pet will not heal who I have highlighted, but instead the person who I have hard targeted. For instance I would like to have the main tank hard targeted, but when I move down to highlight another player to heal them, my player heal and pet heal both heal the highlighted person. As stated before, my player heal will function accordingly, while the pet stubbornly will heal whoever I have hard targeted. My macro is the following:

/macroicon "Physick"
/ac "Physick" <t>
/pac "Embrace" <t>

P.S. removing the <t> from Embrace does not fix this either. Thanks for reading.

Coming from PC this almost sounds like a case of Targeting VS Mouse Over, but with the controller being involved. So you mean to tell me you can have some one Hard-Targeted, as in that person shows up on your "Target" UI as a separate window away from the party display (or focus target?), but you can also highlight some one as well? Highlight as in through the party menu, or is there something I'm missing?

Although your main Physick <t> heals the Highlighted target, but your Embrace <t> Heals the Hard-Targeted. It just sounds very odd. As dumb as this may sound, have you tried using Embrace <mo>?

@Evian: As you're a controller player, you're probably aware that anytime you use a Player Action on your soft-target, your soft-targeting system will proc, cancel, and focus back to your hard-target.

The issue you're having is that your own skill (Physick in your example) is proccing and then canceling your soft-target, making the next line act on the newly-re-targeted hard-target.

The nice thing is that pet actions don't cancel your soft-target (and I sincerely hope this never changes, as it's a huge part of my pet-microing muscle memory now!), so if you do the pet command first, you'll still be soft-targeted on whoever you selected, then your own action will proc, effectively "using up" your soft-target and popping back to your hard-target.

Simple fix should be to swap the order of commands, i.e.

Code:

---

/macroicon "Physick"
/pac "Embrace" <t>
/ac "Physick" <t>

---

etc.

Give it a go and see what happens!


------


Side note: I don't recommend macroing pet heals in with your own heals at all - there're so many times a DPS or the OT need a very slight top-up and the MT only needs a single heal, at which point I Embrace the DPS/OT and Physick/Adloq the MT - saves over-healing and a whole GCD, even if the fairy heal is effectively cost-less.

My "big heal" button is just hitting q (Embrace) and w (Physick) on keyboard, or RT-A (Physick) and RT-B (Embrace), which takes a negligible amount of extra time over a single keypress.

In general, unless I know I'm gonna want to use an alternative Fairy action during the next global cooldown, I essentially hit Embrace immediately after any of my own GCD-triggering actions, which leaves plenty of time for weaving any off-CD abilities before the GCD rolls around again. If someone other than the MT isn't at 100%, I'll scroll down the party list to them (usually keep people I know will eat a plume just below the MT/OT) which takes less than half a second and Embrace them, otherwise it'll fire on the MT in case they take a little more damage in the meantime.

I find since switching to separating my own heals from Embrace it's much easier to manage the whole party's HP, since when it's lowish damage, we've effectively two heals to a WHM's single heal. Highly recommend trying it out for a bit. :)

@Vid - yeah, if you play using controller (or keyboard without mouse for that matter - yay FFXI control scheme!) the targeting system's very different from the mouse-based one.

To translate for the benefit of any keyboard/mouse players, "Hard-target" is effectively the player you've actually clicked on. You probably just refer to this as your 'target'.
Then "soft-target" is analogous to your moused-over target.
However, the control schemes are rather different from here on.

Using the party menu and clicking Up or Down on D-pad (or whatever the default keyboard keybind to cycle through party members is), you can first click A/X on someone (say the MT in position 2) to make them your clicked-on hard-target, then press Down again to briefly target e.g. the DRG in position 3.
If you don't then click A/X on them, but use an action from your hotbar, the action will proc on the DRG but then you'll snap back to targeting the person you last clicked on. You can also click B/O to cancel soft-target and snap back to your hard-target without doing an action.

It's a really neat system, and makes raid healing much easier than it would be otherwise, as you can throw a single heal out on someone other than the MT without then having to cycle back through the list to the MT for your next heal.

The bitter-sweet benefit/issue here is that both hard- and soft-targets use the <t> placeholder, as you're technically targeting the DRG (albeit reverting to your last hard-target as soon as you fire an action off) rather than mousing over them.
As such, the same hotbar slot serves both purposes (whereas with mouse-targeting, if you have a clicked-on target and have mouse-over on someone else, and want the option to heal either one at a given moment, you need two separate macros), but means if you decide to heal the tank instead of the soft-target you need to hit B/O to cancel first.

Slight correction to the above: For PS3 the soft-targeting you are referring to can be accessed by macros through <mo>, though it seems to sometimes have issues defaulting <mo> to <t>. <mo> includes not just hovering a physical mouse over a physical person, but any highlighting through UI elements (such as the party list). You may wanna try that out, but again, accuracy seems to suffer a bit for console users.

Not surprised that it derps from <mo> to <t> sometimes!

I play on PC and went from keyboard onry to controller as my main playstyle just after 2.1 - only experimented with keyboard & mouse for a brief period so have never used <mo> placeholders in macros myself.

As such, all I can say for sure is that on PC, if you have both a hard- and soft-target and use a macro'd player-cast action with a <t> placeholder, it always procs on your soft-target and then snaps focus back to your hard-target, whereas pet-cast actions do not cancel the soft-target. Thus, changing the order in the OP's macro will work on PC - might not be the case if it prefers <mo> sometimes on consoles.

The OP's macro will work if you don't currently have a hard-target, though, as PC controller behaviour is such that if there isn't a hard-target to snap back to, initiating an action on a soft-target will proc the action and make the soft-target a hard-target instead.

Yeah it is a bit unfortunate how <mo> misfires sometimes, but I think anyone wanting to use macros in any capacity should be willing to accept the occasional misfire as a trade-off for the overall efficiency boost.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by subteraneanbird

Slight correction to the above: For PS3 the soft-targeting you are referring to can be accessed by macros through <mo>, though it seems to sometimes have issues defaulting <mo> to <t>. <mo> includes not just hovering a physical mouse over a physical person, but any highlighting through UI elements (such as the party list). You may wanna try that out, but again, accuracy seems to suffer a bit for console users.

---

Nope, <mo> definitely does not work inside of a macro on a PS3 using a controller exclusively. Have tested it, the macro doesn't even execute, because there's nothing "moused over".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LoganNinefingers

Simple fix should be to swap the order of commands, i.e.

Code:

---

/macroicon "Physick"
/pac "Embrace" <t>
/ac "Physick" <t>

---

etc.

Give it a go and see what happens!

Side note: I don't recommend macroing pet heals in with your own heals at all - there're so many times a DPS or the OT need a very slight top-up and the MT only needs a single heal, at which point I Embrace the DPS/OT and Physick/Adloq the MT - saves over-healing and a whole GCD, even if the fairy heal is effectively cost-less.

---

Your code swap worked beautifully and exactly the way I wanted it to work! Thanks! Also, I am liking my Embrace macro's to all of my player actions at the moment, haven't noticed any issues yet, so for now I'm going to stick with it :)

Wait… you use macros for that? I'm on console and I NEVER use macros. For anything. I've never used macros in any games I've played. I'm not too fond of the "click this and afk" method of playing. Seems too boring.

As far as getting the fairy to heal a highlighted player, just put pet to obey, highlight the target and use the pet heal command. After that, just switch over to your normal hotbars and DPS/heal, etc. that you would normally be doing. The fairy SHOULD be doing what you commanded it to do; if not, then it might be a bug/technical error that you might want to report?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider

Wait… you use macros for that? I\\'m on console and I NEVER use macros. For anything. I\\'ve never used macros in any games I\\'ve played. I\\'m not too fond of the "click this and afk" method of playing. Seems too boring.

---

You use macros to do several things at once to take the load off your brain and give it more time to do things that actually matter, like looking at the party list AND the battlefield at the same time.

Like, say, you wanna scream "I'm casting Raise on YOU there! Standby!". You macro that thing to your Raise command. Unless you wish to manually type all of those all the time with names like Heischield Schwertliete begging to be mistyped and taking too much time to type

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider

snip

---

You are heavily misconstruing the use of macros. Its not for being lazy, its for usefulness and practicality. Especially with a controller.

Im glad OP asked this question. Noticed this yesterday, decided to just heal highlight target myself, have my pet heal hard target. But a solution has been given!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raestloz

You use macros to do several things at once … to do things that actually matter, like looking at the party list AND the battlefield at the same time.

Say, you wanna scream "I'm casting Raise on YOU there! Standby!". You macro that thing to your Raise. Unless you wish to manually type all of those with names like Heischield Schwertliete taking too much time to type

---

Hm. I always look at the battlefield, party list, enemy HP, tank's target HP and so on. I don't feel there's a need to type/chat that you're raising someone when you can just do the action instead. Yes, I observe if anyone else is using raise/rez to make sure I'm not casting on their target so I don't waste MP double-raising.

I type and controller, switching on and off. Only do it when necessary. Nothing like trying to say something and seeing tank wipe cause I wasn't healing. ¬_¬

On topic: I don't seem to have a problem with the fairy. Perhaps if you had videos of your playthrough?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider

On topic: I don't seem to have a problem with the fairy. Perhaps if you had videos of your playthrough?

---

You won't be having the OP's problem if you aren't using macros - there was a simple fix (with feedback that it's working now) explained in the first two replies anyway.

A point MrDiezel made is that you seem to be misinterpreting the word "macro" - in some games macros can be used for the AFK playstyle you mentioned, but this isn't the case in any FF game (without the use of third party tools), and is not what we're talking about here. As a side note, the closest official implementation of AFK-play was the Gambit system in the FFXII family, which may be what you're thinking of?

What we're discussing here is the use of the in-game Macro feature (there's even an active-help entry for it), which allows you to activate one or more text commands from a single click on your hotbar. These can include Chat, Actions, Emotes...whatever!

As Raestloz mentioned, a common example is the good ol' swift-raise button:

Code:

---

/p {Casting spell} {Raise} -> <t>
/ac Swiftcast <me>
/wait 1
/ac Raise <t>

---

If you place this macro on your hotbar, a single click will then announce to your party that you're going to raise your target, use swiftcast, then cast Raise one second later.

Pressing a single button is obviously much quicker than pressing two buttons, let alone typing out a warning ANDpressing two buttons, so there's clearly a non- AFK-play use for these.

Tanks can use them to announce it's swap time, healers can have a button to say MP's low, please sing Ballad, Bards can use Blunt Arrow and announce the monster should be Silenced all in a single click.

The OP was simply using a macro for a one-click big heal, trying to use both Embrace and Physick on the same target, rather than clicking two buttons in succession. As it's an in-built function, this kind of macro use is clearly not cheating or the mark of a lazy player, but rather speaks of players seeking to play more efficiently and free up more time to be attentive to the battle, which can only be a good thing.

I see a lot of people using /wait or /wait 1 in their macros. Most instant cast spells (like Swiftcast) can be used with /wait 0.5. Pump it out faster!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LoganNinefingers

SNIP

A point MrDiezel made is that you seem to be misinterpreting the word "macro" - in some games macros can be used for the AFK playstyle you mentioned, but this isn't the case in any FF game (without the use of third party tools), and is not what we're talking about here. As a side note, the closest official implementation of AFK-play was the Gambit system in the FFXII family, which may be what you're thinking of?

---

Yeah, probably just used to the whole gambit system. Which I hated. Hence why I never went through all of FF12. ¬_¬

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider

Yeah, probably just used to the whole gambit system. Which I hated. Hence why I never went through all of FF12. ¬_¬

---

You need to look into some macros though, especially being a console player. I am one myself. Trust me, it will make your job easier and your healing more efficient. At least make yourself a macro for a swiftcast res and a swiftcast pet. It make take you hours of researching macros, reading about them, then actually playing around with them, but it will all be worth it in the end.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

snip-

---

It probably would, but I prefer not using them. If feel if I can't do my job as is, then I shouldn't even be playing the job. Same goes for any other class/job I play. But that's just for my own mindset against me. If you want to use macros, that's your prerogative. To me, how you operate isn't as important as just doing the job. Admittedly, I'm still learning the healer classes/jobs, but I'm liking them. Certainly they're the hardest to perform as.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider

It probably would, but I prefer not using them. If feel if I can't do my job as is, then I shouldn't even be playing the job. Same goes for any other class/job I play. But that's just for my own mindset against me. If you want to use macros, that's your prerogative. To me, how you operate isn't as important as just doing the job. Admittedly, I'm still learning the healer classes/jobs, but I'm liking them. Certainly they're the hardest to perform as.

---

With all of that being said, I'm guessing you don't have Swiftcast nor even know what Swiftcast is?

I've got it, use it when I need to. When I didn't have it, some complained so I went and got it. Currently working on Stoneskin as sometimes when I tank, WHM (usually the WHM) won't SS anyone other than themselves, so I figured since Pally can use it, I might as well help out. And yes, I utilize both Swift and Surecast.

And I tend to pay more attention to what the healers are doing when I'm tanking. Seems like being a meatshield has become a lot easier with i100 gear, so I have downtime to observe what other players are doing. Only place I can't tend to do that as well is CT, if I'm ever in there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider

If feel if I can't do my job as is, then I shouldn't even be playing the job. Same goes for any other class/job I play.

---

You can play your job as is. As you've stated, macros arent something that you NEED. But it will further improve the utility for your class. Its to make certain things easier for you and your party. For example, the whole "typing to let people know im raising" doesnt need to happen if its macro'd. That will let your healer know that they dont have to do the raise. Im sure you've ran into some Hollowed Ground macros as well. Thats a good notification to pay attention to so that you know you have time to tend to other party members ASAP.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider

Hm. I always look at the battlefield, party list, enemy HP, tank's target HP and so on. I don't feel there's a need to type/chat that you're raising someone when you can just do the action instead.

---

Of course you always do that. We all do. Perhaps you have never encountered a heated situation where communication is actually useful, or maybe where communication is even possible, perhaps due to language barrier.

Other usages of macro:
1. Telling healers you have Hallowed Ground active so they hold on Cure 2 or lustrate spam
2. Requesting Mage Ballad
3. Signifying Eye for an Eye so they don't accidentally stack
4. Signifying Virus
5. Signifying Benediction, so Tanks don't Hallow Ground or Holmgang, and the other WHm doesn't benedict too

Instead of seeing the benefits of macro, you try to find a workaround to not have to use macro and scoff at macro. I don't think I can do much with that mindset

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider

I don't feel there's a need to type/chat that you're raising someone when you can just do the action instead. Yes, I observe if anyone else is using raise/rez to make sure I'm not casting on their target so I don't waste MP double-raising.
?

---

Watching their cast bar won't help with Swiftcast. it's gone in an instant without warning. I always found myself in situations where the other healer, and even summoners, would all res the same target at the same time. Ever since I've made my macro announcing who I raised, I've only had a couple instances of it vs nearly every battle.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

I see a lot of people using /wait or /wait 1 in their macros. Most instant cast spells (like Swiftcast) can be used with /wait 0.5. Pump it out faster!

---

/wait rounds decimals (and <wait> truncates them). /wait 0.5 is /wait 1 is /wait.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raestloz

Instead of seeing the benefits of macro, you try to find a workaround to not have to use macro and scoff at macro. I don't think I can do much with that mindset

---

More than anything, it becomes a handicap AGAINST me. If I can get over that handicap, then I should be doing my job properly. I probably make this game harder than it has to be, but for me, the challenge is there and I accept it. But this information about macros is always helpful, even if I don't use them.

Has OP's question been answered btw?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider

[snip]
Has OP's question been answered btw?

---

It was answered in the second reply to the thread.

OP's feedback:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

Your code swap worked beautifully and exactly the way I wanted it to work! Thanks! :)

---

Try typing /pac Embrace pet Eos/Selene, this will fix your issue

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

On console. Does anyone know the macro command for a highlighted target? I'm a scholar and I'm trying to create a macro to get my pet to heal the target I have currently highlighted. All of my macros with my own player actions using <t> will heal whoever I have highlighted, but the pet will not heal who I have highlighted, but instead the person who I have hard targeted. For instance I would like to have the main tank hard targeted, but when I move down to highlight another player to heal them, my player heal and pet heal both heal the highlighted person. As stated before, my player heal will function accordingly, while the pet stubbornly will heal whoever I have hard targeted. My macro is the following:

/macroicon "Physick"
/ac "Physick" <t>
/pac "Embrace" <t>

P.S. removing the <t> from Embrace does not fix this either. Thanks for reading.

---

Basically there isn't one. It is something PC players have that console players have that we don't. You can't make your pet heal your highlighted target. You can however physick your highlighted target and it will cancel your target leaving embrace to target your original target. I think we need to keep this thread bumped or my thread in the general section bumped to get the dev's attention.

On topic, if you just switch the order of physick and embrace it will work on the same person, since embrace from the pet doesn't cancel your target like your skills do.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...onsole-Players