Tab targeting is remarkably bad

I have my tab button bound to "Cycle through Enemies (Nearest to Farthest)" - and I think they messed up the wording cause it should read "Cycle through Enemies (Randomly all over the map)." I have found tab targeting to be utterly frustrating when there are multitudes of mobs around you.

I tab to attack the guy at the end of my spear...and start attacking....to discover 3 minutes later that I'm standing there looking stupid cause my target is 30 meters away across a field. So then I tab again to get on target, to discover that now my target is still 30 meters away but on the other side of the field. And to make things worse, this new target is from an unaggro'd group that is no threat to us and sitting around enjoying its coffee.

How do you guys deal with this? Has this been the way it's always been in this game? Why would tab cycle through mobs not even involved in the current encounter, when I'm standing in the midst of half dozen that are? I'm surprised that this chunk of code exists in game. I've played almost all the tab target MMOs and never seen anything like this.

Iirc the game on cycles visible targets. As a tank I usually have more of a top-down camera angle to see aoe indicaters easier, which usually helps me.

sometimes i just click them with my mouse because its pretty much what you said just now.

the target just keep cycling all enemy except the one i want to be targeted lol

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Originally Posted by drogon1

I have my tab button bound to "Cycle through Enemies (Nearest to Farthest)" - and I think they messed up the wording cause it should read "Cycle through Enemies (Randomly all over the map)." I have found tab targeting to be utterly frustrating when there are multitudes of mobs around you.

I tab to attack the guy at the end of my spear...and start attacking....to discover 3 minutes later that I'm standing there looking stupid cause my target is 30 meters away across a field. So then I tab again to get on target, to discover that now my target is still 30 meters away but on the other side of the field. And to make things worse, this new target is from an unaggro'd group that is no threat to us and sitting around enjoying its coffee.

How do you guys deal with this? Has this been the way it's always been in this game? Why would tab cycle through mobs not even involved in the current encounter, when I'm standing in the midst of half dozen that are? I'm surprised that this chunk of code exists in game. I've played almost all the tab target MMOs and never seen anything like this.

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bc thats not really how tab targeting works.

by default, tab targets the enemy closest to the left side of your screen regardless of distance from you. I personally deal with this by micromanaging my camera constantly. If i want to tab target something, I adjust my camera so that the enemy i want to target is the only thing on the left side of my screen.

There is the other option for tab targeting but I havent use it that much and cant explain how it works.

Is always fun when you wanna target the enemy right next to you but nope, it targets the one no where near you.

I don't remember where it is, but there is an option in the character settings where you can customize how targeting works. You can have 4 presets and either have keybind shortcuts or macros to toggle between them.

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Originally Posted by Nora_of_Mira

bc thats not really how tab targeting works.

by default, tab targets the enemy closest to the left side of your screen regardless of distance from you. I personally deal with this by micromanaging my camera constantly. If i want to tab target something, I adjust my camera so that the enemy i want to target is the only thing on the left side of my screen.

There is the other option for tab targeting but I havent use it that much and cant explain how it works.

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There's an option for "cone" targeting in the settings that changes the behavior. I believe the basic setting does as you described, left to right, where the cone setting starts with your character and moves outward.

I use cone targeting and it works for me.

I do the same thing I do in pvp: I "reset" the cycling. I do this by "exiting" the cycle via clicking anywhere on my screen then press the tab button. The tab will go foe the nearest target then.

As I'm used to say : tab targeting is evil XD

Currently, the two options have the same problem of depth, we are obliged to play with the camera angle to reduce the wrong targetting. None of the options consider the range of our character, we miss some kind of option : "ignore ennemies out of range" or "always closests first".

I actually prefer the targeting mechanic of left to right, no matter the distance of the target. Maybe this is because I've really only played a rDPS, but I have no issues with the way it works for me.

All I do is to rotate my camera angle up mantaining my desired target inside the view before clicking tab. Sometimes it's annoying since we have combat mechanics to work out and AoEs to avoid...

using mouse button is infuriating as well when someone (or another mob or minion) pass in front of the target in the very same moment that you mouse click the target.

They should use the same system we see in FFXII. There the targeting is far way easier: the first target is always what is rightly in front of you and circles from nearest to fartest. To reach left or right sides you have to keep pressing the targeting button or by front facing the desired target first with your char.

I don't know for sure, but it seems that the "cone" option do exactly this. But i need to investigate more about it...

Cone target works fine, but it can really struggle with tall or oversized enemies, where they can be taking up a huge % of your screen but still not get targeted, like the last boss of the last ShB dungeon, phantom train, etc..

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Originally Posted by PatchyKnowly

Cone target works fine, but it can really struggle with tall or oversized enemies, where they can be taking up a huge % of your screen but still not get targeted, like the last boss of the last ShB dungeon, phantom train, etc..

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Yeah, it seems you have to have their nametags be visible on screen for large targets to be targetable easily

Thx for the replies, I'll try to find the cone target option and give that a whirl.

I think it's definitely a "this game" thing with how awful tab targetting enemies is, then to make it worse, it's also dreadful simply clicking on enemies sometimes, I've never played a game where it's so damn awkward to target an individual in that the best way to do it is by clicking on the mob agro list.

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Originally Posted by Crasherino

I think it's definitely a "this game" thing with how awful tab targetting enemies is, then to make it worse, it's also dreadful simply clicking on enemies sometimes, I've never played a game where it's so damn awkward to target an individual in that the best way to do it is by clicking on the mob agro list.

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Tab targeting tends to cause problems in general. If we head to another game with tab targeting we'll usually see similar complaints :) The below thread is on the WoW forums discussing how tab targeting is really horrible.

https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17614713003

Just click on enemies in the enemy aggro list. It's a little more tricky if you're melee, but if the mobs are all grouped up, it's not too bad. It's the best way to easily and quickly switch to specific targets, IMO. And if you're playing, say, Bard, it makes DoT application and management a breeze when you can just go down the list.

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Originally Posted by thrashette

Just click on enemies in the enemy aggro list. It's a little more tricky if you're melee, but if the mobs are all grouped up, it's not too bad. It's the best way to easily and quickly switch to specific targets, IMO. And if you're playing, say, Bard, it makes DoT application and management a breeze when you can just go down the list.

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Can't wait to try that tomorrow. Thanks for the tip!

I remember trying the cone target or whatever the other setting is, and not really being all that impressed with the difference.

Most of the time, I'm actually just using a different keybind for targeting the closest enemy, and I can tab cycle from there as/if necessary.

I've found clicking on the enemies to be easier so long as you have nameplates. Even if you have them stacked, the clicking on the first or last letter of the nameplate will always grab the right one (in my experience). About the only way to hit the summoning bell in Ul'dah Sapphire Road, too lol.

Controller player and the D pad targeting is great imo.

its cycle from left to right, or right to left.
if you see 3 mobs on screen, pressing left to right, will target the right mob, and the opposite targets the left mob 1st. pressing again will cycle back around to the opposite, and then the middle one.
i forget which button, i think the accept button, lets u pick the nearest enemy you're facing. so i pick between those 3 options.

if too many mobs are on screen, i point the camera down, to limit the number i cycle between.

"Target nearest enemy" has worked for me since October of ARR. I don't understand needing to "cycle" in any way. GRAAH! I kill the thing! <TAB> GRAAH! I kill the next nearest thing!" <TAB>

If I need a particular enemy, I click-a them with the mouse.

:)

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There's an option for "cone" targeting in the settings that changes the behavior. I believe the basic setting does as you described, left to right, where the cone setting starts with your character and moves outward.

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They all like to ignore things standing right in front of you, based on height.

Its the worst thing about playing Lalafel. you're so short, you cant tab target things other races can, because of where your camera likes to position itself.

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Originally Posted by Ardeth

I use cone targeting and it works for me.

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Hm... I use cone targeting as well, but what is said in the first post is SOOO FAMILIAR.

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Originally Posted by Gula

Controller player and the D pad targeting is great imo.

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Yeah, I don't really struggle with it on a controller. It's up and down to cycle through the party and left/right to cycle through everything else.

Yeah tab through nearest seems to be a total mess. But... I think it might actually be working except it has too far if range.
It should have a range configuration for your choice of “melee”, 15, 30, and 45.
Or: melee, your longest range ability, twice your longest range ability.

But instead it seems to be “anything your camera settings can render, including that other fate over there by the edge of the zone with 30 mobs in it...

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Originally Posted by Barraind

They all like to ignore things standing right in front of you, based on height.

Its the worst thing about playing Lalafel. you're so short, you cant tab target things other races can, because of where your camera likes to position itself.

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I see this height issue even on a Viera. The targeting hitbox should start 2 yalms below the floor... but instead seems to be “the eyeballs”.

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Originally Posted by gumas

sometimes i just click them with my mouse because its pretty much what you said just now.

the target just keep cycling all enemy except the one i want to be targeted lol

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It would be fine if the click targeting wasn't almost as bad to the point of also being unusable. I can't tell you how many times I've clicked on my chocobo instead of an NPC...

Targeting stuff is so gods dammed terrible in PvP, I play mostly healer due to the fact that I can mostly just use the party list.

I too dislike the current targeting systems. I hate it so much that I spent hours fiddling with different mice/keyboards/controllers/gaming keypads
with the joystick(Razer Tartarus Chroma)/etc until i found the best setup i could.

I tried making the game more arpg-like with macros one time that targetted the closest enemy and activated my skills

Basically:

Heavy Swing
/targetstuffhere
/ac "Heavy Swing"

Skull Sunder
/targetstuffhere(I dont remember this macro command lol)
/ac "Skull Sunder"

I did something similar to this for every attack-type skill and it actually felt really really good. Almost perfect.

As soon as my warrior runs up and hits something like say for example, overpower, it automatically selects the target and overpowers them. It felt very hack-and-slash and helped me avoid targetting the traditional way. I also added a line in my overpower macro that said that if i was not in range, to use tomohawk instead. It was pretty damn great.

The only problem with this is that macros in xiv suck. Sometimes they are delayed horribly or dont even register if you lag a bit. Also the queuing of actions is really nice to have. I dont play like this any longer but if they fixed macros a bit i would do this for all melee jobs.

Timers in macros are only good for crafting. Almost never use it in combat and even using macros at all can be a massive problem sometimes in high end raids with hardcore statics.

The best control scheme ive found to make playing the game "comfortable" is the Razer Tartarus Chroma keypad and occasional macros for targetting a focus target/lasttarget/etc as well as using a mouse to target/rotate camera/navigate menues. Its a pain in the but to select things yourself. In fact it gives me hand strain. The problem is I can immediately click on anything i see. Compared to clicking tab multiple times until its finally selected. But mice in general are terrible for extended periods of use. Ive been looking for a replacement for a mouse for years. Though nothing beats a keypad. Controller is close but having to change pages to select skills in xiv is awful. On my keypad i have every skill set up on 3 different hotbars. I just used modifier keys like CTRL and ALT. Wow this ended up being a massive post. I guess im a little obsessed with finding a better setup. Im mean really, come on. there arent even any controllers that naturally fit into human hands. The natural posture of a rested human hand is something youd do when you gently chest pass a basketball in gym class.

A bit off topic but i posted the above post without editing. Did they remove the 1000 character limit?

While I don't know this for sure, I'd bet my last gil that two things are true: 1) S.E. knows perfectly well how to make not just good, or excellent tab targeting - they can make it crazy good - i.e. fabulous targeting, and 2) The current level of such 'automated' assist is left as it is, which is to say, somewhat unpredictable, for the purpose of interfering with bot targeting. If any sort of automated targeting worked well, it would make the bot world crazy easy. So... S.E. had a choice, leave tab targeting in the "somewhat clumsy" category, and thereby introduce a level of bot exploit control, or turn it loose and watch the bot fun. Not a fun choice, because if we, the readers, were the S.E. engineering team we'd be some hurtin' puppies after looking at how it works now and not being able put the better stuff out there when we know we can.

Metaluna

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Originally Posted by gumas

sometimes i just click them with my mouse because its pretty much what you said just now.

the target just keep cycling all enemy except the one i want to be targeted lol

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Yeah, I hate when I'm tanking and one enemy at the very end of my tab cycle is roaming off when I want to Shield Lob it.

If you have a macro mouse (Razer etc) I recommend using:

F11 Targeting (Right to Left) on button #1
TAB Targeting (Left to Right) on button #2


This gives you full control of targeting left or right really quickly with your thumb on the mouse.
(As well as other things like Shield Lob, Gap Closers, etc.)

https://i.imgur.com/Ai70EiF.png

Yes, tab targeting is compete trash in this game.

From what I found on the web, in 1.0 it use to have an option where if you're in combat then it would only cycle though mobs you're in combat with. That seems to have been removed in 2.0. Seems pretty stupid to remove something like that.

Not in combat: tab should target the closest mob then cycle out from there.
In combat: tab should cycle though your enemy list from top to bottom.

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Originally Posted by Krojack

Yes, tab targeting is compete trash in this game.

From what I found on the web, in 1.0 it use to have an option where if you're in combat then it would only cycle though mobs you're in combat with. That seems to have been removed in 2.0. Seems pretty stupid to remove something like that.

Not in combat: tab should target the closest mob then cycle out from there.
In combat: tab should cycle though your enemy list from top to bottom.

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This is absolutely still in the game as target filtering. You just have to use shift-tab for tab targeting to respect the filter settings as default tab ignores them.

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Originally Posted by Kaylessa

Tab targeting tends to cause problems in general. If we head to another game with tab targeting we'll usually see similar complaints :) The below thread is on the WoW forums discussing how tab targeting is really horrible.

https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17614713003

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WoW targeting is closest to furthest starting with closest if you had no target. There, I used this macro: Cleartarget, then Targetenemy on my mouse wheel button, which always picked the closest thing in front of me Then, TAB stepped outward. It's also restricted to a frontal cone, so it won't get stuff behind you.

Here, I just use cone target mode, but it keeps grabbing things off to the side unless I'm almost within aggro range of higher level mobs.

For me always targets furthest enemy away and not closest one. Tab targeting really sucks