LOS Healing <For Instant Spells/Actions>

[EDIT: For those who don't like this the fix is in the post below, Thanks Goom]

I'm an experienced healer, having played through all of FFXI and WoW, and all Hard Modes between. (Just so credibility isn't an issue, haha)

I'm enjoying healing and the increasing difficulty and pressure on the mana pools we have. We need to be efficient and use the right actions at the right time to go the distance. The only thing I'm not enjoying is the requirement to be facing the target when activating an instant action. Namely Regen.

Example:

-Boss targets me with a directional attack or AoE
-As I'm running out of the AoE/Attack I cast Regen
-Target is on the other side of the field
-I am now faced a different direction than I was running and now run right back into the effect

The only way I have found to avoid this is to hold down my mouse which doesn't prevent me from turning, but will put me on the same path afterwards. One thing that I enjoyed from WoW is I could be running anywhere and in any direction and cast an instant spell, without having to face the target. It allows me to focus on the raid mechanic vs where my char is looking.

I'm hoping to hear a similar frustration from other healers, and ask if this is a change we may see coming? or if this has been brought up before?


Thank for your input,

There is an option, under the Character Options somewhere, that turns off auto-face when casting a spell (including instants). I believe this will solve your problem.

Wellllllll if it's that simple I'm a happy man haha. I appreciate the aesthetics of of facing the person I'm curing.... but functionally not so much.

Thanks for a quick answer

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Originally Posted by Goom

There is an option, under the Character Options somewhere, that turns off auto-face when casting a spell (including instants). I believe this will solve your problem.

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Will this allow you to still heal someone when not facing them? Or is that still a requirement to get the heal off?

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Originally Posted by Fabb

Will this allow you to still heal someone when not facing them?

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Yes. I'm not actually sure how anyone can heal with autoface on to begin with.

Yeah can someone verify that you still dont need to face them to get the heal off? I'm at work and can't test it lol. Would love for it to just be unchecking a box in the options

Yep, just tested it. If you turn off "Automatically face target when using action" in the Character Configuration dialogue / Target tab you don't have to face the target when using regen.

Thank you all!! I will check this out tonight, assuming I have a chance to get on before maintenance. I don't care if I have to face a player while using a spell with a cast time, but the instant cast facing target was bothering me too. Can't wait to test it! :o

Doesn't seem any of our heals require facing the target.

This is definitely tested and confirmed

The option in the menu is very broad and applies to any "Target of Action"

This option should be unchecked for any player. It's purely aesthetic and will only make it difficult to navigate encounters while using instant actions.

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Originally Posted by Matrioshki

This option should be unchecked for any player. It's purely aesthetic and will only make it difficult to navigate encounters while using instant actions.

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Actually wrong but irrelevant for the healer role. Damaging and offensive spells require line of sight and that you face the target during the entire casting (so if you're charging, say, Stone II and the monster walks behind you you lose the spell).. Healing and support spells, however, do not require LoS.

I havnt checked this block since i am at work, but i cannot wait to uncheck this. I to am so frustrated with facing and running back into the red spot of death.
thank you again who ever figured this out.

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Originally Posted by Skies

Actually wrong but irrelevant for the healer role. Damaging and offensive spells require line of sight and that you face the target during the entire casting (so if you're charging, say, Stone II and the monster walks behind you you lose the spell).. Healing and support spells, however, do not require LoS.

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So Question then. If i turn this off for my scholar will i need to turn it back on when i switch back to Summoner? I can only assume so.

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Originally Posted by XxxVoidxxX

So Question then. If i turn this off for my scholar will i need to turn it back on when i switch back to Summoner? I can only assume so.

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I presume so, I don't have much experience with that in particular. Given half of the Scholar spells are also offensive in nature from his Arcanist base, those would also be problematic to use with weird facing.

You could always just strafe instead of turning around, you move the same speed but don't face away from your target while you do it.

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Originally Posted by Skies

Actually wrong but irrelevant for the healer role. Damaging and offensive spells require line of sight and that you face the target during the entire casting (so if you're charging, say, Stone II and the monster walks behind you you lose the spell).. Healing and support spells, however, do not require LoS.

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As this is a "Healing Roles" forum it is purely aethestic for us while we are healing...

But you are absolutely correct, offensive spells both Instant and Cast require you to face the mob. I noticed once I went back to some fate grinding. I would still advise against having this option enabled in serious encounters. DPS will naturally face the mob they are attacking, and still will need to avoid raid mechanics like a healer (all be it they may not notice this as much as a healer will)

Hrm, I personally like to leave it on so I don't need to worry about turning towards my targets and I play on legacy camera mode, which means that I pretty much play with my right mouse button taped down, so my movement is always relative to my camera.
But that goes to playstyle and input preference, different people have more easy with different inputs, this is the easiest for me, can't handle not being able to run towards the camera.

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Originally Posted by XxxVoidxxX

So Question then. If i turn this off for my scholar will i need to turn it back on when i switch back to Summoner? I can only assume so.

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I believe you could macro your offensive Summoner spells such that you include /facetarget (or /ft) one line prior to /ac "Spell Name" <t>. That should allow you to leave the setting off, as far as the console is concerned, while having spells that behave the way they need to.

While having this option checked off makes healing far less stessful, it is still easy to use damaging abilities with it off. Your casting 'cone' is about 45 degrees, so if you turn your camera with the target you'll land your spells no problem. However, if you need to turn very quickly (ie. the mob is running right next to you) you will want to overshoot the camera a bit, as latency will make the game think you are looking further back than you are.

You can heal / buff your party without facing them. It's been like this since FFXI.

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Originally Posted by Aedra

You can heal / buff your party without facing them. It's been like this since FFXI.

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Interestingly, in beta phase 2 you couldn't :D