Targeting to heal in fates / large groups

[Jerthil]

Velo,

What I've found after leveling my tank to 26 is that during most FATEs it is either 1 large boss to kill or a swarm of small things without a lot in between. When it's the one mob, very soon a tank (or pet) will establish threat making them the primary target so that it's easy to target the boss then click on the name of the PC the boss has targeted to get the heals off; with the multi-mob thing....I honestly haven't found anything that works well for healing everyone besides just trying to keep my eyes open when healing.

All that aside though, I'm not sure SE would add what you're discussing seeing as it would make it too easy to heal the critically low members by simply clicking 2 or 3 keys on the keyboard and would take the challenge out of healing, imo. That said, hopefully they come up with something so that in larger groupings of players (without being an actual group) there is some way to help make sure that the squishy caster doesn't end up dead because of AoE aggro.

[Velo_Vandore]

Velo,

What I've found after leveling my tank to 26 is that during most FATEs it is either 1 large boss to kill or a swarm of small things without a lot in between. When it's the one mob, very soon a tank (or pet) will establish threat making them the primary target so that it's easy to target the boss then click on the name of the PC the boss has targeted to get the heals off; with the multi-mob thing....I honestly haven't found anything that works well for healing everyone besides just trying to keep my eyes open when healing.

All that aside though, I'm not sure SE would add what you're discussing seeing as it would make it too easy to heal the critically low members by simply clicking 2 or 3 keys on the keyboard and would take the challenge out of healing, imo. That said, hopefully they come up with something so that in larger groupings of players (without being an actual group) there is some way to help make sure that the squishy caster doesn't end up dead because of AoE aggro.

Thanks for reading and replying Jerthil,

I like the suggestion to target through the boss if there are less enemies than players. I use a controller and can switch to the enemy target filter easily then use an assist macro slotted on cross hotbar to target the player being attacked.

Also, I do understand the point about making healing too easy, and wouldn't want to take the thrill out of the gameplay. On the other hand I don't think it's fair if the healers have an especially hard time compared to other classes when it comes to targeting. Though it would be much much easier to heal, the healer would still need to consider when to switch to attacking / healing and trying to co-ordinate with other healers in the fate. I guess some play testing would be the only way to determine whether the difficulty balance is messed up.

[Velo_Vandore]

Regarding the /autoheal concept, it brings the Final Fantasy XII gambits to mind. Some enjoyed planning the auto-behaviors strategically and found it rewarding to sit back and watch the results during battle, while others detested the idea as players can just find good gambits online and have a cheap and easy win.

Personally I loved the gambits because in my opinion there was always something to think about during a boss battle, and the gambits could not carry you entirely. So again, I think play testing would be required. If it turns out that targeting efficiency is the main or only thing which separates a good healer from a bad one, I would be really dissapointed. There should be enough strategic / reactive thought taking place that spamming /autoheal would not = a free win.