Change to Ranged Physical Attackers (Bard, Machinist)

[Vhailor]

I haven’t played summoner in two years at least but I remember having issues with focus targeting and the summon wandering up to engage the target. Is this still a thing?

I remember turn 7 being rough as a bard because of the auto attacks. I’ve just learned to adjust but I wouldn’t mind something to disengage auto attacks but not get rid of them completely.

I'm not sure on the Summoner question. If it applies there too, it should be resolved as well. I also agree that, given SE's history re: balance adjustments, it might be best to have an option blocking auto-attack from initiating combat (but otherwise remaining the same), as opposed to eliminating it for certain jobs and scaling ability usage accordingly. In theory the latter is perfectly possible, and would be an easy way of resolving the problem, but it's quite possible that SE wouldn't adjust skill damage properly.

[SenorPatty]

Can we receive a setting, specifically for Bard and Machinist but really it could be for any job, that allows us to completely disable auto-attack on an un-engaged target prior to initiating a manual ability?

It's annoying as hell to be using Tab to target and hit a random monster we didn't intend, or to accidentally hit the right mouse button when selecting a target, only to have auto-attack pull it immediately.

What does everyone else think? Am I the only one that finds this incredibly irritating relative to melee-range DPS or spellcasters?

I support this completely. I've only played brd and mch for a short time but I did encounter that kind of problem. Make it happen SE

[Hasrat]

Maybe just don't use the keybind you have set that triggers auto attack?

I mean, I get it on the tab targeting, that happens, but a lot of these examples sound like a simple left click instead of a right click would solve half your troubles.

But, I imagine most of you are using a controller where it's not quite as simple. Still, surely there's a way to highlight a target without selecting it. (in this context "highlight" refers to having "left clicked" them, while "selecting" refers to what right click does, or pressing the "confirm" button while target is highlighted)

[HyoMinPark]

But, I imagine most of you are using a controller where it's not quite as simple. Still, surely there's a way to highlight a target without selecting it. (in this context "highlight" refers to having "left clicked" them, while "selecting" refers to what right click does, or pressing the "confirm" button while target is highlighted)

If you use a controller and play on PC, or have a Bluetooth mouse, you can use the mouse to select/focus target an enemy. This is what I do if I cannot back up far enough to not engage them. But if people don’t have/use a mouse, I don’t know of any simple way for them to do it on controller, since, if your controller is finicky, it can take the first click of you selecting the boss as a double and initiate your autos/engage them.

If they wanted to remove autos from BRD/MCH, that would be fine, but they would need to buff up the potencies of their weaponskills to compensate. I won’t take the removal if they won’t buff potencies, since that’s about a ~15% damage loss, if I remember correctly.

[Shurrikhan]

I've gotten pretty used to it by using escape and interact buttons in combination with tab, but I would welcome anything that could help, as long as it doesn't necessarily bring new problems. And something optional certainly would bring no such issues.

[Vhailor]

Maybe just don't use the keybind you have set that triggers auto attack?

I mean, I get it on the tab targeting, that happens, but a lot of these examples sound like a simple left click instead of a right click would solve half your troubles.

But, I imagine most of you are using a controller where it's not quite as simple. Still, surely there's a way to highlight a target without selecting it. (in this context "highlight" refers to having "left clicked" them, while "selecting" refers to what right click does, or pressing the "confirm" button while target is highlighted)

Personally, I'm using a keyboard and mouse. Tab targeting is the primary problem, and mis-clicking on the mouse can be an occasional problem, albeit rarer (unless I'm playing while particularly tired).

The key thing to me, though, is that mistakes of this nature on literally any other job in the game pose little to no risk. If I'm playing White Mage (my main), I can tab around with abandon, I can bump the right mouse button, whatever - no worries. On Bard or Machinist, though, it's an insta-pull of whatever you're focused on. I think the mistake tolerance in this regard should be identical across all jobs.

I can't personally speak to the mechanics on a gamepad, but...

If you use a controller and play on PC, or have a Bluetooth mouse, you can use the mouse to select/focus target an enemy. This is what I do if I cannot back up far enough to not engage them. But if people don’t have/use a mouse, I don’t know of any simple way for them to do it on controller, since, if your controller is finicky, it can take the first click of you selecting the boss as a double and initiate your autos/engage them.

...it seems like controllers just really don't have a good workaround.

[Teiren]

For controller, about setting Focus Target as well as any menu selection: Square (left action button) works exactly like X. It's not foolproof because by mashing the button you could just open the menu and select Attack at the top, but I don't know why you'd be mashing a button for Focus Target anyway. Also, I often use a shoulder button to target enemies regardless, even though I don't play Bard or Machinist. It just makes sense to me because targeting an enemy almost always means you're going to be attacking them, and shoulder buttons target enemies only while your cross hotbar is active.

However, I agree this is a problem because on controller you can only really "tab" target for targeting, and although the tab-targeting in this game is extremely good, there's definitely a decent risk of targeting an unengaged enemy. I don't know what the solution could be besides implementing an option to toggle off auto-attack the exact moment you switch targets. However, that means it'd be disabled when switching between engaged enemies too until you use a weaponskill. Then again, delaying one auto-attack is practically nothing, especially if you're switching targets that much. WoW and other MMOs have had this option nearly forever, but their GCD (or GCD-equivalent) is very fast, so it feels a little different.

[Hasrat]

Funny enough, for examples like all the casters, I'd honestly prefer having the option to enable auto-attack once we've starting hitting with spells. In solo content, it's honestly a bit dumb that we just let that damage go to waste. Negligible, maybe, but still damage.

[HyoMinPark]

...it seems like controllers just really don't have a good workaround.

To be fair, my controller is also about 3 years old and has been dropped a lot. So it’s probably more sensitive than most. I just try to use my mouse for targeting bosses.

[Joe777]

I use controller and keyboard (PS4 player) and don't have problems with things like this. Must be a mouse thing.