Locking on to a target

[Sacred-Oblivion]

It's very nice for melee dps because of the auto-attacks as mentioned, despite what people say they contribute to a heft amount of damage, especially on mnk. I also use it in fights where there is a lot of moving around and I lose track of people, like in Crystal Tower. If i target them and lock on i can figure out where the heck they are then unlock.

It's useful to use if you can get used to un-locking when you need to move backwards but if you aren't a melee DPS then you're fine just disabling it entirely. Also an extra tip - for a good amount of enemies you can stand slightly farther back/slightly forward and give yourself some extra distance to run out of their AOEs. It might help you out while practicing using lockon if you choose to keep it available.

So then is it only auto-attacks that require you to face the target? There's been times where I've gotten off a Rage of Halone while literally facing the opposite direction of my target, but for my self-esteem's sake I never pay attention to my auto attacks since they're so worthless and pathetic

[Aminidab]

This actually got me into trouble last night on titan HM, twice, went to move out of landslide and pushed to hard, making me change directions and get kicked off. I'll be disabling it for that fight going forward. I do use it in CT to find my tank if he wanders onto a different platform and needs heals (I play healer) so I wont keep it permanently disabled, but I'll never use it on titan again.

[Merlot]

I always use it because it helps me land the attacks that do extra damage from the flank/back

[Niwashi]

It's very bad if triggered accidentally — like when there's a big attack coming so you try to quickly run out of range, but end up pushing a little to hard on the analog stick to run away, so instead it forces you to stand there facing the mob you were trying to get away from. I died to that a few too many times, so just disabled the lock-on altogether. I can see how it might occasionally be useful, but only if it were tied to a button you'd never press accidentally, and that's not possible with the available controller setup.

[Jiramisu]

For melee (and mouse users), why not just hold down the right mouse button while strafing and control the camera yourself? It's pretty simple and feels pretty natural as well.

[Estellios]

So then is it only auto-attacks that require you to face the target? There's been times where I've gotten off a Rage of Halone while literally facing the opposite direction of my target, but for my self-esteem's sake I never pay attention to my auto attacks since they're so worthless and pathetic

Skills do require you to face the target and automatically make you face the target unless you disabled that option. You just experienced position delay most likely. Auto attacks aren't worthless either. The damage adds up, even for a tank. PLD has one of the quicker AA speeds too.

For melee (and mouse users), why not just hold down the right mouse button while strafing and control the camera yourself? It's pretty simple and feels pretty natural as well.

I think this is specifically dealing with controllers where it is easy to hit the lockon on accident until you get used to it. Controllers can't strafe without lockon.

[peaches]

I imagine it may be useful in PvP for a melee to run behind a caster and interrupt their cast

[Lemon8or]

I never found a use for it. I experimented between lock-on and non-lock-on on a dummy and both do the same DPS and I don't see any missing auto-attack when I don't lock on.