Cast on Target of Target

[Skeithe]

So very curious if this game allows the feature to cast on your targets target.

Example. Your playing a healer and have a tank targeted but would like to cast a DPS spell. Some games allow you to simply target the tank and cast and you would hit the tanks target.

Or you can play a DPS and have the MOB targeted but see a group member could use some quick healing. So again you cast the heal, healing the MOB's target.

This sort of thing can make life very much easier.

[Pence]

<tt> = targets target. I use it for E4E (when DPSing) and Virus.

[Zomkei]

You will want to make the macro like the following, however, just in case you want to use the spell on your target.

For example, you want to DPS while still targeting your tank;

/macroicon "Stone"
/ac "Stone" <t>
/ac "Stone" <tt>

So that you can use the same stone macro if you want to target the mob by itself. (macroicon makes it look like the skill icon)

[AskaRay]

You can also make the macro this:
/ac "Stone" <t>
/ac "Stone" <f>
/ac "Stone" <tt>

The <f> just adds Focus Target, so if you have one, it'll attack that instead. If you're targeting a mob directly, it'll attack that. If you are targeting a player but have no focus target, it'll target the player's target.

[Skeithe]

Thank you for the replies. Be nice if this was an in game toggle feature but such it life.

[SerenAuditore]

I never thought of making a macro, what I do sometimes is I just type control+T on the keyboard and it switches to the targets target

[Atoli]

Not sure if it is the default setting, but T switches the target to your target's target (wow, that sentence..xD).
So as a healer, for example I go:
1 (cure) - 1 - 1 - 6 (Cleric Stance) - T - 7 (DoT) - 8 (other DoT) - 6+T - 1, 1, 1..and so on.

There is no option to automatically cast on your target's target, but through macros and the manual use of T, it's still very easy and does not involve clicking or circling through targets.

[Left-E]

I like the <tt> command a lot set it with all Offensive spells on my CNJ/WHM so I dot have to take target off Tank

/Micon "Aero"
/aerror Off
/ac "Aero" <t>
/ac "Aero" <tt>

Cast Aero on the target if I have one or cast on the target of your current target if I hit it to much it won't give me the error if on CD or anything

[ReiMakoto]

I like the <tt> command a lot set it with all Offensive spells on my CNJ/WHM so I dot have to take target off Tank

/Micon "Aero"
/aerror Off
/ac "Aero" <t>
/ac "Aero" <tt>

Cast Aero on the target if I have one or cast on the target of your current target if I hit it to much it won't give me the error if on CD or anything

Don't macros your main combat GCDs, they're laggy and will make your gameplay worse

[EaMett]

Don't macros your main combat GCDs, they're laggy and will make your gameplay worse

This is absolutely correct and can't be emphasized enough. DO NOT use macros on your main combat skills. Macros do not queue so you should expect a significant dps loss (proportional to how bad your ping is).

This is less of an issue for healing spells since you don't heal that often in FFXIV, and when you do heal you rarely cast multiple healing skills in a row. So it's ok to macro your main healing skills.

In other words: healing the target of the target while targeting the boss is an acceptable way of healing the tank, dpsing the target of the target while targeting the tank is an unacceptable way of dpsing the boss.

Also, because there's a lot of bad advice here. Never create multi-target macros. If one line fails it does not stop the rest from executing and this is another big flaw that has major drawbacks. Consider this macro:

/Micon "Aero"
/aerror Off
/ac "Aero" <t>
/ac "Aero" <tt>

If your target is the monster, that means you want to Aero <t>. But if you press the macro while still on your gcd it's possible that all but the last line fail (because the last line will execute after your gcd is available) so the game will try to Aero <tt> (your tank most likely) and fail and you will need to press it again. Add this to the fact that macros don't queue and you're essentially doubling the effect of your ping.
This is even worse when making macros for heals as you may just end up casting a heal on yourself. Which will set you back the entire cast time and MP and still not heal the person you were aiming for.

The rules for good macros is to:

1) Never macro your main dps skills
2) Always stick to single target macros.
3) Consider the above when making multi action macros.

Edit: I spent a lot of time looking into this when I started. Set my skills up so that all my target based healing skills became mouseover macros. There are some issues with double weaving sometimes but that's about it (it's also in part because my ping isn't the best)