Any way to target party members by role in a light party?

[Lyraele]

I'm trying to make targeting the tank easier when playing as a healer, and conversely targeting healer easier when playing as a tank. Reading macro guides and such, it looked like <1> would be the tank, <2> the healer, and <3>/<4> DPS in a light party. But it looks like <1> is always me (and the guild hests I used to test macros ended so fast, I never really knew who was doing what, to be honest). So is <1> always you, and <2> The tank (if you are healer) or healer (if you are tank) generally true? Or is it random and needs tweaking at the start of every party? I'm really hoping to not have to cycle through party members with the D-pad (I'm on PS4). Thanks in adavance for any pointers!

[Ashelia_Ferron]

By default, party lists are sorted as:
1) You
2) Tanks
3) Healers
4) DPS.

You can change the order by role, you can also change by specific job as well (I believe default is PLD, WAR, DRK, WHM, SCH, AST, MNK, DRG, NIN, BRD, MCH, BLM, SMN)

[Lyraele]

Ok, so that means if an healer/tank then #2 is tank/healer and #3 and #4 are DPS. At least for a light party. That should be easy to tweak. Thanks!

[Dzian]

It can be configured to a certain extent. I always use the order of tank dps healers. This means than the tanks are always the first 2 on the party list under me and the healers are always at the bottom of the list in 7 and 8 for example.

Done it like this so I can target in order of priority
If I'm a scholar for example the tanks will be numbers 2 and 3 directly below me. And the second healer will always be 8. Directly above me. (Pressing up on yourself goes to bottom of party list)

If I'm a paladin my co tank will always be directly below me in positon 2 and the healers will again be directly above me in slots 7 and 8.

I find doing this means I can always get the key party members targeted fast within 1 or 2 presses of d pad down or up. And the less critical dps party members sit in the middle.

EDIT:-

If for some reason your party list gets messed up. a members drops and gets replaced for example they'll often go to the bottom of the list regardless of role. in which case you can type /psort and it'll reorganise the list back according to your preferences

[Lyraele]

I've only been playing about a month now, so haven't done anything bigger than 4. What other sizes are a thing? 8? For 8, is it just 2x tank, 2x healer, 4x DPS or something? Looks like I need to read more, somewhere!

[Anoranda]

4 people - light party, used in most guildhests, dungeons and low lvl trials.
8 people - full party, used in hard/extreme/high lvl trials, bahamut and alexander raids, story dungeons and exploratory missions
24 people - full alliance, used in big raids like tower of darkness and void ark.
PvP instances also have various group sizes (4-24)

Edit: full parties usually consist of 2 healers and 2 tanks, most of those instances have mechanics that require tank switching and tons of healing.
Alliances usually go in either 2 healers and 2 tanks per group of 8 (total 6 of each)
Or 1 tank and 2 healers per group (3 tanks and 6 healers total)

[Callinon]

You might also consider "focusing" the tank. You can do that by right-clicking them and picking "set focus" or you can keybind the set focus function (I use ctrl+shift+tab to do it). Focusing a target gives you a dedicated unit frame for them that you can click on and position separately wherever you want it to be without upsetting the rest of your party frames.

The only downside is you have to do it every time you cross a zone boundary. For some reason, focus targeting doesn't survive crossing a dotted blue line.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

You might also consider "focusing" the tank. You can do that by right-clicking them and picking "set focus" or you can keybind the set focus function (I use ctrl+shift+tab to do it). Focusing a target gives you a dedicated unit frame for them that you can click on and position separately wherever you want it to be without upsetting the rest of your party frames.

The only downside is you have to do it every time you cross a zone boundary. For some reason, focus targeting doesn't survive crossing a dotted blue line.

Not really ideal as you would be better focused on the mob/boss.

[Lyraele]

Playing on PS4 with a controller, so using focus seems to be fiddly at best. Making tank/dps1/dps2 macros seems to be working well, at least for light parties. The only full parties I've been in now seem to be me as newbie tank usually being lost or locked out of fights because the group rushes in while I'm stuck in a cut-scene. So I've just been thankfully accepting the carries, apologizing for the delays, and figuring I can sort out targeting as I keep leveling along.

[Dzian]

Playing on PS4 with a controller, so using focus seems to be fiddly at best. Making tank/dps1/dps2 macros seems to be working well, at least for light parties. The only full parties I've been in now seem to be me as newbie tank usually being lost or locked out of fights because the group rushes in while I'm stuck in a cut-scene. So I've just been thankfully accepting the carries, apologizing for the delays, and figuring I can sort out targeting as I keep leveling along.

Focus target on ps4 is quite easy. Just press square on the desired target and click set focus.

What I've also done then is set r3 to execute macro 99. Which is basically a single line macro /target <f>

Basically targets your focus target anytime you press the r3 button even if there off screen. Most useful in fights where the boss keeps becoming untargettable like rav ex.