Targeting to heal in fates / large groups

[Velo_Vandore]

When there are many players to target, for example during a fate, it can take a long time to cycle through all the PC's to heal the tank or other player in need of a heal. I imagine this will difficult in 24 man raids as well.

I use a controller 90% of the time but I hear it's also difficult to click the desired target with a mouse when there are many targets on screen.

Is there a way to target the player with lowest HP (within range) immediately?

If not I suggest to the devs that target PC with lowest HP should be keybindable and macroable (to cater to both mouse/keyboard and gamepad users). Ideally we could modify this to choose next lowest so you can repeatedly press to cycle from lowest hp to highest hp player (to avoid everyone healing same target and also to allow you to target the next PC to heal while you are casting the current heal).

To me a macro such as this would be my holy grail for healing in large groups:

/targetlowHP
/action cure <t>

You could just keep pressing it and automatically heal players in the order of priority. If a squishy gets hit you may want to skip the tank even if he has technically lower HP, so something like /targetnextlowHP to skip to the next lowest would be great.

Another idea to extend this further is a setting or text command to permanently switch the tab (dpad) target cycle order based on either distance, lowest HP (for allies), maximum HP (for enemy from small fry to boss), enmity, etc.

[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.

[HEC]

In the groups up to 8 members the best way of targeting is to use F1 - F8 keys. In larger groups - most likely mouse would be the only wise choice. I doubt they'll implement what you're asking for as it's only a step from "/autoheal" command which you can just put on the look and practically do nothing else ...

[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]

In the groups up to 8 members the best way of targeting is to use F1 - F8 keys. In larger groups - most likely mouse would be the only wise choice. I doubt they'll implement what you're asking for as it's only a step from "/autoheal" command which you can just put on the look and practically do nothing else ...

Thanks for the advice HEC.

Yes, I'm concerned for gamepad users in this respect as they have no mouse. While I play primarily with gamepad, I do have the option to use my PC mouse and keyboard if required, but some PS3 players don't have that option. Targeting with up and down (cycles through only party members) on the d-pad is also very convenient when in a party, so as you say it's over 8 players that gets tricky.

I do understand the /autoheal situation being considered too easy or nearly cheating, and it's a concern I share. I suppose as I said to Jerthil it would depend on play testing to determine if there was enough else to focus on. Hopefully targeting is not the only challenging aspects for healers to have to consider.

[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.

[Thaliss]

As a PS3 user :

In a fate with one large boss you can use a macro : /Cure <tt>
That way you target the boss and whoever the boss is targeting you land a heal on her/him.
As side note the following macro is better for all situations (you can add mouse over if you play mouse+keyboard) :
/Cure <t>
/Cure <tt>
/Cure <me>

For fates with a lot of small mobs you can set your targeting to only players so switch between players and heal the ones with low health.

[Velo_Vandore]

As a PS3 user :

In a fate with one large boss you can use a macro : /Cure <tt>
That way you target the boss and whoever the boss is targeting you land a heal on her/him.
As side note the following macro is better for all situations (you can add mouse over if you play mouse+keyboard) :
/Cure <t>
/Cure <tt>
/Cure <me>

For fates with a lot of small mobs you can set your targeting to only players so switch between players and heal the ones with low health.

Thanks Thaliss.

So /Cure <tt> is like assist > cure > back to boss? I like that especially if the boss is switching between multiple targets!

I also use target filters for PC / enemy etc and highly recommend for pad users. I find it works well until you get around 10 or more players to cycle through.

[Velo_Vandore]

What if there was a target filter option to only target players with less than 100% HP? This would not be an /autocure but would help in huge fates where you would otherwise have to cycle through up to 20 or more players.

[Arriverderci]

How to Marco using PS3 controller.