Help with targeting

[Hawg]

I am finding that in fights like Archi, and others in HFC with many adds, I often have a difficult time switching to the kill target adds quickly and wonder how others are handling this?

Let me elaborate: in Archi for example, between the 15-20 people in the raid, plus the boss, plus the adds, plus the friendly NPC's, plus player combat pets, there are many times when I need to switch from one target to the next and I either mouse click the wrong add, or worse, I click on a friendly player/NPC/pet. The current design of HFC fights is such that I feel like I am doing more target switching than ever before, and all these people often stacked in close proximity results in more frequent mis-targeting.

All those mis-clicks add up to a lot of missed DPS or misplaced DPS.

Am I alone in this in this problem? If not, how are you reducing this issue?

[Sxq]

I switch between tab targetting (pretty effective for doomfires and deathcallers), mouse clicking on nameplates (for the dog dudes and infernals), and mouse clicking directly on the boss frames (for targetting archi/doomfire/deathcaller when it gets chaotic or when I'm too far to tab target effectively).

Make sure you have enemy nameplates enabled and ally nameplates disabled. I find it easier to click the health bar rather than the unit's model in most cases. Some sort of addon to modify nameplates (like Tidyplates) is helpful. So is an addon which replaces the crappy Blizzard boss unit frames with something more customizable.

[galaxyquest]

I switch between tab targetting (pretty effective for doomfires and deathcallers), mouse clicking on nameplates (for the dog dudes and infernals), and mouse clicking directly on the boss frames (for targetting archi/doomfire/deathcaller when it gets chaotic or when I'm too far to tab target effectively).

Make sure you have enemy nameplates enabled and ally nameplates disabled. I find it easier to click the health bar rather than the unit's model in most cases. Some sort of addon to modify nameplates (like Tidyplates) is helpful. So is an addon which replaces the crappy Blizzard boss unit frames with something more customizable.

I pretty much do exactly this.

Another thing I did was move my boss frames from the far right of my screen (where people normally have boss frames) to the center-left of my screen. It took a bit of getting used to, but it makes targetting boss/prio mobs much easier. Did this after seeing it in a video a while back.

[SpikeySquad]

I use a mixture of Elvui bossframes and Tidyplates to select the mob that I want and/or to do mouseover casts. Like Galaxy I have also moved my boss frames more central though they are still on the right side for me.

[Hawg]

Thanks for the tips, I'll give them a try and let you know how it goes

[Herecius]

First and foremost, definitely turn off friendly nameplates. Leave them off. I cannot think of any situation you will ever need them in.

[Hawg]

Maybe heals want them on? But I don't use them.

[Herecius]

Maybe heals want them on? But I don't use them.

It's mostly just needless clutter, especially in a crowded raid. For healing, raid frames should allow you to do whatever is really needed, so yeah. In a busy raid, it'd be so much clutter that I'd worry about not even being able to see ground effects, let alone targeting the right things.

[Septik]

is there not an option in game to only tab to hostile units? or non-player units at least. ill log into game in a min and see if i can find what im thinking about, will update!


edit:: looks like its just 'target nearest enemy' at the top of targeting under keybinds, which i have bound to tab and the rest (friendly/enemy players, pets, ect) are all unbound.

[Hawg]

Since the last patch, it seems like Tab targeting often doesn't work. Also, when there are 4 dogs, a boss, a death star, and two demons, and you are trying to get to the death star to dps, that's a lot of cycling to tab through... and even when it works, I often press it to quickly and have to cycle through more than once to get to the correct add. (not that click on the stars are hard, just giving an example).

[apoe]

Tab target is never reliable when you have so many things on screen at once.

It simply comes down to your mouse accuracy. Like an FPS game but instead of clicking on people's heads you need to click the correct nameplate. lol

[Radio]

On fights that are an add mess with a super high prio target or two and regular switching, you can always use some spare bind spots for specific /target macros as well.

For example: on Galakras Heroic I had one for the war shamans.

[Leih]

/tar macros are really good on fights with a priority target you need to always switch to when it spawns. If you have a specific opener you can even macro your first cast into the macro so you start attacking immediately as you switch.

Boss health frames are also super useful especially on multi-boss fights like high council.

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It's mostly just needless clutter, especially in a crowded raid. For healing, raid frames should allow you to do whatever is really needed, so yeah. In a busy raid, it'd be so much clutter that I'd worry about not even being able to see ground effects, let alone targeting the right things.

Only time I've used friendly nameplates is while inside the stomach in Gorefiend, since it makes it easier to see exactly where the stupid spirits are. Just have to remember to turn it off back outside!