Yes, those auto-targeting behaviors should be implemented now. We did a complete UI rewrite recently that may have broken things like that, though, so if it doesn't work right please bug it!
I'll look at ways to add more visual feedback to the group window for casting actions soon.
So, assisting similar to EQ /assist is exactly what I was talking about. I view this personally as very valuable for the reasons listed in previous post. I'll add a little more to what some one posted earlier. Yes, EQ needed crowd control, and assisting was very important (when I played anyway). But, in addition to crowd control it just makes difficult situations easier when all are on the same target. ie kill them faster so healing is not wasted by the damage being spread out. Damage should be focused on the ones designed to take damage.
I've not played this game long. But, it appears to be designed around the holly trinity for grouping. A simple, fast way to assist will be pretty important to keep things fun. Challenges are what make games fun, in my opinion. Leveling to a point of a DPS class being able to tank a difficult mob makes the dungeon fun for a less amount of time.
In the group example I had that triggered my post we could have progressed in the content by working better together. And, it would be possible (it sounds like) with existing tools. But I would argue the tools should be even simpler, and the game (which I think appears to be designed with group content in mind) should offer these to the player to learn.
Also, I tested it again. Left Clicking the group window worked for a while, then didn't. I'll try to reproduce with better data next play session. Right click kept working from start to finish like before.
I should add, I do not feel our did not succeed because there was no /assist tool. We were very disorganized. That is why we failed. But the disorganization pointed easily to the lack of some functionality that would help.
Last edited by Marrz; 01-24-2018 at 07:44 PM.
I always forget that heals heal the mob's target. ^-^
Does that include First Aid and Potions or exclude those?
@Marrz - I'm sorry, I still feel like I'm missing something... what does the /assist command do that the key bindings don't let you do already?
I really don't think "everybody in the group should now make a macro with my name using /assist" counts as an easy-to-use tool. Most players don't even know about critical (IMO) commands like /isearch, so I'm wrapping those commands in UI features. Although we'll add more slash-commands over time for people that like them, the golden age of that kind of stuff is long over. We need to make the game intuitive without needing to type commands or make macros. So I'd really like to understand when binding a /assist macro would be more useful than binding the assist-like command that already exists in the game. Or did I miss your point?
(I grouped a lot in in EQ2 (early days post-launch was great grouping, though it's mostly a solo game now) and I've based lots of the commands and targeting logic on that game. I don't think we ever had /assist in EQ2, or if we did, I never used it.)
@Crissa - it should include abilities like First Aid, but not items like potions, which are always self-use.
Ok, So let's say the Tank (or main assist) is party member 3. I press F3 to target him and then "Select enemy targeted by" which I have keyed to numpad - . (I think you could also use "select target of current" default bound as ctrl+backspace.)
I hit two keys: F3 then numpad -
I'm wondering how this could be easier without creating a macro system and more hotbars to put macros on. I played EQ from the beginning for several years so I understand the "/assist Marrz" macro, but hitting two keys is just as easy plus if the tank dies or you get a new group there's nothing to rewrite.
Last edited by Madmatx; 01-25-2018 at 12:51 AM.
It's a long story. Let's see if I can summarize it.
For a long time, aggro abilities in PG had some issues. Add to that the fact that most of our time is spent soloing (or in duo), and that a gear set to keep aggro takes some room in inventory or storage, in the end nobody really geared up to play tank in group.
Also, several people including myself, coming with a EQ background, wanted to play healer because "it saves groups". But again in PG for a long time fights were extremely fast, between 3 and 8 seconds easily. During that time mobs can be stunned and don't deal real damage, so bringing DPS is more important. Since it's also more efficient when soloing healers wannabe moved to balanced builds. Today the assumption is basically that everyone has a way to heal themselves if things go really bad, and that killing fast is more efficient in the end. You don't loose anything when you die anyway.
Fights last longer than they used to now, but heals aren't too strong. I can tell because I'm using a Ice/Psychology build with almost all heal mods, and one-to-one I can heal, but two-on-one I cannot (I'm talking about healing someone else). In the end, you don't find dedicated healers in group. Even if they would be useful sometimes, they don't have the tools for the job.
Last but no least, crowd control suffers from the existence of many aoe abilities. Like healing, it's more efficient to kill everything at once fast than one mob at a time. And like healing crowd controllers don't really have the tools for the job: mostly single target, long refresh mezzes. No option to move mobs away from potential adds, no option to move a dead tank away from a mezzed mob, and I'm not sure you can reliably completely erase a group from a mob's hate list.
So if you look at a group today, it doesn't have a tank, a healer nor a crowd controller (sorry to contradict you Marrz, but that's my observation after 3 years of playing). But it does have a puller. So, why would you want /assist? The target is there, there is no doubt about what it is.
If a pull goes bad: everything can be killed at once with AoE, or is off-tanked, or is kited. /assist is good, it's more efficient, but it's not necessary. You don't break any mezz!
And Madmatx is right, you need to press two keys to obtain the same result than EQ's /assist tank. It's too long, too many risks of missing a key because it's a sequence you seldom use, and who's the tank anyway (there is none), who's the master assist (no group I know agree on one)?
The feature is in game but it's not practical to use.
There you go.
@Niph Psychology works really well as a heal/tank build. You generate tons of aggro that way with direct aggro and heals.
PG is full of crazy stuff like that. My tanking builds have been Unarmed/Psych and Cow/Psych (although I've since lost my Cow gear). Worked reasonably well all the way through the crypts.