Game Tips
The Way To Use Focus
13/06/07 14:45
I must
confess, I got a little confused on reading so many
different opinions on how to use focus since it was
introduced a patch or two ago. But this morning
I read a fantastic article from Big Red Kitty (a
hunter blog) which spent a little time touching on
this subject with perfect explanations.
Although it is written from the viewpoint of a hunter and aimed at hunter, the principle remains the same for anyone: a warlock, a rogue, a mage... anyone. And I really would like to encourage everyone to make the macros and add them to your hotbar for when we next instance together. It will make Ty's job easier as a tank and my job easier as a healer and we will be one step closer to where we need to be for endgaming!
So without further chatter, click 'read more' to learn more about how to use focus (I have edited the article to use names we are familiar with) and how to apply it to a macro:
Target Versus Focus You have a Target. WooT! Your Target is the mob or friend with whom you directly interacting. Your Target changes, of course. It changes when you select a different mob or friend. Blizzard was kind enough to allow us to use our Target as a variable that can be used in commands and macros. If you want to emote "Hello" to Tyrand, you could type: /hello Tyrand If your Target was Tyrand, you could also type: /hello target This is an example of using Target as a variable. For our little hello-command, Target is set to Tyrand and the computer handles the rest. Simple. Now you also have a similar variable called Focus. Whereas your Target changes when you select a new mob or friend, your Focus can only be set, reset, or cleared explicitly. If you want to make Tyrand your Focus, you would type: /focus Tyrand Target and Focus are separate entities. If you click on your friend Azra, your Target is automatically set to Azra but your Focus continues to be Tyrand. If you click on a murloc, your Target is now that murloc but your Focus continues to be Tyrand. The only way you can effect a change in your Focus is to do so explicitly: /focus Azra /focus murloc Before we get into what we can do with our Focus, let's make it easier to set it.
Set Focus Macro /focus target Again, assign it to an icon and put it on the action bar. We don't have a keystroke assigned to our Set Focus Macro because, although we use it daily, we use it very infrequently and almost never in combat, just at the start of an instance run.
What the macro does is assign to the Focus variable whatever is being targeted. Supposing we are on a run and Tyrand isn't able to come so we have a PuG tank (God help us)! If we wished to make our party's tank our Focus, we would target him and click this macro. How efficient is this? It depends on how creative the tank was when he chose his name. Do you really want type: /focus zomgtherealslimshady or /focus Fflingerhoôszefr Of course you don't. Use this little macro to simply and quickly assign your Focus. Now let's do something with it. The Assist feature of Warcraft is wonderful. If you click on your tank and follow with clicking the Assist button (default hotkey F), your target will become whatever the tank is targeting. If your tank is holding multiple mobs, we can Assist and always be sure of attacking the mob he is directly tanking. This will help us not to pull aggro from the tank, which would be bad. But to use the Assist feature, we have to target the tank and then hit the Assist key. That's two steps and wasted time that we can eliminate with a macro.
Assist Focus Macro /assist focus This one definitely goes in a good spot on the action bar with a key mapped to it. Make sure this is an easy key you can drop into your mind, heart and soul. This key will save us all from wipes. Really, it will. This one gets used a lot. Things go awry in an instance and your battle plan of Skull, X, Star can be changed the second the first trap fails. No worries! When Skull goes down just smack your Assist Focus Macro and you'll be attacking whatever it is the tank picks up next. No guess-work, no miscommunication and little down-time between attacks.
A Quick Demonstration Our party forms outside the instance and goes through the rigmarole of getting ready to start.
One of the preparation steps is to make the tank your Focus, so you click on Tyrand and use your Set Focus Macro. Poof, it's done. You enter the instance and off you all go. The first pull is easy, just two mobs. One gets sheeped and the tank takes the other. What's our job as a hunter? Target the tank's mob and burn it down. Instead of tab-targeting and perhaps accidentally attacking the sheep, you press your Assist Focus Macro and you're immediately targeting the tank's Target. If you have set your system's configuration so that you commence attacking upon Assisting, you'll actually start firing your ranged weapon, too. But what about your pet? Oh yes, you smack your Pet Attack Macro and that mob gets lit with a Hunter's Mark and your pet rushes in to help DPS. Now this is all well and good, but hardly revolutionary. Where this all really shines is in more complex situations. Let's build one and take a look.
Putting It All Together - A Bad Scenario You're in Steamvaults pulling the four-mob packs. You're sapping one, trapping one, mind-controlling one, and DPSing the Skull. Nice plan. The rogue saps, the feral druid pulls the skull, you tag your mob and start pulling it to your trap. You run run run to the safe place you put your trap, you wait for him to get to you, pop he's trapped. Now what. You want to DPS the Skull, of course. You tab-target and accidentally select your trapped mob but are able to keep from shooting it. You see the Skull mob and try to select it but there are too many things in the way and you cannot get a good click on it. With a growl of desperation, you tab-target through the mobs... circle, moon, Skull! Yes! Start firing! OMG it's been 10 seconds and we we haven't sent our pet yet! Get going you! We're not topping the DamageMeters today as it seems we're always a bloody, bleepin' step behind.
Putting It All Together - With Macros You're in Steamvaults pulling the four-mob packs. You're sapping one, trapping one, mind-controlling one, and DPSing the Skull. Nice plan. The rogue saps, the feral druid pulls the skull, you tag your mob and start pulling it to your trap. While you are running to your trap you hit your Assist Focus Macro and you immediately switch to targeting the Skull. While you are still running to your trap you smack your Pet Attack Macro. As long as your Target is in line-of-sight, you'll cast your Hunter's Mark. Did you know you don't actually have to be looking at the mob to cast Hunter's Mark, it'll work as long as line-of-sight rules are not violated? That's pretty spiffy. The mob is marked and your pet races to engage. You arrive at your trap, the mob you tagged arrives and pop he's trapped. Now what. Well, you've already marked the Skull, your pet has been DPSing it for the past eight seconds, you're already targeting the Skull, so just run into position and commence firing. How simple, elegant and clean is that, we ask you.
Although it is written from the viewpoint of a hunter and aimed at hunter, the principle remains the same for anyone: a warlock, a rogue, a mage... anyone. And I really would like to encourage everyone to make the macros and add them to your hotbar for when we next instance together. It will make Ty's job easier as a tank and my job easier as a healer and we will be one step closer to where we need to be for endgaming!
So without further chatter, click 'read more' to learn more about how to use focus (I have edited the article to use names we are familiar with) and how to apply it to a macro:
Target Versus Focus You have a Target. WooT! Your Target is the mob or friend with whom you directly interacting. Your Target changes, of course. It changes when you select a different mob or friend. Blizzard was kind enough to allow us to use our Target as a variable that can be used in commands and macros. If you want to emote "Hello" to Tyrand, you could type: /hello Tyrand If your Target was Tyrand, you could also type: /hello target This is an example of using Target as a variable. For our little hello-command, Target is set to Tyrand and the computer handles the rest. Simple. Now you also have a similar variable called Focus. Whereas your Target changes when you select a new mob or friend, your Focus can only be set, reset, or cleared explicitly. If you want to make Tyrand your Focus, you would type: /focus Tyrand Target and Focus are separate entities. If you click on your friend Azra, your Target is automatically set to Azra but your Focus continues to be Tyrand. If you click on a murloc, your Target is now that murloc but your Focus continues to be Tyrand. The only way you can effect a change in your Focus is to do so explicitly: /focus Azra /focus murloc Before we get into what we can do with our Focus, let's make it easier to set it.
Set Focus Macro /focus target Again, assign it to an icon and put it on the action bar. We don't have a keystroke assigned to our Set Focus Macro because, although we use it daily, we use it very infrequently and almost never in combat, just at the start of an instance run.
What the macro does is assign to the Focus variable whatever is being targeted. Supposing we are on a run and Tyrand isn't able to come so we have a PuG tank (God help us)! If we wished to make our party's tank our Focus, we would target him and click this macro. How efficient is this? It depends on how creative the tank was when he chose his name. Do you really want type: /focus zomgtherealslimshady or /focus Fflingerhoôszefr Of course you don't. Use this little macro to simply and quickly assign your Focus. Now let's do something with it. The Assist feature of Warcraft is wonderful. If you click on your tank and follow with clicking the Assist button (default hotkey F), your target will become whatever the tank is targeting. If your tank is holding multiple mobs, we can Assist and always be sure of attacking the mob he is directly tanking. This will help us not to pull aggro from the tank, which would be bad. But to use the Assist feature, we have to target the tank and then hit the Assist key. That's two steps and wasted time that we can eliminate with a macro.
Assist Focus Macro /assist focus This one definitely goes in a good spot on the action bar with a key mapped to it. Make sure this is an easy key you can drop into your mind, heart and soul. This key will save us all from wipes. Really, it will. This one gets used a lot. Things go awry in an instance and your battle plan of Skull, X, Star can be changed the second the first trap fails. No worries! When Skull goes down just smack your Assist Focus Macro and you'll be attacking whatever it is the tank picks up next. No guess-work, no miscommunication and little down-time between attacks.
A Quick Demonstration Our party forms outside the instance and goes through the rigmarole of getting ready to start.
One of the preparation steps is to make the tank your Focus, so you click on Tyrand and use your Set Focus Macro. Poof, it's done. You enter the instance and off you all go. The first pull is easy, just two mobs. One gets sheeped and the tank takes the other. What's our job as a hunter? Target the tank's mob and burn it down. Instead of tab-targeting and perhaps accidentally attacking the sheep, you press your Assist Focus Macro and you're immediately targeting the tank's Target. If you have set your system's configuration so that you commence attacking upon Assisting, you'll actually start firing your ranged weapon, too. But what about your pet? Oh yes, you smack your Pet Attack Macro and that mob gets lit with a Hunter's Mark and your pet rushes in to help DPS. Now this is all well and good, but hardly revolutionary. Where this all really shines is in more complex situations. Let's build one and take a look.
Putting It All Together - A Bad Scenario You're in Steamvaults pulling the four-mob packs. You're sapping one, trapping one, mind-controlling one, and DPSing the Skull. Nice plan. The rogue saps, the feral druid pulls the skull, you tag your mob and start pulling it to your trap. You run run run to the safe place you put your trap, you wait for him to get to you, pop he's trapped. Now what. You want to DPS the Skull, of course. You tab-target and accidentally select your trapped mob but are able to keep from shooting it. You see the Skull mob and try to select it but there are too many things in the way and you cannot get a good click on it. With a growl of desperation, you tab-target through the mobs... circle, moon, Skull! Yes! Start firing! OMG it's been 10 seconds and we we haven't sent our pet yet! Get going you! We're not topping the DamageMeters today as it seems we're always a bloody, bleepin' step behind.
Putting It All Together - With Macros You're in Steamvaults pulling the four-mob packs. You're sapping one, trapping one, mind-controlling one, and DPSing the Skull. Nice plan. The rogue saps, the feral druid pulls the skull, you tag your mob and start pulling it to your trap. While you are running to your trap you hit your Assist Focus Macro and you immediately switch to targeting the Skull. While you are still running to your trap you smack your Pet Attack Macro. As long as your Target is in line-of-sight, you'll cast your Hunter's Mark. Did you know you don't actually have to be looking at the mob to cast Hunter's Mark, it'll work as long as line-of-sight rules are not violated? That's pretty spiffy. The mob is marked and your pet races to engage. You arrive at your trap, the mob you tagged arrives and pop he's trapped. Now what. Well, you've already marked the Skull, your pet has been DPSing it for the past eight seconds, you're already targeting the Skull, so just run into position and commence firing. How simple, elegant and clean is that, we ask you.
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Combat Rating System (2.1)
31/05/07 14:44
Below is
an updated version of the combat rating system with
the appropriate level 70 values for patch 2.1.
Enjoy!
Combat Ratings conversions at level 70 (rounded to 1 decimal point):
Weapon Skill Rating: 3.9 rating grants 1 skill point
Defense Rating: 2.4 rating grants 1 defense skill.
Dodge Rating: 18.9 rating grants 1% dodge
Parry Rating: 22.4 rating grants 1% parry
Block Rating: 7.9 rating grants 1% block chance
Hit Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% hit chance
Spell Hit Rating: 12.6 rating grants 1% spell hit chance
Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% critical strike chance
Spell Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance
Haste Rating: 10.5 rating grants 1% haste
Spell Haste Rating: 21 rating grants 1% spell haste
Resilience Rating: 39.4 rating grants 1% less chance of being struck by any type of critical strike, and 2% less damage taken from critical strikes
Combat Ratings conversions at level 70 (rounded to 1 decimal point):
Weapon Skill Rating: 3.9 rating grants 1 skill point
Defense Rating: 2.4 rating grants 1 defense skill.
Dodge Rating: 18.9 rating grants 1% dodge
Parry Rating: 22.4 rating grants 1% parry
Block Rating: 7.9 rating grants 1% block chance
Hit Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% hit chance
Spell Hit Rating: 12.6 rating grants 1% spell hit chance
Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% critical strike chance
Spell Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance
Haste Rating: 10.5 rating grants 1% haste
Spell Haste Rating: 21 rating grants 1% spell haste
Resilience Rating: 39.4 rating grants 1% less chance of being struck by any type of critical strike, and 2% less damage taken from critical strikes