Raid Rx: Sometimes you just need to Focus
by Matt Low 
Jan 13th 2010 at 9:00AM
I received a plea for help via email from a discipline priest. Here's the gist of the email:
Well Bizkit, there is something that can help you out. All you need is a little focus!Hi Matt
Basically I use grid and clique. I target my tank and have no issues with this. However, when it comes to dispelling Jaraxxus for example, I need to tab target to find him, and then use raid frames to get my tank back.
Do you know of a way either by another raid frame or macro where I can consistently target the boss and heal the tank? I use buttons for Prayer of Mending, Power Word: Shield and Penance, and the other spells through clique and grid.
Any help you can give would be appreciated
Thanks!
Bizkit
The focus is a feature that came out several years ago and WoW.com has touched on it before in the past. I'd say that there's still a number of players who don't have a firm understanding of what it is or just have yet to realize the potential it has. DPS players frequently make use of focus to keep enemies crowd controlled. Think Polymorph or Banish as examples.
What exactly is the focus?
I'm going to pull a definition from WoWWiki as I can't explain it anymore eloquently:
This is incredibly valuable for healers. It opens up a wide array of stuff we can do while healing. For Priests, we can Shackle targets without risking too much (such as in Halls of Reflection). Shamans can then Wind Shock to interrupt mobs without losing healing time (Lord Jaraxxus and his Fel Fireballs anyone?).A focus target is a secondary target system, used to keep track of a second unit other than the currently targeted unit. The focus is a sort of "target memory" meaning that the focus can be set then recalled with simple macro commands. Furthermore, the user interface supplies full real-time updates for the currently stored focus, including health and mana updates and enemy casting bars. Some user interface addons provide a complete unit frame for the focus.
Those are just some of the applications that can help in raid settings
Some focus commands
/focus - This sets your selected target as your focus. I bound this command to my b key ever since I started using shift + b to open all of them./clearfocus - Removes your focus target. It's blank. Without a focus, your focus macros will skip the focus part.
/target focus - This changes your current target to your focus target.
/target focustarget - Automatically targets the focus target.
Focus addons
Personally, I like to use Pitbull 3 to manage all my unit frame stuff. I'll demonstrate how I handle the focus stuff.
My personal unit frame is on the far left. My target is on the far right (Decaying Colossus). The target being railed on by the Colossus is the fat bad in the middle. The focus is the smaller bar underneath on the left while the focus target is the one beside it.
Anyway, I'm still tweaking with it trying to decide what information I really need and what I don't. But that's the general layout of it. Its in a place that sits square in the middle of my screen where my eyes can trace it easily.
Anyway, I'm still tweaking with it trying to decide what information I really need and what I don't. But that's the general layout of it. Its in a place that sits square in the middle of my screen where my eyes can trace it easily.
Putting it in practice
Now, let's apply this in a standard raid situation. As a priest, my healing targets are going to continue to change. I could jump from rogue to mage to myself if it became necessary. I've been assigned specifically to heal the raid. A common misconception of being assigned to raid is to heal the raid minus the tanks and that is really wrong! Raid healers heal everyone in the raid. Sometimes tank healers need a boost or maybe they get shut down by some ability which neutralizes them for a few seconds.A good healer who realizes the tank is in trouble will simply mouseover them and then use a direct heal of their choice until that tank is back in the green.
A great healer who realizes the tank is in trouble simply presses their heal focus target macro. This saves them the trouble of having to find the tank on their frames, mousing over or selecting them, and then dropping a heal. Using a focus macro immediately causes the healer to simply heal the focus target without losing much time at all.
The Jaraxxus scenario.
Lets go back to how a player in a situation such as Bizkit would apply this against Lord Jaraxxus. In this case, since there does not appear to be a shaman who can Purge or a mage who can Spellsteal, the duty of removing Lord Jaraxxus Nether Power buff can only be removed with the aid of a priest.
How can we ensure that Jaraxxus gets his Nether Power removed while minimizing the risk of the tank falling over?
Step 1: Create a macro which targets your focus and dispels them. Be sure to bind it (I like to use e for Dispel, ctrl + e for Mass Dispel and shift + e for Abolish Disease and alt + e for focused dispels. Your macro should look something like this:
Step 2: Set Lord Jaraxxus as your focus. Target him, and press your focus key (or type /focus with Lord Jaraxxus selected)./cast [target=focus] Dispel Magic
Step 3: Now when Lord J gets powered up, just repeatedly press your new focus macro and it will remove Nether Power. At the same time, you won't lose your primary healing target. For example, the tank will continue to remain your main target.
Now start focusing! Good luck and happy healing! Feel free to get in touch if you have more raid healing-ish questions.
Want some more advice for working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered with all there is to know! Need raid or guild healing advice? E-mail me at matticus@wow.com and you could see a future post addressing your question. Looking for less healer-centric raiding advice? Take a look at our raiding column Ready Check. Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Raiding, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
silverUK Jan 13th 2010 9:03AM
Thanks, this gave a lot of help for a starter priest :D
jrizutko Jan 13th 2010 10:20AM
Another simpler way to manage dispelling on Jarraxus would be to turn on the target of target frame and use purge through clique.
Personally i do both. I set the Tanka s my focus, and generally target jarraxus, but I also have a unit frame for my focus' target and the target of my target.
I am set up to purge/interrupt/hex through clique or through macros that will purge my target, or purge my target's target if my target is friendly.
Knob Jan 13th 2010 9:10AM
You don't need to use target=focus anymore. It can be replaced by @focus since 3.3 went live so the macro can now look like
/cast [@focus] Dispel Magic
Aureliusz Jan 13th 2010 9:33AM
Does this work with all target types? I.e. [@pet] or [@target]?
And does it work with [@mouseover], do you know?
hamish.cooper Jan 13th 2010 10:08AM
@Aureliusz: yes to all the above
Brandon Tilley Jan 13th 2010 10:40AM
aka "target=Aureliusz: yes to all the above"
Sorry, I had to.
Rob Jan 13th 2010 1:22PM
yup yup
"@" is the new "target=", you can use it anywhere that you used to use "target=".
ZMES_Matt Jan 13th 2010 9:20AM
Can someone link a macro that will dispel from focus if they have something dispelable, and if they don't then it dispels from your current target instead?
I use 'C' as my dispel button, and pressing alt+c will dispel my focus, but I was just thinking that there's rarely a time where I need to dispel something off of both my target and my focus, so I would think an all inclusive button would work much better. If no one has the macro off-hand I'll reply to this post later with it, if you can do that...pretty sure you can.
avis Jan 13th 2010 9:30AM
/cast [@focus, exists] Dispel Magic; Dispel Magic
This is probably the closest you will get, attempts to dispel your focus if you have one, and target if you dont. If you have a focus but he has nothing dispelable it will fail, however. Blizz has set it up this way intentionally to force players to remove a bit of automation and force players to make a direct decision.
Tom Jan 13th 2010 9:32AM
No for the simple reason that this isn't possible.
Macro's can't make smart decisions based on the presence of buffs and debuffs.
For people interested in more Focus usage.
Check:
http://spotheal.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/it-helps-to-focus/
Which I wrote a while ago, but it's still relevant if you're looking for other ways to make use of Focus.
(For example, I use mine to track cast bars for the boss)
avis Jan 13th 2010 9:31AM
Changed direction mid-sentence there but yeah, you get the gist lol.
Ratskinmahoney Jan 13th 2010 9:32AM
I'm pretty sure there are no conditionals corresponding to a unit's buffs/debuffs
Adeany Jan 13th 2010 10:20AM
/cast [@focus] Dispel Magic
/cast Dispel Magic
The reason this works is because Dispel Magic triggers the GCD. If your focus has something dispellable, the first line of the macro will dispel it. Then, the GCD prevents the second line from executing. If your focus does not have something dispellable, the first line of the macro will return the "There is nothing to dispel" notification, then the second line of the macro will dispel your target.
ZMES_Matt Jan 13th 2010 10:26AM
@Adeany
Ah, thank you very much. :D
I was pretty sure it was possible somehow. I acutally posted that macro just a bit ago, but as WoW.com doesn't let you edit your posts, mine is way down at the bottom since hitting reply for some reason doesn't always work. :(
Redcow Jan 13th 2010 9:23AM
Focus is nice, ya.
I use Clique as well, but I don't use Grid, I use Pitbull 4. So I'm not sure if Grid has a main target frame. But normally I have the boss as my main target. I do this mostly because I lead the raid so I like to know where the bosses health is and if things are being properly interrupted and cleansed. I can heal everyone, including the tanks, from my raid frame set, so I never have to change targets the whole fight. All my heals and cleanses are bound to Clique, as well as my Purge and Windshear. (I'm a shaman if you haven't figured that out. :) ) Clique can be set up for helpful and harmful effects and you can choose which frames these effects are cast upon. So for example, if I left click on a friendly target frame, I heal them, if I left-click on an enemy target frame, in the case of a boss, my main target frame, I Windshear them.
Vrain Jan 13th 2010 9:40AM
I do the exact same thing as Redcow, but with Vuhdo. If you are click casting there is no point in targeting your tank since you can get all the information you need from your raid frames and can heal them by clicking on the frame. I usually have the boss as my target for Wind Shear or Purge or just to see how much health he/she has left.
Sterdoker Jan 13th 2010 9:48AM
Even better, at least with vuhdo you could create a frame that shows only your tank and his target. Or a frame that shows your focus, the set up you choose is what works for you.
Then you can bind offensive spells that will only be used when you cast them on hostile frames.
For example, I have right click: judgements, left click: stun, shift + left click:turn undead.
Xova Jan 13th 2010 11:46AM
I'll third this. The functionality that the person is asking for is already built into VuhDo. You can mouse-bind and key-bind your spells and hotkeys through VuhDo, then simply mouseover your tank in the VuhDo grid and click the appropriate mouse button or keyboard key. That leaves you free to target the boss for dispels, etc. without having to set up focus target macros and the like.
Kragragh Jan 13th 2010 9:28AM
As a rogue, I use focus to my Tricks of the Trade. Very nice. I can't imagine not using focus.
briker Jan 13th 2010 9:31AM
I avoid macros for the most part. I use healbot, and just keep a relevant enemy mob targetted, interrupting or purging when needed. One macro I do have for this is stopcast/wind shear hotkeyed. Saves me from healing more.