War College - Focus

This week, the topic of discussion is:

Focus - Designating a target as your focus can offer significant advantages, especially in organized PvP like Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds. What kind of targets do you designate as your focus, how do you make the most of it, and what are favorite focus related macros (or addons) for your class?

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This was indeed my intention. We'll have time to talk about which targets to focus down when we talk about battle tactics.

More specifically, I was referring to the built in UI ability to set a target Focus, which you can use with macros to automatically cast spells or use abilities on a unit that is not your current target. It's a feature that I think may be less well known, and has a ton of utility.

05/04/2012 06:12 PMPosted by Vreivai

Just to clarify, because its apparently not clear, the question is about who you set as your focus target, not which targets you focus damage on first. For those who don't know what a focus target is, it is a secondary target that you can set, and can set up macros to cast at your focus target.

05/04/2012 06:22 PMPosted by Rykèr

As a warrior I can say that in an arena setting having someone as a focus target and having macros for them is extremely useful. Warriors, out of most of the classes, have the most focus target macros.(always put healer as the focus) Focus Charge: to stop heals and for quick switches, Focus Pummles(Interrupt): to interrupt heals for clutch kills, Focus Intimidating Shout: To fear the healer when your target isnt in range for the AoE effect, and Focus Throwdown: to cc the healer for clutch kills. The main reason you use focus macros is to save time. you dont have to switch targets to effect another target and you can continue to Dps a target and only have to use one global cd to cc another. You also get to keep an eye on him since he's your focus :P

If you're willing to share some of your macros or point to a good site where they can be found, I'm sure that players who haven't used them yet will find them very useful.

So what brought these blizzard threads bout? I mean is going into a battle ground that hard nowa days an figuring out what to do? We asked these for years an gotten hey you the players are suppose to help other players out in strats?

noticing alot of organised strat guides is pugging frowned a pun in BLizzard HQ? or are these threads disigned to ask questions so to make pvp "more effective" in panda land?

While normally I'd probably just delete a comment like this since it doesn't contribute to the discussion, every once in awhile I like to answer these concerns so they don't fester too much. In short, no, there's no ulterior motive, and ultimately, these threads have nothing to do with Mists directly.

In long, I'd like to think that players are helping each other in these threads, so hopefully that mission is being accomplished. I started doing the Art of War threads for StarCraft II long before I thought of applying the same concept to World of Warcraft. Mostly, I just recalled from my own experiences that the main thing separating those who are standing on a pile of corpses and laughing maniacally, from those who spend a lot of time keeping the Spirit Healer company usually boils down to knowledge.

I thought that organizing some threads on these topics would help players who are already pretty skilled and knowledgeable pick up some new tricks, while allowing those who are still learning the ropes to accelerate that process--if they read the threads.

Thanks for continuing to make them Daxxari. When you started out originally doing threads for individual Battlegrounds, it didn't go so well, because some of them are really unpopular

I know, but I still felt that it was useful to cover them. Helping a larger body of players learn effective strategies on how to play each battleground can only make things better for everyone.

I'm happy to move into these more technique based topics too, and I think they have a lot of potential value. Kaivax will soon be taking the helm on these, but we've got a long list of potential topics already worked up.