Crowd control tips?

[Aaramis]

Well, I've recently become a little frustrated with crowd control - so I could use some help.

Essentially, it's a problem with <bt> with debuffs when the party has 2 or more targets engaged.

I find that on a link, when I Elemental Seal + Sleep the add, my <bt> targets sometimes get confused. And it drives me nuts having to use the keyboard to go through Magic to manually Paralyze and Slow the main target without having these spells land on the slept add.

My DoT spells such as Dia II and Bio II have <stnpc> on them, so no worries there, but I'm just looking for a more convenient way of sleeping, debuffing the main target, and then preparing to re-sleep or bind the slept add when it breaks.
Would an assist macro fix this? or is it more efficient to just change my macros to <stnpc> or <t> instead?

Any tips welcome

[Mhurron]

Re: Crowd control tips?

Well, I've recently become a little frustrated with crowd control - so I could use some help.
Essentially, it's a problem with <bt> with debuffs when the party has 2 or more targets engaged.
I find that on a link, when I Elemental Seal + Sleep the add, my <bt> targets sometimes get confused. And it drives me nuts having to use the keyboard to go through Magic to manually Paralyze and Slow the main target without having these spells land on the slept add.
My DoT spells such as Dia II and Bio II have <stnpc> on them, so no worries there, but I'm just looking for a more convenient way of sleeping, debuffing the main target, and then preparing to re-sleep or bind the slept add when it breaks.
Would an assist macro fix this? or is it more efficient to just change my macros to <stnpc> or <t> instead?
Any tips welcome

Use <stnpc>. The reason <bt> doesn't do what you want it to is that it targets the last mob that the party acted on, usually thats not the link but the first mob the party is going to kill.

<stnpc> is always the safer bet since you have to choose who to do what to, you do not want to cast Dia on that just slept mob but you also don't want to wait for gravity's cast timer to come up because you cast it first on the slept mob. It also helps avoid miscasts, say Casting Dia on a Lizzard in Kuftal tunnel while your party works on a crab.

Also, since you're obviously subbing /blm, there is the option of using sleepga at first to at least just sleep everything in the area. However, this isn't always an option as either there are a lot of passive mobs in the area or you're not lvl62 yet.

Personally, when having to deal with a link, I keep the link targeted and manually retarget spells on the mob currently being slaughtered. Stoneskin is also the first spell cast after Sleep. If you don't already have it set up, you can have your macros so that no matter which sleep spell is up you can cast one of them quickly. This works well for if the mob resists Sleep II you can quickly cast Sleep instead of having to fumble for a different macro or find it in your spell list to cast it manually.

[Jei]

Re: Crowd control tips?

I never use <bt> in my spells macro. Always <stnpc> for offensive spells, <stpc> for curing spells.

[tdh]

Re: Crowd control tips?

In my opinion, the only reason <bt> should ever be used is for targeting mobs. /target <bt> on the pull, and then us <t>, <stpc> or <stnpc>. I found out how much hate <bt> could bring at an early age. Lv.15 and you kill your party with /magic Dia <bt>. They all hate you because there isn't a Raise in sight and their HPs are still in Jeuno! ><;

[Aaramis]

Re: Crowd control tips?

I had a sneaking suspicion <bt> was rubbish - thanks for the help, folks.
I'll switch to <stnpc> in the future. I was tempted to try it out, but just wanted some opinions first. So thanks, everyone.

As for my typical setup - I do as you suggested Mhurron.
If possible, I deal with links in the following manner :
- ES + Sleep (no Sleepga yet)
- debuff main target
- stoneskin myself to prepare for eventual link waking up and charging me
- debuff link if time allows and if group kills fast enough that it's not a waste of mana
- have Bind <stnpc> targeted on add and ready to cast.

Seems to work well, but just wanted a more viable way to handle things.
So thanks everyone. Your advice, as always, is appreciated

/salute

[Deeman]

Re: Crowd control tips?

I always use <t> on a lot of things just in case....cause i get a lil excited when something unexpected happens and I dont want my fingers slipping on an stnpc macro.

[kiffkin]

Re: Crowd control tips?

<bt> is indeed rubbish. I found this out when I started casting a spell once and it flipped targets midspell (i.e. Me starts casting spell on x, Me casts spell on y). I've used <stnpc> ever since.

If you're casting and engaged, it also allows you to cast on other mobs without disengaging :D .

[IxX3xil3d0n3XxI]

Re: Crowd control tips?

i use <t> for offensive spells, and for curative spells on the pt i use <st>

[BurningPanther]

Re: Crowd control tips?

<t> is alright, but is a pain when you've got multiple mobs to cycle through in the area. For enemies, I use <stnpc> , after which my only problem is cycling through pets, avatars, or adventuring fellows(come on, S-E, where's the <stmob> command?!). For allies, I use <stpc>, which, of course, cycles through all player characters. With the <stnpc>/<stpc> function, I can focus on nuking or enfeebling a mob, and if I need to Cure an ally, or Sleep a link, the subtarget cursor is available to cycle through allies and opponents at my choosing, after which I can go back to focusing on the main target with no time lost.

[Lilani]

Re: Crowd control tips?

(I hate getting to a thread late, lol)

Like the others have said, <stnpc> and <stpc> help you target that one mob or one person more effectively. I use <stnpc> for enfeebles and whatever nuke I might have set for that situation, and <stpc> for all the buffs for certain people and such.

However, sometimes I want a spell on speed dial. I want it to happen as soon as I press the button, no sooner, no later. For those I use <t>. I usually use <t> for things like BCNMs when I am asked to cast sleepga, or emergency sleep or silence macros for exp parties. All you have to do is target the mob and press the macro, and there it is. However, as the OP brought up, <t> can sometimes make for accuraccy problems. So, just like speed dial, only put emergency macros down for <t>.

[Alucath]

Re: Crowd control tips?

Also, if you have ant trouble landing sleep on the mobs, try equipping a Dark Staff and Elemental-Seal'ing. Dark Staff usually allows me to sleep almost anything even without ES.

[FortMan]

Re: Crowd control tips?

One more trick while using <stpc> and <stnpc>. Tab key will circle clockwise among target, while shift-tab will circle counter-clockwise. I just found out about shift-tab recently and it helps me quite a bit.

[zagex]

Re: Crowd control tips?

never knew that about shift-tab... I really hate it when I tab past the target I want and have to tab through everything again

[Lopuhr]

Re: Crowd control tips?

After reading this thread, I understand the benefits of using <stpc> and <stnpc> over <bt>. However, <stpc> and <stnpc> are new to me. I'm not sure I understand exactly what they do.

Are they used in place of <bt> in the macro or are they part of a seperate macro, replacing <bt> simply with <t>?

I've been playing a while and I've only ever used <t>, <bt> and <me>, having not had any problems with them thus far.

Clearing this up for me would be greatly appreciated. I'm one to always think of efficiency, so to think that I could play more efficiently than I do now makes me /panic.

[Jei]

Re: Crowd control tips?

<st>, <stpc>, <stnpc> in macro generally works like choosing spells from your menu. You get your blue cursor you can choose your target after you activate your macro.

st will target everything
stpc stnpc will only target players/npc