Auto Targeting Mobs

[Greylynx]

Ok so this happens to me alot:

I will be fighting a mob and one of his buddies links. So now I am fighting two mobs. No problem, thats part of the game. My problem is that when I finish the first one often I don't always auto-target the second one. It seems to depend on whether or not I am directly facing the new mob. So when I don't auto-target the second mob I have to manually target him, and I usually get the message:

You must wait to perform that action

3-4 times before I can finally attack. In the meantime the mob has gotten off a few free hits on me. I understand that the message is to prevent bots and whatnot, but can you please fix the auto-target feature so I will target the 2nd mob irregardless of where he is standing!!

[Akai]

well, its like that, or more like that, because recently, there was a macro that would allow 2handed weapons to attack, quickly disengage, and attack again, preforming 2 attacks, in way less time that it would take to swing the weapon :x
you can always, quickly hit switch target, and target the next mob before it dies :x or, face both mobs equally :x

[Newbusarcanemus]

I have to agree with Akai, sorry but that feature was put in there for that sole reason. Just do what i do and line the mobs up or have switch target ready and available (and don't worry, it happens to me all the time, but that's the troubles we face in vanadiel). :P

[Icemage]

Actually if you're fast enough you can switch targets right as you land the final hit and you'll change targets immediately. There's only an issue if you wait until the previous one dies then try to retarget.


Icemage

[Gentoo]

Actually if you're fast enough you can switch targets right as you land the final hit and you'll change targets immediately. There's only an issue if you wait until the previous one dies then try to retarget.

I've done that, but only because auto-target is rather broken as the OP indicates.

Really, unless I've got two critters lined up at almost zero degrees, auto-target fails to pick up the second one.
Gyrating around the initial target to try and line up the secondary works sometimes, but I've also gotten into a situation where doing so makes the first monster go into a tight orbit around my character resulting in a string of "Unable to see the <insert monster name here>."

I've submitted bug reports to SE about this, but it's a good question, and I'd like them to respond. Really, I'm not terribly interested in the "You must wait to perform that action," message as much as I am hearing a response to a rather broken auto-target.

[eticket109]

Since I started doing Dynamis I haven't had autotarget turned on anyway. Before that time though I never really had an issue with this. You can't traditionally attack a mob outside of that cone in front of you anyway without getting the 'unable to see' message. I don't think its broken the way it is myself.

[Greylynx]

I've done that, but only because auto-target is rather broken as the OP indicates.

Really, unless I've got two critters lined up at almost zero degrees, auto-target fails to pick up the second one.
Gyrating around the initial target to try and line up the secondary works sometimes, but I've also gotten into a situation where doing so makes the first monster go into a tight orbit around my character resulting in a string of "Unable to see the <insert monster name here>."

I've submitted bug reports to SE about this, but it's a good question, and I'd like them to respond. Really, I'm not terribly interested in the "You must wait to perform that action," message as much as I am hearing a response to a rather broken auto-target.

Glad its not just me! Nobody else seemed to think this was a problem.

I totally agree with this Gentoo. I am not asking for the "you must wait to preform that action" message to go away, I want SE to fix autotarget so it works the wasy its supposed to. There is no reason I shouldn't autotarget a second mob thats attacking me after I finish off the first one.

[Balfree]

Perhaps a function, that would allow you to queue up mobs? then would need to be in melee range, press right twice on the attack command to queue up a mob, select the second mob, and it will auto-target that mob after you killed the first one, i know very well how frustrating this is.

[Hamlet]

Actually if you're fast enough you can switch targets right as you land the final hit and you'll change targets immediately. There's only an issue if you wait until the previous one dies then try to retarget.


Icemage

I'm pretty sure you can switch targets and still be hitting the first one with the second one targetted. I do that all the time to sleep links while I'm soloing something. I keep swinging on the first while I'm casting sleep on the other one.

I don't know if you put would put your weapon away after killing the first one though.

[Gentoo]

Perhaps a function, that would allow you to queue up mobs? then would need to be in melee range, press right twice on the attack command to queue up a mob, select the second mob, and it will auto-target that mob after you killed the first one, i know very well how frustrating this is.

This gives the discusson a tenious tie to the thread started about the MPK patch not working (http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/general.ffxi.discussion/58036-let.square-enix.know.their.mpk.fix.broken.html?highlight=mpk) . Although I like the idea on the surface, I can really see it causing even more problems with claiming monsters.

Really, for the sake of this thread, what it comes down to is this:

Why, when a monster in my field of vision is attacking me (even using first person POV), isn't my current battle target, and it's unclaimed, does autotarget not pick it up when my current <bt> is defeated?

That's what I'd like to see SE answer. On the surface the auto-target feature appears to be busted, but SE might have a good reason why it operates the way it does.