Function key healing, Raids

[Tazar]

hey all,

I realise that at higher levels mass cures relieve the pressure quite a lot but I recently ran an at level chrono and had problems with healing the players on the higher F# keys. What made it worse is the nature of this raid combined with the PUG mentality, resulting in people being out of range.

Omitting other peoples mistakes and trying to learn from my own experience I feel I had problems in finding the correct F key relating to other players, especially the ones located at the higher end(F7 and above) mainly due to my keyboard having 3 sets of 4 keys and the default party(changeable?) layout of 2 x 6

tldr;

I guess my questions are:- is the party list alterable? does anyone have any suggestions on learning to instinctively know F key/player mapping? or is it just a case of do it often enough and get used to it?

also as a side note do you keep a mental note of who was out of range and who is within range? do you give preferential treatment?

as always I thank you for your opinions

[GenPurpose]

I always used to have the same problem, I found it very stressful on the wrist to be reaching those higher numbers and i sometimes made mistakes by hitting the wrong one.
In the end the decision was made for me when i switched to a mac laptop with vmware fusion to run windows xp. After that my function keys were useless. All they did was make the keys glow in the dark.

I had to learn to target everyone by keeping mouse look off and using the mouse to click specific names on the party list. It was awkward at first but i actually grew to like doing it that way. My fingers never had to leave the set of main heals like mass heal and the mass cures on buttons 1-4, and it can be very quick. What is a rather awkward gesture for the left hand is actually a very quick motion for the mouse. Plus you can still move around with no trouble while you're doing that.

As for the issue with people being spread out all over the place and out of range, my preferred approach these days is just to lay down some ground rules: "When you break off the boss for trash I'm keeping (fill in the barb) targeted for heals, so attack whatever he's killing and you'll be fine. Run off alone and die if you like but I'm not running all over the map chasing you. Though I might be willing to res you at the end if you ask nicely." ^^
Bottom like is that the regular lvl 6 heal costs the better part of what it costs to do a mass heal for the entire party and I'm not willing to increase my sp cost by that much to keep that one guy who refuses to stand near everyone else alive. Not when it can mean wasting major pots when there is no real need to. After a point it is their responsibility to make your life easier by working together.

[Sjiggie]

I had the same problem when I first started playing on my healer but now I just use the mouse to click on the name of the guy I want to heal. Going midcombat to the f-key's usually ends up for me hitting the wrong one.

I play with mouselook on though so what I do if I want to target someone for a spot heal I hold the right mouse button so I can move the pointer. Once I got used to this I never had problems spot healing someone but as the previous poster said at higher levels its better to announce the target of the massheal you casting and persons just need to stick close to that guy if they want to heals.

[Matuse]

I do wish that they would add an f1-f12 indicator on people's name in the party list. Would make things so much easier for me. I have some kind of mental block that prevents me from getting the people in positions 7-12 with any kind of reliability.

[Autolycus]

I do wish that they would add an f1-f12 indicator on people's name in the party list. Would make things so much easier for me. I have some kind of mental block that prevents me from getting the people in positions 7-12 with any kind of reliability.

^ Yes, please.

[Snormal]

It's an at-level Chrono pug. You're well within your rights to let people die.

[AtomicMew]

I used my mouse to select toons and the number keys to cast heal spells. 1 is heal, 2 is heal scroll, 3 is CLW capstone, 4 is mass CLW, 5 is mass CCW and 6 is mass heal. You honestly shouldn't need more than 6 heal spells on your bar, so you shouldn't ever have problems reaching your heal keys.

If you do this, put your party in the center or close to the center of your screen. This helps tremendously in keeping your focus on your party's HP and also, so you don't constantly have to shift your gaze and your mouse cursor.

If you want to continue using the function keys to select party members, another option is to bind modifier keys. E.g., Ctrl-F1 selects #7, Ctrl-F2 selects #8, etc.

Hope this helps

[Tazar]

Thanks guys, I didn't realise you could mouse click on names, while not ideal it's possibly the best approach situationally.

If you do this, put your party in the center or close to the center of your screen. This helps tremendously in keeping your focus on your party's HP and also, so you don't constantly have to shift your gaze and your mouse cursor.

Hmm I'm not sure where I could fit it, but sounds useful. Thanks I will see about a rearrangement.

I do wish that they would add an f1-f12 indicator on people's name in the party list. Would make things so much easier for me. I have some kind of mental block that prevents me from getting the people in positions 7-12 with any kind of reliability.

I like this idea, could it be done with a skin do you think?

It's an at-level Chrono pug. You're well within your rights to let people die.

hehe I lost no sleep over those out of range but I do kinda feel sorry for the guy who stuck with me all the way but died because I was mashing all the wrong F keys.

My general tactic(when hitting the correct F key) was to go for the guy with the least % of hp first in an attempt to keep everyone up. This presented 2 problems that I can see.
While out of range gives warning when selecting them, out of sight still animates, taking time and ultimately slowing progress to the next target.
The 2nd and I guess more important lesson for me(and what you guys have been hinting at), is that if the well built/played ones go down because I've been healing the squishes then it could be game over, very rarely is it going to be the other way around.

Again thanks guys I feel I have learnt something

[whitehawk74]

The Chono is a mess. People will always split up and go wherever they want... thats what happens when you give people options.
Basically if they are out of range, they dont get healed. It isnt your job to keep up, it's their job to be at the front of the party, not ahead of it.

I always select people with the F1-F6,F7-F12 keys because if they arnt in range then the healing spell wont end up landing on myself.
If someone complains about not getting healed then ask them why they were so far away.

... and you are allowed to ignore anyone that says 'over here' as their location