I was told to use Focus Target to expand my skills as a healer but I can’t find anything that actually explains what it is exactly, how to use it, or which version a M+ healer should be using. I currently use mouse overs for healing my team so I have that part down, but I always have an enemy targetted for interrupts and attacking, so why would I even need a focus macro? Where do I learn about them? Thanks for any help yall can give,
You shouldn’t need to use the focus unit at all given your playstyle.
Basically it’s an additional @unit that you can set and then target programmatically. The simplest way to enable it is /focus
Where focus can be useful for healing is in allowing you to heal your team with mouseovers or click casting, DPS the kill target, and interrupt or chain CC a target that you aren’t killing but can’t ignore, all without changing your target.
In Spires of Ascension for example, there are several pulls with one or two Wardens and a Goliath. Killing the Warden first prevents them from healing, but you can’t ignore the casts on the Goliath or you are going to wipe.
That said, there are 4 other people in the group, and expecting the healer to keep everyone topped off while dpsing one target and interrupting must-stop casts from the other seems a bit unrealistic, I generally feel that tanks/DPS should be doing interrupts for must-stop casts in those scenarios and healers would use an interrupt on the casts that are less essential, more as a means of preventing avoidable damage than doing required mechanics.
Yeah, I use focus macros for Shackle Undead and Mind Control.
That said I don’t get much use out of either of those abilities except in Plaguefall M+ with the Inspiring affix.
Agreed. Shamans are the only healers with an interrupt anyway.
as DPS i use focus whenever i want to phone it in or i am still learning a fight
i’ll set the tank as the focus, or designated shotcaller if there is one, and use
/target focustarget
to pick my target for me
As a Hunter, I always set the tank as my focus so I can Misdirect easily without worrying about targeting, and so I can see what the tank is focused on and unload my burst on something where the tank has high threat rather than something I’m likely to pull.
It’s an extra tool in the toolbox, and using it in no way means phoning it in.