Tips on targetting mobs

[huang3721]

I sometimes accidentally target other mob whenever I defeat an enemy whose location is close to that other mob. Making it worse is my press-"f"-to-quickly-run-to-the-next-target habit.

Whenever it happens, I simply ignore my current target, frantically press "f" to cancel the follow order, turn my camera, run to my original mob, and finally press Ctrl+Tab. This remedy doesn't work too well for blasters.

Any advice? Is there any slash command to foolproof my targeting?

Thanks.

 

--Edit--

Sorry for the confusion. I should state my problem more clearly.

My problem is I occasionally follow (and aggro) the wrong mob by accident because one of their member is closer than the rest of my target . Is there any method or best practice to eliminate or alleviate this?

Edited April 27, 2020 by huang3721
Rephrasing problem.

[SuperPlyx]

I find tab seems to pick far away mob but clicking an attack power will target a close mob.There is some binds/macros for next nearest,etc 

[wolfshadow31]

I use custom bind to always target nearest enemy, which I generally use on the majority of mob spawns. 99% of the time that is who I want to target anyways. In cases where there is a boss, I target them manually first, then go back to my usual targeting bind. 

 

I find it  works most of the time. There are exceptions tho...like with Malta sappers, or Carnies....I generally seem to manually target Illusionists, Ring Mistresses etc first...then clear the trash after . 

[tidge]

/bind n target_custom_near enemy alive

[Vulpoid]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

/bind n target_custom_near enemy alive

I do /bind n "target_custom_near enemy alive"
I am not sure if I need the quotation marks, but I always use them.

[ArchVileTerror]

[ "target_enemy_prev"
CTRL+[ "target_enemy_far"
SHIFT+[ "target_friend_prev"
] "target_enemy_next"
CTRL+] "target_enemy_near"
SHIFT+] "target_friend_near"
BUTTON4 "target_enemy_next"
CTRL+BUTTON4 "target_enemy_near"
SHIFT+BUTTON4 "target_friend_next"
ALT+BUTTON4 "target_enemy_prev"
EQUALS "targetcustomnext X"
SHIFT+EQUALS "beginchat /bind EQUALS targetcustomnext "
I "targetcustomnext notteammate notmypet"
O "target_friend_prev"
CTRL+O "target_friend_far"
P "target_friend_next"
CTRL+P "target_friend_close"

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by ArchVileTerror
Corrected the "SHIFT+EQUALS" Bind.

[huang3721]

Thank you for the answers, but my problem is caused by proximity. Occasionally the closest enemy belongs to the other mob, so I am looking for a method(?) to target the closest enemy who belongs to the same mob.

 

I'm sorry, I will rephrase my question above.

[Shred Monkey]

When that happens to me I try to play it cool, like it was planned.  Because I think the team can handle more groups at the same time.  You know, I'm just pulling another group for us to slaughter. that's all.

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Shred Monkey

[ArchVileTerror]

Ah.  In that case, become a real estate agent.

 

Location.

Location.

Location.

 

(That is to say, always keep your spacial awareness as a priority in planning.  Try to always position yourself before you start fighting to pre-emptively avoid the accidental over-aggro'ing.

City of Heroes isn't really a twitch-gaming affair, but there are elements (such as target priority and positioning) where those sort of skills come in handy.  Keep practising until you feel you're confident in being able to pull it off.)

[tidge]

2 hours ago, huang3721 said:

Thank you for the answers, but my problem is caused by proximity. Occasionally the closest enemy belongs to the other mob, so I am looking for a method(?) to target the closest enemy who belongs to the same mob.

 

I'm sorry, I will rephrase my question above.

A historical point : 'mob' is IIRC historical shorthand (at least dating back to the 1990 MUDs) for 'mobile', which would be any enemy... as opposed to mob being a cluster of enemies.

[ArchVileTerror]

Counterpoint:  In CoH, "mob" often refers to the group of individual enemies which share targeting information with each other.

[Doomguide2005]

Can't hop in game to try it but

 

Roll the camera out so your field of view includes foes behind you.  You should be able to either retarget quickly via bind or more easily manually retarget.  

 

Are you chasing runners when this happens?  Otherwise the closely packed mobs are more a party problem than your problem (or even a HC/GM game issue).

[Olly]

17 minutes ago, tidge said:

A historical point : 'mob' is IIRC historical shorthand (at least dating back to the 1990 MUDs) for 'mobile', which would be any enemy... as opposed to mob being a cluster of enemies.

I think I will pass on redefining what I call mob to 'mobile' which outside of gaming could also be construed as 'cell phone' or relating to physical challenges. I'll stick to using the word "mob" defined as "a large crowd of people, especially one that may become violent or cause trouble". I don't think there's a need to try and make words niche when they don't have to be. 

 

To the OP: a very simple alternative is to go into the Options tab and keybind Tab to "target closest enemy".  Effectively does the same thing as using a slash command or keybind for /target_enemy_near.

[Heraclea]

I typically /bind g targetname "sapper", or "surgeon", or "electro", or what have you,  depending on what you're fighting at the time.  If there are multiple targets another goes on 'h'. 

[Doomguide2005]

24 minutes ago, Olly said:

<mob stuff>

 

To the OP: a very simple alternative is to go into the Options tab and keybind Tab to "target closest enemy".  Effectively does the same thing as using a slash command or keybind for /target_enemy_near.

And you can of course change what it's bound to there as well.  Just be cautious with your key choice.

 

Back on Live a long, long, long time ago I was changing my r key to target nearest foe but needed to rebind my autorun.  I thought selecting the "p" key would be ideal.  It was well away from things on the other side of the keyboard.   But a short time later facing minions of igneous I asked in team chat, "should we pull ... " and promptly zipped off in the direction of the mob with predictable results.  I rebound the "p" after the team cleaned up my mess.  Oops.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Doomguide2005
Spelling

[Gremlin]

4 hours ago, huang3721 said:

Occasionally the closest enemy belongs to the other mob, so I am looking for a method(?) to target the closest enemy who belongs to the same mob.

I don't think you can pick targets based on the group an enemy belongs too. I wouldn't be too surprised to be wrong though. 🙂

[huang3721]

 

10 hours ago, ArchVileTerror said:

, always keep your spacial awareness as a priority in planning

Got it. Plan-Do-Check-Action.

 

8 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Roll the camera out so your field of view includes foes behind you.  You should be able to either retarget quickly via bind or more easily manually retarget.  

I'll also try this one. If I pull the camera high enough, I can see most of mobs and (hopefully) minimize the error. It's an RTS game now! 😛 

Thanks guys! 🙂

[Clave Dark 5]

I have no interest in binds and learning binds, as I don't want to have to look down and find the key I need for whatever, so I made myself a macro to target the closest enemy,

[/macro TN "target_enemy_near"].  I prefer clicking things anyway.  Every character has one of these.

[Sakai]

13 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

I have no interest in binds and learning binds, as I don't want to have to look down and find the key I need for whatever, so I made myself a macro to target the closest enemy,

[/macro TN "target_enemy_near"].  I prefer clicking things anyway.  Every character has one of these.

Does the TN in that cause a TN to show up on the macro?  Is it that easy?

[Twisted Toon]

1 hour ago, Sakai said:

Does the TN in that cause a TN to show up on the macro?  Is it that easy?

From my limited experience of making Macros (only made 2) the first string entered in the /macro command will be what shows up on the button that will be created by the /macro command.

 

So, yes. the TN will show up on the macro button.

[Doomguide2005]

20 hours ago, Twisted Toon said:

From my limited experience of making Macros (only made 2) the first string entered in the /macro command will be what shows up on the button that will be created by the /macro command.

 

So, yes. the TN will show up on the macro button.

This.  I had a whole bunch of premade macros for targetting specific foes including Sappers, DE quartz, DE cairns, Surgeons and "custom".  Custom being the one I would edit on the fly for anything unusual and mission specific.  I'd just swap which ones I needed from a tray full of them to one of my main trays for the current mission.

[Grouchybeast]

5 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

This.  I had a whole bunch of premade macros for targetting specific foes including Sappers, DE quartz, DE cairns, Surgeons and "custom".  Custom being the one I would edit on the fly for anything unusual and mission specific.  I'd just swap which ones I needed from a tray full of them to one of my main trays for the current mission.

I'm lazy and I just have one macro for all annoying pest mobs, with everything chained together.  As you're rarely fighting more than one enemy group at a time, it works fine.

[Doomguide2005]

43 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

I'm lazy and I just have one macro for all annoying pest mobs, with everything chained together.  As you're rarely fighting more than one enemy group at a time, it works fine.

Yes it should, though doing so would have been outside my comfort zone at the time.  I'd probably still have either another custom target bind or macro to edit on the fly for either a new previously unencountered annoyance or unique target.

[Clave Dark 5]

On 4/28/2020 at 1:20 PM, Sakai said:

Does the TN in that cause a TN to show up on the macro?  Is it that easy?

Yes, it does.  There's only so much space for letters on they grey button (four or maybe five?)  so I just abbreviated "target near" to TN for my purposed.