Not sure if this should go in UI/Add Ons, but as it's primarily a PvP question, I figure you guys are the ones to ask.

Currently I've been relying on a quick MA or tab targeting (ugh) for my targeting duties in arena / group pvp. This strategy basically sucks if the opposing team has any of the following: shaman, mage, hunter or warlock. "Sucks" obviously being a relative term.

The problem I have is that I don't have an FPS background so my (in)ability to mouse-click targets is roughly equivalent to Steven Hawking. I'm horrible at it.

So, for you highly rated arena team MA's (or even assist classes), could you please enlighten me as to what mechanics you use for lightning fast target swaps that allow you instantly swap off a BoF'd target, to hit some priest, then as soon as BoF wears off you're right back on the previous guy. Is this simply focus targeting, or is it a function of assists, or is it a mod, or something I'm not thinking of.

I'm hoping the answer isn't focus targets, as I have to save those for pets. I'm also obviously hoping it's not "click faster" either.

Any advice is appreciated.

I hate to use tab to select target.

It seems that it always takes forever to go to the right target.

Not only in pvp, but in raid as well.

I've been using an addon called Arena Live Frames lately. It's really good, it creates frames for every enemy player it detects. It gives you a health bar, and you can click on it to target that person. The only caveat, and it's a big one, is that with the new UI changes of 2.0, it can only create clickable frames outside of combat. Once combat starts, it still creates enemy frames, but you cant' click on those ones. This can be trouble with stealthers or when the other team rushes you really fast.

Get a unit frame addon that can color the healthbar or name by class color. This is really helpful. I use Pitbull to do this, but there are lots.

Another tip is to get a good tooltip addon. I use TinyTip. You can display lots of good stuff in there, and have things colored by class.

There's an addon called Nameplates PvP or something like that. You know how when you press V and nameplates show up for people in range? Well you can have that color by class. This can be really useful, since you can just click on the yellow nameplate to pick out their rogue, for example.

I don't understand your use of focus targets for your pet. What's so important that you need to waste your precious focus frame on it? I often use my focus target to pick out my secondary target (for after a BoP or iceblock) when I'm playing my warrior, or the enemy healer (so I can cyclone) on my druid. Focus targets and a good unit frame addon are really powerful here.

Anyways, looking forward to advice from some of the pros, but those are my thoughts on the subject.

You want Arena Master. Look it up on WoW Ace.

Well, the tab targeting (while brutal) is bound to my N52 scroll wheel. So, it only really gets super clumsy when I'm stunned and can't spin around to face the general direction of the person I'm looking to target, or when im in AV.

As far as why I use my focus frame for my pet: I'm a warlock. Between spell lock, seduce, felguard stuns, the focus frame (I also use Ag_uf, so I can see cast bars) is probably one of the best uses of that feature the way I see it.

Aloft gives nameplates over the baddies' heads, as well as the spell being cast.

I use focus windows, MA target windows, and sometimes clicking to swap targets fast.

I still don't understand. Are you only using your focus frame for your pet so that you can see it's cast bar?

Many unit frames (including ag) will show your pet's casting bar without even setting it as your focus target. Just your regular old pet frame, which you can resize and put anywhere. Just right click on it and turn on the cast bar. That will free up your focus frame.

Yeah. I like to see what that paladin is casting, and if I see my target is at 30% I'm probably going to blow the CS on the paladin to ensure my target goes down. Then again, if my target is at 90% and said pally is casting a big heal, he's screwing with me and it's not worth blowing the CS.

Focus targeting isn't the problem though. I think I'm just trying to determine a more creative way to *immediately* swap targets when my target gets BoF'd, or bubbles, etc. Then to swap right back when said effect expires.

Well in the "swap back" case, the default UI provides a key binding for "target last target", which works great if you can manage to only switch between 2 targets (hard when you're a terrible clicker like me).

I've mastered the art of Tab Targetting.

Spam that sucker until you catch a glimpse of who you want, stop, then shift-tab (scrolls backwards through your recent targets) to go back to it.

Camera angle help a lot with this. Personally I find it much easier to click as melee, than as ranged, characters become a lot smaller. Zoom in on your character and it'll be easier to click somewhat, and make sure you're at a semi top-down angle.

That's a really, really good idea.

That's basically how I do it (Not limitied to pvp in usefulness), but I can't help feeling it's not always the most effective use of my time. I'll have to check out the addons recomended here, Perl Classic is kinda stinking it up with arcane bar being bugged, which almost entirely defeats the purpose of a focus frame.

I've tried living without Tab targeting, I honestly can't do it anymore. I've found the best thing to do is either make a Focus Frame with who you want to keep an eye on (waiting for a dot to go away before sheeping etc). Granted tab targetting WILL fail you sometimes, but not being worried about high rated (arena) pvp I'm not to worried about it.

I use arena master to get a neat list of all opponents, classes, HP and names. I also have Focus Frames (I think, not 100% sure of the exact name).

I have a key bound for assigning a focus target, one for assisting another player, one for targeting my focus and one for skipping back to my last target.

Between those buttons and the arena master list I swap to my desired target pretty much instantly.

Tab targetting mainly, only time I really need to use targetting frames is when it's chaotic in areas like BEM right at the start, people start to spread out relatively quickly however so you usually don't have much issues when it comes to tab spamming.

I've tried the mouse over macro with blind and I'm just not good at it myself... I find it hard to make sure you're actually pointing at the right target and getting blind off to be more attention consuming than a focus macro or some such. Any suggestions on how to make better use of a mouse over macro, other than practice? I don't use my mouse for anything but movement so I'm not so good at the whole precision pointing thing, maybe.

I generally only use my mouse to change views / move as well and I find my mouse accuracy somewhat diminished since my FPS days I guess.

I guess the alternative here would be Target=Focus macros. Bind a key to set focus and you can quickly acquire a second target without having to physically switch targets. This is -awesome- for Shaman and Earth Shocking.

I've noticed that when I set an enemy player to be my focus in Arena, if I enter another battle against the same team as soon as the door opens my Focus Frame populates again with the same player. This is kinda handy, because it

1) Immediately allows us to know we're facing the same team, upon door open
2) Generally I'm now focusing the player I wanted to be focusing (generally a healer for focused spell locks)

I'm curious why people would upload these addons. These addons are a performance boost, why would you want your enemies to have access to these?

Probably because the programmer in them is more competitive than the pvp'er in them

As the OP, I'd like to interject here with the hope that the thread doesn't get derailed with commentary about how cool focus targeting is. It's definitely one of the best (and unique!) UI features I've seen for PvP in the 2 years I've been playing the game. Especially as a pet-user (2 separate GCD's).

If any of you guys have 2400+ rated teams, and you play a DPS (either MA or caster DPS) class where you are swapping targets *very* frequently, I would absolutely love to hear from you about your technique.

Is it the "target last target" feature of the default UI, do you change your focus target on the fly in conjunction w/ target last target? Or are you just a steady-handed hawk-eyed clicker who should probably by flying fighter planes instead of playing WoW.

As much as people say they spam their tab key, I honestly feel this targeting 'lag' is one of my potential biggest areas for improvement, as I'm very unhappy w/ my target aquisition speed aside from MA macros.