In SWTOR there is a feature that lets you target what somebody else is looking at with the push of a button, these are the focus target controls. PvP groups can use these controls to allow all group members to almost instantly acquire the exact same target, this is useful for quickly being able to focus the damage of every dps on your team onto a single target all at the same time, effectively and quite quickly killing it.

 

This is what you need to do first:

1.) Bind your "Set Focus Target/Swap Focus Target" key.

2.) Bind your "Acquire Focus Targets Target" key.

3.) Have all members of your team in a vocal communications program like Ventrilo, Team Speak, Mumble, etc.

 

This is how you use the focus targeting controls:

1.) You will need what I like to call a 'Spotter' (basically a target caller but different and I'll get to why). The spotters job is to pick victims, this is done by wisely selecting the best thing to kill and reciting a keyword to your team over teamspeak (or whatever). IMPORTANT!!! ----> All members of your group must set your groups spotter as their focus target, your focus target's portrait will appear in the top middle part of the screen by default, you only need to do this once at the beginning of the match.

2.) Once the spotter says the keyword, the whole group then knows to press their "Acquire Focus Targets Target" key, I just call it the "Assist" key. Doing this will make you automatically target whatever your spotter is looking at, after which you and ALL your guys procede to simultaneously and mercilessly unload on the target, dropping its health so fast it'll make your head spin. Then simply rinse and repeat.

3.) Healers need only keep the spotter alive as a priority along with their regular healing duties.

 

Notes:

-This technique works to devastating effect against other teams that are not using it themselves, but requires unadulterated cooperation and a little practice.

-The best kind of spotter is a well-geared and educated tank (if you've noticed and ever wondered why some pvp tank gear sets have the term "War Leader" in their names, this is why).

-Everybody has to be onboard, working together, and devoid of idiotic egos or it will not work.

-It is an easy to learn, hard to master sort of thing.

-If you can get a full team in tuned gear to master this technique, your team will be a force to be reckoned with.

-Trust your spotter and get into the mindset that you are one piece of a large machine, not an individual.

-Speed is the key. If you're going to use this technique you cannot screw around, your spotter picks targets quickly, calls out the keyword, you all press your assist button, murder whatever the target happens to be regardless of how you personally feel about it and repeat.

-A feat I would consider to be quite the achievement concerning this technique is to effectively pull off a quick switch on spotters if your primary spotter happens to go down for whatever reason and continue play as seamlessly as possible.

 

I've taken the time to write this out because I'm tired of knowing this feature is in the game and seeing next to nobody using it in PvP. If you took the time to read this, thanks, I hope you can benefit.

This is exactly the technique that I used to teach people over a year ago when I was really serious about this game. I recently resubscribed and am actually surprised to hear your experience, that this hasn't become standard practice for PVP-oriented guilds.

 

Sounds like once I've gotten back into the full-swing of the game again I'll have some more teaching to do.

 

Kudos to you for trying to help people, not enough people understand this particular control.

lol one of the few actual informative threads and it gets 1 reply

 

sadly no one wants to bother doing any of this, even in most premades

I saw a post about this a while back and thought, "this looks really damn useful," and I recognized pretty quickly this has to be what *good* pre-mades are doing to annihilate me and my fellow PUGs.

 

Sadly, I'm in a very heavily PvE oriented guild that does nothing but raid, so I only ever solo queue and do PvE content. Been thinking about leaving for a PvP guild, though.

i hate to say this but pvp stands for player vs player not player vs group of douche bags. I know im being unrealistic , but its true.

i hate to say this but pvp stands for player vs player not player vs group of douche bags. I know im being unrealistic , but its true.

 

so people who win are douchebags?

 

this explains a lot about the current state of pvp communities in all mmos actually

Edited November 15, 2013 by Arlanon

10 years ago, this was common practice in Anarchy Online.

 

Whether it was 50vs50 open world PvP (Notum Wars), or a simple instance, even the lowliest derp knew how to assist a focus target, and did so.

 

Now, a decade later, in a game with over 5,000 players worldwide, only 4 of them respond to this thread.

 

What the hell happened.

10 years ago, this was common practice in Anarchy Online.

 

Whether it was 50vs50 open world PvP (Notum Wars), or a simple instance, even the lowliest derp knew how to assist a focus target, and did so.

 

Now, a decade later, in a game with over 5,000 players worldwide, only 4 of them respond to this thread.

 

What the hell happened.

 

The good pvp guilds already know how to do this. The rest are too stupid or stubborn to understand.

nice read

I made a video a while back explaining this and some other useful pvp tips. I would say the best "spotter" or what I would call a "DPS Captain" would be melee DPS. My reasoning for this is a tank who is tanking will most likely be targeting friendly targets for guard swaps. A healer would most likely be doing the same and its harder for melee to navigate to a target than it is a ranged dps. Ranged dps should probably be focusing on doing off target CC's, roots and interupts using the melee for a focus to get back quickly to the kill target.

This is what I call "common sense" :/

This is what I call "common sense" :/

 

common sense is not very common

common sense is not very common

 

If only it was

I usually set the other dps in my group as focus target, then wherever he's at I'm at. It helps a lot in solo queues.

It is also in the pvp sticky thread located here under "All star tactics."

Something you quickly realize when you start using Focus Target in this manner is that the best healers have a knack for avoiding LoS and can rarely be attacked by everyone at once. That's why it's often better to kill a DPS first. Edited November 18, 2013 by Plicitous

Arenas are demonstrating how many still don't use, or are unfamiliar with, this feature. It's weird.

i hate to say this but pvp stands for player vs player not player vs group of douche bags. I know im being unrealistic , but its true.

 

The only time I agree with this statement is if you are in a premade effectively using this tactic in regs against a pug team then maybe it's time for ranked.

 

But if you are still learning or are in ranked then this should be everyone's strategy.