FFXIV:ARR Targeting Guide for PS3 and PCFollow

PS3 Advanced: Targeting Filters


Back in the menu, by pressing R1 again you will enter the third tab labeled "Filters". In the top area you see two main menus, "While weapon is sheathed." and "While weapon is drawn."

You really want to leave "While weapon is sheathed" set to everything as it is by default. You may want to add additional targeting options to "While weapon is drawn".
Please note: You can still target party members and yourself by pressing UP/DOWN even when your weapon is drawn. So there is no reason to also add "Party Members" to your filter here. You may very well want to add "NPC/Objects", so that you can snag a chest or interact with an object during a battle.



PS3 Super Advanced: Target Cycling Filters


Here you can customize the cycling filters for your L1+button combos. Basically you can change what "All" and "Party" and "Enemies" and "Friends" will be able to select while cycling targets. I highly suggest leaving this option off until you:
A.) Start actually using the regulars filters to assist your target cycling
B.) Discover that one of the filters is missing or includes a type of target that you want included/excluded.



PS3 Basics: Hotbars


The PS3 only has one type of hotbar available, which I will refer to as the controller cross-bar.
Basically, you Press-and-Hold L2 and R2 in order to access respective the cross-bars, and then press either the buttons or d-pad to select a skill.
Further, you can swap out your entire crossbar set for another by Pressing and holding R1.

You can set 8 abilities to the L1 cross-bar and 8 to the R1 cross-bar, and you get 8 total cross bar SETS that you can cycle thru with R1.



PS3 Advanced: Hotbar Toggle


The 4th icon down under "Character Configuration" looks just like the cross-bar on screen. Select this icon, and then press R1 to tab over to "Cross".

If your hand is getting tired from hours of holding R2 and L2, you can try setting your cross-bar to "Toggle". My experience with this is that I often leave it toggled on accidentally when I am trying to accomplish other things. This means each press of square, x, circle or triangle is trying to set off an ability because the cross-bar is still active. Some players have said this feature is a life-saver, and after some getting-used-to it works like a charm.

The third option is "Mixed", which means that quickly pressing R2 or L2 will toggle the cross-bar on/off. However, if you HOLD R2 or L2 for an extended period of time, such as an entire battle, when you let go it will automatically turn off, as if the cross-bar was set to "Hold".



Final tips for PS3 users:

I highly suggest that all PS3 users get themselves a USB mouse! You will very much want to use the mouse to drag-and-drop abilities into your cross-bars, and to drag-and drop inventory items onto your character. Inventory and Character management is just a ton easier with a mouse!

Note: You can Hold Down L1 and Press the Right Stick Button to enter the PS3 controller Mouse-mode. (But really, go buy a real USB mouse.)



I hope this guide has been helpful for PS3 users who are learning to use the UI and targeting options. Please forgive the quality of the pictures in this section. Without a way to take screenshots I simply used my wife's Canon Rebel and uploaded the pictures. I'm afraid they are a bit tilted despite my best efforts. I plan to reserve the next post for the PC guide, which will take a bit more time to complete. As always, I hope that other posters here will contribute to this thread with corrections, additions or their own tips for making targeting easier.

Edited, Jul 11th 2013 11:05pm by Gnu

PC Basics: HUD Customization and Hotbars

The PC version allows more Hotbars to be on screen at once. Under System Configuration > Hotbars you can set additional Hotbars to always be on screen.



Here you can see the option to have up to 10 hotbars on screen. In this screenshot you can see I have turned on #9 and #10, which I've conveniently located next to where the Party List will be. (I like to put Heal and Buff spells on these bars, positioned less than an inch from where I click to target players.)

You can also see here that the PC version allows you to separate the various Chat Channels and dock them on separate parts of the screen. You do this buy clicking-and-holding the mouse button on the chat channel you want to separate and dragging it to another part of the screen. As you can see here, I like to separate Battle from General, so that battle spam does not push chat and System messages off the screen.

By selecting System Menu > Hud Layout you will see the follow screen:



This allows for moving of every HUD box to a custom location. They cannot all be independently re-sized the way the chat boxes can. Note that the HUD Customization feature is available on both the PC and PS3 versions.



PC Basics: Targeting

This next section is dedicated to targeting options on PC. Note that all of the targeting options in the PS3 targeting section above are available on the PC by choosing the "Gamepad Mode" from the Character Configuration. The additional options are as follows:



Note the Enemy List that I have currently located between the hotbars and the chat boxes. The Enemy List will include any enemy that currently has aggro on you or your party. You can simply click on anyone in this list to target them.


PC Basics: Mouse Options



This image shows you where to find your custom mouse options. I highly suggest leaving these on the default settings for now.
Enable clicking on self - I recommended you leave this off, because targeting yourself will occur automatically whenever you cast a beneficial spell or ability. You really don't want to be in your own way when you try to pick up an item or interact with the world.
Enable clicking on field to remove target - Clicking on the screen to clear your current target is often useful. Some players prefer to NEVER lose their target until the target is dead.

(There are just a few more things I plan to add to this thread concerning important targeting Keybinds that are not set to anything by default.)

This concludes the PC and PS3 Targeting/User Interface Guide. I really hope this helps new players learn some things they did not know, or perhaps provide answers for issues they were struggling with. I really do hope that all of the options for PC users appear eventually for PS3 users. Since adding a mouse and keyboard to the PS3 makes the input devices essentially identical, I don't see why the UI options cannot also be made to be identical. Improve the PS3 options so that PS3 players could even use use only a mouse and keyboard if they want!

Best of luck on your adventures in Eorzea!

Edited, Jul 12th 2013 10:34am by Gnu

Thanks very much

I can add the links from his post or you can reorganize. Either way just let me know and I'll try to mess with it over the weekend or something.

I don't like the Target Cycling b.c you switch it to "All Enemies" it only stays like that till you find a target then will go right back to the default Combat/Non-Combat mode.

I should be able to L1+O and have my targeting stay that way till I change it

Added to sticky :)

Glad to help! I was looking fore a solution to the issue you are having. (I've abandoned the controller for the same reason). The best I could come up with is to make a User Macro to target the nearest enemy, and then set that to your cross-bar.

To do this, go to System Menu >User Macros. Then select any of the empty slots, select an Icon for your macro and type in /targetenemy



Now just go to your cross-bar and set that User Macro to one of the slots.



I did this and was able to at least leave the toggle on and still use the Macro to target the nearest enemy. What we really, really need is for "cycle through enemies nearest to farthest" to be a Macro text command.

The other two /target Macro text commands for available in beta are:
/targetnpc - Target nearest NPC
/battletarget - Target nearest enemy that is attacking you

Hopefully expanded Macro text commands will be available soon.

Edited, Jul 13th 2013 3:41am by Gnu

There are now two new commands in the Actions and Traits > General:



Target Forward
Target Back

These can be added to your Cross-bar. You can also make a User Macro for Nearest Enemy:

To do this, go to System Menu >User Macros. Then select any of the empty slots, select an Icon for your macro and type in /targetenemy



Now just go to your cross-bar and set that User Macro to one of the slots.



Now you have Nearest Enemy, Next Enemy and Last Enemy, as easy to use buttons on your Cross Bar.

(More Edits and some reformatting to come as Phase 4 winds down.)

Edited, Aug 17th 2013 11:22am by Gnu

I'm using a 360 controller on PC and playing a tank is hell. The d-pad targetting is just not efficient enough at all. It's always targetting stuff far off into the distance. Not to mention Carbuncles, but I think I was able to filter that out.

Just a word of advice... if you're playing on a controller and want to be efficient you might want to stick with DPS or heals.

Also, why are minions even targettable to begin with? Vanity pets should be graphic only and not even be targettable/have names. They just clutter the screen up.

Anyways, thanks for the guide.

Edited, Aug 17th 2013 3:46pm by Killua125

Gonna go ahead and add some PC targeting since i play on a laptop (with a full num pad) and hate using the touch pad:

Num-4 / Num-6 (cycle left/ right through targets)
X - filter available target (default is hold to hide player characters)

Combine X + Num - 4/6 for quick targeting
Can also adjust it so pressing x cycles through target filters. AKA press x then the only thing you can target PC, press again and it goes to NPC, then Monsters, etc etc
num-8/num-2 (cycle up/down through party members)

num-0 confirm/select, useful since my right hand sits on the num pad

Greatly appreciated ... now all I need is a macro 1 for ps3