The trickiness of Targeting and using focus targetting

So after much research and in game testing I have found I few things that I feel would be very helpful for people to know about focus targets.

If you set things up right you should be able to effectively handle juggling 3 targets (including yourself)

1. Ensure Focus Targeting is enabled in your settings. It can be found in Preferences
- Controls

2. Check Your Hotkeys in the Targeting Section to ensure setting a focus is easy (this is less important than the next couple of steps being withing a fingers reach)

3. Ensure that the Focus Target Modifier and self target modifier are easily reachable and convenient to use.

Basically here is how it works:

To cast on yourself regardless of your target you hold down your "Self Target Modifier" and cast.
Likewise to case on your focus target you use your "Focus Target Modifier"

The Result:

As a healer I can setup three people (including myself) to simulatanuisly heal if I go about this correctly.
The same works for DPS you can setup two targets and use your hotkeys to attack both.

Effectiveness:

For healing it is obvious the usefulness is endless.
For DPS I see it more as a CC manager in Flashpoints and stuff like that. Or possibly setting a healer to your focus in PvP so as soon as they are within sight you can easily start hammering away at them.

This is a crazy utility that works very differently than in other games but has great potential when mastered.

Great Post! I have been playing around with the different targeting and getting better at it. Thanks for the info.

This is fantastic, thanks. I've never played a healer in any game so still getting the hang of these tricks...

At this point I'm pretty much just using focus to keep an eye on healers in warzones, but I'm not actually using a modifier actively. I've done it and loved it in other games, but currently so many of my abilities are already Shift+something that it's a bit of a fumble to get a third key in there. Thankfully I've done my time as a healer, and I won't be going back!

I do find that targeting in general feels a bit glitchy in this game sometimes. I almost always Tab target, but occasionally I get weird results (like targeting a mob behind me while there's 10 in front of me). I think WoW permanently ingrained in me a certain sense of what should get targeted, and unfortunately any system that works even slightly differently throws me for a loop. As a result, I invariably end up doing stupid things, like stunning some bystander in huttball while the other team scores.

What I'm most excited about in 1.2 is target of target! I find it particularly handy tanking or in pvp, because as soon as my target switches targets, I can take control of the situation (or at least attempt to).

I agree target of target is a tanks best friend. It was almost impossible for me to tank without it because I had gotten so used to it.