A %T is <<<<<SLOWED>>>>Follow

Thats funny...

So your in a group fighting a long fight. Your the cleric... your gonna bother to type "Complete Heal to %T" everytime after you cast the spell. Hmm... ok then, have fun with that.

I mean, even if you really really like typing... If its a really hard mob, those 2 seconds could mean the death of your tank.

Hehe. I'm pretty sure he was joking (pretty sure!)...

And in any case, how is the 2 seconds going to kill the tank? It takes *10* seconds to cast CH, during which you can't move, can't attack, and can't activate any abilities. You *can* type, however...

Not that I don't think a CH hotkey is a good idea, but if you can't type out "CH to %T" in less then 10 seconds, something is seriously wrong.

I agree with so many people here. Ive grouped with people who do stuff like

/g THWACK! I just smacked a %t upside the head and now hes following me back to camp! Kill him! ~~TO BATTLE~~ TUNARE WATCH OVER US ALL!!!!!!!!!!

and I seriously want to strangle them.

yeah, it gets pretty ugly when you have a train and people are pressin thier hotbuttons like crazy...

"CHUGGA CHUGA CHUGGA CHUGA .........CHOOOO CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
RUN BIA..H THIERS A TRAIN TO ZONE...........AHAHAHHAHHHHAHAHAHAHHAHA...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:(:(:("

multiply that by 5 hehe

As a puller/tank/dps I have 3 hotkeys I use regularly:

/g INC %T
/assist INSERTNAME
/pet attack

and if I'm using pet pulling I'll swap in a /pet back too. This may seem cheesy, but it saves seconds and a lot of wrist pain (curse my frail joints!). No need to announce I'm assisting as it should be pretty obvious when I run behind the mob and start swinging.

I also on occasion use a /g snaring %T but if I see no druid or ranger I'm gonna assume snaring is needed and throw a darkness out there when the mob's HP drops around 40%~ish. I don't spam the notice either, if it gets resisted I'm gonna keep casting until it sticks or the mob is dead end of story.

As for slowing messages I don't really care either way. I've grouped with people who use long messages and eventually you get to the point where you don't even read it anymore because you already know what it says! If you're the slower, I'm assuming you're slowing, otherwise you might find youself tanking unexpectedly!

I can understand pallies wanting a LoH message, but as an sk I certainly don't need or use an HT message. If I feel the need to use HT (which is very rarely, unless I'm about to die then I throw it out there just to be spiteful HAR HAR) I just use it.

Mezz and charm messages, however, are necessary. Duoing with my sisters chanter using a druid, those /g My pet has realized I'm a fraud! SAVE ME! messages are, well, handy. LOL it takes a few seconds to realize where the damage is coming from when you're sitting there medding and suddenly the chanter gets hit.

All in all, I like to keep my hotbuttons simple. Keys that don't get used very often stay on the actions box and if I need them I'll click them into action from there.

In such a situation then the message is called for, although as a tank I probably won't need it. I don't need a message telling me a mob has been slowed. I can tell when its attack rate has diminished by the change in damage output. If the message helps you pace your strategy thats great.

However, on re-reading your post I am curious how you handle the question of partial slows. Do you ask your slower to notify you if the slow is only partial or do you expect and chain CH on the assumption that the slow isn't 100%?

2. Gbaji! USE FEWER WORDS!! You probably posted some really useful stuff, (Your comments are usually worthwhile), but I can't always book the day off work to read em!


I couldn't disagree more. The post was very usefull to me as a war and easy for any caster to understand what he is talking about. I like knowing what is going on as well. I like to know if the add wasn't mez'd and is attacking a caster in the group. I like knowing that if I don't see that complete heal message come accross when I am at 40% that I need to do the circus option. I don't need to know that the mage is sending in his pet though.
It's a big differance on your MT who ever it is. The more informed he/she is of the situation the better to control it.
Personally I read all the info that comes across my screen minus what I have filtered. Ie pally slashed mob for 47 damage.
Ok I will get of my soap box now.

Most OOW and DON mobs are not 100% slowable. The slower will get "partial", "mostly" etc messages on slows. Usually at the first of a group I'll let the group know how much the mobs are being slowed but after that the rest are usually the same. If the mob is immune I'll let them know. In raids I always let em know how much slows are landed. Raiding is a different strategy than grouping.

Alt + # does cast spells. Shift + # changes hotkey banks, unless you've remapped it.

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Im the opposite on heal messages, I dont announce CH's -- i call late heals, which prompts support classes to pad. Fast heals i call, as i do for HoT's so people can make sure they have buff room before it lands.

Knowing when something is slowed is the most important message.

I hate snare binds -- i like to see a message when %T is Resisting snare, but could care less that someone is snaring it -- thats just something i expect a snare class to do... I dont announce im slashing it, nor do i expect a necro to announce he's dotting it.

I hate the long "roleplayish" key binds. One thing we did on a guild wide scale, was to attach characters to certain things, ie: ## was tash... so for example all people made their keys like:

**** ASSIST ON %T ****
## TASH %T ##
(( DISPELL %T ))
&& MALO %T &&
>> SLOW %T <<

it was really handy because you didnt even have to read the message just the look of it made you know what was landing. This was on PVP tho so mainly it was done so that we could see which people were being debuffed quickly without having to actually read much since in pvp quick assisting and debuffing of multiple targets is key.

Huh. Weird. I have most certainly never remapped them, and I know for an absolute fact that alt+# changes my hotkey bank number. I switch back and forth all the time.

Is it possible instead that SoE changed the "default" value at some point, so players who started after a certain time have a different keymapping then those of us who've been playing longer.

I'll double check just in case I'm brainfarting, but I'm like 99.999% positive that alt+# swaps hotkey banks for me and always has...

Most players are lazy asses and dont even use macros anymore... My main is a 70 sk and almost every group i'm with has no slow message and no heal message... If you really want to be a high end player in those classes you will use hotkeys... Nothing sucks *** more for a tank then wondering when a mob will be slowed or if a Ch was even cast...

I have done my group/guild/raid messages both ways, and personally I prefer to use my premade hot keys.I dont find others using them offensive nor do I have trouble with people typing all out long handed. For slow typers Hot Keys are probably best..not every one is a speed typist.