What is a focus macro

Want to kick the healer without dropping your kill target? That’s what a focus macro is for. A focus macro casts a spell on a second unit — the one you saved as your focus — and leaves your current target alone. Focus is a supplement to targeting: a unit you can set and then recall, by a key or a macro, without giving up the unit you are already on.

I play Devastation Evoker as Tingyoudied on EU-Ravencrest: Scalecommander, Spatial Paradox, 2849 Blitz, RBG main. Trinket and interrupt sit on the scroll wheel. The spec write-up is the Evoker PvP guide. This guide explains what @focus actually does, and when I would use it instead of arena1.

The focus frame is part of the default UI. An addon is optional, and some unit-frame addons get in the way of the Set Focus menu. If a dialog appears, it’s best to choose Ignore and try once more, then disable the addon if it fails again.

Set it before the button matters

The target frame is the unit you are hitting or healing. Focus is the other one. A mage who needs to sheep one mob and damage another sets the sheep mob as focus, then uses /cast [@focus] Polymorph. The sheep happens. The damage target never changes.

Target the unit, then use one of these:

• Type /focus.
• Right-click the unit frame and choose Set Focus.
• Press the Focus Target key, after you bind it under Options, then Keybindings.

/clearfocus drops it. /target focus does something else: it makes the focus into your real target. That is useful when you do want to switch. It is not what a focus cast does.

Once a focus is set, the game adds a focus frame. It updates like a party frame: health, resource, and a cast bar. You can unlock it and move it, and there is an option for a smaller frame. If your target and your focus are the same unit, the target frame is highlighted.

That cast bar is why most people set a focus. A nameplate shows the cast out in the world. The focus frame keeps it in one place you chose. On Evoker the plate is still how I see the kick I am about to send from the scroll wheel. A focus macro does not replace that look.

What the macro actually says

Open the macro window with /macro, make a macro, and drag it to a bar. #showtooltip on the first line makes the button use the spell’s icon and tooltip. The cast line is the one that matters.

/cast [@focus] Spell Name

Replace Spell Name with the spell you mean. An interrupt, a crowd-control spell, or a heal are the usual ones. The brackets are conditions, read from left to right.

• @focus means “aim this at my focus.”
• harm means the focus has to be an enemy. A heal macro should not use harm.
• nodead means the focus has to be alive.
• An empty [] at the end means “if none of that was true, cast normally,” which is your current target.

[mod:shift,@focus] adds the keyboard. Hold Shift and the spell goes to the focus. Let go and it goes to your target. One key, two aims. You still have to set the focus first. On a left-handed desk the modifier that hand can hold is the right Shift or Ctrl, not the pair beside WASD — how a left hand changes MMO keybinds.

The spell is unchanged apart from its target. It will not reach farther, it will not fire while you are silenced, and a kick still has to be in range and facing the right way. A focus on the healer across the room does not let you interrupt them from the other side of the pillar.

Where it earns the key

Use it when two units matter at once and only one of them should be your target.

You are damaging one enemy, and another must be interrupted or controlled. Focus the second. Damage stays on the first. The macro handles the interrupt or the crowd control.

You are damaging something, and one ally is the person you keep healing. Focus that ally and put the heal in the macro.

Skip it when you only act on your current target. A focus left on a dead mob, with no fallback in the macro, is a button that does nothing.

In an arena, arena1, arena2, and arena3 name the enemy players in frame order. Focus is whoever you saved, and it stays on that unit when the frames shuffle. One key should use one of the two. In Blitz there are no arena frames, so a focus is the only way to save a second target. If I set a focus in a node fight, it is a unit I chose, not a frame number.

The macro only picks who; the kick still has to be in range and land. For allies, see party frames.

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