How to target a player by name when they have a pet?

My google-fu has failed me - found variations of this question asked before, but no answer =/

In a raid situation, I need to target a fellow player, in order to cure them (e.g. Shei and Aten raids).

For players in my group, I can just press the appropriate F2-F6 key.

For players not in my group, I can *usually* target them with "/target Playername".

However, if they currently have a swarm pet up, I end up targetting "Playername's Pet" instead.

This is also true if I click on the player name in the raid list window - end up targetting the pet instead of the player.

Adding more people to extended target window is not really an option - already have half the raid on there =/

Is there any way to target only PCs with the /target command?

I just did some tests using a necro casting swarm pets. I was not grouped with the necromancer. Also, it didn't seem to matter whether I used the necromancer's full name or partial name.

/tar <necro name> targeted the necromancer as long as they were close enough. If the necromancer was more than a certain distance away, /target would target necromancer or the swarm pet, whichever was closer to me. The cutoff distance between where I would always target the player and where it depended on what was closer seemed to be in the range 180 -- 200 feet (units).

I couldn't come up with any other way to always target the player besides getting close enough to the player.

It's very forgiving, and targets the closest thing that fits the partial string.

I know it's super inconvenient, but. Have you tried "_" Underscore after the name?

/tar Dudemanguy_
avoids targeting Dudemanguy's swarm

A good place to test this out is wherever people gather for MGB's on your server, like the GL or PoK. Almost certainly there will be someone with a familiar standing around. If you're close up you'll target them. Get far away and you'll target their familiar. I tried appending the underscore like "/target Soandso_", but it still targeted Soandso's familiar.

A good change for EQ would be to do the target search in two passes. The first pass looks for an exact match (exactly Soandso). If that doesn't find anything, then it looks for a name which starts with the pattern (starts with Soandso). I'd be also nice if I could enclose the name in quotes in case I want to match a name with spaces in it: /target "Soandso's familiar"

I don't usually heal the runners during Aten or Goranga, but filled in for someone last night. I had to tell the raid to kill their swarm pets as they ran away with the emotes to be healed, otherwise I'd rez them later. This targeting issue has been an issue for a long time. Stupid pets.
Conq

This has been a long standing issue, so long that i assume people know about it by now, and my rants regarding it ended many years ago. If you're going to cast those kind of pets, you are unlikely to get a heal from me outside of group. Have some splashes, rain heals or mgb'd regen. After that, if you cast those pets you are on your own.

Luckily, it's rarely a tank who casts these. I'm not even sure if they can. If you need a cure or a heal, and i don't have you on my extended target list, i will try one time to /target yourname. If i get a pet of yours, that's the last time i attempt it for the night. Good luck.

The only reason you'd ever want to target a familiar is if it's a summoned vendor or maybe one of those gimmicky interactive ones. Use cases for targeting a swarm pet are also kind of niche, like maybe if you're manually hasting them for more dps. I don't know if the tech is there, but if they could simply make a toggle to make these untargetable there'd be no real downsides for most players. I'd also fully support the ability to toggle off the display of familiars entirely.

You can't blame players for using swarm pets, they're an integral part of the rotation of some classes. If it's too much of a hassle to target the player for oog heals then fine, but blame the faulty implementation of /target, not the player for playing their class properly.

well I some times will open the raid window and target peeps off of it.

No promises, but I've made an internal ticket to see if it's plausible to create a new command that will target only players (not pets, not familiars, not PCs). A quick look at the code makes me think it wouldn't be a massive undertaking, but I don't have the final say if/when we can do it ;P

This is basically my exact position on this as a Cleric, if we're in a fight where someone needs directed heals and they're a BST / MAG I usually know I won't be able to target them and just leave them to their fate.

If you know ahead of time you will have to be healing an oog player, then put their name on your extended target window. Plus, while the F2-F6 keys cleanly target the player, the next click will target their pet, which is annoying since there is no way to toggle pet targeting to be off. Or you can tell them to send you a tell, and use /rt

When you say a new command, you mean a whole new slash like /targetplayer?

There are cases when pet classes want/need to /target their pet if the scope is changing the code behind /target. Completely removing the option will break some macros. Having a "sort" priority of live/in-zone players over corpses and pets seems like a more graceful option if there is that granularity of control.

Yeah, a new command is overkill. Just make it so if there are multiple options it targets the player. If you type the entire name out it always targets the player, its when you type a partial name it goes to their pet first. Just change the order.

I would prefer /tp vs /targetplayer

/tar %m
was recently restored to it's former functionality, targeting your pet, whatever it's name may be.

I too favor a solution that maintains old functionality.

My options (maintain nearest distance target that fits the filter in all cases):

/tar Dudemanguy - Would still target the closest thing that contains that string, so still exhibit the error the OP mentions, but maintains current behavior.

/tar Dudemanguy_ - Avoids Dudemanguy's swarm and Dudemanguy's familiar. But still catches Familiar OF Dudemanguy (if that's a thing). Which is what I thought the current behavior was supposed to do, and if so, would be good to repair that old functionality.

/tar <Dudemanguy> - Only matches the exact string.
OR
/tar Dudemanguy * - Only matches the exact string.
OR
create new chat placeholders (like %m) that can be used in targeting.
%F - Your Target's familiar
%E - Your Target's pEt (Different than %M, which targets My pet.)
usage, having a target: /tar %f OR /tar %e

%X - eXclusively the Players Name Only (nothing before or after the name), fixes the errors mentioned.
usage, having no target: /tar Dudemanguy %x

%M - maintain M exactly as it is, your own pet
usage, having no target (as it currently is): /tar %m

You Shadowknights, who like to have your little skeletons out during raids, this right here ^ accounts for, let's say, 10% of the deaths you experience.

While you're at it can you please make a command for our macros that allows you to target your pet regardless of it's name?

I make macros to heal my pets, but each time I summon a pet, it has a different name. So I have to edit the macro each time.

Currently you have to use this:

/pause 5,/target Jabartik

If you type /target pet, you get the following:

I don't seen anyone by that name around here....

Ideally someting like this would be better to target your own pet:

/pause 5,/target pet

Even better make a command that can target each group members pet. Group members 1 to 6:

/target pet1
/target pet2
/target pet3
/target pet4
/target pet5
/target pet6


Thank you!

/tar %m
Already does that. %m fills in your pet's name.

/tar %m
/assist %m
/say You're a great pet %m
/dance %m

All work, try it out!

Thank you for posting this! I just noticed your reply after I posted mine. This is very helpful

Nooooo!

Horrible bad idea you do not monkey with 25 years of muscle memory, when the real solution is to rename the spawns to _name and avoid any and all change to targeting with new commands that do almost the same thing as another command.