Formation Question

I'm duelboxing a pally tank (main screen) with a mage dps in WoW. Is there a way to have the mage stand back a bit when I charge in to pull with the pally? He runs in like a melee with me which hasnt caused any real problems yet but I know it will eventually.

I have the formation option up and can click it in the fight a few times to have him step back. But I'm looking for a more auto style to doing this. Like maybe a way to have him follow not so close or something?

[lax]

All you really need to do is "drop off" your ranged at a sufficient distance while the melees auto-follow the tank into battle.

You can't adjust auto-follow speed, since this is built into the game and the game doesn't provide a way to do it. You will notice your follow distance is different some days than others, that's because it is directly related to your ping (the amount of time it takes your lead to tell the server you moved, which then has to tell your other clients that you moved in order for them to follow). When your ping is low, they will follow a lot closer than times when it is not.

Here's what I do... I set up an Action Target Group (ATG) or two. I have an ATG called "followers" which I put all of my guys in initially. Then I change the Follow hotkey to send the follow instruction to just the other characters in the followers ATG, instead of simply all of the other characters. That way, when I want to drop off a ranged or my healer, I remove them from this ATG using a Target Group Action and have them break follow by moving a little. When I need them to follow again, I add them back to the ATG in similar fashion, and press follow again.

This is easy to set up and after you do this one time, you'll be an expert.

To make the "followers" Action Target Group:
1. In the top left pane right click on Action Target Groups and select New Action Target Group
2. Rename the ATG "followers" (so it isn't named "New Action Target Group"!)
3. With the new "followers" ATG selected in the top left pane, right click on "Characters" in the bottom left pane and select "Add All Characters"
* You should also make a second ATG for the ranged or whoever you want to make STOP following you. e.g. make a "ranged" ATG.

To change Follow to use the "followers" ATG:
1. In the top left pane under Key Maps select General
2. In the bottom left pane under Mapped Keys expand "FTL Follow Me" so that under it you see Steps, 1
3. Select Step 1 under FTL Follow Me so that on the right you see Step, Actions, and an Action that sends to "all other" is automatically selected
4. In the bottom right, change the Target from "Window: All w/o Current" to "Group (others in): followers"
* Tip: if you use Interact with Target, especially during combat, you might want switch it to use this ATG as well

To make the toggle:
I added a new wizard option just now to simplify the next part, so you will need to update ISBoxer to 40.3.0727.1 or later via Help->About ISBoxer, then...
1. Under the Wizards menu in ISBoxer (Alt+W for short), select Mapped Key Wizard
2. On the first page of the wizard, pick an appropriate Key Map for your new Hotkey (e.g. General), and click Next
3. On the next page of the wizard, pick "Action Target Group Toggler" (currently the bottom option in the drop-down) and click Next
4. On the last page of the wizard, you get to pick some options for your Hotkey:
4a. Name the Toggle, e.g. "Melee-only Follow Mode"
4b. Select the actual Hotkey to use, e.g. Alt+X, or whatever
4c. Select the Target for the toggle, this will control who leaves the ATG. So for example if you made the second ATG called "ranged", here you would select that ATG. Otherwise, you could pick a specific Character here, etc.
4d. Add the ATG to get turned OFF on the first press. Just pick "followers" in the drop-down and click "Add to OFF"
4e. Optionally configure popup text reminders and/or the "Toggle when Hotkey is pressed/released" option
5. Click Finish.

Finally, you will need a way to make your ranged guys break auto-follow.
I have 2 simple suggestions for how to do that,
1. You can do this with the Mapped Key Wizard with a Key Re-map, for example to send A (turn left) to the ranged ATG when you press Alt+A. The process for configuring that is basically the same as making the toggle, but instead of picking an ATG to toggle you're sending a keystroke. Note that since turning is a movement you should check the "Hold" option at the bottom.
or 2. You can configure a Hotkey on "Others turn Left" or "Others turn Right" in the General Key Map, and use that.. then press auto-follow again.

This way you can drop off any of your ranged guys at a safer spot and continue to use auto-follow as needed with your melee characters, then pick your ranged guys back up after battle.