Introduction to the unknown role Manual for kissassist
When using KA, we are used to the roles of tank, assist, pullertank, puller, hunter and their pet variations, but one role that is not mentioned in the wiki or written much about and how it works is the MANUAL role.
Now the MANUAL role is special compared to the others, as once you run kiss with it, you are basically telling kiss to do nothing at all, so the smart reader will probably ask but why run it then! Well, that's a good question, and the answer is gonna be pretty good too.
Why run KA in MANUAL role?
Now KA buff system works by putting buff information into a separate file called KissAssist_Buffs.ini where it stores information about what buffs your character has or are missing and what kinda buffs he has blocked and so on, that means if your cleric sees your manual tank is missing hp buff, by reading the buffs.ini, he will try and cast it on him, and this system works fairly well and that's also the reason why sometimes if you run several different systems, like autowarrior, kissassist, eoknuke, that the kissassist buffers will get bit wonky with their buffings.
Also kiss has a few what i call driving commands, commands you can use on your driving character and your team responds to them, those commands would be unavailable if you didn't run KA.
So those two keypoints are pretty much the reason you might want to run manual even if you don't want KA to do anything for your during combat, or out of combat for that matter.
So what do you get by running manual?
Lets start of with a little bit of code from KA source.
This code basically sets everything to off. everything that KA does outside and in combat, is turned off, lets go through each line and talk about what that means specifically.
So what?, why even bother??
Now this is where things start getting interesting, because KA has in game commands options, and these can be used to turn on and off these settings too.
/meleeon - will toggle on your [Melee] section, thats the guy that handles sticking and when to assist and such things, can be nice at times to have on for sure when you did your pull and is back in camp flick this on with a social and watch yourself kill things.
/returntocamp - toggles your campsetting, less usefull i personally think in a MANUAL role session
/chase 0/1 CharacterName - Turns ChaseAssist on/off - turns on or off chasing of whomevers name you add or whomever is the MA, this is usefull for your group to follow oyu around, so on t hem youc could do /chase 1 manualcharacternamehere, and watch them follow you around and help you kill stuffs.
/dpson 0/1 - is not a toggle, so you need to supply a number, this number is the same you would normally have in your dps section, like i normally have mine set with DPSOn=2, so this needs to be called like that /dpson 2. /docommand ${If[${DPSOn},/dpson 0,/dpson 2]} for a social toggler.
/buffson - Toggles buffs usage on/off
/healson 0/1/2 - Turns [Heal] section on or off, healson=1 xtargetlist healing and group healing. Healson=2 group healing, so set it how you like it. /docommand ${If[${HealsOn},/healson 0,/healson 2]} for a social toggler.
/mezon 0/1/2/3 Turns [Mez] on or off, 1 is single and ae mez, 2 is single mez only, 3 is ae mez only. /docommand ${If[${MezOn},/mezon 0,/mezon 1]} for a social toggler.
with these commands you can control your manual experience of kiss more closely, turn of melee so you ccontrol movement and so on, turn of dps so you control what target to attack, turn on buffs when you want it to check for your buffs and so on.
So is it worth it?
sometimes you just wanna run around and kill things and be in control and have your team follow you, and then yeah this can be good, so definately experiment with it, see if its something for you, see what you can do with it.
ctaylor22 - Maskoi please correct me if i have some sections wrong, this is written from my tests of it last night.
When using KA, we are used to the roles of tank, assist, pullertank, puller, hunter and their pet variations, but one role that is not mentioned in the wiki or written much about and how it works is the MANUAL role.
Now the MANUAL role is special compared to the others, as once you run kiss with it, you are basically telling kiss to do nothing at all, so the smart reader will probably ask but why run it then! Well, that's a good question, and the answer is gonna be pretty good too.
Why run KA in MANUAL role?
Now KA buff system works by putting buff information into a separate file called KissAssist_Buffs.ini where it stores information about what buffs your character has or are missing and what kinda buffs he has blocked and so on, that means if your cleric sees your manual tank is missing hp buff, by reading the buffs.ini, he will try and cast it on him, and this system works fairly well and that's also the reason why sometimes if you run several different systems, like autowarrior, kissassist, eoknuke, that the kissassist buffers will get bit wonky with their buffings.
Also kiss has a few what i call driving commands, commands you can use on your driving character and your team responds to them, those commands would be unavailable if you didn't run KA.
So those two keypoints are pretty much the reason you might want to run manual even if you don't want KA to do anything for your during combat, or out of combat for that matter.
So what do you get by running manual?
Lets start of with a little bit of code from KA source.
Rich (BB code):
/if (${UseMQ2Melee}) /squelch /melee aggro=0
/varset MeleeOn 0
/varset ReturnToCamp 0
/varset ChaseAssist 0
/varset DPSOn 0
/varset BuffsOn 0
/varset DebuffAllOn 0
/if (${Defined[HealsOn]}) /varset HealsOn 0
/if (${Defined[MezOn]}) /varset MezOn 0This code basically sets everything to off. everything that KA does outside and in combat, is turned off, lets go through each line and talk about what that means specifically.
- /if (${UseMQ2Melee}) /squelch /melee aggro=0
This checks if you are using mq2melee to supplement KA with some combat, and turns aggro mode off, this means mq2melee wont used any of its taunt settings, like hate builders, and taunt skill, and that if you dont have any stickcmd in mq2melee turn on sticking to the behind of the mob. NB this is bad for a tank, so be aware and have a hotkey with /melee aggro=1 if you use this. - /varset MeleeOn 0
Turns off the [Melee] section from the KA ini, this handles your stick, when to assist and so on. - /varset ReturnToCamp 0
Turns off ReturnToCamp line from the KA ini, this wont change whats in the ini allready, so if you normal ini has ReturnToCamp=1 it will be that way still, but it will just turn that feature off while in manual mode. - /varset ChaseAssist 0
Turns off ReturnToCamp line from the KA ini, this wont change whats in the ini allready, so if you normal ini has ChaseAssist=1 it will be that way still, but it will just turn that feature off while in manual mode. - /varset DPSOn 0
Turns off the [DPS] section, meaning you wont automatically try and do any of the configured DPS lines. - /varset BuffsOn 0
Turns off the [Buffs] section, so you dont start to buff yourself or others when you dont want to, but does keep the buffs.ini up to date. - /varset DebuffAllOn 0
Disables the DebuffAll feature from the [DPS] section, so no slowing or debuffing all mobs in camp if you have that set up. - /if (${Defined[HealsOn]}) /varset HealsOn 0
Turns off any healing and rez and xtarget healing from the [Heals] Section, even healing of yourself. - /if (${Defined[MezOn]}) /varset MezOn 0
Turns off [Mez] section for the classes that has such a section.
So what?, why even bother??
Now this is where things start getting interesting, because KA has in game commands options, and these can be used to turn on and off these settings too.
/meleeon - will toggle on your [Melee] section, thats the guy that handles sticking and when to assist and such things, can be nice at times to have on for sure when you did your pull and is back in camp flick this on with a social and watch yourself kill things.
/returntocamp - toggles your campsetting, less usefull i personally think in a MANUAL role session
/chase 0/1 CharacterName - Turns ChaseAssist on/off - turns on or off chasing of whomevers name you add or whomever is the MA, this is usefull for your group to follow oyu around, so on t hem youc could do /chase 1 manualcharacternamehere, and watch them follow you around and help you kill stuffs.
/dpson 0/1 - is not a toggle, so you need to supply a number, this number is the same you would normally have in your dps section, like i normally have mine set with DPSOn=2, so this needs to be called like that /dpson 2. /docommand ${If[${DPSOn},/dpson 0,/dpson 2]} for a social toggler.
/buffson - Toggles buffs usage on/off
/healson 0/1/2 - Turns [Heal] section on or off, healson=1 xtargetlist healing and group healing. Healson=2 group healing, so set it how you like it. /docommand ${If[${HealsOn},/healson 0,/healson 2]} for a social toggler.
/mezon 0/1/2/3 Turns [Mez] on or off, 1 is single and ae mez, 2 is single mez only, 3 is ae mez only. /docommand ${If[${MezOn},/mezon 0,/mezon 1]} for a social toggler.
with these commands you can control your manual experience of kiss more closely, turn of melee so you ccontrol movement and so on, turn of dps so you control what target to attack, turn on buffs when you want it to check for your buffs and so on.
So is it worth it?
sometimes you just wanna run around and kill things and be in control and have your team follow you, and then yeah this can be good, so definately experiment with it, see if its something for you, see what you can do with it.
ctaylor22 - Maskoi please correct me if i have some sections wrong, this is written from my tests of it last night.
