Wanding/Calling?

Looking over various builds, they advise things like "calling and wanding the target."

Now I've gathered that "wanding" the target is akin to when I use just the auto-attack with my wand/staff to shoot fire (or whatever) at the target, like when I need to let my energy recharge a bit. So no problem there.

I'm a little confused over the "calling" thing as, at least in MY mind, there seems to be some conflict over exactly how to do this. Which basically means I sucked in too much information at once and it's all getting jumbled together now. LOL

Is a target "called" any time the foe is the one displayed in my Target Display? Does it matter how they got there? Like if I just Tab through targets and settle on one, is that target now "called" for the purposes of my H/H now focusing on that foe? I read something else about holding the Ctrl key while targeting? So.... is that just holding the Ctrl key and clicking on the foe with my mouse (and quickly stopping myself from running forward to the target)? And what about the "T" for a party leader to set a priority target? I am unclear on how to use that and what the effect of doing that is... or what "I" am supposed to do if part of a party and my leader does that... a little "T" pops up next to the leader's name.... but.... then what? Do I click on the "T"?

I just seem to be really really really lost when it comes to this topic.

Calling is using the Ctrl to call out a target, either by attacking or using a skill on them. You will notice this in the Team Chat ("I am attacking <enemy>!" or "I am using <skill> on <enemy>!")

The select last called target button (default T) will select the target that has last been called. Or you can press on the target button next to party members who call targets to select the same target.

Found an example of what I was talking about...

From the Discordway build info - "With the heroes on guard, the player calls the targets that he wants the heroes to attack (Ctrl+space or Ctrl+skill). This should either be a hex or a condition."

So to do this, I would pull up a target in my Target Display... like by Tabbing through the foes... and then hit Ctrl and my Space bar, which would "wand" (auto-attack) the target, OR hit Ctrl and whatever key I have my hex/condition spell assigned to, which would then hex the target?

@Dzjudz - Does "calling" the target out loud that way cause my H/H to then focus on that target? I mean, I've used the Ctrl key to share my builds with someone in my party... and I've seen text come up while partied up that indicates my fellow party members are attacking a certain target, or using a certain skill... but how does that information (when displayed during an attack) affect the behavior of my H/H?

Is the AI "reading" it and making choices based on that information showing up?

Yes, calling a target makes all heroes/henchmen in the party (even heroes of other players) focus on that target. There should be one caller in a party.

This. ''I'm using Spiteful Spirit on Aloe Seed!''

Also note, using ctrl-shift instead of ctrl will produce:

''I'm targetting Aloe Seed!''

You won't attack, but it makes people aware of the target they should be attacking, and can do so when they press T before you start the fight proper.

Awesome Thanks for clearing that up for me, both of you!

I don't know why, but I guess I assumed that the "I'm targeting ____" didn't have any actual/specific effect, I always thought it was simply informative to other human players... not instructions for the H/H.

I'll start playing around with this so I can get to understand it on a functional level... thanks so much for helping me with this!

Just remember 9/10 times, you will call a target, and your H/H will attack something else entirely, just because they happened to look in their general direction.

The Wiki has some information on calling.

Take note of this: It is often helpful to use the "Suppress Action" hotkey (SHIFT by default) in combination with this, thus calling "I'm targeting Spined Aloe!" without actually attacking the target.

If you happen to be hexed with Backfire/Empathy/Spiteful Spirit, you might want to just target a foe without actually doing damage to it to call.