Thank you for all of the replies, I got it working. I derped out for a couple of days to suddenly realize that y is up and down and put in the wrong parameters for math.atan2.
so instead of this Math.atan2( directionY , directionX) which is what I used before, I did this to fix it Math.atan2( directionX, directionZ )
Here's the rundown of my mod. This is a turret/sentry gun mod for minecraft, this is also my first mod. I can place down the turret and it is able to rotate 360 degrees on the y axis(I've tested this). The turret also has a single inventory slot for ammunition. Here's the problem, I can get the entities I want to target within a given radius but I can't make the turret face the target. I'm a bit of a math noob( taking algebra 2 ), I've tried using Math.atan2 and Math.toDegrees with no success. Is there anyway to have the turret face the target based on the x and y coordinates of the target(assuming the turret is the center).
Render Class : https://github.com/Brimhall-Labs/turret-mod-for-minecraft/blob/master/Turrets/src/main/java/com/natal/turrets/render/TurretRender.java
Item Class: https://github.com/Brimhall-Labs/turret-mod-for-minecraft/blob/master/Turrets/src/main/java/com/natal/turrets/blocks/BasicTurretBlock.java
TileEntity Class: https://github.com/Brimhall-Labs/turret-mod-for-minecraft/blob/master/Turrets/src/main/java/com/natal/turrets/tileentities/TileEntityTurret.java
Mod folder: https://github.com/Brimhall-Labs/turret-mod-for-minecraft/tree/master/Turrets/src/main/java/com/natal/turrets