DPS best practices

This might sound like a stupid question, but I wanted an answer from the forums on what is the proper way to choose a target as a DPS? Should I just pick a target unless the tank has one marked, unless it's a situation like the bee's in Qarn or the maids in Haukke manor?

I've been running most of the game as a tanking class. As I started running the mid level dungeons (roughly Haukke Manor to DD) I noticed that some dps would pick a target to strike down when pulling trash. It was often a separate target than the one I chose, but it didn't matter much because holding aggro became rather simple. Yet if I'm going to be running dungeon's in another role I'd like to know what the generally proper way to go about it is from the community?

As a side note I do not usually mark targets since I play with a controller and have limited button space and my fingers aren't really nimble enough to jump between attacks and marking.

Feel free to attack any target as long as you do not get aggro, typical priority targets aside. You'll quickly notice if you attack the wrong target simply by the way the aggro bar fills - in that case, you wanna switch.

It really isn't much more complicated than that - everything's fair until something flails at you. Sometimes, focusing a target someone else is focusing can yield synergy effects, such as Disembowel and Bards/MCH, but yeah.

My own standard procedure is to simply apply a DoT on everything and then hit the target the tank seems to be hitting, unless I use shadewalker anyway. Though 3+ enemies means AoE, so...most of the time it's a non-issue.

I attack the tanks first emnity combo target unless I see the other dps attacking something different then I'll switch to that target too just to make things easier for everyone.

The only times I don't do this is when I know a certain mob needs to be killed asap, the pull goes horribly wrong or if I'm AoEing.

What to do when tank pulls 6+ mobs, but then marks some of them as 1,2,3? (he shouldn't, but what if this happens?)

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Originally Posted by vp_cmc

What to do when tank pulls 6+ mobs, but then marks some of them as 1,2,3? (he shouldn't, but what if this happens?)

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I just go into my AoE rotation anyway unless I know they can't hold agro.

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Originally Posted by vp_cmc

What to do when tank pulls 6+ mobs, but then marks some of them as 1,2,3? (he shouldn't, but what if this happens?)

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If they are pulling that large, you should be doing AoE unless there is a particularly dangerous single enemy lurking in the group. If a tank has pulled them, then they have accepted responsibility for holding aggro on all of them. It would be foolish to kill 1 by 1.

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Originally Posted by vp_cmc

What to do when tank pulls 6+ mobs, but then marks some of them as 1,2,3? (he shouldn't, but what if this happens?)

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I will usually follow the kill order and prioritize those if it's a situation with a particularly dangerous or annoying enemy, not that I really ever see those in this game. Hell off the top of my head I can't think of any trash mob in any dungeon that's particularly dangerous or annoying except for that one turtle in St Moc, the bomb generators in pharos hard's final room before the last boss, the books in Gubal, and maybe the beetles in the first few pulls in Amp hard mode.

Personally, unless it's an AoE situation, I'll focus down any mob that has its own AoE attack. It's not often I see a group following that procedure, though. But for me, just makes the most sense to burn down anything that could have players scrambling to not take damage, or otherwise requiring healer to spread their focus.

If its a small singletarget pull, you should start with the target that the tank used shield lob (or something similar) on. If Aoe isnt worth it you could then proceed to dot up every mob, which is a dps gain on almost any job.

Depends on what my party make up is. If whm is spamming holy/assize, and you got a ranged dps dotting everything and doing AoEs.

As a monk for example I'll drop my dps a little by target switching on single hit moves to kill them close to same time so my party buddies get maximum useage out of their dots/aoe's

But I've had people attack my style and force me to single target kill. Just do what you think is best and then if it calls for it adapt to your party wants needs.

Unless there is a priority target to kill first because of a mechanic or damage taken, you should always choose the option that does the most DPS. Large pack of mobs? AoE is generally the best way to go.

In dungeons, you basically want to AoE everything down. So it is bad if you pull hate from a group of mobs that takes them far from the group. You want all the enemies to be bunched together to facilitate AoE from everyone in the party. You do not want to line of sight (LoS) a caster or cause other players to miss their AoEs.

The best best practice as a DPS is to make sure you're hitting something, anything, every GCD you possibly can without missing a beat. Especially because crowd control isn't really an important mechanic in the game so far, even if you're just starting out, it's better to hit the wrong thing (and do at least some damage somewhere) than to hit nothing. If nothing else it will train you to make quick and correct decisions about target selection on the fly when needed.

It's kind of like being Keanu driving the bus in Speed, if you go below 50mph drop a GCD, your computer will blow up and you lose.

Don't worry about it OP, as others have said, in dungeons you're mostly aoe-ing down packs anyway, rather than focusing one particular mob. Unless you're going absolutely ham, and purposely ignoring your aggro-reduction skills (quelling on BLM for example) it's not hard for tank to hold aggro. even if you do take aggro, just either move to a different target (if you are single targeting), or stay on that mob and kill it. tank will it either take it back or the thing will die. But try not to panic and start running about, that rarely helps. Depending what role you're playing, you'll likely have some defensive buffs you can use yourself if need be (keen flurry, manawall, etc)

no one bothers numbering targets any more, it's unnecessary micro-management

While others have said that AoE is the way to go on large pulls (technically 3+ mobs for every class due to group AoE synergies), I feel they are not being specific enough.

If you have a single target spell/combo you have to weave in to keep buffs up, or a spell with a higher potency on the first target:
It's an efficiency gain if you hit the HIGHEST health mob first. Because ideally, the AoE kills all the mobs at the same time. Every mob that dies early is an AoE DPS loss. (of 180 potency per F2 per early mob death if you're talking BLM).
So to keep GROUP DPS up, when you have single target stuff you have to do, switch to highest health target. ESPECIALLY if you're with MNK or BLM.
But the rule works with every DPS class' AoE rotation it's just more noticeable with MNK and BLM.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

If they are pulling that large, you should be doing AoE unless there is a particularly dangerous single enemy lurking in the group. If a tank has pulled them, then they have accepted responsibility for holding aggro on all of them. It would be foolish to kill 1 by 1.

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Even 4 mobs (and technically 3 but the difference isn't worth worrying about at that point).

First off I'd like to say thank you to everyone for the responses, this has helped quite a bit to better understand my role.

Second I came across a couple other questions I had while running Haukke manor.

1) As a monk I have a DOT that comes at the end of my rotation, offering greased lightning. I also have a DOT that I can use as part of the GDC without breaking the rotation. Should I be applying the one that doesn't break the GDC first? or the one that comes at the end of my Monk Rotation?

2) Does the rear of a monster count as a flank?

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Originally Posted by Spartan926

First off I'd like to say thank you to everyone for the responses, this has helped quite a bit to better understand my role.

Second I came across a couple other questions I had while running Haukke manor.

1) As a monk I have a DOT that comes at the end of my rotation, offering greased lightning. I also have a DOT that I can use as part of the GDC without breaking the rotation. Should I be applying the one that doesn't break the GDC first? or the one that comes at the end of my Monk Rotation?

2) Does the rear of a monster count as a flank?

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Rear is rear. Flank is to the left or right side of the rear position.

http://i.imgur.com/HVP2IBW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/smNx1ZX.jpg

Not my images, just what Google gave me with a quick search. But you get the point.

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Originally Posted by vp_cmc

What to do when tank pulls 6+ mobs, but then marks some of them as 1,2,3? (he shouldn't, but what if this happens?)

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You show him how ridiculous that is. Attack 1,2 and 3 because clearly that's what he wants, then /sit on the floor and watch it.

Generally, marking doesn't matter. It's the sign of a tank who is wanting to do the best he can at the job and trying too hard / doing poorly because of it. In content where you'd 1, 2, 3 a mob anyway, it's the levels where tanks aren't necessary. If he's marking in content higher than that, he should be pulling larger packs for AoE. Figure out what the smartest thing to do is, and just do that. In packs too small to AoE, you can prioritize your own target based on how annoying / dangerous it is to you (a good example is any enemy with large AoE that makes you move away from it).

I've been told last night that a blm is a single target class (ARR content), and therefore if I don't stop to aoe on my alt in keeper of the lake, they might kick me. Again not a lot of people know that I have alts and thought i am a new player. I then decided, to heal the tank with my 20 hp OP heals since he had such a problem. Kicked me, I went on my main joined in progress, and show'd them how it's done. Titan egi was way better than that tank, at least it's gonna pop a cooldown and pulls more than 2 mobs without telling the aoe classes not to aoe. This game is defiantly going somewhere, just not sure where lol

I know im not saying anything you dont already know, but that guy was a fool Luna. BLM isnt the best AoE class, but its a very respectable one. Fire 2 and Flare are great AoE spells, Bliz 2 is... an aoe spell as well... and freeze... exists. And considering that most default enemy groups are 3 enemies, a non-buffed Fire 2 would be 300 total potency spread between them, while a Fire 1 would be only 180 potency on one of them. To me, that seems like a pretty clear indication of what you should do(aside from avoid people like that).

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Originally Posted by Frizze

I know im not saying anything you dont already know, but that guy was a fool Luna. BLM isnt the best AoE class, but its a very respectable one. Fire 2 and Flare are great AoE spells, Bliz 2 is... an aoe spell as well... and freeze... exists. And considering that most default enemy groups are 3 enemies, a non-buffed Fire 2 would be 300 total potency spread between them, while a Fire 1 would be only 180 potency on one of them. To me, that seems like a pretty clear indication of what you should do(aside from avoid people like that).

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Bliz 2 and Freeze do not exist on any self-respecting BLM hot bar outside of possibly leveling (and even then just remove Freeze)

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Originally Posted by FunkyBunch

Bliz 2 and Freeze do not exist on any self-respecting BLM hot bar outside of possibly leveling (and even then just remove Freeze)

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PvP.

My mentality is that all your spells deserve a space on your hotbars; you will find uses for them if you go looking for them. Similarly, I can't state enough how good lethargy can be in certain situations.

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Originally Posted by NovaLevossida

PvP.

My mentality is that all your spells deserve a space on your hotbars; you will find uses for them if you go looking for them. Similarly, I can't state enough how good lethargy can be in certain situations.

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See I never think to include PVP discussions into these conversations >< And I have a PVP hotbar. Freeze is in it, B2 is not. I don't believe I made a comment about Lethargy at all, it's still on my single target hotbar, but I can't remember the last time it actually did anything.

Target priority is a HUGE thing for me, both as tank and DPS. Let's say you pull 6 mobs, 5 of which are just basic smackers, one that uses a partywide damaging attack... I'll mark the AOE one for first kill just so the healer does not need to worry about that target anymore, as well as reducing the load placed on the party by doing that. Once it is dead, have fun and murder the rest... Just understand the most dangerous things in any certain pull, clean it out first, then move onto the rest, be it single or AOE.

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Originally Posted by NovaLevossida

PvP.

My mentality is that all your spells deserve a space on your hotbars; you will find uses for them if you go looking for them. Similarly, I can't state enough how good lethargy can be in certain situations.

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I am the same way too. Whether you PvP or not (personally I do as well), I think it's good on principle to have a holistic knowledge of your entire toolkit no matter how 'situational' some abilities might be. It makes you a more balanced player instead of someone with a very narrow skillset. If you only how to turret out a memorized rotation in a boss fight, for example, you'll suffer when something throws you a curve ball or you have to think critically and improvise.

I've never come across a bad player with that mentality, because if you understand your entire toolkit, then it goes without saying that understanding the subset of it that applies to raiding, or roulette dungeons and so on is even easier.

I use the command "target target's target" on one of my mouse buttons.

When the tank does a pull, I click it and it immediately targets whichever mob the tank targeted.
If I think the tank switched targets, I click it twice. Once to retarget the tank, and again to target the tank's target.

It's also really useful as a healer, because I can quickly switch DPS (tank's target) and heal (the mob's target. In other words, the tank).