Does the ffxiv tutorial ever tell you how to use the target circle?

Recently I was told that when on a melee class like monk and ninja the ring you see on targets has an "open" area which is basically the back and anything else is the flank (sides) and the arrow up front is face. Why doesn't the ffxiv tutorial ever tell us this? This just made playing monk 100 times more fun. No wonder no one plays monk if they don't understand this ring..
I hope they add it to the tutorial, it's too important.
By the way I joined ffxiv before the smith tutorials but I feel like it should be explained better. Anyone else find out about this really late?

I was told some time in Heavensward. I've been playing FFXIV since the legacy campaign in 1.0...

While it didn't affect me much because I tend to tank/heal, it was definitely handy once I started testing out classes where it matters.

I...honestly thought this was pretty common sense? Where have you been attacking this whole time if you weren't aware of this? Because the front half is usually cleave range for a lot of bosses that are looking at tanks.

Wow I’m even more unobservant than I thought. I mean, I haven’t played a melee class yet, but I’ve never noticed any openings in the target circles, just a totally closed ring and the arrow up front?

It should be something that is covered though. When I first started playing with melee dps, I was confused because I thought flank and rear were the same, my knowledge of the definitions at the time being a bit fuzzy. If the tutorial is meant to teach, it shouldn’t leave such vital elements out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pondera

It should be something that is covered though. When I first started playing with melee dps, I was confused because I thought flank and rear were the same, my knowledge of the definitions at the time being a bit fuzzy. If the tutorial is meant to teach, it shouldn’t leave such vital elements out.

---

Oh, yea, if we're talking solely flank and rear, I can understand that - that confused me as well when I first played on monk.

I am very concerned right now, I thought it was obvious what the ring was about when I saw it rotate with the mob, but that might be my experience starting the game as a Monk talking .

I use the ring to determine mob facing to try and sneak past it if I don't feel like fighting it or during the All Saint's Wake mansion event. (unless I'm playing NIN, then I sneak past)

It's actually never explained and I played Monk all the way to 50 and some end game stuff during 2.0 without knowing the exact point at where flank ended and behind began. I'd make these long swings from side to right behind the mob each time until I found out lol. A friend pointed it out to me back then.

The thing is though. Many people now level DPS through Palace of the Dead and all those mobs in there have no indications when you target them. They have a full circle all the way around them, even the bosses. POTD gives me a bad taste in my mouth, I feel like it can breed players that end up at level cap with little knowledge of how to properly play jobs. At the very least it has the potential to breed bad melee.

Another thing that is very annoying and I'm not sure how much can be done about it. But when a certain target is under severe attack by many players and all those effects are going off it can sometimes be very hard to see the targets directional graphic on the ground. In that case, I end up just defaulting back to my old technique of going far to the side and then directly behind to just make sure lol.

It's really not surprising that this is a thing many people miss and that they only figure out late into playing a melee job. It really isn't glaringly obvious, especially with what I've mentioned above.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skeltal-Bons

I am very concerned right now, I thought it was obvious what the ring was about when I saw it rotate with the mob, but that might be my experience starting the game as a Monk talking .

---

Unfortunately what’s obvious to you isn’t obvious to others, when I played the game back in 1.0 I completely forked up the ring concept as well, I knew what was the front but I didn’t understand exactly where on the ring did rear and flank fit into...new players may not know that and this is part of the trying to get better initiative no matter how obvious it is

Yeah, I didn't learn this until sometime in Heavensward when someone was telling my husband (who plays monk). We both played since the launch of ARR. He always went full side and full rear. Neither of us just never noticed the break. We saw the arrow at the front, but the ring break was just super mutable, especially when you're watching more of the environment than the floor around the boss.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tempest222

Wow I’m even more unobservant than I thought. I mean, I haven’t played a melee class yet, but I’ve never noticed any openings in the target circles, just a totally closed ring and the arrow up front?

---

I would have said the same thing but sure enough, I went back to check and it is very clearly open at the back.

I think it might be a combination of our brain seeing what we expect to see, and the fact that when you start out, you're probably fighting monsters straight-on and the monster itself 'blocks out' the gap in the ring - so you simply assume it continues as a complete circle, and you just never look at at it again close enough to realise that it isn't.

I'd worked out the mark that indicates the front (mostly important for things like sprites and bee swarms that don't have faces) but, like some other people have already posted, was never sure how to tell the dividing line between flank and rear.

I don't think so, but I knew what rear and flank meant.

Yup, the next time I was in game after seeing this thread I checked out some target circles and there was the gap in the back. It’s so obvious I can’t believe I never saw it before lol.

They don't normally have tutorials on things you can completely remove in the game. I've had that ugly circle turned off from the start and never needed it to figure out where the hit boxes for flank and rear are.

I feel like the game does KINDOF explain it, as I think it's the 2nd Guildhest (the one with the giant suit of armour) does cover telling people that attacking from the back is more efficient ("because it's harder for the foe to block or brace for attacks it cant see"), but thinking about it yeah they never mention how the targeting circle specificly works

WOW do I feel stupid now. I went in game after this and now I see it.

I still don't see difference. I see a concentric ring with arrow at front.

Already knowing what the terms flank and rear meant helped a lot when restarting mnk in 2.0 (positionals were what drew me to pgl back in 1.0) but I also didn't notice the break in the target circle at the back until a couple weeks in. I just went fully to the side or fully to the back based on the enemy model. Knowing the exact measure for each position allows you to get the same effect but with less time spent moving

They could mention it in one of the pop-ups that appear for new chars since all the melee have to use positionals eventually

I think I just kind of deduced about that ring the moment I started playing dragoon (pretty sure Dragoon used to have the directionals back in the day), but I'd just chalk that up to playing too many video games...
That being said, I'd say that the target ring having these features only helps you hone in on mobs with more confusing form factors. Otherwise, it's typically pretty clear where the monster is facing, which in turn tells you where the rear and flanks are.

PotD also removes this entirely and makes them closed rings with no arrows, which I guess just stokes the "potd creates bad players!" fires...

I have a question though, leading on from what I said earlier. How many people actually use the Target Ring? Pretty much everyone I know in the game has it turned off because of how ugly it makes the game, and several others I asked about this before also had it turned off from the start. So do enough people use it to justify adding in a tutorial about it?

I doubt we will ever know many people do bs don’t use the target ring. It would just be anecdotal evidence either way obviously. Personally I have no clue what others are doing, I just know that I do use the target circles. I honestly didn’t even know there was an option to turn the off until just now, but that doesn’t change anything for me. I find them helpful and will be keeping them on. My vision isn’t the best, so the target rings are just something extra that are big and obvious so I can easily see which direction something is facing when there is a lot else going on. I would definitely struggle more without them.

I don’t think it would hurt to add it to the tutorial since it does seem the rings are on by default, so brand new players are probably still going to have them on at the time they reach that part of the game. Then even if they decide to turn them off later they will still have gotten that knowledge that is useful whether or not you have the target circles showing.

I learned about the ring while leveling MNK during Heavensward. Of course I knew about flank, rear and front positioning but never realized the circle was actually a graphic indicator for them.
I went "Ooooooh... man I'm an idiot.".. been playing since 1.0 alpha.

Anecdotally while tanking lately, I have seen quite a few melee players not doing positionals. In my own time playing as MNK, I was told about how to use the target ring by a more experienced player of the same job. Needless to say, I think a tutorial explaining them would be very welcome.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Settiesama

I have a question though, leading on from what I said earlier. How many people actually use the Target Ring? Pretty much everyone I know in the game has it turned off because of how ugly it makes the game, and several others I asked about this before also had it turned off from the start. So do enough people use it to justify adding in a tutorial about it?

---

I think its not that people turn them off they just see past the ring. The rings aren't at all ugly like other games make their rings. So I never did. But also since I played other games with those same rings, I knew what to do with them. The game itself never told me. I have told alot of people about them though and they never knew. The game would benefit from a tutorial popup. Granted not everyone reads those either but....I mean its better than nothing.

I started the game as a smn and it took me a while to understand that I need shadowflare to just hit the target ring and not focus on the enemy model itself. Like, that could lose you a lot of dps with something that has a long tail but also means that you can still fixed aoe ozma.

Quote:

---

I have a question though, leading on from what I said earlier. How many people actually use the Target Ring? Pretty much everyone I know in the game has it turned off because of how ugly it makes the game, and several others I asked about this before also had it turned off from the start. So do enough people use it to justify adding in a tutorial about it?

---

I didn't even know there was a setting to turn it off. But I never would, because positionals are too important and knowing what I have targeted is nice.

Even without needing to know which way a target is facing, I’d never turn the target ring off - it’s valuable in crowded melee situations to keep track of where your target is - if they move around, or there’s more than one of that monster, or you changed targets using the enmity list and need to see where your target physically is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Iscah

Even without needing to know which way a target is facing, I’d never turn the target ring off - it’s valuable in crowded melee situations to keep track of where your target is - if they move around, or there’s more than one of that monster, or you changed targets using the enmity list and need to see where your target physically is.

---

There is a large marker above the current target that tells you where it is. You don't need the ring for that.

Does hitting from the back gives any damage bonuses or its just for skills purpose?
Gotta move around the boss to face his back to my melee dps as a true mvp tank. :D

Quote:

---

There is a large marker above the current target that tells you where it is.

---

A marker that's actually ON the target is still better.

For everyone who says it should be obvious, of course hit things from the rear, etc, OP is specifically talking about this:

http://i67.tinypic.com/9a4boj.png
http://i68.tinypic.com/xlfbjm.jpg

Yes, people know enough about the terms "flank" and "rear" that they hit things from the side and from the back. But the best way to do it is to be just at the boundary and take a half step over to switch positions, because when you get to primals and raid bosses, doing 90º position changes will require running literally 8y instead of 0.5y.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nedkel

Does hitting from the back gives any damage bonuses or its just for skills purpose?
Gotta move around the boss to face his back to my melee dps as a true mvp tank. :D

---

All attacks get bonus accuracy when hitting from flank or rear. Damage bonuses are specific to certain actions though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pondera

It should be something that is covered though. When I first started playing with melee dps, I was confused because I thought flank and rear were the same, my knowledge of the definitions at the time being a bit fuzzy. If the tutorial is meant to teach, it shouldn’t leave such vital elements out.

---

no, flank is from the side, rear is from behind.... >.> how does anyone confuse the two for the same thing. I dont need game tutorials to tell me the difference.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Settiesama

There is a large marker above the current target that tells you where it is. You don't need the ring for that.

---

Unless enemies are tall or you are short.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Canopia

no, flank is from the side, rear is from behind.... >.> how does anyone confuse the two for the same thing. I dont need game tutorials to tell me the difference.

---

Not everyone speaks English as their first language, and I'm not sure how common the word "flank" is in everyday use. I've only really encountered the word in military-setting games and books. You could also have been like me and thought it was just mostly flavor text. Back then, I thought it didn't matter as long as I wasn't hitting things from the front. Only realized that it did matter after reading a guide.

Quick PSA for anyone that doesn't know since this is about targeting; if you are a mouse click player you can click on the Signs above targets heads and it will target that person/object/mob.

It's not explained.

Many things are not explained in this game (like controller targeting or chat channel shortcuts)

and a variety of other things are explained at a time when the chance of someone using a feature are low (like linkshells, it's unlockable too early, people who actually unlock when it's available don't yet understand the use for it and thus "skip it for later", and by the time "later" comes they forgot the feature even existed)

or explained poorly (like hunts, don't know how many new people think it only applies to hunting bills and not A/S ranks because of the poor explanation).

And while some people might notice certain things, it isn't always obvious for everyone.

I dont think the tutorial mentiones it, I learned it via a tips and tricks guide for tanks from the forum.