People who ask for marks in DF

[Tyrial]

I find marking to be a pointless endeavor honestly. I'm either running with my friends/FC members and don't need to mark because we're already way over geared for AK/CM or I'm in a PUG in the DF and it doesn't matter what I mark, I could be giving away a million dollars to the first DPS to kill mob 1 and they all still pick whatever the hell they want.

[Scape13]

Lazy tanks.

[AridElf]

I always mark. Whenever I join a dungeon I always ask what happened to their previous tank, their style, and if they did anything which the group didn't like so I can avoid the same mistake. I have yet to replace a tank that DID mark targets, and my group always seem to sing praises when I tell them that I DO mark targets.

Just get into the habit, it's not difficult and it makes pulls a lot easier. Is it really worth a few extra seconds shaved off your dungeon timer when mobs are scattered everywhere and your healer is losing MP from having to heal more than just one person? For the sake of the healer's brain, I prefer to burn one mob at a time.

It takes longer to raise a fallen ally or retry a pull from aggro flying all over the place than it does taking the targets one at a time.

[Rydiah]

When I play DPS, its helpful. If they don't mark, that's fine too...I always assist the tank, of course the other DPS just hits whatever they want lol. When I'm healing, I hope they mark because it seems most DPS don't know how to assist and sometimes, mobs go everywhere.

I'm going to pick my gladiator back up today and was looking for the best way to mark. I see a lot of tanks stop for a long time because they can't mark very fast, do you guys just put the marks on your bars? Do you use macros? Would MO macros be faster? What keybinds work best for you? Advice!

[Ehayte]

AE vs Single Target Burns, let's look at a typical party's pull of trash mobs in AK:

Mob 1 - 100 DPS - 20k hp
Mob 2 - 125 DPS - 20k hp
Mob 3 - 100 DPS - 20k hp

If we AE them down, and the party is doing, let's say 500dps total between all mobs, we are left with:
120 seconds of 325 DPS (100+125+100) = 39,000 damage dealt to the tank.

Now, let's say we single target burn with marks, we're doing the same dps, but one at a time:
Mob1 - up for 120s - produces 100dps = 12,000 damage produced
Mob3 - up for 80s - produces 100dps = 8,000 damage produced
Mob2 - up for 40s - produces 125dps = 5,000 damage produced
Total damage produced: 25,000

So we now have about 64% of total damage produced. That's literally the most powerful debuff I have ever heard of in this game. Now, if you are overgeared it matters so little and the time is the same without the pesky targeting. If you are a fledgling group or you have low tankage/healing power, marking REALLY helps.

[SirTaint]

Whats the best way to mark? Seperate 1,2,3 commands? Or build them into Macros with other abilities?

Ex. Should Fast Blade have a built in #1? So everytime I use it the mob gets labeled #1?

I'm a long time FF11 player so marking is brand new to me.

[Ehayte]

Do you use macros? Would MO macros be faster? What keybinds work best for you? Advice!

I can't speak for PC players, but on PS3 the time taken to mark is a burden sometimes, so I made a super simple macro of:

/marking off <t>
/marking "Cross" <t>

That just strips the current mark off the mob, and marks it with a cross. I tell my dps: Just follow the X! I just keep the target I want DPS on marked, and switch it to the next mob until there is only one left. I find marking 1, 2, 3 is fine, but if I want to change the strategy mid-fight I can't, or have to go through extra xhotbars to accomplish what I want.

[Ehayte]

Whats the best way to mark? Seperate 1,2,3 commands? Or build them into Macros with other abilities?

Ex. Should Fast Blade have a built in #1? So everytime I use it the mob gets labeled #1?

I'm a long time FF11 player so marking is brand new to me.

I wouldn't, personally, as I don't ALWAYS use FB on the target I want marked (I should, but I don't). See my post above for my thoughts : D

[Conradus]

Do you realize that you can write *macros* that target according to the marks that have been laid out? <attack1> <bind2> <square> You can use those placeholders and their brothers to write targetting macros or macros that just go ahead and perform an action on that target. Granted, this is rather difficult for a Duty Finder pick-up group to use, but it is a very powerful technique.

[Shadowblind]

I ALWAYS mark as a tank. I haven't played a dungeon where I haven't, and I've also never gotten yelled at for tanking wrong.

Coincidence? Don't think so.

P.S. I use a controller.