Why mark targets?

[Maku]

Always mark targets. That way even if the DPS ignore them and attack a different mob it is their fault. But if you don't mark they can blame you for not marking.

[Pruviant]

Just mark your targets and stop being lazy. I do it every run, all the time. If you are running roulette and have too much to do as a tank to where you can't mark stuff, time to become a full-time BRD, dude. I'm gonna leave your math alone because just WOW.

[Kallale]

It's an argument between three things, safety, speed, and stress. People don't necessarily like the stress of not knowing what mob you are attacking next. Also, people definitely don't like the stress of, "This tank isn't marking. Does he know what he's doing?" Having a pull-more-than-one-group-AOE-party will definitely tilt the encounter more towards speed/stress and it will be over faster assuming everything goes to plan. You have be far more alert. A strict pull-one-group-kill-one-mob-at-a-time strategy is very low stress and high safety. A focused mob dies relatively quickly vs an AOE'd mob. Every mob that dies is less damage for the healer to heal. Sometimes people just want to autopilot a dungeon. They may have come off of a hard fight on an alt class and just don't want to remain too alert. Or maybe they just want a relaxing run vs a fast run. As a tank, you dictate the pace. However, it is not a dictatorship. Try to find the pace everyone is happy with, and people will be happy with you.

P.S. I have found that you can tell when an encounter is being tanked well based on one factor, Chaos. Generally speaking, the more chaos that is going on, the less skilled/more inexperienced your tank is. A tank that has mastered a dungeon makes it seem very mundane by explaining nuances and conducting encounters in an orderly manner. Pharos Sirius is not the nightmare so many people make it out to be. Keep the chaos low and people will love it.

[Yyrkoon]

I had the same issue with 4-man dungeon not to long ago. I was holding aggro but the healer insulted me and just went on about how I wasn't marking and looking through his characters he hasn't ever tanked before. none of the dps were complaining and I don't mark normally, but out of the countless dungeons I have run all the dps and healers just tell me to rush through it and hold aggro. just this once I got told to mark. So it's pretty interesting imho.

[sylin]

Are people getting worse at playing MMOS as time goes on? I mean having the option to mark sure for some encounters, but requiring it for trash mobs LOL, l2p noob...if I played tank I wouldn't mark mobs in general, the mob the tank is facing that's losing life, is the one you should be hitting.../tt will target the tanks target...I more or less laugh when in aPUG and the dps cried if the tank doesn't mark mobs, I mean so now a tanks job is to protect everyone, lead the party, and paint by numbers? while a dps job is to ....spam buttons LOL, I suppose I can see if they are writing macros associated with markings, but other than that, if for normal group content you cant function without the tank marking out mobs for you....maybe these aren't your type of games.

[Katchii]

Damage over time abilities (e.g. Fracture, Touch of Death, Venomous Bite) yield superior DPS, so it's ideal to apply every available DoT to every enemy (unless you're using AoE), at least once at the start of each pull. Marking targets and using only single-target combos yields inferior damage.

Marking targets has nothing to do about damage, and everything about making tanking and healing easier. Just because they're marked doesn't mean you can't AoE or put up DoT's on secondary targets, it's used to mark the kill order, because using AoE abilities is resource intensive and not nearly as effective as single target killing in regards to tanking and healing.

It's much easier to heal when the amount of damage coming in lowers over time, and when 1 of 4 mobs dies the incoming damage drops by 25%. It's also easier to tank and heal when everyone is attacking the same target rather than having every mob attacking a different party member. Even great tanks can't hold threat on mobs if every DPS is attacking a different target. The AoE threat tools available for them just don't cut it when a DPS is going full out on a mob.

Unless my fundamental understanding of numbers is wrong, marking and focusing one at a time is worse DPS.

Again, it's not about DPS, it's about party cohesion and effectiveness. I don't care how much DPS you're putting out if peple are dying or it's a hectic pull every time because you can't hold threat due to everyone atacking different targets.

Marking the mob doesn't mean don't AoE or put up DoT's it means "kill them in this order."

I've even explained how the maximizing of DoTs is superior damage and makes for a faster, easier run

I'll say this one more time: marking targets does not stop people from using DoT's or AoE Stop being lazy, when everyone knows which mob to focus on, the groups runs smoother. And I have my doubts that your method yields runs that are any faster than one from a tank that marks a kill order. I'd actually believe the opposite, because when mobs are running everywhere and you can't focus on one target to kill and the healer is having to go into overdrive to keep everyone from dying, things go slower.

[AlrikRouge]

I did a LL dungeon on DF roulette last night with my i80+ PLD.

Despite marking the targets (which took a couple seconds at most), the SMN and ARC had other plans: SMN attack #1, ARC attack #1$2 (or focus on 2) and SMN had her summon attacking #3 (or a 3rd target if I hadn't bothered marketing a 3rd) RIGHT at the start of the battle through the end.

About halfway through the dungeon, I decided to stop contesting for aggro with the DPS Gone Wild (as it was provoke, shield lob, running around crap) let the ARC deal with the mob (who died), and finally the DPS focused on a target until it was dead. DoTing all mobs wasn't the problem either. It was expecting me as the tank to deal with them doing what they want when they want. 6 mobs, lower level, no real AoEs? All but healer level synced. I had no Shield Oath.

Mind you, no one said anything in the run other than a greeting.

Props to the healer though for dealing with it and us not wiping once.

[Katchii]

Are people getting worse at playing MMOS as time goes on? I mean having the option to mark sure for some encounters, but requiring it for trash mobs LOL, l2p noob...if I played tank I wouldn't mark mobs in general, the mob the tank is facing that's losing life, is the one you should be hitting.../

Doesn't work quite that way in this game due to how healing threat works, PLD tanks especially have to switch between the mobs to use their threat generating attacks to ensure all mobs stick to the tank rather than have one rush to the healer.

In many MMO's your statement is true, FFXIV forces tanks to actually work for their threat because everyone can generate a ton f it.

[AlrikRouge]

This is from another thread about tanking looking intimidating: (I made the bold and italics)

You honestly need to learn the role... I personally as a dps and healer pull mobs in lower dungeons to see how the tank handles agro... If they can get it back from me I know they know what there doing and say nothing... If they don't get it back from me I educate them on what needs to be done... Ask your dps if they can pull the mobs cause you want to test your skills... This game and its jobs are learning experiences only... As long as you can hold agro thats 95% of your job the other 5% is dodging aoe's and knowing where to tank the enemy at, which can easily be achieved by telling a group your a new tank to the trial/dungeon... Most people will help you out...

This seems like an off-hand comment and remark, and the intention is actually good, but I disagree with it and the methodology in full.

By the logic, this person is saying that they will do the tank's job and see if the tank can take it back - or do something wrong and see if the tank will fix it. Using the same example but reversed, an experienced tank should then stay in AoEs and not dodge magic attacks that can be dodged, or not use CDs that should be used, to see if the healer can keep him healed.

This is also a reason I mark targets: the party is a team when going into a zone - dungeon or raid. Tank is like the QB, calls the play, and everyone goes at it in a coordinated effort. You target the mobs for ease of efficiency in knowing which one to focus on.

[Greven]

As an healer marks make it easier or "possible" to throw in damage or CC. As a DPS having marks make it quicker to focus or to not. As a tank it makes it way easier to control the enmity. Tank doesn't have to be the one to mark everything, just put a Shield Lob/Tomahawk macroed with marks and you're done. It's not like you can't play markless but they help a lot, especially with players you doesn't know so do it