Why mark targets?

[blowfin]

Why are people against communication and coordination? In an MMO?

I'm not against communication and coordination, I just have a problem with providing crutches for people. Basically, if you keep giving them that, they won't learn for themselves. It might sound slightly harsh but it's actually the best outcome for everyone.

Again, not saying I don't mark in certain situations, I just don't do it religiously.

Sometimes you don't even need to mark to sort things out. A simple "Could you guys please kill the Wamoura's first" does the trick too.

[Alice_89th]

Marking may not help increasing outgoing damage, but it definitly helps decrease the incoming damage.

By quickly eliminating enemies with harmful abilities or healing skills, and/or showing which target to focus on. It shows which mob to return to when all DoTs/ other tricks are done. It prevents you DPS from attacking two different mobs, and burn down one instead. Which means less incoming damage, which means less strain on the healer, which means the healer might even have free time to DPS. It helps prevent the DPS accidently pull agro. It teaches people who are new to a dungeon certain mechanics. It teaches people who are not new to a dungeon but who didn't encounter any problems in earlier runs certain mechanics.

TL;DR: it makes a run go smoother.

I'm not against communication and coordination, I just have a problem with providing crutches for people. Basically, if you keep giving them that, they won't learn for themselves. It might sound slightly harsh but it's actually the best outcome for everyone.

Again, not saying I don't mark in certain situations, I just don't do it religiously.

But how are people supposed to learn if someone doesn't show them?
Yes you learn from mistakes, but it is a lot faster if you simply explain (by marking or otherwise) once. Marking or explaining doesn't stop them from learning to do things on their own, it helps them learn faster. It is not a crutch to help people walk, it is a roadsign to show them which direction to walk in.

Yes, this is true. Of course, the DPS are free to DoT even when marks are up. I should have clarified that, for me, marking is almost always equated with "focus down one at a time".

Except that marks don't tell you to tunel vision an enemy, but that that one takes priority. Even for DoT classes that can be helpfull. For example: I am a SMN, I will DoT the tarket marked with 1, and then use Bane to spread to the rest. This way the priority target will have a few more ticks. It also tells me which target to return to when I have every single DoT up and a few spare moments to do something else, and which target I should put Garuda on.