Marking Targets

[SerDakota]

I have been playing a dps recently and noticed not a single tank marks targets in the 30 or so dungeons I've done and when I'm tanking and mark everyone for the most part ignores them so I'm curious do any of you mark targets still? I know it used to be a big deal but is it still?


And a totally unrelated note but not deserving of its own post as a PLD I can do just my zodiac braves quest for the sword and not shield right?

[Mezlabor]

I rarely see it anymore. Generally as a dps if we aren't aoeing everything down Ill watch my aggro meter and switch targets as I start to gain enmity on a mob.

[Mykll]

I admit I stopped marking a while back. I have noticed however, the better DPS (and I suppose healer if you going to do some damage too) will start on the target I Provoke / pulled, or ranged toss pulled first. And then they usually then down the next "dangerous" one in the pack (usually the one dropping AOE or something). All without marking. Unless it is a lower level dungeon where especially someone is new I will still mark, or if I am waiting on a patroller I will mark that so people may know why I am just standing there.

[Ehayte]

- They made tank enmity a total joke so it takes a DPS being a jerk and going unreasonably hard on a single target while a tank ignores it to pull hate.

- While you can upgrade the PLD Sword before the Shield or vice versa in the ATMA>Animus stage, the answer is generally, no. You cannot complete a relic quest for just your Sword, before moving to the next step both must have undergone the transformation to the previous.

[monochromicorn]

- They made tank enmity a total joke so it takes a DPS being a jerk and going unreasonably hard on a single target while a tank ignores it to pull hate.

- While you can upgrade the PLD Sword before the Shield or vice versa in the ATMA>Animus stage, the answer is generally, no. You cannot complete a relic quest for just your Sword, before moving to the next step both must have undergone the transformation to the previous.

He said he played pld, which everyone knows how awful aggro is for a pld in low-levels. War, starring aggro is strong, pld, not so much. We don't even get a proper tank stance until 40, by which time dps have already gotten hard hitting skills. So, no extra aggro multipliers, doing stupid low damage, and dps hitting harder than ever, low level for pld is not a joke. Post-50, unless it's a large pull I don't need a tank stance as either pld or war.

And onto the real topic, marking overall is useless, if you want to do, I don't say anything and go after the lowest number. I never marked, just because I know, most of the time, dps don't care. I've marked before, and a bard decided to attack the only unmarked mob, I even started attacking it once I saw the health dropping. The beard promptly switched targets. Oh, and nins, don't even get me started. It seems like every non wants to tank at least one mob per pull. They don't even care. It's ridiculous.

[cgbspender]

Easy, as a healer, as soon as I cast a cure/ regen on the tank, it displays a list of the enemies the tank had an effect on (provocation, flash, whatsoever), so it becomes immediatly clear as crystal which enemy has its life decreasing faster than the other.
For any dps, it will display the list too, as soon as the player casts an aoe.

Anyway, just relying on enmity as a dps, is really blind. If every dps focus on a different enemy, it will always make the fights harder on the healer. Say, each dps can put an enemy down in a minute by solo-ing it. Tanks will get hit by the 2 mobs during a minute. If you focus the same enemy as the other dps, you can safely assume it will take 30 seconds to kill it. And another 30 to kill the second enemy, which, in other words, means that the tank (and possibly even the dps), get hit by half during the second part of the fight.
For most healers, it won't change a thing. For new players or slightly undergeared healers, it certainly does matter.

[Seryl199]

In leveling dungeons especially, as a healer main, I like seeing a tank actively mark. I'll sleep the last mob in the pack if there's limited aoe presence, and it does help focus damage when generating enough enmity to hold everything may be an issue. If someone gets whacked in the face by attacking an unmarked mob, it's pretty clear who's at fault. If there's a legitimate reason to kill a mob first, communicate why it's a good idea to kill that mob first, so that players learn from the encounter. For example, I typically point out mobs that heal others, like barbers in Pharos, or moths in lost city. Even putting a 1 on whatever you're attacking, then switching the 1 to your next mob is often sufficient to keep damage focused so that it's not a problem. In many cases once you've reached level 50 however, aoe damage is often significant enough to ignore single targeting, making marks less useful.

[Scorp6]

As a 43 PLD, I mark one target to focus first and help me build a little enmity then don't care and will rotate enmity abilities and while cycling through mobs see if I need to give more love to a certain mob.

[aisustrong]

if the dps have a brain, they start on whatever the tanks target is, or on some special mob that needs to die first, like the humans that transform into dragons in stone vigil hard and snow cloak

[Galgarion]

Marking is only necessary in low DPS groups where focus firing is the only way to get things killed (provided you don't lose patience and quit due to how long it's taking), or if you're just starting out and want to minimise your damage received. I used to mark all the time, but it's pointless in higher level content, which is where your character will eventually spend most of his time. The name of the game is chain pulling, and once you get good at that, everything else will feel too slow.

Incidentally, Paladins only have problems tanking brayflox normal and Quarn normal. They can easily handle Sastasha through Haukke, and Stone Vigil and up is a joke.