DPS best practices

[lulunami]

Unless there is a priority target to kill first because of a mechanic or damage taken, you should always choose the option that does the most DPS. Large pack of mobs? AoE is generally the best way to go.

In dungeons, you basically want to AoE everything down. So it is bad if you pull hate from a group of mobs that takes them far from the group. You want all the enemies to be bunched together to facilitate AoE from everyone in the party. You do not want to line of sight (LoS) a caster or cause other players to miss their AoEs.

[Myon88]

The best best practice as a DPS is to make sure you're hitting something, anything, every GCD you possibly can without missing a beat. Especially because crowd control isn't really an important mechanic in the game so far, even if you're just starting out, it's better to hit the wrong thing (and do at least some damage somewhere) than to hit nothing. If nothing else it will train you to make quick and correct decisions about target selection on the fly when needed.

It's kind of like being Keanu driving the bus in Speed, if you go below 50mph drop a GCD, your computer will blow up and you lose.

[randysquirrel]

Don't worry about it OP, as others have said, in dungeons you're mostly aoe-ing down packs anyway, rather than focusing one particular mob. Unless you're going absolutely ham, and purposely ignoring your aggro-reduction skills (quelling on BLM for example) it's not hard for tank to hold aggro. even if you do take aggro, just either move to a different target (if you are single targeting), or stay on that mob and kill it. tank will it either take it back or the thing will die. But try not to panic and start running about, that rarely helps. Depending what role you're playing, you'll likely have some defensive buffs you can use yourself if need be (keen flurry, manawall, etc)

no one bothers numbering targets any more, it's unnecessary micro-management

[FunkyBunch]

While others have said that AoE is the way to go on large pulls (technically 3+ mobs for every class due to group AoE synergies), I feel they are not being specific enough.

If you have a single target spell/combo you have to weave in to keep buffs up, or a spell with a higher potency on the first target:
It's an efficiency gain if you hit the HIGHEST health mob first. Because ideally, the AoE kills all the mobs at the same time. Every mob that dies early is an AoE DPS loss. (of 180 potency per F2 per early mob death if you're talking BLM).
So to keep GROUP DPS up, when you have single target stuff you have to do, switch to highest health target. ESPECIALLY if you're with MNK or BLM.
But the rule works with every DPS class' AoE rotation it's just more noticeable with MNK and BLM.

[Alistaire]

If they are pulling that large, you should be doing AoE unless there is a particularly dangerous single enemy lurking in the group. If a tank has pulled them, then they have accepted responsibility for holding aggro on all of them. It would be foolish to kill 1 by 1.

Even 4 mobs (and technically 3 but the difference isn't worth worrying about at that point).

[Spartan926]

First off I'd like to say thank you to everyone for the responses, this has helped quite a bit to better understand my role.

Second I came across a couple other questions I had while running Haukke manor.

1) As a monk I have a DOT that comes at the end of my rotation, offering greased lightning. I also have a DOT that I can use as part of the GDC without breaking the rotation. Should I be applying the one that doesn't break the GDC first? or the one that comes at the end of my Monk Rotation?

2) Does the rear of a monster count as a flank?

[Darkstride]

First off I'd like to say thank you to everyone for the responses, this has helped quite a bit to better understand my role.

Second I came across a couple other questions I had while running Haukke manor.

1) As a monk I have a DOT that comes at the end of my rotation, offering greased lightning. I also have a DOT that I can use as part of the GDC without breaking the rotation. Should I be applying the one that doesn't break the GDC first? or the one that comes at the end of my Monk Rotation?

2) Does the rear of a monster count as a flank?

Rear is rear. Flank is to the left or right side of the rear position.





Not my images, just what Google gave me with a quick search. But you get the point.

[LunaFaye]

What to do when tank pulls 6+ mobs, but then marks some of them as 1,2,3? (he shouldn't, but what if this happens?)

You show him how ridiculous that is. Attack 1,2 and 3 because clearly that's what he wants, then /sit on the floor and watch it.

[NovaLevossida]

Generally, marking doesn't matter. It's the sign of a tank who is wanting to do the best he can at the job and trying too hard / doing poorly because of it. In content where you'd 1, 2, 3 a mob anyway, it's the levels where tanks aren't necessary. If he's marking in content higher than that, he should be pulling larger packs for AoE. Figure out what the smartest thing to do is, and just do that. In packs too small to AoE, you can prioritize your own target based on how annoying / dangerous it is to you (a good example is any enemy with large AoE that makes you move away from it).

[LunaFaye]

I've been told last night that a blm is a single target class (ARR content), and therefore if I don't stop to aoe on my alt in keeper of the lake, they might kick me. Again not a lot of people know that I have alts and thought i am a new player. I then decided, to heal the tank with my 20 hp OP heals since he had such a problem. Kicked me, I went on my main joined in progress, and show'd them how it's done. Titan egi was way better than that tank, at least it's gonna pop a cooldown and pulls more than 2 mobs without telling the aoe classes not to aoe. This game is defiantly going somewhere, just not sure where lol