Tips for marking with a gamepad

[Nonlinear314]

I recently hit 50 and like to tank and thought I would share some tips that have helped me quickly mark monsters in dungeons while using a gamepad, hopefully this will help other tanks having issues or give some ideas to gamepad users who are having trouble marking stuff quickly. I leveled through DF and haven't tanked much at 50 yet but this system has let me easily tank everything up through AV with a gamepad. I’ve run a lot of DF on other characters and have tanks complain that marking is a pain with gamepad. If anything this thread might give some people a few ideas or get their gears turning on how they can set up and efficiently swap between their hotbar sets.

The hardest part I've found is swapping sets to mark while in combat, e.g. R1 + button, put up marks then swap back with R1+another button. This is tedious and can be greatly simplified by going to the Hotbar section of the Character Configuration menu, going to the Cross section and checking "Enable customization" and "Enable customization for when weapon is drawn" under "Set Selection":



In the example image above, I have checked hotbars 1, 2 and 4 in the first section and hotbars 1 and 2 in the second section. The first section can be thought of as your out-of-combat hotbar(s) and the "weapon drawn" section can be thought of as the in-combat hotbar(s) that you use most often.

You can press R1+button to select hotbars, but you can also tap R1 and it will cycle through whatever bars you check under "Enable customization..." so in the above pic, when my weapon is sheathed, tapping R1 will cycle between bars 1,2 and 4. When my weapon is drawn, tapping R1 will alternate between bars 1 and 2.

You may be asking, how does this help me mark monsters? For that it helps to see how I have my bars set up:


Note: I don't use any macros for marking (e.g. adding /attack1 to a shield lob/tomahawk macro) because I like having more control over what gets marked (and unmarked). I do use a lot of macros to save space on my cross hotbar, they can be found in the tanking threads on this forum (e.g. I macro Mercy Stroke to every hit of 1-2-3 combo, Flight or Flight to Fast Blade, Bloodbath to Savage Blade, Scorn to Flash, Rampart to Shield Lob, etc.).

In the pic above, you can see that hotbar set 1 is standard combat fare, my 1-2-3 combo plus riot blade are mapped to R2/trigger + buttons, other high use stuff to L2/trigger + buttons (Flash/Provoke/Stun/Lob) . CDs and other things I don’t use as much (such as things I cannot use while moving) I map to L2/R2+d-pad since I typically need to take my thumb off the left stick to activate them and so they are a little harder to activate while moving.

Hotbar set 2 is slightly different. The four main buttons are all mapped exactly the same as bar 1 (and bar 4 for R2/trigger) but the d-pad mappings are different. Instead of CDs I have some marks (Open "signs" menu and attach them to the bar slots), Limit Break and Circle of Scorn (mostly to fill the slot, can put another mark there or w/e).

Coupled with customized set selection, this allows me to tap R1 once and it will bring up my marks, select targets with left-right on the d-pad, mark them with R2/L2 + d-pad while still having access to my important tanking abilities (e.g. 1-2-3 combo, flash/provoke/stun, etc.) on my main buttons. Then I simply tap R1 again to go back to set 1 (2x if out of combat but is much easier to just put yourself in combat with shield lob, see below).

So before a pull (assuming weapon is sheathed) I tap R1 once to bring up set 2, mark the mobs then just use shield lob (same button for set 1 and 2, R2/Trigger+Circle/B) and when I toss the shield it draws my weapon and automatically bring my back to bar 1, ready for combat (if weapon is already drawn I just tap R1 again). If I need to mark an add or change marks up, I can use the first half of GCD to tap R1, mark and tap R1 again to get back to main set 1. If I don’t have time to do all that in 1 GCD and need to do a hit of 1-2-3 combo or use provoke or flash before switching back, I can do that, then I just tap R1 after to get back to set 1. This cuts down on a lot of the button pressing you have to do to swap hotbar sets. D-pad targeting while you are attacking also lets you “soft” target stuff so you can mark or w/e without losing your current target (great for assists and not having to tab back) or interrupting your auto attack.

Hope this helps some people. Enjoy and happy marking!

[SirTaint]

Good write up.

I have Hotbar1 for generic actions. Mounts,Teleport,Return,Marking1-5,Sprinting,Engage and Ranged pulling. I have it set as shared as well so its the same accross all jobs.

Then Hotbar2 for weapon drawn actions and not shared so it changes for each job. (normal AC commands and macros)

This allows me to run around, teleport etc but the 2nd I engage all my AC commands are in place. I rarely have to toggle hotbars.

[Nonlinear314]

Good write up.

I have Hotbar1 for generic actions. Mounts,Teleport,Return,Marking1-5,Sprinting,Engage and Ranged pulling. I have it set as shared as well so its the same accross all jobs.

Then Hotbar2 for weapon drawn actions and not shared so it changes for each job. (normal AC commands and macros)

This allows me to run around, teleport etc but the 2nd I engage all my AC commands are in place. I rarely have to toggle hotbars.

Thanks, and thanks for the reply/insight. And I agree, one of the big takeaways with using the "Enable customization for when weapon is drawn." is that it allows you to do whatever you like bar-wise and as soon as you draw your weapon it will automatically pull up your main combat bar.

The only minor issue I've had is if I start marking the next pack while my weapon is still out. Sometimes it will sheath the weapon and flip my bar back to bar 1. I've done it enough now to where I make sure my weapon is in a steady state. Seems like this can be avoided with your method since you are already using set 1 for marking.

[Shemhazai]

I use a xbox controller and to me it seems like a waste of bar space to have marks on it. I simply target the enemy and press X (Square for playstation) and press up once and select Mark then choose the mark. I've gotten good at this and it takes me like 3 seconds to have a group marked without having extra sets.

[Nonlinear314]

I use a xbox controller and to me it seems like a waste of bar space to have marks on it. I simply target the enemy and press X (Square for playstation) and press up once and select Mark then choose the mark. I've gotten good at this and it takes me like 3 seconds to have a group marked without having extra sets.

I've tried this method as well and if that works for you then great, it is more a matter a what you condition yourself to do, but I didn't like it and personally find it faster and easier (i.e. what I'm used to from previous games where I marked with hotkeys) to mark by assigning them to hotkeys/buttons instead of navigating the menu. I also don't really like switching bars at all and have much more bar space than I use do bar space isn't an issue for me.

[AppleGrocer]

I do the same thing as a Warrior tank except my second bar is composed of my wrath spenders, defiance, etc.

And if bar space is an issue for you, I would think about making a defensive CD macro (I have bloodbath, featherfoot, and foresight macroed together so I can rotate them) with /recast so you can keep track of downtimes. I know pallys might like to pick and choose their CD's because they aren't... well... bad, but it might be a something to think about.

[saber_alter]

i have three hotbars

hotbar one has menu items: actions, hunting log, a few emotes.
hotbar two is all of my combat actions. low leveled defensive buffs are macroed together, bulwark with sentinel, hallowed is macroed with tempered will.
hotbar three has sprint, teleport, raise, chocobo, limit break, and marking signs.

[SunTzu]

I use a xbox controller and to me it seems like a waste of bar space to have marks on it. I simply target the enemy and press X (Square for playstation) and press up once and select Mark then choose the mark. I've gotten good at this and it takes me like 3 seconds to have a group marked without having extra sets.

I too have changed to this as I couldn't afford that many slots on one hotbar. I like to operate off just one hotbar for all my WAR actions. I only use a second hotbar for occasional stuff (Sprint, food, defiance and storing other macros for swapping).

Once you get used to it - its reasonably quick, although I realise it does add a little delay on trash. You only have to mark 1 sometimes, then mark the second when in a macro combo if you like.

[onepunchman]

Macro:
/ac "Shield lob" <t>
/mark "attack1" <t>

/ac "tomahawk" <t>
/mark "attack1" <t>

Automatic mark as you pull.
Use it while the GCD is going to mark stuff without using the ability.

[Garnatian]

Marking more than 1 mob is pretty pointless in 99% of circumstances, so all you need 1 one hotkey.

Back when I used a controller, I just had L1 + DOWN mark the mob and as it neared death, mark another.