Marking Targets made Simple
Time to try out another way of sending information your way. I’ve put together a brief slideshow on how to setup key bindings to mark targets as well as a simple system to use them for leading a party or raid.
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May 23rd, 2008 at 11:07 pm
This is something I’ve been meaning to set up on my system for a while now. I thought about using an addon to help mark mobs but it seemed to be mroe trouble that just marking them normally. I will definitely be doing this before the next raid I lead. Thanks.
.Sick
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May 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Hmm… I use the skull and X the same way you do. I’ve always used (and always seen it used as) the moon to indicate the sheep target. But, like you said the real key is consistency. As long as your group knows beforehand you should be good.
Also, I consider freezing trap to be a much better CC than sap. Especially if I have a survival hunter doing the trapping.
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May 24th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Awesome Vene! I never thought of using the keypad hehe, I’ll try that and perhaps marking will be so much faster =]
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May 24th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Yeah, been using the keypad for a while now. Also something handy for letting everyone know what’s what, you can use marks in chat now as well since the last patch.
ex. {skull} will show up in chat as the skull symbol. You can also do {rt#}, for skull that would be {rt8}. They all correspond to their name, but be warned, the red X is referred to as {cross} by the game. Don’t be like me and type {X} and look like a moron.
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May 24th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Great guide! But like Khrushchev said, trap is far more reliable than sap.
About marks, it really just about agreement, this is also shows if people are accually listening.
About people marking, yeah my guild does that, especially on Vashj, Anetheron, Arhi…
Although it’s alot faster to mark with key bindings, I’m just going old school and do it with right-clicking on target
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May 24th, 2008 at 2:14 am
I feel Sap is superior because it’s active at the beginning of the fight. Not to mention a resisted trap creates endless amounts of chaos. I also find that traps can often hinder your ability to Thunderclap early. Overall, I’ll take a guaranteed CC I can see in front of me over one I have to hope works that is done mid-fight.
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Furiat/Vegelus reply on July 14, 2008 7:38 am:
If trap resists create chaos then all you need to do is kick that huntard and replace him with real hunter. Real hunter will just wait for your signal to stop CCing that mob.
And if we talk about chaos - what about situations when rogue tries to sap but fails (mobs saw him) and dies (or even pulls)? That’s even less reliable and less guaranteed CC than hunter’s. Also - hunter can kite - that’s another form of CC - even if not so obvious for many people.
PS. Yea, thread necro -.-
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Furiat/Vegelus reply on July 14, 2008 7:40 am:
And another thing - what will rogue do with that big, scary mob he sapped when sap end? Nothing. What can do hunter when trap finishes or resists? Pull mob to another trap. Or kite. As long as you wish.
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admin reply on July 14, 2008 8:36 am:
Blind.
May 24th, 2008 at 2:58 am
I was thinking about this actually a few days ago. From my experiences, moon is almost always sheep, star is often sap, square is hunter trap, and diamond is some form of warlock CC.
But why? Well, diamond is purple and the warlock class color is purple. Same thing goes for rogues and yellow. Blue square is used for hunter trap because the freezing trap looks like a blue square. Moon being sheep is kind of hard to draw the parallel. Can’t see the logic there, but it’s used often. Skull and X are the two most “aggressive” marks in the arsenal, so they are used as the primary kill targets.
Anyway, I went off on a bit of a tangent. Enough about the reasons why such CC is tied to the respective markings! This is a great tip and what’s ever better is it’s easy to mark on the fly. Want to mark those fast incoming mobs in Hyjal, ZA or even the event to the last boss in Mechanar? This is awesome especially so DPS can easily assist and CC can get up without overlapping. Another advantage of marking this way is that it won’t slow you down if you are chain pulling. Often times when I’m in an instance and I know I have enough threat on the last mob that it won’t get pulled off me, I’ll start targeting and marking the next pull.
About the sap v. freezing trap debate, they both have their uses. If I want to speed through things, hunter trap is definitely reliable and quicker than waiting for the rogue to stealth, distract and sap. I don’t know if anyone else can relate, but I hate having to tell a rogue to sap a marked target, only for him to finally listen 15 seconds later…it slows everything down immensely. I also am confused about your comment Vene about trapping hindering your ability to T-clap early. I still T-clap and one Arcane or Distracting Shot from the hunter easily pulls it off me. I think that’s one of the advantages of using a hunter trap; I don’t have to be as careful with my initial Thunder Clap.
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Blackavar reply on May 24, 2008 11:41 am:
Moon as in nighttime, as in counting sheep, as in ZzZzzzZZZzzZzzZ
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Blackavar reply on May 24, 2008 11:45 am:
Moon is also blue, which is the mage color.
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Morghand reply on May 27, 2008 5:42 am:
duh….we give hunters square. its a simple kindergarden shape….we knows we haves to keep it simple for them hunters
lawls
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May 24th, 2008 at 3:34 am
Nice take on this article :). tbh i agree with the others sap isn’t stronger than trap as a CC type, a 1/2 decent hunter will be able to kite a mob untill its trapable agian, okay in a pug i’d agree with vene but in a guildy 5/10 man i’d agree with the other guys, there are after all a lot of bad hunters out there. I don’t know about your guilds but in mine we usually have enough sheeps/fears to not need to use a trap, in 25 mans.
Keybinding the number pad keys is a good idea however i suggest overriding the F1-F12 keys, if your still using num lock as auto-run or you use a laptop keyboard etc its gonna cause you all kinds of mess having to make sure numlock is on properly. This could however pose a problem with intervene (inside your own group) however i find in 90% of the time you use intervene your using it on a mob with the intervene macro, which can be found somewhere on this site.
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May 24th, 2008 at 3:54 am
I’ve used the number keys for awhile also, but I always used moon for sheep, and square for trap. I have my middle mouse button bound to skull, though, so I could update it as needed. But like you said, whatever works.
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May 24th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Very interesting slideshow, Vene.
I’ve been the marker for 98% of dungeons/raids whether I’m on my Warrior or feral DPS druid for the past year now Skull and X for me is the same…but I’ve found that all my sheepers love the moon or star for some reason. Hunters usually get square and Locks the diamond. I’ve used circle as a Mind Control target as well when applicable. I always manually mark…as the keypad is reserved for my tanking moves while engaged in battle. To each his own I guess. 
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May 24th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Our hunters must just rock then. For us trap sustainability goes sheep, shackle (if undead), trap, banish (if demon), seduce. Maybe with the exception of those ghostie types in KZ going up those ramps that have such high resist rates.
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May 24th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Moon is sheep, that’s consistent with about 95% of raids/groups I’ve been in.
Square is usually hunter trap, star is usually sap. meh
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May 24th, 2008 at 9:14 am
My guild uses star as first tank’s target, circle as second tank’s and diamond for third (this is the same order as the targets appear in the dropdown menu).
Cross is usually used for marking players, or things that need to be nuked hard by melee dps before they go to the tanked targets. We stay away from using skull because BigWigs likes to claim that for itself.
It’s an unusual marking scheme, but I can see the logic behind it (and I know that at least one other high-level guild on the same server uses it).
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May 24th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Having been a rogue, other than a Sap attempt gone really bad (Vanish usually solves this), I find that having to go deal with a mob I didn’t intend because my assigned trap hunter just got one- or two-shotted because trap AND Feign Death were resisted is… well, I find it funny actually. I hate hunters.
I prefer Sap over Trap, but I recognize where the argument of limited versus sustained crowd-control exists.
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May 24th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I normally run the top 4 as CC targets. Star and Circle are typically reserved for reliable, reusable CC like sheep, shackle and banish. In situations where CC is not used and we need to keep track of the tanks, we use these icons. This is usually only for Hyjal where we CC very little or fights like Supremus where tanks have to run around a lot.
Bottom 4 are used as tank targets. Skull is top priority and Moon is least priority. Since I’m the MT and often the Main Assist my /startattack macro contains a script which also marks my target with a Skull. This is a universal safe target for single target DPSer’s and is generally assumed that I’ll have threat on it or will perform another skill to prevent it from harming someone else.
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May 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I wanted to stop by and say hi to an old friend - I hope you are doing well, Vene! Glad to see your site really picking up
And just so this isn’t a completely useless post for the rest of you, I’ll add to the conversation what little I can:
You can also create a macro that makes it very easy to communicate to your group what exactly your targeting scheme will be for the run you are in. This will link the graphical icon right in party chat along with the text shown. I reused Vene’s preferences here, but of course just adjust it for you or your raid’s liking and give it a shot.
/p {Skull} = 1st DPS target
/p {Cross} = 2nd DPS target
/p {Square} = 1st CC target
/p {Moon} = 2nd CC target
/p {Diamond} = 3rd DPS target
/p {Triangle} = 3rd CC target
/p {Circle} = Important Player #1
/p {Star} = Important Player #2
You can read more about raid targeting and various things you can do via macros with them here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Raid_target_icons
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May 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I usually use X for sap. It looks ’sappy’ to me. But I noticed rogues like star because that is what they are using when they target in 5 mans. Green for druids sleep, colors fit. I have used blue for trap and moon for sheep from first day marks where added to game. Circle for banish. This covers most 5 mans.
In raid it is different story. I found out guild usually decides on marks first time they clear trash and use same marks even months later when instance is on farm. Tank targets are usually always same because you are 100% sure you will always have something to tank. But rest is more or less random. It is different in every guild and system often changes if raid leader changes because new guy doesn’t really remember how it was marked before.
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May 24th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
To speed up your pulling in a five man, try the ‘bouncing skull’ method. Mark your CC, but don’t mark a second or third kill target. Each time you select a new target after killing the previous one, hit your ‘Mark skull’ keybinding. Make sure the dps knows that they should attack only the skull.
This doesn’t work as well in a raid when you need to track multiple off-tanking and cc concerns, but bouncing the skull will help dps focus, especially when working through the 4th or 5th kill and people forget whether they’re supposed to kill the circle or the star first.
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Bacara reply on May 24, 2008 10:59 pm:
That’s very handy when running that odd 5-man with, say, someone who isn’t as adept at their class yet. I think I’ll be doing this more often.
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Sygvox reply on October 2, 2008 1:09 pm:
I like this idea, but would also suggest a rotating skull, x, repeat, marking on the fly. My main is a mage, and if the tank can hold threat, I’ll often switch targets shortly after he does, because once a trash mob hits 10%, I’m probably not going to hit it with another frostbolt, so I might as well start nuking the next target, especially in heavy melee groups.
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May 24th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I had no idea you could so easily keybind raid targets. All this time I just thought I was much slower than others at it because I don’t do it very often. Another little improvement to my tanking thanks to Vene!
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May 24th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I tend to use
Skull - MT Target (First to get killed)
X - 2nd Tanked Target
Square - 3rd Tanked Target/Or Hunter Trap If 5man and Hunter in group
Moon - Sheep
Triangle/Diamond - Banish/Sap (Depends on fights) - These are used to mark key people if needed.
Star/Circle - Sheep/Sap (Depends on fight)
Again this is for 10/25mans mostly not your generic 5man or Heroics. I have used the above to great success in SSC/TK/BT.
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May 24th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
As Someone who plays a prot warrior and hunter at high levels i can’t believe you put trap as the least reliable CC, I could trap all day no probs and not even have to spec into surv spec.
And how could u rank it above seduce? honestly I’ve yet to meet a lock who can actually seduce well.
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Spaz reply on May 24, 2008 9:14 pm:
Have to agree there. Seduce is NOT reliable.
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Bacara reply on May 24, 2008 11:01 pm:
I’ve never particularly liked Seduce. If presented with a choice, Banish/Enslave is wonderful, and usually save me a heavier repair bill.
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May 25th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
magic marker mod saves tons of time
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May 25th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Hehe, I actually just discovered mark keybindings a couple of weeks ago and I love it, only takes a few seconds to mark groups now which is great when you’re looking to do heroic speed runs.
I’d have to agree with what Vene said on the sap>trap thing from a tank’s perspective, and also from the perspective of a hunter who’s done plenty of chain-trapping in his time, it’s really frikking annoying, it gimps dps and there are several ways it can go wrong, resists, early breaks, other mobs can run over the trap you just laid.
Interesting though, almost every group I’ve been with used star for sheep and blue square for trap.
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May 25th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
I’ve been using the key bindings for over 3months now and a macro to explain how i mark for over 6 months now, and i must say it has made my marking much much faster and reliable.
Mine looks like this atm:
/rw {Star}: CC sheep/shackle
/rw {Circle}: CC, Sapp or OT
/rw {Diamond}: CC, Banish/MC
/rw {Triangle}: Patrol, CC, Hibernate
/rw {Moon}: CC, Sheep
/rw {Square}: CC, Frost Trap
/rw {Cross}: MTs OT target second kill
/rw {Skull}: First Kill…Focus fire
any variations off the marks i usually just tell ppl on the fly…if needed
But due to lack off letters in the macro box i haven’t made the player marks since when i need em mainly on raids i tend to have TS or Vent to be able to tell ppl what the changes are.
hope this can help someone.
Does anyone off u guys know a add on that allows a extended macro box, there was one around before TBC but i haven’t found (haven’t looked either) one again.
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May 26th, 2008 at 12:18 am
i’ve had to improvise a LOT on those marks that vene presents and most likely, they might be diff for other ppl around WoW as well. Usually from my neck of the woods, skull and cross are universal so they are the same (tank target(1st DPS) and OT target(2nd DPS)). Next, moon is usually used for sheep. Star is used for shack, dia is banish, square is trap. triangle and condom i usually use for extras. If we have 3 warriors in kara and i need a 2nd OT, i usually throw up the triangle. If we have 2 priests, star and condom for shacks, etc etc etc. On a boss fight, I use star on the person of interest. (30yd marker for prince, or melee dps positioning on curator(we do it a bit different), or bane to stack up on the tank when he does his bone shower)
5mans are different since things can be sapped, etc…
Key thing here is for the tank to set up the markings before hand, explain them clearly and concisely, and make sure ppl understand what they are supposed to do. BTW, the key bindings are REALLY nice. marking at the touch of a button. WoW has come a long way from marking with a hunter’s mark.
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May 26th, 2008 at 3:59 am
I use similar system but i have skull and x binded on keyboard as i often tank 4= mobs (hate cc in heroics) so i can always remark anything mmediatelly (got skull as H and X as J).Moon for sheep,square for trap,diamond for banish and star for sap and have those binded on numpad.
Basically anything works if you can just explain at the beginning of instance.
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May 26th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
About marking players
On Hyjal
Green Triangle on the shadowmancer/banshee “soaker” (tank with full SR gear)
Orange circle on the pally tank, at all times.
Blue Square on the lead melee dps
For Anetheron, you can use a macro that puts a mark on the head of every healer so healers can spread. Or at least do that before the fight carefully so healers can agree on their fixed positions. (except skull, addons use skull a lot)
In Black Temple
Najentus - Marks on CoH priests so groups stay close to their healers and you waste less time on positioning pre-pull
Supremus - Marks on the 3 tanks
Akama, marks on the 3 tanks
Gurtogg - macros that put 5 marks on the 5 players who must run to the bloodboil spot. Make 3 of those macros, one for each group, someone with assist is responsible for using these macros during battle
RoS - Mark on the MT
Mother - No marks. DBM puts marks on FA targets
(I didn’t progress more than Mother)
Magtheridon - marks on cube clickers (no brainer here)
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May 26th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
We just picked marks on the fly when the lucky charms first came out back in Naxx. So we use a completely different set up, and new people are often confused. It works out though.
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May 26th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
One thing I never understood about these marks - why are they shapes? Why not giant floating, colored numbers? Just seems like strange design to me.
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May 26th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
What specific mark you apply to which function doesn’t matter. As long as it’s specified beforehand, and everyone understands.
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May 27th, 2008 at 6:23 am
It’s an interesting method marking by ‘primary/secondary/least reliable’ cc order. I still feel more comfortable assigning the shapes by cc type:
skull = first dps target
cross = off-tank/2nd dps target
circle = 3rd tank target
star = shack or sap
moon = sheep
square = hunter trap
diamond = banish/enslave/mc/fear
triangle = misc
Sometimes we have to switch it up a little on pulls that have 2 forms of cc that usually use the same shape, but this works for the most part.
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May 27th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I sorted out key-binding the icons at the same time I purchased a mic for speaking on vent, which is when I started raidleading in Kara a bit over a year ago.
I had | (button next to 1) as skull’s secondary binding so that I could quickly reapply skull. This is *really* helpful on large pulls in Shattered Halls or when you manage to over pull a bit. (not that I ever did such a thing, of course …)
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May 27th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Just to be redundant and show off my own methods because it’s fun…
Skull = Kill first, because it’s a skull.
Cross = Kill second, because the only thing worse than having a big skull over your head is a big X.
Circle = Kill third, no particular reason other than it’s what was left over.
Star = Sheep, because stars are magical like mages.
Moon = Shackle, because moons have something to do with priests.
Square = Trap, because it looks like an ice cube.
Triangle = Sap, because it’s pointy, like rogues
Diamond = Warlock do something, because I associate the color purple with warlocks for some reason.
Tanking and offtanking is generaly encounter specific and of course when there are more kill targets than CC targets I’ll use the symbols that aren’t applicable to the current party,
Most importantly.. and a lot of people have said it before… make sure everyone knows what symbols mean what before you do anything else.
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Hao reply on May 29, 2008 9:35 am:
i get the rest of them, but how are rogues pointy?
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May 27th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
So, we all agree Vene is on crack and {square}=trap {moon}=sheep?
{:P}
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Spaz reply on May 28, 2008 1:24 am:
Yep. I agree with that.
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Thorden reply on June 29, 2008 10:53 pm:
Perhaps, in Kara we use that setup, with the purple diamond as the primary shackle…mostly because our priests seem to get upset when they don’t get the shiny rock.
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May 28th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Great thread. As I do mainly heroics and hate CC, I tend to use marks to direct the fight more than to plan it. Here’s my scheme:
Targeting:
Skull = Kill this first no matter what. I’m tanking this one, DPS it now.
Cross = Kill this second. Stop DPS on this and deal with something else. I’ve seen that mob and will tank it next (add or breaking trap).
Diamond = Warlock do something. Save this mob for last.
Positioning:
Triangle, Circle = Watch the path of these moving mobs.
Square = All gather on this player at the important moment.
Triangle = Here’s the friendly NPC.
CC, rarely used:
Sheep = Mages sheep/pig/turtle. Mages/locks/hunters silence. Druids sleep beasts.
Star = Rogues sap. Why would I have to mark for a sap?
Circle, Star = Priests shackle or MC. I hate it when you MC but you’ll do it anyway.
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Machus reply on May 28, 2008 6:11 am:
Moon, even
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June 2nd, 2008 at 2:43 am
I use the F5-F8 keys for my 4 main key binds - If I have to mark more then I do them manually.
I’d also like to mention something I’m found myself guilty of is over marking, I did a PuG kara run the a few weeks back on an alt with no vent and the amount of marking was minimal yet we blasted through there a lot faster than I’d usually do in a guild run, since then I’m marking less in kara and admittedly there where a few early deaths, but I’m already starting to notice, that people are taking more notice of what’s going on around them which should be beneficial for our progress in 25man raids.
Which is where I’ve noticed another problem with marking, when we run 25-mans we tend to have a few people with RA and up to a few people marking (some times at the same time), which can lead to inconsistencies, I feel that you should have no more than 2 people marking ever and if it’s new content then only one person, what do other guilds do?
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:40 am
Binding with numpad as well, different sign-usage though but as you said way too many different systems exist.
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June 5th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Thanks for the numpad tip, will give it a go.
I’ve tried to use “skull-rainbow” as the kill order of trash with my guild, i.e. red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple (purple counts as indigo/violet), who cares what the shapes actually look like. It flows nicely with the CC idea of banish on purple, freezy trap on blue, sap on yellow.
Just make sure you don’t have anyone who knows the old “I can sing a rainbow” song, because it’s completely out of whack and they look for the pink symbol >_
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June 7th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Isn’t Skull a default mark for Deadly Boss Mode? I mean if DBM marking some person who got debuff for example or, let’s say, Core on Vashj or whatever, you loosing Skull on marked mob.
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Thorden reply on June 29, 2008 10:50 pm:
It is, but it can also be turned off. As the raid leader, with a few regular assistants…we’ve all got the debuff marker turned off, as all of our debuffers use decursive or pally power, etc.
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June 9th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
very good article, i’ve been using that setup for a while now, really efficient for marking stuff on the go
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June 13th, 2008 at 5:16 am
I realize that your guide was more geared for a 5/10 man, but this is how we do it in our guild.
We use three specific marks for 3 specific tanks. Its usually the “last three” in the list, Skull, X, Square. These targets are always the same tanks. On that same note, we have 4 mages, and we use the first 4 (Diamond, Star, Circle, Triangle) for 4 specific mages. If the circle mage is not in the raid, then we dont ever see a circle target for the night. Thats 7 of 8 marks, Moon is our default Banish/Fear mark, but more importantly its our generic mark to track patrols, people, etc.
Having these marks for specific people in our membership allows us to mark people as well. We mark our mages as decursors, our tanks for easy visualization, with their own marks. The skull usually leaves our main tank, but if we truly need him marked he gets the moon.
Specific marks for specific people in a 25man raid, eliminates alot of confusion and “explanation” time as well. Everyone knows who’s got what, what the kill order is and where the CC is coming from, so if Circle mage is dead and Circle is up, it needs to be CCd/tanked by someone else.
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June 29th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
While my guild is a “casual” raiding guild, we’ve had a nearly identical system for the last year.
It is truly priceless once you indoctinate the new folks, and definitely helps speed things along.
Imagine not having to explain in vent…again…that the blue square is a shackle…etc.
One other thought, I don’t use the numpad…I use F5 thru F12. Same effect, quick and easy access to marks, often stupifies the new raiders on the marking speed followed by the pull.
Thanks for the article Vene, nice to see we’re doing something “right” lol
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July 15th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Great !!!!!!!!!!! I needed it so much thanks . can anyone tell me why you choose this target rather than this other one to be skull or killed first and so on ?
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August 19th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I enjoy the exclamation marks at the beginning… the rest is common sense to me… humor awesome tho.
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August 27th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Great job!
I already use the keybindings on my numpad and when you understand that a enemy with a staff must be a caster or a healer, the marking is really simple. On my realm exists two different ways in the marking of CC of those you wrote.
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I use this way, because most of the players on my server understand it… somehow…
skull : First target
)
X : second target
star : mage (perhaps because this mark is easy to recognise)
blue : ice trap (blue like ice
moon : priest (shackel or control)
circle : sap (or third target)
diamond : warlock (bannish, fear, control)
green : sleep
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The second suggestion is created by the matching of the class and mark colors.
skull : First target
X : second target
star : rogue (sap)
blue : mage (sheep)
moon : priest (shackel or control)
circle : druid (sleep, hurricane)
diamond : warlock (bannish, fear, control)
green : hunter (ice trap)
I often use the marks to show the group member where they have to pay attention or when I want to know where a pat is at the moment I mark it and know when I have to pay attention in ma pulling. For that I take the marks that are not in use (mostly green, blue or diamond).
greetings from switzerland
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September 5th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I know I’m a little late getting to this thread but I’m a big fan of an add-on I found called quickmarks. It’s very simple, its just a small window with the markers in it. You click one and it marks your target. I just tuck it up top below my target window and its not in the way or anything.
As for system, skull first, cross second, star sap, moon sheep, square trap, and the others usually depend on what CC we have at hand, but we aren’t up to raiding yet so often don’t need anything more.
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October 3rd, 2008 at 2:55 am
thanks for this great website, im reading it during my work and it comes in very handy for me as im a new 70 def warri playing 1 month and tanking tons of instances these days. keybindings for marks.. shoulda thought of that on day 1, will do it in exactly 4 hours
so heres my choice:
skull -> primary dps
X -> secondary dps (on 2-mob groups = random cc on that one)
star -> sheep
blue -> ice trap
purple -> sap or banish
green -> some pet will tank this
moon -> just leave that mob alone
orange -> anything that doesnt fit in above
when hitting on the cced mobs when everything else is down i usually go for the sap/banish first, then ice trap and last but not least: sheep. i do this with regards to speed/accuracy of cc and the role of the class ccing (aka healers cc get broken first)
again thanks for the effort of putting all this info together, it makes me confident i can do my job without running into the unexpected too much
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December 8th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I’ve always used Skull and X like you as well, since day 1 however, moon has been 1st CC, Star as second CC, Square as third, Circle would usually be the 3rd kill target, Diamonds are for players typically, unless I toss it on a demon target then it becomes a banish. Triangles I hardly ever use and when it is in use I announce what it is being used for.
me playing with a bunch of the same ppl for about a year and a half (some of them even 3 years now @.@) it allows for me to change some as they can read what I’m thinking half the time
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December 11th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Hello! nice guide, but i will say i dont use marks lots in my guild, I am MT in the guild and dont feel like i have to mark up more then target i want CC and the first target. Mark more for raids then for heroics. if I run in pugs sure i mark to make it easy, but as long as i run with guild i dont see any need, we should know how we play and what target i will go for. but i can see that marking is good maybe first time you run new instances. just my opinion =) take it easy
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December 12th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Wow, this really, really helped.
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December 21st, 2008 at 4:10 am
When I tank, I traditionally use the following:
Skull - First Kill
Cross - Second Kill
Triangle - Third Kill
Square - Fourth Kill
The reason for that is that I think it works well with counting: Skull is obvious, Cross is two strokes, Triangle is three, Square is 4.
I typically use Star and Moon for reliable CC, and Circle for more off-the-wall CC or kiting.
I like to use Diamond to mark patrols because I think it stands out the best.
However, I should actually contribute something to this conversation instead of simply putting the 9001st “My marks” post.
I actually keybind my marks to Shift+letter, like so:
Skull: Shift S (*S*kull)
Cross: Shift X (X)
Triangle: Shift R (T*r*iangle)
Square: Shift Z (Since S is already taken)
Sheep and Moon: Shift A and Shift D (Two strongest CCs hugging Skull)
Circle: Shift F (A slightly farther stretch from Skull)
Diamond: Shift G (Farthest away from skull, i.e., pat)
I do this because I keep my left hand on my WASD section at all times, and my right hand on my mouse at all times, and can’t afford to take my right hand over to the side in the middle of chaos (and I try to be as prepared for chaos as possible). This way, when extra groups get pulled and I’m still building up threat so my healer doesn’t bite the dust, I can mark one or two mobs per GCD (Depending on if Heroic Strike is already queued or not).
A possible future suggestion here on TankingTips would be the order to mark mobs for killing/CC.
Whoah. . . . Sorry I wrote so much.
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