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Marking mobs
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Post by
reddwarf
As the tank I often find that others in my group look to me for marking targets and giving out CC assignments. Now, I usually run with at least one guildmate who has run several heroics already (I have not run many dungeons, normal or heroic, as I took some time off and had to quickly level to 85) and she takes care of marking mobs.
In an effort to become a better tank, how do I go about deciding which mobs need to be CCed in a given pull, or if any mobs need to be CCed at all? I find that many of the mobs in dungeons look similar and sometimes I can tell if a mob is a caster by its name (e.g. -Seer, or -Mage or -Shaper or similar names), but often times I cannot easily tell which mob is more dangerous.
Do you have any tips for me in this regard? Is it just a matter of reading all the mobs in a dungeon and their abilities so I know that X does this nasty AOE and needs to be killed, and Y is annoying so it should be CCed, or is there another way?
Post by
Pwntiff
Do they heal?
Do they hit like a truck?
Those are the only two criteria I use.
Post by
reddwarf
Right.. but how do I determine that without trial-and-error and seeing "Oh, this guy heals so we wiped." or "Ouch that mob hurts, no wonder I died"? PUGs that I've seen are still quick to break up over a wipe or start calling people "fails".
Post by
shadra
how do I determine that without trial-and-error and seeing "Oh, this guy heals so we wiped." or "Ouch that mob hurts, no wonder I died"?
I usually run with at least one guildmate who has run several heroics already
Ask your guildie.
Post by
Crie
Usually the name can tip you off as well.
Adepts, Menders, and similar names: these mobs usually heal.
Also, you can see if they have a mana bar. Even if they aren't a healer, it's never a bad idea to CC a caster that may pose difficulties while drawing to your location.
As you run more and more, you'll be marking without even looking, because you'll know what mob is where.
Post by
Orranis
Furthermore, ranged and mobs with AOE ability (Example: Shadowlancer's from Halls of Origination should be CC'd so that you can save your interrupts for the Fire-guys, and Stonecore's Earthshaper's), and ranged because you risk breaking other CC's trying to keep aggro on them.
Post by
Porcell
It really only comes with experience.
HoO, the Shadow-guys do a melee AoE nova that needs to be interrupted, and interrupts are pretty rare, so they can be good to CC.
Casters and Hunters are good to CC because they will stay in the back when you ranged pull, so the CC won't be broken by cleaves.
Most of the stuff in Lost City doesn't need to be CCed, though the later packs can be nice to CC a Plague-guy.
VP, the Adepts are healers so those should either be first kill target or CCed.
The Spirit-somethings in Throne of Tide are healers and should be CCed if there are multiple in a pack. The witches chain lightning and are good CC targets also.
I don't think I really CC anything in Shadowfang. Likewise with Deadmines, though some of those middle packs can be rough with the Mages who cast Bloodbolt and rage zone.
Generally CC casters and healers. You can usually tell by the name, or if they are kind of skinny looking mobs.
You just get better as you get more experience with instance.
Post by
irishsnout
Kill order is my priority more than CC. I mark depending on how much cc is in the group. Casters usually die quick if focused on. It really just takes practice to get better. Try to run as dps and watch how other tanks do it.
Post by
CadalMord
Right.. but how do I determine that without trial-and-error and seeing "Oh, this guy heals so we wiped." or "Ouch that mob hurts, no wonder I died"? PUGs that I've seen are still quick to break up over a wipe or start calling people "fails".
When you're against a pack you've never fought before, the first rule of cc is (or at least should be) to cc casters first.
It rules out the healer mobs / other nasty spell damage so basically the worst is covered. If a non-caster mob in the pack happens to hit like a truck and you end up wiping, well then you know the mob, but the hard-hitting melees are way harder to come across than the super annoying casters.
edit: also healer mobs can be sometimes(usually?) determined from their name f.ex. "Naz'jar Spiritmender" in Throne of the Tides.
Post by
Azazel
Unlike many of these replies, I'm going to give you a useful answer.
lol wut?
Post by
581897
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Porcell
Unlike many of these replies, I'm going to give you a useful answer.
Okay, lets look at your post.
All things being equal, a general "Rule of thumb" is to CC a mob far on one side, and mark Skull on a mob on the opposite end. As a warrior, I'd charge the Skull, wait a moment for the others to start in on me, then unload AOE to pick up threat.
I wouldn't say pack positioning is the first item on the list when it comes to selecting CC targets. And unless a pack is very spread out, charging into a mob is a poor way to start a pull when you are CCing (in general).
It's usually also a good idea to let people "CC Pull", especially hunter with freezing trap launch. It's important that you, the tank, and the CCer are on the same page.
A valid tactic for some pulls, yes. CC pulls work best when all mobs are melee or would run to melee; if you have a static caster or hunter type mob you are safe to have the tank ranged pull and CC after (since the caster/hunter is not going to move). Note also that both of these first two quotes are not at all addressing what the original poster was asking.
Unfortunately, usually all things aren't "equal", different mobs have different abilities. Which mob does what ability will only come to you through practice/experience. However, generally, you can give an educated guess on which mobs don't move (Casters) by looking at their mana-pool under their health bar. If there is no mana-pool then you know it's not a caster. (You still need to watch out for ranged, but more times than not, the MOB's name will give you hints "Axemaster", etc)
Everything you said here has been stated already in this thread.
Once you have a good idea of which mobs do what, you'll want to mark first kill (SKULL), on the mob that's going to hurt you the most. Shadowlancers in Halls of origination, for example. And/or mobs that you will have to interrupt such as healers (Temple Adepts, etc).
Yup, already stated in this thread.
Some people like to CC healer MOB's, but IMHO, if there is only one healer kill it first. This takes CC breaks out of the equation.
Also already stated.
So.... thanks for giving us useful answers.
Post by
226720
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
226720
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
falcov
I wouldn't say pack positioning is the first item on the list when it comes to selecting CC targets. And unless a pack is very spread out, charging into a mob is a poor way to start a pull when you are CCing (in general).
It depends on what tank class you are. When I was tanking on my Blood DK, yeah, I couldn't care less where the mobs were initially.. if I CCed a caster and there was still a caster there casting, I'd just DG it back to my DnD. On my warrior, however, it's a little more complicated.. I have Gag Order so Heroic Throw every 30 seconds will silence that trash mob but it has travel time, but couple that with the fact I haven't even established any real threat on the rest of the mobs nor have I even charged yet.. things really turn to $%^& very quickly if my attention is distracted even for a split second.. if someone CCs something I'm not expecting them to at a time when I'm not expecting it.. If I miss the opportunity to get that initial charge in.. it becomes a frantic race to try to use all the rage cooldowns I can to establish aggro on that pack. In other words, keeping the CC targets as far away (even initially) from the skull helps me keep my sanity even if in reality it doesn't really matter. ;p
Course I'm making it sound like that happens every pull but it doesn't.. but depending on the OPs class that might be something to bear in mind when thinking about CC targets. I don't even know how druids handle controlling trash packs..
Above all, when it comes to CC.. there's no hard and fast rules about it and in reality the ONLY way to REALLY know how, when, and what to CC is through trial and error. Sorry. Just remember, with you being the tank, even if you have a whole party leave because of you failing, it only takes a long to get another party as it takes you to hit the "re-queue" button.
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