Marking Trash and Other Main Tank Insights?

[Augustus]

I'm not sure this is the "correct" area for this post and apologize if it would have been better suited under a different category...

I'm in a progression raiding guild. For various reasons, several of our normal main tanks have become unavailable or aren't on consistently enough for guild raids anymore - so I have been asked to step into the role of main tank. Tanking is not the issue for me. Marking is. I've always appreciated when I was a Retadin that the tank took the initiative to mark and explain fights so as to keep the raid running smoothly. Essentially, I am just looking for insight or a good place to go and read info that will help me learn how to mark trash in ICC or otherwise keep things flowing at a good pace! (Google sucks when searching
Marking trash in ICC") I don't mind filling the role. I just want to do it to the best of my ability!

Thanks for any info in advance!

[Meloree]

Well, tip for marking: Put all the marks onto hotkeys, so you can mark/remark very quickly. For me, mouse buttons 5 and 6 are macros that mouseover mark skull and x respectively, the rest are keybound on F1-F6 ('cause I don't expect to have to use them except in pull setups). The mouseover marks come in handy at Deathwhisper, I toss a mark on empowered adds without stopping what I'm doing, to make it easier for the ranged to locate them.

As far as marking ICC trash, thus far we don't, there's no reason to. So long as servants are kept facing away from the raid, there's essentially no danger to pulling multiple packs and AoEing it all down. "Single Target" classes (by which I mean the melee, who can white attack something while AoEing) focusses spiders first (they don't need to be tanked, DKs can yank them behind the line of casters), then individual "the damned" so they don't all explode at once. We generally have at least 2 packs in the pile at once to maximize AoE damage. If the casters aren't hitting at least 10 mobs, there's dps left on the table.

[badgermonkey]

I use RaidMobMarker. If my AOE isn't enough, then I can just click te Skull icon once I'm targetting my target, and each time I pick a new "main" target, I just skull it. Other marks aren't really needed.

[Raivnor]

A trick that me and a lot of tanks I have known have used is to bind all the icons to your NumPad. There are 8 icons and one 'remove icon' option so that will take up all 9 numbber keys, also it will allow you to change marks on the fly very effectively.

As far as ICC trash goes, the rest are pretty much right, no need to mark. I love marking and i still put up nothing more than the skull to show who the melee should focus on. Some general rules of thumb are as follows though:

-is there one caster or several? If there are several mark one to burn down and the rest to cc with sheep/trap
-is there that one annoying melee guy who will whirlwind/jump/whatever? Mark him for a sap/repentance
-skull should generally go on the guy who can heal the other guys, if there isn't one put it on whoever is gonna give you the biggest headache were he to break cc.

A lot of marking is knowing your raid makeup, and what your raiders are capable of. Some people i'm sure were out there pulling all of vezax's trash on release day saying, 'who needs cc?' So don't feel the need to push your raid to crazy single or double pulls just because someone else said it was easy mode. In the end you know better than anyone what your raid is comfortable with.

Also, it's important that you decide what marks will represent what form of cc. For instance moon and square are always sheep if i need cc, so my mages know when they see those marks that they need to sheep. Consistency is important and it's what turns raid marking from 'novel pretty colory shapes' into an effective form of nonverbal communication.

[Augustus]

Lots of very good info here! Thanks for the tips everyone. I downloaded RaidMobMarker last night and played around with it for a while. Its definitely helpful!

[Wrathy]

I use the same setup as Ravinor, I have my number pad 1-9 bound with all of the icons in our kill order, so 1 is our first to kill, 2 is second, etc, etc. I also agree with Meloree in that there is really no need to mark anything yet. If you need to, we as a guild have designated what sheep icons are, what banish/shackle icons are, etc. It helps for quick non verbal communication. If i need something sheeped I slap a Square on it, and the mage who always has square, does his job. Now while that level of CC is not necessary in the current content, it may prove beneficial deeper in the instance.

[Aubade]

Lots of very good info here! Thanks for the tips everyone. I downloaded RaidMobMarker last night and played around with it for a while. Its definitely helpful!

Hmm, another windrunner player from WAshington state? Blasphemy.

[Playdoh]

i have keybound my marks. shift + number, it's amazing how quick you learn the different keybinds.

DBM uses skull/X/blue quite a bit, so on bosses I use yellow or circle. For trash I use skull and X.

One of the best places to practise marking on the fly in my opinion is Halls of Reflection. With the new lfg system you do not have to be party leader to mark things in a party.