[Maèl]

Hi!

My current guild is in hibernation so I hibernated my disc priest and so I (over)geared my def warrior. Playing DPS just isn't my thing.

Currently I have just one problem. I'm running PUGs of various kinds. There are those who can barely keep up with my 1.3-1.5DPS and then there are the 3kDPS monsters.

Yesterday I went to Violet Hold with the latter kind. And I really had trouble keeping aggro off of a warrior pulling 2.2 dps(used MS/Whirlwind - no bleeds/Overpower whatsoever, don't ask). My group was AE heavy with a mage and a warlock so I went into AE tanking mode. Tabbing thru targets, t-clapping, s-waving, cleaving, the works.

How do I deal with a situation where I have trouble holding all mobs against heavy AE while still maintaining high single target threat while not being able to mark anything?
That's right. The mobs spawned directly into AE from my trigger happy clothies. That I can live with. But I simply didn't find the time to mark anything. So I had to let the warrior keep his mob. I couldn't even tell what mob was clobbering him with all the fireworks and stuff on screen.

Ususally I use my macro that marks my charge target with a skull but in that group I had to be there to drop a t-clap or I would have had mobs all over the place.

I took a look at my recount and lo! I only had 25% white hits vs cleave and hs. Seems like I don't have enough fingers...

Any suggestions for marking focus mobs while not being able to mark before the pull?

[gabbu]

Usually marking skull on say your charge or shoot macro works well in such mobile encounters where marking mobs can be tricky (COS, VH etc etc).

Trick with 3k dps is to put vigilance on the warrior/the aforesaid DPS (I have had warriors pull 3.5k in heroic, trust me it was PITA to hold aggro off those guys) and stay on balls with such a group, make sure you charge and be the first to get to next spawn, if you hit them with TC/SW before the DPS gets there you will not have any issues.

Tab like a mad man and cleave and TC as soon as they are up.

Also remember if the warrior/any high DPS was not starting with the guy you are attacking, there is probably no way you are keeping aggro off those 3 x 5-6k BT/WW crits in a row

HTH

[Paramount]

I recommend reading Vene's marking guide including the slideshow he links in the first sentence.

Also, if you haven't bound heroic strike and cleave to your mousewheel I would recommend that as well, that helped me tremendously.

Always try to keep a mark up, it takes awhile to be able to do moderately well, but it keeps dps on their toes (and attentive) and makes worlds of difference.

[TomHuxley]

Bind the skull mark to a free mouse key or your keyboard in a handy spot.

[uglybbtoo]

I keybind the marking of the icons on F1-F6 really easy to quickly hit as you target thru

[Demianu27]

have your party members give you a few more seconds to get good aggro on all of them.

do this by telling them not to attack until you marked a target.

once you have decent aggro you can calm down, mark a target, and let your dps go banana sandwich on them.

[Maèl]

Ugh. Keybinds...
I think every key on my keyboard, mouse AND cat is already double/triple bound to something.
And since I use the ALT key as my main modifier for macros and I sometimes keep ALT pressed for a very long time I think I will stay away from binding F4 to anything. We don't want that incident to happen again.

Does anybody know a macro command to mark a mob? Possibly with mouse over?

[Paramount]

Sorry to say it, but the most effecient means of marking is probably using keybinds. By using macros you are putting the mark in the hands of code so to speak (yay computer vs. human debate).

Alternatively you can assign a main assist if you'd like and just tell all of your group to kill whatever mob the main assist is killing, but there's still the problem of whether or not your dpsers will take the time and effort to do so.

[JU1CYFRU1T]

You could always get QuickMark. I used it for a while, before my "normal Heroic group" got used to my kill-order. Now we don't even pause... chain-pull after chain-pull until we are finished.

As a Protadin, chain-pulling helps a lot with downtime too, because if I can stay in combat... I don't have to wait for Divine Plea to come off cooldown. I may reinstall QuickMark, so that if/when I pug, I can mark faster... but I agree with Mael, my keybindings are already full.

[soderstorm]

I agree with JuicyFruit. I use Quick Mark and I set it top screen in the middle. I mark what I am hitting with skull always and then I mark the other targets as I rotate. Doesn't take much to do with QM loaded. And it makes marking pre-pull targets easier as well.

[Chard]

I've found that keybinding Skull and telling the party to drop skull before AOE'ing will ususally work.

Another thing I've found specific to VH on a warrior is to tank Mobs by the Stairs near the enterance door (rather than directly under the portal). The Mobs will come to you nicely bunched (sespecially for those 4x split groups) and you'll have heaps of time to mark a skull, you just need some dps that will listen a little.

I don't need to do this on my druid or Pally, but really helps on my warrior.

Good Luck

Chard

[Garbid]

These mobs don't hit well geared dps warriors that hard, and for a chance your healer might actually have to heal. I've given up on healers myself and take enhancement shamans with maelstrom heal or retri palas with art of war heals, it tends to be enough when overgearing encounter and no one pulling aggro.

But the warrior pulling aggro like that might have been on purpose for the extra rage needed to keep up constant cleave o_O

What I do in situations like that, with aoe grp including a single target nuker, is I ask them to spread the love, don't zerg 1 target but swap between them. If they do that then they never pull.