Marking Trash?

**Sarcem** · #1 05-11-2009, 03:57 PM

Heya all,

First off, thank you very much to the community here on Tankspot. You have all made me into a passable tank.

I have found myself fortunate enough to recently fall into a regular Naxx run as the OT. My gear and skill have dramatically improved and thanks to the videos and experiences running the place, the boss fights have been manageable as well.

Recently our MT moved on, which left me to MT the place. First night, raid leader (warlock) passes me lead and says to mark and pull….. Uhhhh, honestly, I had never really paid attention to trash pulls and priority kills. They passed the lead onto a PUG tank (who was very good, so no worries from me) and we were off. I did my best to scratch down some notes for the next run but got behind and noticed I was lagging in my responsibilities to the raid.

The point of all of this: is there a list or “guide” that details kill priorities for Naxx trash pulls? Would this be valuable to newer tanks? It seems a lot of effort is put into boss fights and rightfully so, since I have never even been told what to do on “trash”…..

Any thoughts or help?

Thanks again,

Sarcem

Ont · #2 05-11-2009, 04:03 PM

Dark Touched Warriors die first.

That is all, really. There's nothing else that's critical. After that I (admittedly a marking nazi) just go in order of what will die first or be the most disruptive (shades).

I've always had my OT go DPS gear/spec and grab a kill target to nuke down while I gather everything else on top of them so that the single target DPS has something to focus on and the AoE can just go nuts doing what they do. It's not much different than just solo-tanking the trash, but it keeps your healers alert and makes the run quicker.

25-man, I think pretty much everyone just stacks everyone on top of two tanks pumping out AoE DPS, picks a skull, then let's everyone aoe and the tanks (ideally paladin being one of them) just fight for aoe threat.

Molohk · #3 05-11-2009, 04:05 PM

I haven't seen such a guide. Considering the ammount of trash, and the different considerations you must take with each pack, a guide might become too long to be effective.

Naxx is a good place to start learning pulls, because there is no CC, and most of the time killing order isn't that important anyways. The best advice I can give is to pay attention when someone else is pulling, and most importantly don't be afraid to ask to your raid "who do we kill first" before marking targets.

Kexil · #4 05-11-2009, 04:14 PM

In my guild we use the marks for tank/CC targets as opposed to kill order and a Main Assist (typically our melee lead) who is on the tank list. The MA's job is to target the first mob to kill, and subsequent mobs after.

Its kind of a outdated concept in naxx, but now that trash requres some thinking in Ulduar, I am happy we kept it around.

But as a overview high dmg dealers then casters then melee mobs is the priority I use.

**Dubzil** · #5 05-11-2009, 04:16 PM

There's just basic rules of what do you think you want to kill first. There's a few different types of mobs:

Helaers <-- should usually die first
AoEers <-- kill your dps, need to die quick
Single target <-- not much of a pain, tanks just tank them
Ulduar has brought us some rogues that shadowstep, they instantly pick a clothie and go to kill them, need to be stunlocked/crowd controlled.

thats really about all there is to trash.. kill things that heal and things that give raid damage first, after that its tank and AoE down.

**TenTonTail** · #6 05-11-2009, 04:36 PM

The warriors (as a previous poster said) always get marked and single targeted first, because they whirlwind and kill the mele (esp squashy rogues and crunchy shaman.) It's noteworthy that the whirlwinds can be interrupted.

For the horses I mark Skull and X, fot MT and OT, and we taunt the horse when they seperate (each taking our own.) That way you don't get two horses charging around.

The flying swords/ staffs room - always the staffs first. In the double pulls of stone skin gargoyles, mark one gargoyle so the group will focus fire and you don't get unnecessary health regens on the mob.

On KT I like to mark which howling banshee they ranged should be focussing on so they can burn them down quicker.

Also, when kiting the slimes, describe it out in vent so that the healers know where you are and where you're going, they hate it when they have to chase you down to cast heals on you.

That's all I can think of. Everything else gets AoEd down so fast that it's not worth much of a bother.

Ushebti · #7 05-12-2009, 04:53 AM

I mark by size, (bigger, big, small, smaller.) except at the dark touched warrior.
Simple really.

**Shortypop** · #8 05-12-2009, 04:59 AM

One of the main reasons imo to mark trash pulls in Naxx is so that both you and your OT(s) know who they are building threat on as a prio, tanks fighting over mobs especially with taunt diminishing returns usually causes dead squishies. What we do is all the tanks have marking rights, we mark our own targets, it takes a little while to be able to accurately second guess the other tanks but makes things a lot faster. If doing this it's important to be consistent, don't swop what you are tanking every pull because then the other tank(s) won't get to know. If every tank focuses on their target and aoes the others, no one should pull agro

In general anything really big (cos it will hit hard if it goes off after squishies) or anything small (cos it heals or does insane damage but dies fast) should be tanked and/or nuked fastest.

The only way to learn marking is to do it and there's few concrete rules, one thing that can be useful on the military wing pats (before 4H) is to randomly mark a mob in every patrol that comes close, then it's easy to see which pats you are likely to pull while fighting another group.

**Sarcem** · #9 05-12-2009, 09:22 AM

Thanks everyone,

So: Dark touched warriors, staffs, shades, anything really big, and anything really small. Plus, obviously if I can find healers... they die first.

I just remember the Skimisher's from the first room of AN and don't want to mis-mark a pull like that.

I'll give it a go, the raid leader is cool enough so I'll ask for a whisper if I mark something seriously wrong.

I'll let you all know how I did. Thanks again.

Sarcem

**Theotherone** · #10 05-12-2009, 09:39 AM

I think a lot of marking has much to do with the ability of the MT to quickly grab and hold mutli-mob threat.

I tend to mark only the mob i'm pulling and not a kill order and i will pull casters first, but a lot of this is because I'm frost speced so my pull is Death Grip on a caster ("Come here", if you remember Mortal Combat), into a ring of Death and Decay (glyphed for added damage and shorter cool down). The remaining mobs follow into the DnD, then I hit with a Howling Blast (if I have Death Chill up, then it's a crit) and effectively have good aggro on multi mobs; so then it's a matter of burning the trash.

**Valalvax** · #11 06-18-2009, 04:56 PM

Ok, I read the first few replies, and I gotta really asked, what the heck is a Dark Touched Warrior? I've been doing Naxx 10 on two characters for the past several months, and Naxx 25 on one of those two, and don't even KNOW what a Dark Touched Warrior is..

Also, bind F7-F12 with marking functions, cause I know you're not opening and closing your bags with those keys, maybe something else though

Molohk · #12 06-18-2009, 04:59 PM

Source: Valalvax
Ok, I read the first few replies, and I gotta really asked, what the heck is a Dark Touched Warrior? I've been doing Naxx 10 on two characters for the past several months, and Naxx 25 on one of those two, and don't even KNOW what a Dark Touched Warrior is..

Also, bind F7-F12 with marking functions, cause I know you're not opening and closing your bags with those keys, maybe something else though

In military wing, the guys that do the big bad whirlwind.

**Valalvax** · #13 06-22-2009, 06:56 AM

Source: Molohk
In military wing, the guys that do the big bad whirlwind.

Oh, gotta admit, we generally just grab a couple groups do a couple shockwave thunderclap combos, and aoe em all down, then the Melee go "AMG BLENDER" and sometimes they get out, and sometimes they are going "DUR DIT DUR" and die ^_^

**Keleher** · #14 07-30-2009, 09:20 PM

well not much more too say

but a good thumb-rule i use if im not sure or if im new to that mob:
manabar = Kill first No mana typical mean no curses, no fear, no heals for the mob or other nasty stuff that may pull other mobs
other then that I just tank by saying to myself: okey what looks or sounds nasty

**Dismember** · #15 07-30-2009, 09:50 PM

My question would be, why are you marking trash in Naxx, period?

That's not meant to be a flippant reply, I just don't see the point. I can understand marking the first few times through when everyone is learning the pulls, but aside from that...

Naxx trash, aside from a few pulls, is pretty much just one giant AOE orgasm. If you run with a bunch of melee you might want to focus Dark Touched Warriors, but they should really be getting stunlocked regardless.

**Keleher** · #16 08-03-2009, 12:36 AM

[quote=Dismember;262932]My question would be, why are you marking trash in Naxx, period?

Yes Naxx mobs is a quite large aoe party but it may still be helpful to mark unless the group/guild are so accustomed to naxx that it just runs its self

but still a marked mob will go down alot faster and all pulled together saves alot of ekstra raid time if the tank is able to mark and pull at the same time. And with naxx taking anywhere from 4 to 12 hours depending on skill,gear,bugs etc. I like to cut down as much ekstra time killing trash as possible

this is just my opinion...

Griff · #17 08-05-2009, 01:58 PM

Being able to quickly and effectively identify and mark targets for kill/cc priority should be a skill in every tank's toolbox. And while I agree that marking every target in naxx is a waste of time, marking stuff lik DTWarriors makes life easier dps.

**Insahnity** · #18 08-05-2009, 02:20 PM

Source: Dubzil
There's just basic rules of what do you think you want to kill first. There's a few different types of mobs:

Helaers <-- should usually die first
AoEers <-- kill your dps, need to die quick
Single target <-- not much of a pain, tanks just tank them
Ulduar has brought us some rogues that shadowstep, they instantly pick a clothie and go to kill them, need to be stunlocked/crowd controlled.

thats really about all there is to trash.. kill things that heal and things that give raid damage first, after that its tank and AoE down.

The point of marking is to assist weaker raids (undergeared tanks, low raid dps, etc.). Stronger raids can aoe faceroll. Clearly the OP is not experienced enough to faceroll it yet, and I commend him/her for paying attention.

In general, as somebody mentioned, best way to learn is to pay attention. In the absence of experience, I do the following as I see it (applies to all encounters, not naxx)
1) AoErs (Dark Touched warrios, Unholy Staves, etc.)
2) Healers
3) Ranged (archers/spearmen/etc.)
4) Casters
5) Melee

Please note, with melee being last, you need to keep up some threat on melee to drag them along as you tank the casters with you. It's very easy for newer tanks to lose threat to healing aggro.

Also, when you get to plague quarter, the gargoyles don't have a priority per se, but you SHOULD mark those (even if you faceroll the rest), or at least announce in vent an order (MT's gargoyle's first, then OT's gargoyle next, MT takes left, OT takes right, etc.). Your raid MUST focus fire these guys down in order, splitting fire will result in a wipe for a lesser raid. Another example of marking is Faerlina's adds, if you cannot manage a Momma's gonna knock you out achievement. An undergeared tank cannot survive the enrage for long, but they can live with good healing and dispelling the enrage by killing adds as needed.

kongkarl · #19 08-30-2009, 10:24 AM

Dps and healers should be encouraged to think for themself, also dps/healers have some "save-myself-in-pvp" button, fear, shield, ice, feign death etc...

So do this: wisp OT/plate dps to pick up stray mobs, assign a healer to each tank and a 3´rd to raidheals if you run with 3. Tell dps to not die, say they should pretend its pvp.

Make sure they all have omen and dbm, they are addons, find them at curse.com

Now you are sure they stay awake, dont go for coffee/toilet/pizza... dps and healing can be tiresome at time, keep them entertained.

Charge in and keep pulling, ask to ress up quick and buff on the fly, makes for a fun run imo. I belive that even if you are in blues/hc epix, this should be the way to do it, try it.

I used an addon called quickmark once, to fast mark up 1-2 mobs if needed, sadly its outdated now but maybe its being updated.

Im saying this becourse back in the BC days we cc´ed everything untill I was OT in a pug with a supertank who did it this way, we changed to it and never looked back and did any cc...

Mr. undying

donthoto · #20 08-30-2009, 02:55 PM

I tend to mark a lot, even in 5-mann heroics...

1. It makes it easier for me to hold aggro.
2. Its good practice for when you really need it. Get in in your fingers...
3. If its a PUG you never know the experience level of each individual. Makes for smoopth runs.
4. If you have your marking down it takes fractions of a second. Most pulls that is easily won back by downing the group faster.