Targeting Question

[Jae]

<p>This may be a 'noob' question, and if so, I will gladly put on the hat and and take my stool and go sit in the corner, but TARGETING is my biggest difficulty when tanking...</p><p>I presently use the Tab key as a sort of "search the general area in front of me to see what's targetable" or to switch the target in a group encounter before doing the pull, then group taunt, solo taunt, etc.</p><p>Then there are the times you just get aggroed by a group, at which point I do an F8 to target the nearest mob, do a group taunt, and then try to adjust the targeting to the optimum mob to kill first.</p><p>Hard to do when you're in a jammed in a small area and smothered by mobs! </p><p>IS there a way to limit the range of the Tab key, or use the F8 key, or some other key, so that I can switch "close-in targets" without pulling another mob or group from across the room?</p><p>Any advice is appreciated.</p><p>Jaeck</p>

[Rahatmattata]

<p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=466007" target="_blank">Tanking Tricks </a></p><p>The cumbersome targetting in EQ2 is the only real hard thing about the game IMO. Quite honestly, it sucks and takes some getting used to. Usually the best way to target a mob is to click on it with you mouse, but this is often slower than using a keyboard, and you're just as likely to click on the wrong thing like a player, pet, etc. You can rotate the camera so only the objects you are interested in targetting are in your field of view. I also recommend binding "select previous target" or whatever it's called to your keyboard or a mouse button to make switching back a snap.</p><p>Just look through your options window at all of the targetting options and play with them. No matter what class I am playing... I'd guess 60% of my targetting is clicking with my mouse and select previous target... 20% is assist current target... 18% is select next target (Tab), and 2% other.</p>

[Sprin]

<p><cite>Jaeck wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>IS there a way to limit the range of the Tab key, or use the F8 key, or some other key, so that I can switch "close-in targets" without pulling another mob or group from across the room?</p><p>Any advice is appreciated.</p><p>Jaeck</p></blockquote><p>Yes... a little trick I use is to zoom in a bit, so that the only mobs you see on your screen is the mobs you are engaged with, and bring you camera more looking "down" on the fight, over your head... this will prevent the game from tabbing to some random mob 300 yards away only to be followed by some random arrow or spell or pet by one of your group members, which then brings the entire zone with it.. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Zoom in, pan the camera over head and Tab away.. (or whatever your "next target" is)...</p><p>I usually tell the group to assist one person because, even as an SK, (its a habit from when I was a bruiser tanking and they have crap AOE aggro control) I constantly tab through targets over and over and over again to gain aggro on them and make sure they arent on anyone else in the group...</p><p>Its even more important when there are multiple encounters of 5+ mobs each.... if a DPS or healer is spending time trying to deagro a mob of themselves, its time they could have spent DPS'ng or healing... and makes for longer zones...</p><p>Tab early and tab often... makes for easier and faster zones...</p>

[ZUES]

<p>The real trick is to have all the mobs agro. That way they auto target. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Aule]

Too many tanks lazy target by killing one mob and then waiting for whichever one swings at them next to become their new target. This doesn't work if you have anybody stunning, as the stun will need to wear off before you'll get a new target. It's an easy way to check and see if your tank is sub-par. Some tanks will stand there for a full 5-8s stun waiting, waiting, waiting... If you want to be a good tank, you'll react to your situation and either keep the mobs even to maximize dps, or pick off the low health ones to reduce incoming damage. You'll do this while also making sure none of the mobs you're not focusing on are spiking high on hate to other allies. You should also pretty much never finish off the mob yourself, once it's at 10-20% health switch to your next target and let splash damage kill the low one. Also (for group zoning) you should almost always be focusing on the triple up first. The double ups and lower will lose a lot of health from splash damage and you don't want to risk the hardest hitting mob running over to the chanter or healer because you were busy killing the easy mob.

[Landiin]

Listen to Aule he is 100% correct here. Targeting I use Target_closes_npc or direct target to get my 1st. Then I use Target_next_npc or Target_prev_npc to work my way around the encounter. Note that the last two only will target mobs in the encounter. I have TAB bound to closes, Q bound to prev and E bound to next. I also have middle mouse key bound to closes. Like Aule said, when a mob reaches 10 to 5% I switch to the next mob or run off to pull the next group.

[Jae]

<p>Some excellent advice, folks, and thank you all VERY much!</p><p>I had pretty much incorporated most of it in my tanking, but I'll definitely have to try changing the camera view and key-binding.</p><p>Did you know that the F8 key, which I use a LOT when tanking, literally targets the next nearest mob/targetable object, etc., so that IF you've cleared the current group, it WILL target a mob from across the room?  As bad as the Tab key which I pretty much only use as very lame sort of "tracking" tool; to see what mobs might be in the area in front of me.</p><p>Yeah, for my wish list a 'limiter' option on the F8 key would be UBER!</p><p>Jaeck for his 81 pally on Crushbone</p>

[electron]

<p>You can also choose (under options) where when you turn on auto attack it targets the nearest hostile NPC. Useful for when you're fighting through a group of mobs and if you hit your autoattack (tilde key for me) right when they die you go right to the next mob.</p><p>Personally I like to keep thing moving and position my camera high so that it looks down on my group at a sharp angle and just tab target (next hostile NPC I have it bound for) when the current mob is < 10% HP. To my knowledge, you will only tab-target things within your field of view.</p>

[Wasuna]

<p>Tab - Cycles through all the mobs around you. Can be useful but can also be very dangerous. Tabing to another group your not currently fighting can get a mage killed in no time. If they start a spell, targeting though you then the spell hits the mob it was started for.</p><p>F8 (Target Nearest NPC) - Works great. You can make a macro for this, just use F8 or reassign the key if you like.</p><p>General targeting - I'm a Guardioan so Warlocks are my bane. Therefore 'splash damage' for my groups usually isn't that high. If I tabe to a second target I usually end up going back to the one I left to finish it off. 'Splash Damage' is a great concept but you need to see how the group is going. Leaving a mob in the red to beat on you while you get the other 3 to the red is only a good idea if they will actually die.</p><p>I also have face the mob on and while I'm fighting this mobe I zoom my view out and spin it around and watch the area. Now days I know all the zones so I just click buttons while I throw my dogs toy for him to fetch.</p>

[Gilasil]

<p>Excellent tips here.</p><p>Thanks!</p>

[electron]

<p><cite>Wasuna wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Tab - Cycles through all the mobs around you. Can be useful but can also be very dangerous. Tabing to another group your not currently fighting can get a mage killed in no time. If they start a spell, targeting though you then the spell hits the mob it was started for.</p><p>F8 (Target Nearest NPC) - Works great. You can make a macro for this, just use F8 or reassign the key if you like.</p><p>General targeting - I'm a Guardioan so Warlocks are my bane. Therefore 'splash damage' for my groups usually isn't that high. If I tabe to a second target I usually end up going back to the one I left to finish it off. 'Splash Damage' is a great concept but you need to see how the group is going. <strong>Leaving a mob in the red to beat on you while you get the other 3 to the red is only a good idea if they will actually die.</strong></p><p>I also have face the mob on and while I'm fighting this mobe I zoom my view out and spin it around and watch the area. Now days I know all the zones so I just click buttons while I throw my dogs toy for him to fetch.</p></blockquote><p>The only problem with targeting nearest NPC, is that there is only 1 nearest NPC - and that's probably the one you're <em>already targeting</em>. Nothing wrong with targeting next NPC so long as you use caution and are aware of its tendencies (hence why a few people have posted about camera position).</p><p>And don't <strong>leave</strong> a mob in the red, switch targets while the DPS in your group takes the 2-5 seconds to finish the last one off (AoEs shouldn't be the bane of all tanks).</p>

[Prestissimo]

<p><cite>Megalith@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Wasuna wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I'm a Guardian</p></blockquote><p>And don't <strong>leave</strong> a mob in the red, switch targets while the DPS in your group takes the 2-5 seconds to finish the last one off (AoEs shouldn't be the bane of all tanks).</p></blockquote><p>Wasuna's just saying that since he's a guardian his aoe hate is very lacking and he intentionally doesn't bring enough aoe dps to let splash damage kill it so he doesn't follow that same tanking style. Since we're unsure of what the OP is playing, it is nessecary to assume they could be playing a class such as guardian that has trouble with the whole letting spash damage kill the mobs, and it could be possible that the OP isn't proficient yet with such a tanking style.</p><p>To the OP: The key part of knowing when to tab, when to F8, when to click, and when to let the mob force you to auto target them is not really explainable; just experience can teach you that one. Explaining fully why people use this style and what you need to keep in mind before setting out to practice it is what my post is about.</p><p>As stated by others prior, the general rule of thumb is higher pulling efficiency = less time wasted between pulls and faster zone completion = better tank. To be good at efficient pulling is to look at how much of your group is on long casting timers, and look at how much aoe dps they're doing that you can keep hate off of. Knowing how fast mobs will die and if you can target the next mob and let splash/already casting spells kill what you were on will allow you to more efficiently chain pull with less time between mobs, and the less time between mobs, the more content you can do. Knowing your tank's limits and being able to quickly determine your group's output limits is what will make you a great tank. Understanding your group's output and pulling/tanking around your group's capabilities and adjusting your tanking to go with it is determined primarily by your understanding of your class and more importantly your proficiency at targetting and pulling without mistargetting.</p><p>With mages, because it takes a few seconds to finish casting the last few spells, you can target away from that mob and the mages will simply finish the job with that final cast they were in the middle of casting when you targetted off of the mob, or the swash/warlock/w.e will finish it off with their aoes that naturally will be cast or will proc.</p><p>Personally when I'm tanking heroic content I perfer to wait until the mob is at less than 5% hp (10% for really high dps groups that melt the mobs), then go to the next one. I wait that long purely to make sure that the mob will die literally within the next 2 seconds and it wont risk a death in the group.</p><ul><li>If it's a single target group, I body pull most mobs to prevent bringing an entire zone with the mob, and since fighters can cast their abilities on the fly, I'll usually use that initial time to run up to the mob, smack it with my sword, back towards the next mob so that I'm possitioned not terribly far off and can pull it at will when ready, then stop and turn the mobs back to the group. At that point, I've gotten a few CAs and 1 or 2 auto attacks in, and my taunts are almost back up again so I wait until we've gotten it down to a few % left, then back towards the next mob as the dots/final casts kill the mob off, rinse and repeat.</li><li>If it's an aoe group, I'll usually range/body pull the encounter, cast my encounter abilities as they're coming towards me, then when they reach me run through them to turn their backs, and then wail away tab targetting to keep watch of how much hate buffer I have before it agros a squishy.</li></ul>

[Raahl]

<p>Back when I use to play my tank, I'd move my view to looking down on the battle and use tab.  Seeing that tab only cycles through those mobs that you see, it keeps you from targeting a mob outside of melee.  I didn't use the F8 Target nearest, but I suspect that would be very handy.</p>

[Jaremai]

<p>I tell my mages not to attack unless the target is at 99% health or lower. </p><p>That prevents any oops-targeting of mobs across the room from turning into a dead mage.  If the target is losing health, then that (usually) means its actively engaged by the tank.</p><p>I would have thought it common sense for a mage anyway not to send a pet or nuke a 100% health mob for fear of getting the initial aggro, but.. common sense is sometimes locked away and buried in a chest on the starter isles.</p>