Find your target group
Just about a year ago, in one of my first posts, I talked about my weaknesses, the biggest one being a keyboard turner. I have since graduated from the school of keyboard turning noobs to G13 pros. It was a long, hard road in which I switched back and forth between my old-school playing method and my G13. Especially on Kadomi it was really difficult. But now it’s become second nature, and I can’t imagine moving any differently now. It helps as tank, as healer, as melee DPS, as ranged DPS. I really recommend breaking the habit.
But now I have another habit to break that I have inherited from my old days of TBC multi-target tanking: tab-targetting. Never was it more apparent that I need to figure this shit out than when I did my first excursion to Emalon in VoA-10. It was a motley group of 7 guildies, a friend plus two pugged people. As the better geared tank, I tanked adds. I’ll be frank, it didn’t work out. We only had 40 minutes left on the Wintergrasp timer when we started, so we had 25 minutes of attempts before heading out dejectedly. We had a couple issues, but we are fast learners, so I am convinced next time it’ll be a kill. If only Horde had Wintergrasp more often on Bronzebeard. It’s usually in Alliance hand as we’re heavily outnumbered.
My particular issue was targeting new adds and targeting the one that would blow up. BigWigs was so kind to mark the growing add with a skull so I just cycled through until I had the right one. Unfortunately I was hitting tab so frantically that I often missed the skull and had to tab some more. But that really wasn’t the biggest issue. The biggest issue was grabbing the new add. As it would pop up next to Emalon where we had the paladin tank and a couple melee DPS, I tried to click-target, but sometimes would miss or click on a raid member instead. In that time the add would often make for the next healer, and I was fail enough not to Intervene often enough. Add to that that my vigorous tanking killed two adds at the same time and you see a problem. I now know that I have to switch adds a lot more frequently to keep their health at just about the same level.
Veneretio did one of his Back to Basics posts recently about targeting, and he preaches clicking as the best way. I know he’s right. I zoom my camera out a lot on all fights, I know how to turn the camera angle, and yet…
As always, I am determined to master the target issue, so bring on the feedback, guys. Don’t be shy. 
I have never used tab targetting, I have always been a click target-type. I find the easiest way to do this is to turn on enemy health bars. It is much easier to click target, because instead of clicking the mob, just click the health bar. Also, having your camera zoomed out as far as possible helps immensely.
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I have to disagree here.
Every time I tried to click-target, we wiped.
Every time I used tab (and that… fast) we won.
But then, I really, really suck at click-targeting, as I never do that anyway…
.-= Armagon´s last blog ..Armagon: Played Anno1503 again, after… many years =-.
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I used to have that issue (tab tagetting past the mob I wanted) but then I just forced myself to slow down when tabbing – forced myself – and now it works fine. Tab targetting is an essential part of aoe tanking for all specs, I feel. I get a better result doing this than not. Certainly I still click target occassionally, especially if the mob is coming from behind and I have my camera pointing back, which is the case in some fights.
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Sometimes I click, sometimes I tab.
I miss the days of marking everything…that way there would be a little separation in the mobs.
.-= RJK´s last blog ..The Northern Barrier =-.
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admin Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
I’m old-school, I still mark just about everything and announce a kill order. If there’s one thing I hate about Wrath, it’s AoE bombing of trash.
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I’ve always been a Tab targeter. I still can’t get the hang of click targeting in dungeons or PvP.
I still insist on marks, whether I’m dps’ing or tanking. I don’t care if it’s not done that way anymore… Everything ALWAYS goes smoother when dps stays with a kill order. Always. Absolute. No exceptions.
Bonus: You can click the marks to select easier than the mob piled with melee dps.
I found Tulakks suggestion to be very helpful in click targeting, btw. It makes things a little crowded in WG (and I suspect in 25-man raids), but once you get use to it, it works pretty well.
My big problem with tab targeting, as a warrior, is if you tab to a target and have no rage, you have to hit your auto attack key. Not a problem usually in a dungeon, but in PvP it happens a lot. And I haven’t had my auto attack bound in ages! Click targeting eliminates a keystroke either way… so I guess it’s a good thing to learn.
Back to practice.
.-= Friday´s last blog ..All Arms =-.
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The number one thing I can advise for Emalon is ask the Hunter or Rogue in your group to Trick/MD new adds to you. As soon as I know what tank is tanking adds, I’ve already got them focused for MD – it’s second nature to me by this point. Sure, it doesn’t help you, per se, but it’s something that should be done period.
And maybe it’s just me as a DPSer, but I have no problem with tab targeting
.-= Rilgon Arcsinh´s last blog ..I am such a bad influence. =-.
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Xtian Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
If you do this, you can also assist off of whoever is MDing the add to you in order to easily target the add.
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Lheaf Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
A real pain on the Emalon adds is when they go to the MT before a MD can get off, or the MT is so good at putting out threat that pulling the add off is hard. That little add underneath Emalon is a pain to click target. On the adds for that fight I always tab target too, but I will have to remember enemy health bars.. that would be nice. Especially if they wore marks.
.-= Lheaf´s last blog ..Hit Bitch =-.
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I found it easy to just click on the one growing big, taunt shield slam — etc.
After that one was dead its a simple case of looking for the new add, clicking him and taunting, I know that sometimes clicking a target can be difficult and I’m wondering if maybe the boss wasn’t being tanked in a corner meaning adds were spawning on the far side of the boss?
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[...] And while I do occasionally point-and-click abilities, for the most part, I do use hotkeys. But, just like Tank Like a Girl, there is one control-scheme sin that I’m definitely guilty of: I am definitely a [...]
I’ve always been a ‘tab-targeter’. In most multi-mob tanking situations, this works out to be the best way to go for me. Apart from dungeons like CoS where tab can target a mob at a distance, tab works fine for me.
As for Emalon, I’ve tanked the ads using the tab method and had no problem finding the overcharged ad – mainly because of the Overcharge buff and the bucket load of dots which are thrown onto it!! By this point however, I’ve got so much aggro that there’s no need to even have it targetted and cycling through the ads as normal would work just fine. I adjust my camera once I’ve picked my tanking spot and simply taunt the new spawns after click selecting it.
Now I know is this isn’t anything new, but what really made me comment tho, is that for the life of me I can’t figure out how you managed to kill 2 ads!!
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Me, as a prot pally, after every enraged add is killed, I will change my camera angle (where you can clearly see emalon) then wait for the add to spawn, most of the time it spawns at the back of emalon so it wont be that hard to click on it. I let the add wonder a bit till it reaches my taunt range then taunt it. Then wait for it to come to me.
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I can recommend an addin that quickly made me forget about tab targets for tanking. Called magic targets, it brings up a list of all closeby targets that you or any of your raid has seen/Moused over. Complete with threat coloring, icons and healthbars, it gives me a quick overview of everything and let’s me clicktarget without the risk of clicking the wrong thing in a hectic environment
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Tab, tab, tab, tab, shift+tab =o
[quote]I just cycled through until I had the right one. Unfortunately I was hitting tab so frantically that I often missed the skull and had to tab some more.[/quote]
Shift+Tab targets your previous enemy, pretty useful on that situation.
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I’m also a Warwar tank.
First off, it really helps to have the target bars enabled that show health and what not.
I use Aloft to customize these.
I’ve found when clicking targets, this definitely helps.
This way while tanking adds during Emalon, I have no problem clicking on the new red bar that pops up by him and bringing the new add over.
I still do tab target, but only during mass AoE pulls where I do a combo of tab, cleave, and devastates onto anything within range, like while doing Naxx farm runs where your group just wants to move incredibly fast.
Good luck!
.-= Eksy´s last blog ..All Hail Ambassador Eksy! =-.
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