Ask WoW Insider: What's your kill order?
Greetings, Azerothians! It's time for another Friday edition of Ask WoW Insider, where we publish your questions for the world (... of Warcraft) to answer. Last week we looked at how to find a new server, and this week we examine the curious and culturally diverse practice of marking targets in instances. Djinni on Anvilmar-A relates the following tale of falling down the rabbit hole: I was in a 5-man the other day with 4 members of one guild, and me, the non-guildy. Not exactly a PUG, since I know 2 of the people, and they asked me to join. For the first 10-15 minutes of this instance, I was getting crazy aggro and had either died or had to Vanish on every pull. I also noticed that I seemed to be the only one doing damage to my target. Finally, I stopped the group and asked what was going wrong...telling them that no one else seems to be attacking Skull. And that's when this became the weirdest instance run ever. They dropped the Kill Order Bomb. Square, X (if it exists), Triangle (Sap), Skull, Moon (Sheep). And this didn't seem strange to any of them. To this day, it remains the only group I've ever been in that didn't make Skull first target. For the next hour or so, I was in Bizarro world...as if the water in the toilet would spin backwards (and maybe up) if I flushed it. I wonder if anyone else has had a completely unintuitive Kill Order imposed on them? What's your Kill Order?To some it seems obvious that the skull symbolizes death and death quickly, but to others, X marks the spot. Still others have been thrown into a murderous rage at the mere sight of the orange nipple. What's your preferred kill order when marking instances, and have you ever been subject to one that seemed particularly daft?
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Filed under: Instances, Ask WoW Insider






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Mitch Oct 12th 2007 3:06PM
It's always been skull for me and if someone said otherwise I would probably fall out of my chair.
Alyssa Oct 12th 2007 3:43PM
My kill order is usually Skull, Star (sap), Triangle (off-tank), X or Moon (additional non-CC targets), Square (frost trap), Circle (sheep/shackle), Diamond (banish)
My choice in icons is geared towards giving the CC mobs a large visible mark so they can easily be seen if the CC breaks/expires. For example, if a sheep breaks you can see a giant orange nipple charging at your mage more easily than a pale moon.
Kyp Oct 12th 2007 3:10PM
Kill oreder: Skull, X, Square, Circle, Diamond, Moon.
Skull=kill
X=Off tank
Sqare=Trap
Circle=Sap
Diamond=Seduce/Banish
Moon=Sheep
Buckshot Oct 12th 2007 3:11PM
Have never seen anyone use the symbols other that to annoy other team members and/or put the green noob triangle over a group member and torment them. Mostly use vent to live call or see who the hunter pulls first.
Le Hv Oct 12th 2007 3:14PM
Almost the same as #2 but x and circle flipped, bcs trap can be refreshed while sap cannot.
Skull=kill
X=Off tank
Circle=Sap
Square=Trap
Diamond=Seduce/Banish
Moon=Sheep
Pallimoon Oct 12th 2007 3:15PM
Yeah I've never ever seen skull as not the first one in the order.
As a tank I usually do the markings in 5 mans and I usually do it like this:
Skull = Kill first, Cross = Kill 2nd (usually tanked aswell), Moon = Sheep, Star = Sap, Noob square = Trap, Diamond = Banish, Triangle = Succubus or MC or something like that and the orange nipple is usually also tanked or if I'm having 2 of something I sometimes use it for the 2nd sheep or whatever.
eVEAN Oct 12th 2007 3:16PM
Skull=first kill, Circle=sap, X=sheep, Square is ALWAYS hunter trap, Diamond=lock CC (succy, fear etc), then the triangle, moon and star are used situationally. sometime circle is offtank target or second kill target.
I would like to pose a new question:What the hell is the orange circle? Condom? Nipple? Buckler? What do you call it when you shout out, "I GOT 'the orange circle thing', thing"?
Addie Oct 12th 2007 3:16PM
*pout*
Moon = Hibernate
Okay, so I only get my way about that half the time. *grins*
Tuberon Oct 12th 2007 3:16PM
Being a prot paladin when I run instances, I honestly don't use much CC, so anything beyond skull and x isn't much use. And skull is first.
TV Genius is a Dumb ass Oct 12th 2007 3:17PM
Skull - Kill
X - Off-Tank/Kill 2nd
Diamond - Sap
Circle - Sheep
Square - Trap
Moon - Lock Stuff
Tinwhisker Oct 12th 2007 3:18PM
Skull - kill
X - OT or second kill
circle - sap
square - trap
moon - sleep/shackle
star - sheep
diamond - banish/seduce
In that order, if seduce is used it dies before the sheep. Sometimes in a 25-man raid, it's a bit different as tanks are assigned a symbol to tank throughout the instance.
Arnold Oct 12th 2007 3:19PM
1st = skull
2nd= red X (i.e. cross)
purple diamond=SAP
moon=sheep
the rest depends on group makeup, whether we have hunter/lock etc...
Zoidfarb Oct 12th 2007 3:21PM
Skull - Tank
X - Pets
Star - Sap
Square - Trap
Diamond - OT if extra one is available and needed
Triangle - depends on group
Circle - depends on group
Moon - Sheep
Super_Duck Oct 12th 2007 3:24PM
Skull=Tank and kill first
Square=Trap
Moon=Sheep
X=sap (or sometimes offtank)
Rest really differs from group to group, ive seen diamond=sap too
Arras Oct 12th 2007 3:23PM
Skull=Kill first/MT target
X=OT
All the rest are assigned to various CC. The folks I raid with crave consistency, so any changes to "their" icon is cause for tears, drama and lots of alcohol :)
It's not that bad, but people like to know what their CC target is and stick with that for the whole raid. Which makes sense; especially in places like Kara where kill order and fast, efficient pulls are needed.
Bravo Oct 12th 2007 3:24PM
I wonder if differnt standards are on differt servers, that have come from people playing test servers... I've ussually seen triangle sap on my server, skull then x seem to be standard
#3... what lvl are you??? I rarely see a pug using vent
Jack Spicer Oct 12th 2007 3:24PM
If I am the group leader and I'm doing the marking, I always make sure that everyone knows what the kill order is before we start.
I usually do:
Skull - Kill First
X - Kill Second
Circle - Kill Third/Off-tank
Square - Freezing Trap
Diamond - Seduce/Mind Control
Moon - Sheep
Star - Sap
Triangle- Banish/Hibernate/Cyclone
Le Hv Oct 12th 2007 3:25PM
@5 - I am with you, I have been with Druid since the beginning, never having gotten an alt past 39 because I just love the druid playstyle. I ran a 0/25/26 build so that I could solo efficiently and still make a passable healer for group play, since NOONE would accept a druid in a group or raid as anything other than a healer... BC came out and during those first few months when Ferals were the most OP class/build in the game I just could not believe how EVERYONE wanted me to MT in runs! Those months before the nerfs were totally responsible for the change in perception that druids make great tanks and dps and why I now only run if I'm tanking or maybe dps...
I refuse to even own a single piece of healing gear now.
Le Hv Oct 12th 2007 3:26PM
sorry wrong post! @ 17
hoeding Oct 12th 2007 3:27PM
In kill order:
Skull=Kill
X=offtank/stunlock
Nipple=fear
Diamond=Seduce
Blue=Frost trap
Star=shackle
Moon=sheep/turtle/pig
Nipple=banish if demon/elemental