From WoWWiki

Raid Target Icons (sometimes referred to as Lucky Charms) are icons that raid leaders/assistants and party leaders can place over players and mobs. This feature was introduced in Patch 1.11.

Contents 1 Strategy / Use 2 An Example Targeting Convention 3 API and key bindings 4 Origin 5 Adding Raid Icons to Chat

Strategy / Use

To place a Raid Target Icon over a mob, simply select the mob, right-click on its portrait, and select a symbol from the heirarchical menu.

Using these symbols is valuable in parties and even more so in raids. Before its introduction, class-specific spells like Hunter's Mark and Detect Magic had to be used to visually indicate to other party/raid members what mobs were targeted for what kinds of actions.

Particular uses include:

• Rather than saying "sheep left, sap right, attack middle", a party leader can say "sheep moon, sap cross, attack skull"; once the convention is established and all players understand what each symbol means, the party leader won't even have to say that. The advantage of this method over the former is that even if the mobs move around, it's still clear what they're designated for (it's also often the case that it's ambiguous exactly who the "left" mob is, and sometimes it's hard and time-consuming to describe which mob you mean using only words).
• Rather than the continual assisting of the raid leader, the raid leader can place icons on mobs and indicate "Player X has Lucky Charm Y".
• The "Skull" lucky charm is almost invariably used to indicate which target should have DPS targeted upon it.
• Very effective in the Domo and Garr fights in Molten Core where there is a lot of target switching.

Another use is to speed up pulls in 20-40 man instances by having each symbol assigned to a tank. Among the tanks in your guild, or at the beginning of the raid declare the "tanking order" meaning assigning each symbol to a tank#. For example: Star is the target of the tank on the top of the CT Main Tank list, Circle to the #2 tank on CT Main Tank list etc. (this can also be done for CC by putting your mages/warlocks/etc. on the MT list).

Carrying this further, you could even give each of those tanks / CCers an Assist, and let them mark their own targets. Assuming your tanks are on the ball, this can save time where the Raid Leader does not need to be assigning targets, and ensures each person actually has that target targeted. Each tank / crowd controller should always use the same Icon (both within the raid, and even across multiple raids, e.g., "ElfMan always tanks the blue square") for this to work. This is for more advanced use, and some Raid Leaders do not like giving out Assists.

An Example Targeting Convention

Although there is nothing like a standard convention for icon meanings, the following table may provide a starting point for groups or guilds wishing to create a convention. (The basic idea is to have the icon color correspond to the color of the class intended to handle it.)

Symbol	Chat Command	Class	Action	Notes
	{Star} or {rt1}	Rogue	Sap	Groups must wait until the rogue has sapped before engaging the group, as sap cannot be reapplied in combat.
	{Circle} or {rt2}	Druid	Hibernate	If you have a druid tank, he can cast this before he shapeshifts into bear form.
	{Diamond} or {rt3}	Warlock	Seduce / Banish / Enslave Demon	When using enslave, groups may sometimes wait until the target has died before engaging the rest of the group.
	{Triangle} or {rt4}	Priest	Shackle / Mind Control	Mind Control should be used carefully because when the control breaks, the mob usually goes straight to the priest.
	{Moon} or {rt5}	Mage	Polymorph	Usually sheeped mob is the last to kill, as mages can easily resheep and keep the mob controlled indefinitely.
	{Square} or {rt6}	Hunter	Trap	Groups may wish to delay 10-15 seconds between the hunter trap and the pull, so that the trap's cooldown is up if the trap breaks early.
	{Cross} or {rt7}		Off Tank	Usually the target DPS should switch to once the target marked with the skull has been killed.
	{Skull} or {rt8}		Kill target	Focus of all DPS.

Obviously, this would have to be altered on a per-case basis if, for example, you have two mages polymorphing or if you have a warlock both banishing and enslaving. Still, it can provide a useful foundation for groups or guilds getting used to the raid icon system.

API and key bindings

These icons can be set programmatically in a macro with the API SetRaidTarget function. Example, /script SetRaidTargetIcon("target", 8); will mark the target with a Skull, 8 standing for the Icon number.

Alternatively, they can be bound to keys for quick application. For example, Skull could be bound to Ctrl-K (Kill, sKull) so that the raid leader or assist can apply the icon quickly to a new target during a fight.

Origin

The nickname originates from their appearance similar to the marshmallows from the Cereal Lucky Charms.

Adding Raid Icons to Chat

An undocumented feature of patch 2.4 added the ability to post raid target icons into any chat channel by enclosing the name of the icon in "squiggly brackets" - such as {skull}, {circle}, {moon}, etc.