DPS matters
When I play WoW, I really prefer utility roles. I love to tank, and I have come to love healing. That said, I firmly believe that DPS is just as crucial. DPS can’t just coast along in 5-mans, they can make or break a group. DPS too low? Healer will go out of mana trying to keep the tank up, or group damage will become too much to heal. A tank will eventually run out of ‘Oh shit’ buttons the longer a fight lasts. This is not a grand revelation, anyone who enjoys group play in WoW should know this for a fact. A group with low DPS will fail frequently.
Why do I post this common fact? Because I stumbled over a statement from a DPSer I know that I so violently disagree with that it prompts me to post:
I have never given a shit about where I stand in the DPS meters. If the boss died, and I’m last on the meters, but THE BOSS DIED, who the fuck cares? Out of all the DPS, someone has to be last.
ORLY? Give me a group of 5 people, all of the DPS think that way, and watch that group fail fail fail. If you choose to play a DPS class in WoW, your character does damage. That’s the primary purpose. Improving your character means you improve your DPS. You do more damage, everyone benefits. If you do not care about your personal damage and do not want to push yourself to do more damage, what’s the point of playing a damage class in any group environment. I get that a lot of people play WoW as a glorified single player game. I have been there, when I started playing WoW I quested and avoided groups. But as soon as you move into groups, start discovering the fun of instances, raiding and shiny loot, it should matter to you how well you perform.
I am not saying that damage meters are the end all be all. I can’t stand DPSers who spam the meters after every pull or request that you report info repeatedly. But ultimately, you should look at Recount, see your personal DPS, and make sure that you improve and that you perform to the best of your abilities. If that’s not something you enjoy, why play in groups?
The content of that comment is pretty gross, and the words are very ugly too. I would have thought it was obvious that dpsers should strive to improve all the time. If you’ve played wow enough to be familiar with the meaning of the word “boss” – that should be enough, no? Usually I only find attitudes like that from a bad pug.
By coincidence I rolled through a heroic with a pug hunter last night: as tank I did 3x the total damage as the hunter did in the instance. Not a lot to say to her at the end, except the ignore list, ensuring I never drag her sorry backside through an instance again !
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admin Reply:
January 16th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Yeah, I was kinda shocked by that comment. I guess for some people it’s about the free ride to loot. But it sucks.
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Ouch, that sucks. Playing as DPS on my warrior is a very competitive experience for me. I know I can’t “win” the meters every time, but I enjoy trying.
Damage meters get a really bad rep, whether it is coming from the people who don’t perform well (and thus don’t like to see themselves so low) or the people have have seen the friendly competition on the meters go too far (people dying because they are being stupid and using AoE too early, pulling aggro, etc). But damage meters (including healing meters etc) are a tool and when used correctly I think are one of the most useful things for evaluating an instance run.
Knowing how to “read” the meters (especially in more than just a plain old ‘who came out on top’ kind of way) is sooo useful
I love damage meters.
Someone does have to be last on the meters, but no one cares if you are last but you still kicked ass. But if you are doing 700 dps and the rest of the group is doing 3000, well… you are being carried and you should not feel good about it.
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What the quoted person fails to realize, is that being “last place” in a group of DPS where everyone is high & close to each other (ex, 3 DPS all pulling 3000-3200 DPS) is far different the being last when they are far apart (800 DPS, 2400 DPS, 2600 DPS).
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[...] DPS Matters, Kadomi insists that getting the boss down by the skin of your teeth doesn’t mean you should [...]
Well said, Alaphrei. I recently spec’ced Survival from Beast Master, and (compared to BM), I’m actually finding it fun that I need to try to top the meters as more of a utility/mana battery DPSer. Previously, the only person who’d beaten me HARD on boss fights was a Naxx-10/25 geared rogue, otherwise my Heroic/crafter gear blue dwarven butt routinely ROFLstomped the rest of the crew.
Any time I see a hunter pulling that kind of DPS, I try to give them a few tips on gear, rotation etc to help them out. It makes me feel bad to see anyone earn themselves the Huntard label…
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That. One of the best dps posts I’ve seen recently. Using a dps meter to improve yourself. Well said.
-Fri
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What I really love to see is when I look at the DPS meters and see all three of the DPS neck-and-neck and all doing a very good job. Combine that with a good tank and a good healer and you’ve got yourself a group that can take on near anything.
Bad healers can cause issues and bad tanks can cause issues, and bad DPS can cause issues too, I think some people don’t realize it because it can be harder to notice when the DPS is bad without looking at the meters.
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admin Reply:
January 17th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
That’s the ideal situation. Everyone close together on the meters. Sure, someone’s got to be last, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work on your DPS.
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Can completely relate to your post.
Its still not uncommon in the rare cases I pug that I top (!) the dps meters, fortunately for my own sanity’s sake I usually tag along with guildies instead.
I try to steer away from the trend to armory your group members, but when I see the meters after a rocky run I can’t help it, and I am simply appaled at the laziness randoms have towards gearing their chars.
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That’s my comment, so I feel the need to defend it here.
First, it was poorly phrased.
Secondly, I believe it was a comment to someone’s post about just what you said, “I can’t stand DPSers who spam the meters after every pull or request that you report info repeatedly.” I can’t find the post now, so I don’t remember, but I believe it was in reference to something along those lines. If not, that is how I meant it to be.
I do care, to some extent, about DPS meters. I want to be doing the best DPS that I am doing. I do see where I fall in the meters and do try to improve on it. It’s being publicly called out when your DPS is below average that I don’t like.
However, someone will still be last. But if your DPS is good, and the group rocked, I don’t think it matters as much as if you were so far below everyone else. It’s still good to take away a lesson on how you can improve, but it’s the constant spamming of the meters or being told that you suck in front of the group that I have problems with.
I apologize for the poorly worded comment and I do agree with this post.
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admin Reply:
January 18th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
First off, thanks for responding, I do appreciate that.
As for your arguments, yes, I also cannot stand people who spam meters. I have run with guys who would report after every pull. Unnecessary and not the point of such a tool.
I will at times post Recount stats, after a run is over, just so people can see what’s going on. Public calling out is not cool, but then, not something I am familiar with at all from our runs as well.
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Moober Reply:
January 18th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Agreed, with all of that. I wasn’t implying that you or other DotH members call people out publicly about poor DPS, but I have run with people who do.
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Moober Reply:
January 18th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Also, never intended the post to come across in any way that I have ever been on any run as a “free ride to loot.”
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If you DPS, you get judged by the damage you put out. WotLK even puts more importance to personal DPS. If you played a shadowpriest or enhancement shaman, many people had the “utility” excuse, didn’t care about dps because they brought those important buffs. DPS is much more even now and will continue to even out with patches coming along. Every dps class should be working on optimizing their rotations now, easy raid content is the best playground you can have.
If I heal I get judged on my healing performance. Most of the time that’s not healing meters but tanks dying. If I tank and I break CC in the wrong moment or loose aggro on mobs all the time that’s probably my fault.
The problem most of the time comes with total fixation on damagemeters and the tone people with low dps get talked to. Many of them have put effort in their character and gear, and just no one like to hear if he performs badly. I guess overall dps in WoW would greatly improve if people with low dps would be more open to suggestions concerning their gear/playstyle. And on the other hand if people with high dps would stop annoy people with dps-meters and learn how to help people of the same class.
My old german teacher once tried to learn us something about criticizing someone:
If you want your message to reach to other end, always squeeze your criticism between two nice remarks. That’s not stupid, but just how our brain works. Most people screaming l2p should seriously learn how to criticize.
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There are a lot of fights where if the dps isn’t doing well the party gets overwhelmed. The first boss in Gundrak for example. With strong dps the boss is dead before the snake adds can be more than a minor nuissance. If the dps is poor, the snake adds will wipe you over and over. With the Skadi fight in UP and the Tribunal fight in HoS, the tank will eventually be unable to keep aggro on all the mobs if the dps isn’t killing them quickly.
Another twist, I often hear in the raids, “well, I was leading the dps meters until I died”.
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TOTALLY AGREE… PUG UP last night… Which I have done with my main healer and some misc (good) DPS before… this time around we had 1 geared warlock, 1 mage and a rogue… the warlock and mage held their own but the rogue barely broke 700 DPS and we couldnt get past the gauntlet… I as the tank always feel bad if we cant get through something and people usally blame the tank or healer but in this case and in the case you mentioned above you are correct…
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I’m a Retribution pally. My main role is to do damage, but I´m also an hybrid. There´s been a lot of times when I have to step back and perform another task (main heal, offheal, taunt a mob from the healer, etc) Each one of this tasks lowers my DPS, but helps the group to bring down the boss. IMO you should use the “meters” as a tool to improve your performance, but it should never be the final goal. The goal is to bring down the boss with the best use of all your abilities.
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