Tuesday, January 26, 2010

OMG MY DPS IS OVER 9000!!1! INVITE!!1!

It is inevitable that when you are competing with other DPS for raid slots in PUGs, people will post their gear score and some number that they believe resembles their DPS. I've given up fighting this trend, but it still annoys me, particularly when it also has a habit of popping up in my battlegrounds.

Let me outline the features of a good raider, and since I've already done it once, I'll be brief here. Be prepared, be focused and in control of yourself, communicate, be aware of what is going on around you, and do what you are assigned to do. Of all of those things, only one has anything to do with your DPS, and not even fully at that. So you can pull off 8k DPS - good for you! Did you kill the adds you are supposed to? How about moving out of that AoE? Are you talking about an RNG right like Twins or Hodir? Did you move out of the raid when the boss gave you that debuff, or did you just sit there and pew pew? Did the healers have to come to you in order to be in range, or where you just out there doing your own thing?

I understand the love of big numbers, I really do. But since I uninstalled Recount, I just stopped caring. I know I have good DPS, but more importantly, I know I can be trusted to kill adds, move when necessary, support the healers, and do what is necessary to down the boss faster, and that's what every DPS' priority should be. It is tempting to say you can do a metric asston of DPS on Patchwerk, it is more impressive to say that you are raid aware and enjoy killing adds. In the end, that's what down the bosses, even those with hard enrages and are the so-called 'DPS races." For current content, if every DPS in raid can pump out the numbers, but they are incapable of coordinating the boss fight's debuffs or adds, then they will wipe, pure and simple. It is important to be capable of both, and in a sea of people spouting their numbers for generalized fights, it isn't your DPS that will gain you an invite.

The leader of the crossrealm battleground premades likes to talk, and he's also a hunter. This brings on many challanges for me, particularly on the 'staying silent' part. When he started on his DPS and general hunter DPS across the specs, I just couldn't keep my mouth shut. What the hell are you talking about, the MM rotation being more difficult than the SV one? MM you are prioritizing three different instant shots with the same CD, while SV deals with a 6 sec, 10 sec, and 30 second cooldowns on their shots, changing depending on your procs. How is that juggling less? What rogues are you beating and on what fights, exactly? Are you sure the rogues know what they are doing? He prattled on, trying to cover himself and make it out to know what he was doing, so in the end, I just gave up and zoned his voice to the background for following orders in AV. I predict I will have to do this frequently in order to keep my frustration low.

Everything has a strength and a weakness. As a raider, it is important you know what yours are and work to balance them out. Because in the end, your over 9000 dps doesn't mean shit if you are dead due to add.

4 comments:

Kim said...

I agree that being a good raider is so much more than your DPS/HPS. I have one raid hunter who does very good on the damage meters but who only does half my damage on Bone Spikes or Blood Beasts -- and I'm not a very good hunter! It's hard to spam that in trade or LFG though: "Thoroughly competent player who performs all assist roles flawlessly". See how many invites that will get you. :)

On the subject of SV vs. MM though, I feel that MM is harder for me. I am still trying but I can't get the raid numbers to exceed my SV raid DPS, even though MM wins at the dummies. I think it has to do with timing Rapid Fire and Readiness, and clipping too many AutoShots with running. Or maybe I'm just a tard. The actual shot priority for MM seems more straight-forward but it feels like timing everything is more complicated. With SV, I can be a little more reactive to procs. Again, in the hands of a capable player, I'm sure that isn't an issue. But for me, I think I'll stick to SV for now.

Negathle said...

Actually, I my macro for GDKP runs is: MM Hunter - I enjoy DPS, poetry, killing adds, long walks on the beach, listening to Vent, and poking dead bosses with a stick. I also think "area-aware DPS LFG" is an acceptable post :)

Timing Rapid Fire is the same across all specs, and should be used based on the situation. For the most part, it is used early to be used often, so while it is an essential part of MM DPS, it's not necessarily what breaks it from SV in terms of rotation. SV is pretty standard in that the basic rule is "if ES is available, hit it", with some little caveats to it (waiting two seconds for the DoT, etc), so in that it is easier to prioritize, but I still consider the long rotation more complicated.

Unknown said...

I have to agree with Negathle here, I'm running with MM main spec and SV off spec right now, and I find that MM feels more like I'm actively planning out what I'm going to do next (i.e. how are my proc ICDs looking, should I toss in a Steady or two as filler before going for a big shot to make them line up or just pump them out now). I feel in control of what I'm going to do next.

By contrast, and what makes SV harder for me, is that it's a much more reactive spec. Unlike MM, you can't really time when you're Lock and Load burst is going to happen unless it's an Add fight and you're forcing the proc (wheee Blood Beasts go BOOM.)

To the original post point, though... if there were a way to package that up and spread it around Alliance-side on Kilrogg, I'd make a mint. There are a couple of areas where that's the expected attitude, (esp. the GDKP runs), but if you're left trying for a trade PUG, Elune help you...

Lynda said...

Hallelujah!
/wipes tear away

If every hunter ever made that ever raided would read this, take it to heart and execute it, there would be no more huntards. I will forgive a mistake made while trying to do your job but I will not forgive a mistake made while trying to top the Recount chart.