For some reason I had the impression that you wanted to ditch them altogether, and use only WWS ( which I’m extremely familiar with ;) ), something I can see the merits of, but the benefits of the instant gratification and measuring stick given by damage-metres during a raid shouldn’t be swept away. Important to quite a few :p

The asshats and ADD kids are a completely different manner though, and highly individual. Personally I would like to slap them around ’till they get the point, but a gentle whisper saying “We’re not entirely too sure we want to bring you along for todays raid, since you proved the previous one you completely fail at following instructions” is a rather gentle smack :p

I am not sure where in my article you got the impression that I do NOT want the DPS to be ‘all that they can be’. I agree witha ll of your points as to WHY having as much DPS as is humanly possible is a GOOD THING.

My point actually circled around a point I’d made in an earlier blog post… the use to which some asshats put Damage Meters, and their frantic desire to top others on the meters at teh expense of teamwork, makes me want to cry.

but I did not advocate tossing the meters out and relying on guesswork as to who is doing what.

Instead, I recommend to guild officers to try out WoWWebStats.

In case you did not investigate that link further, what WoWWebStats does is allow all the members in a raid to keep a running log of all actions in the run… who did what, by how much, and what was teh enemy response? WHo took damamge, and how much?

The bgest thing is that the results of all members can be woven together to form a consistent, comprehensive picture not only of who did max DPS ina raid, but who did what DPS, in what way, at each stage of the game. Whose traps lasted, whose were resisted, who kept shackle up and reshackled before the mob broke, or played catch up?

In other words… I agree that DPS needs to be as strong as possible… but I’d like to see guilds use a more mature and informative tool for evaluating it.

On the other hand I would say that damage-metres are the best invention ever. While more and better healing is really awesome for keeping people alive and well, the tanks mitigation is awesome for keeping the raid alive and well, dps is an entirely different ball-game. While you can say that pulling aggro is a really bad thing, and that it ruins a whole lot for the raid, it’s still better than that sorry butt that thinks his measly 500 dps is ok because he’s not pulling aggro.

I’m going to sound like a real ass now most likely, and you won’t like to hear it, but the fact of the matter is that with some decent threat-cycles, the right buffs and gear they won’t be pulling aggro. Atleast not if both parts are on their toes and knows their limits. To be perfectly honest I prefer a person that does so much damage that he pulls aggro because he gave just a bit too much, to the bugger that’s not taking his role seriously as dps. The former is competitive and eager, while the latter is just slacking :<

Why should dps do alot of dps? He’s dps. It’s what he does. If he can’t do it to the max I don’t want him around. There’s a million others that can do it properly, and I refuse to let one person hamper or hold back the 9/24/39 others because he doesn’t know his stuff. While I’m a really nice guy that doesn’t want to do stuff like that it’s not me that’s being the actual bugger in that equation :p

In addition it’s the dps that drives the raid forward. The more dps, the less healing needed, the less tanking needed, and the less time spent. Saying WoW is not a dps-race is kind of like saying you’re content with your Epic mount from pre-TBC, while leaving the Swift Flight Form unused when you intend to travel lengthy distances. Or not equipping your Charm of Swift Flight because you don’t think that extra 10% helps tremendously because that other trinket will help when you’re landing.

Yes, I know, that analogy doesn’t seem to make much sense to some, but neither does it to me to say that WoW’s not a dps-race. It’s a perspective, of course, and we’re all entitled to each ours ( hopefully ;P ).

As I said I might come across as an ass and offensive, but it’s all meant in the best of ways. Encouraging dps to do their best, and remind them that dead people don’t do dps, will most likely make your raids move along alot more smoothly. If they keep pulling aggro someone’s doing something wrong and should do something about it. High dps and damage-metres isn’t wrong, and in most cases inspirational in some way, assuming you’re willing to look at yourself in a critical light and ask yourself what you can do better.

Just so that you know, stunlocking actually LOWERS a rogues dps.

I don’t stunlock in 10+ man raids. It lowers my dps AND annoys the hell out of the tanks due to lack of rage generation.

The rogue that you were referring to does not know how to play his class.

It’s good for the raid leader and officers to have an addon like Recount, that will track all sorts of things, not just damage done. For any role in the raid, you need to look at the whole picture to see if someone is doing their job. For instance, with healing: being #1 on the “healing done” list tells you a lot, but you also need to look at overhealing done, healing done in combat vs. out of combat, and number of decurses/dispels cast. Even that won’t give you the complete story, but it’s a heck of a lot closer than the basic “top five” approach.

LOL cya ltr wind

I once had a heroic PUG to shadowlabs as a healer. Two of the DD were so concerned about topping each other on the meters, that I was unable to keep either one alive. The tank had no chance to hold aggro because the firdt thing that happened was a pyro overtaking him on each and every pull.
Using an ability compromising the masterplan of the pull, just to put your own DPS in favour like your rogue does is a crappy behaviour.
As a hunter I could easily DPS till I pull aggro, feign death, watch the healer die, watch other DPS die, watch the tank die, and end up with the highest damage because I was just alive for the longest period before the wipe.
Instead I misdirection-pull for the tank, pull a mob into a trap in a fashion that enables me to retrap once the shit hits the fan, but doing little to none damage for a serious period.

So your post makes at least two major points:
-Meters mean nothing, at least when you are successful!
-Know the other classes mechanics so you don’t compromise their efforts in doing their jobs.

PS:
Do you know locks dotting sheeps, and the mages trying in vain to resheep multiple times. This makes the lock overtake the mage on the meter. Same mechanics!

Ahem, ok, better now. I haven’t seen mentioned one my my biggest complaints against stuns, that they don’t allow me to position or move the mob where I want it. Pat coming, move mob back, mob stunned, oh crap! And opening more stuns are the worst for that since they limit my positioning at the outset when it is most important. I’m all in favor of a stun as an emergency matter. But not when it messes up the tanking.

Just kidding, I think.