Have you ever been in a group and thought “Holy cow – what a great Healer/Tank we have! The repair bill would have been murder if they weren’t on the ball”?
I’m sure you have. But ask yourself – how often have you said “What a great Hunter/Warlock/Rogue/etc”? Probably not nearly as often. Is this because the DPS classes are less important than the Tank or Healer for the group’s success? The common perception seems to be that being a good DPSer is easy. After all, you only need to beat the crap out of the mob, right?
I think that as much as some would try to convince you that is the case, the reality is that DPS plays an equally vital role in the success of a group, and it is not nearly as easy as it appears. Often you won’t notice how good or bad a particular party member is – after all, if the DPS is doing their job, there are no earmarks to tell you if they are doing it well or not, unless you are running a DPS meter, something which is wisely discouraged. But given that parameter, how do you know if YOU are doing a good job? Likewise, what can you do to improve your play so that you are at the top of your game?
Priorities
#1 – Watch your threat
As a pure DPSer, your role boils down to dealing as much possible DPS as possible without pulling aggro. What does this mean, exactly? It means that you need to be able to ensure that you will be able to contribute for the entire duration of the fight and ensure that you don’t exceed the threat ceiling that the tank can sustain. This means that you have to be watching the tank’s threat the entire time. If you pull the aggro off the tank, you likely will die, and the rest of the group will be in a position of either backing off their DPS levels, or run the risk of exceeding the tank’s threat. Why do they need to back off? Well, that is because for the period of time that the mob/boss/whatever is running over to kill you, the Tank’s contribution to threat drops to zero. Yes, he’ll still have the aggro he built up before, but he will be likely unable to generate further threat until the mob is back on him. Furthermore, the healer will likely try in vain to save your sorry ass – using up valuable resources that should have been devoted to keeping the group, as a whole, alive.
There are ways to easily prevent you from having to worry about pulling aggro off the tank - #1, if you happen to have a threat reduction talent available to you within your talent trees, take it. A 20-30% reduction in aggro goes an incredibly long way to ensuring that you won’t get the mobs attention until the tank dies. #2, there are resources that are available to you, in order to allow you to keep track of your relative aggro – Omen is what we use – get to know it and to love it. It won’t solve all of your problems – after all, it monitors relative threat levels for the entire raid for the entire encounter, and so you may be high on monster A’s threat list and low on monster B’s – if the tank is low on A and high on B, well, you may have a friend in short order. #3, pay close attention to target order. The raid or party leader will tell the whole group which mobs to kill in which order – by paying attention to this, you won’t attack a mob that the tank hasn’t had an opportunity to build adequate threat on. #4, all classes have high threat spells/attacks and low threat spells/attacks. If you notice that you are high on the threat list, using an instant speed high threat attack is probably NOT a wise idea. Instead, go with something that is lower threat, or take a quick breather.
Stealing aggro wipes raids and pisses off the tank. So don’t do it.
#2 – Be awake, be aware
Pay attention to what is going on around you. In any complicated fight, you can never just sit there and spam damage – you need to be on top of what else is happening. For example, if you were fighting the Shade of Aran, you need to keep your eyes peeled for events like the Blizzard, his Arcane Explosions, the sudden appearance of elementals – your DPS is needed for the entire fight, not just the first 30 seconds of it. Listen to Vent, listen to the raid warnings, and watch what is going on on-screen.
#3 - Maximize DPS
So how do you maximize your DPS? Every class and spec has its own way of maximizing the DPS over a particular period of time – and a particular type of gear that will help you accomplish that. Take the time to know your spec – and don’t play a spec simply because everyone tells you that it is the best. Not everyone can maximize the DPS out of a particular build, and it’s in your best interest to find a build that you will be comfortable in. Learn the math behind the spec that you are planning on running. Would it be a wise idea to blow ability ‘x’ at the beginning of a fight? Or wait until later? Should you simply cast a particular spell from the start of the fight until the end, or would a variety of abilities over the course of time make for a better overall pattern? Can you work with others in the group in order to improve everyone’s DPS?
An excellent example of the above is a pair of fire mages in a raid. Scorch has a short casting time, and if both mages have the improved version of the spell, then any time either of them casts a scorch spell, then a debuff is placed on the mob increasing its vulnerability to fire spells. So should both mages simply spam scorch at the mob? Is that the most efficient use of their mana? Probably not. When should they use Combustion, a spell that increases the likelihood of getting a crit? What would probably be best is that the two of them each cast two scorches, and then one of them casts a third, and both then switch to Fireball, which provides more damage per mana and per second. Then, one or the other simply refreshes the debuff periodically over the course of the rest of the fight. Combustion should be used after the fifth scorch is on the target. Why is that? Because the scorches have a higher base crit chance, but the overall benefit of getting a crit off a fireball is higher than off a scorch – so if you slap up your 5 scorch debuffs, then blow combustion, your overall damage will be higher than if you blew it earlier and had the scorches eat up your charges.
To pot or not to pot
In longer fights, a problem that frequently presents itself to mana users is whether they should be using mana pots or not, and when should they be imbibing them. With anything that has a cooldown of longer than say, 10 seconds, it is probably best to use it early and often. Now don’t get me wrong – Mana pots are expensive – but if you are concerned with running out of mana during the fight, its best to use the pot as soon as you are down 3k mana, so that if the fight lasts longer than 3 minutes, you can slam back a second and continue on. The same goes for other abilities – rotate your special abilities so that you minimize the time spent on cooldown.
+hit, +crit, penetration and +damage
One thing that you should always keep in mind when gearing up is that you need to find a healthy balance between these abilities. Some will say that you should ignore ability x or ability y – spell penetration is an example of this. They may be correct in their assessment; however, you should do the research to find out the truth.
Some simple rules of thumb:
Remember when fighting a mob that the base hit chance of a special ability is 95%. That number increases or decreases depending on the relative level of the mob. For example, if you’re dealing with a mob two levels lower than you, your hit rate will be ~ 99%. On the other hand, when fighting a boss in Serpent Shrine Cavern, three levels above you, your base hit rate will be 83%. So should you go for +16% to hit, between talents and gear? Well… no, not really. The closer you get to 99%, the less benefit you will see. It’s the law of diminishing returns. The same applies for +crit gear and +AP/Damage gear.
It is also to know how important these abilities are for your particular spec. +crit is incredibly important for a fire mage, because a substantial portion of additional damage comes from landing that crit. For a frost mage, on the other hand, maximizing your +hit and +damage is more important, because the conditional effects enabling crits are more prevalent throughout the talent tree. Likewise, for an enhancement shaman, more +crit is very important, as is +hit – the reason for this is that dual-wielding carries a heavier +hit penalty, and critting triggers an increased attack speed, increasing the damage that you dish out.
Ability cycles
As I mentioned earlier, each class will have a particular cycle in which they should be using their abilities. The reason for this is that each class has different abilities on cooldown, and the challenge to maximizing your output is to make sure that the high damage abilities never sit idle – instead that they are always in a state of being used. Hunters are an excellent example of this – you have to find that perfect pattern of shots, since some of your abilities reset your shot clock, causing a loss in damage.
#4 – Be flexible
Just because you’ve been told that your role in this fight is simply to DPS the ever-living crap out of the boss, doesn’t mean that won’t change. The mage scorching the Straw Man just was pasted by Roar? Immolate him and keep him CC’d. The priest shackling the bothersome dinner guest just died? Frost trap works in a pinch. By being flexible and reacting quickly, you can quite often prevent a wipe.
These are the differences between mediocre DPS and great DPS. Often, the raid as a whole will not remark upon what you did, but the Tank and the Healers will notice. You might suddenly be a little less expendable on that next pull.
I’m sure you have. But ask yourself – how often have you said “What a great Hunter/Warlock/Rogue/etc”? Probably not nearly as often. Is this because the DPS classes are less important than the Tank or Healer for the group’s success? The common perception seems to be that being a good DPSer is easy. After all, you only need to beat the crap out of the mob, right?
I think that as much as some would try to convince you that is the case, the reality is that DPS plays an equally vital role in the success of a group, and it is not nearly as easy as it appears. Often you won’t notice how good or bad a particular party member is – after all, if the DPS is doing their job, there are no earmarks to tell you if they are doing it well or not, unless you are running a DPS meter, something which is wisely discouraged. But given that parameter, how do you know if YOU are doing a good job? Likewise, what can you do to improve your play so that you are at the top of your game?
Priorities
#1 – Watch your threat
As a pure DPSer, your role boils down to dealing as much possible DPS as possible without pulling aggro. What does this mean, exactly? It means that you need to be able to ensure that you will be able to contribute for the entire duration of the fight and ensure that you don’t exceed the threat ceiling that the tank can sustain. This means that you have to be watching the tank’s threat the entire time. If you pull the aggro off the tank, you likely will die, and the rest of the group will be in a position of either backing off their DPS levels, or run the risk of exceeding the tank’s threat. Why do they need to back off? Well, that is because for the period of time that the mob/boss/whatever is running over to kill you, the Tank’s contribution to threat drops to zero. Yes, he’ll still have the aggro he built up before, but he will be likely unable to generate further threat until the mob is back on him. Furthermore, the healer will likely try in vain to save your sorry ass – using up valuable resources that should have been devoted to keeping the group, as a whole, alive.
There are ways to easily prevent you from having to worry about pulling aggro off the tank - #1, if you happen to have a threat reduction talent available to you within your talent trees, take it. A 20-30% reduction in aggro goes an incredibly long way to ensuring that you won’t get the mobs attention until the tank dies. #2, there are resources that are available to you, in order to allow you to keep track of your relative aggro – Omen is what we use – get to know it and to love it. It won’t solve all of your problems – after all, it monitors relative threat levels for the entire raid for the entire encounter, and so you may be high on monster A’s threat list and low on monster B’s – if the tank is low on A and high on B, well, you may have a friend in short order. #3, pay close attention to target order. The raid or party leader will tell the whole group which mobs to kill in which order – by paying attention to this, you won’t attack a mob that the tank hasn’t had an opportunity to build adequate threat on. #4, all classes have high threat spells/attacks and low threat spells/attacks. If you notice that you are high on the threat list, using an instant speed high threat attack is probably NOT a wise idea. Instead, go with something that is lower threat, or take a quick breather.
Stealing aggro wipes raids and pisses off the tank. So don’t do it.
#2 – Be awake, be aware
Pay attention to what is going on around you. In any complicated fight, you can never just sit there and spam damage – you need to be on top of what else is happening. For example, if you were fighting the Shade of Aran, you need to keep your eyes peeled for events like the Blizzard, his Arcane Explosions, the sudden appearance of elementals – your DPS is needed for the entire fight, not just the first 30 seconds of it. Listen to Vent, listen to the raid warnings, and watch what is going on on-screen.
#3 - Maximize DPS
So how do you maximize your DPS? Every class and spec has its own way of maximizing the DPS over a particular period of time – and a particular type of gear that will help you accomplish that. Take the time to know your spec – and don’t play a spec simply because everyone tells you that it is the best. Not everyone can maximize the DPS out of a particular build, and it’s in your best interest to find a build that you will be comfortable in. Learn the math behind the spec that you are planning on running. Would it be a wise idea to blow ability ‘x’ at the beginning of a fight? Or wait until later? Should you simply cast a particular spell from the start of the fight until the end, or would a variety of abilities over the course of time make for a better overall pattern? Can you work with others in the group in order to improve everyone’s DPS?
An excellent example of the above is a pair of fire mages in a raid. Scorch has a short casting time, and if both mages have the improved version of the spell, then any time either of them casts a scorch spell, then a debuff is placed on the mob increasing its vulnerability to fire spells. So should both mages simply spam scorch at the mob? Is that the most efficient use of their mana? Probably not. When should they use Combustion, a spell that increases the likelihood of getting a crit? What would probably be best is that the two of them each cast two scorches, and then one of them casts a third, and both then switch to Fireball, which provides more damage per mana and per second. Then, one or the other simply refreshes the debuff periodically over the course of the rest of the fight. Combustion should be used after the fifth scorch is on the target. Why is that? Because the scorches have a higher base crit chance, but the overall benefit of getting a crit off a fireball is higher than off a scorch – so if you slap up your 5 scorch debuffs, then blow combustion, your overall damage will be higher than if you blew it earlier and had the scorches eat up your charges.
To pot or not to pot
In longer fights, a problem that frequently presents itself to mana users is whether they should be using mana pots or not, and when should they be imbibing them. With anything that has a cooldown of longer than say, 10 seconds, it is probably best to use it early and often. Now don’t get me wrong – Mana pots are expensive – but if you are concerned with running out of mana during the fight, its best to use the pot as soon as you are down 3k mana, so that if the fight lasts longer than 3 minutes, you can slam back a second and continue on. The same goes for other abilities – rotate your special abilities so that you minimize the time spent on cooldown.
+hit, +crit, penetration and +damage
One thing that you should always keep in mind when gearing up is that you need to find a healthy balance between these abilities. Some will say that you should ignore ability x or ability y – spell penetration is an example of this. They may be correct in their assessment; however, you should do the research to find out the truth.
Some simple rules of thumb:
Remember when fighting a mob that the base hit chance of a special ability is 95%. That number increases or decreases depending on the relative level of the mob. For example, if you’re dealing with a mob two levels lower than you, your hit rate will be ~ 99%. On the other hand, when fighting a boss in Serpent Shrine Cavern, three levels above you, your base hit rate will be 83%. So should you go for +16% to hit, between talents and gear? Well… no, not really. The closer you get to 99%, the less benefit you will see. It’s the law of diminishing returns. The same applies for +crit gear and +AP/Damage gear.
It is also to know how important these abilities are for your particular spec. +crit is incredibly important for a fire mage, because a substantial portion of additional damage comes from landing that crit. For a frost mage, on the other hand, maximizing your +hit and +damage is more important, because the conditional effects enabling crits are more prevalent throughout the talent tree. Likewise, for an enhancement shaman, more +crit is very important, as is +hit – the reason for this is that dual-wielding carries a heavier +hit penalty, and critting triggers an increased attack speed, increasing the damage that you dish out.
Ability cycles
As I mentioned earlier, each class will have a particular cycle in which they should be using their abilities. The reason for this is that each class has different abilities on cooldown, and the challenge to maximizing your output is to make sure that the high damage abilities never sit idle – instead that they are always in a state of being used. Hunters are an excellent example of this – you have to find that perfect pattern of shots, since some of your abilities reset your shot clock, causing a loss in damage.
#4 – Be flexible
Just because you’ve been told that your role in this fight is simply to DPS the ever-living crap out of the boss, doesn’t mean that won’t change. The mage scorching the Straw Man just was pasted by Roar? Immolate him and keep him CC’d. The priest shackling the bothersome dinner guest just died? Frost trap works in a pinch. By being flexible and reacting quickly, you can quite often prevent a wipe.
These are the differences between mediocre DPS and great DPS. Often, the raid as a whole will not remark upon what you did, but the Tank and the Healers will notice. You might suddenly be a little less expendable on that next pull.
-
One other thought from an experienced tank who has a DPSer for a wife:
Yes, if you draw aggro, you may die.
If you run to the tank...or HOLD STILL...you may die.
If you run around like a ninny, or back away...you WILL die, most good tanks will let you. (You running around also creates a higher chance that the mob will run rampant after killing you and wipe the whole group.)
If you hold still and hang in there, there is often a good chance you can be saved by a quick tank who isn't in cooldown on too many abilities.
Usually, the only reason a DPS dies when they pull aggro is because the tank is in cooldown on a big aggro move or their taunt, etc.
Or it may be because in the big picture you aren't worth trying to save. Nothing personal at all here, the tank has to make a split-second judgement as to if the fight can afford the redirected effort...or if it's easier to let you lose aggro by hitting the floor. Sometimes, a thud and loss of DPS is more manageable than blowing cooldowns and rage to save you from your own mistake. Harsh perhaps, but it's the truth.
One other thought for the hunters out there:
If you draw aggro...and the mob starts coming toward you:
Cast misdirection on the tank and keep shooting.
My lovely wife showed me that trick last night...and I have never previously seen a hunter do it! Never! Easiest trick in the book...heck, make a macro key to do it!
/target [tanknamehere]
/cast Misdirection
/targetlasttarget
Or you can make a focus macro to do it...(ctrl + click the tank before combat to set the "focus", use /clearfocus to clear it)
/focus [modifier:ctrl]
/stopmacro [modifier:ctrl]
/cast [target=focus] Misdirection
/targetlasttarget
Unsure if the last like...the /targetlasttarget is necessary, since focus usually does not disrupt your current targeting. Test it out and let me know!
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For when you do pull aggro (because you will, on occasion):
DO NOT RUN AWAY FROM THE TANK
Instead, stay still. Yes, you will likely die, but that way the tank doesn't have to chase the mob around.
Also, remember to always make use of your aggro dumping abilities. Invisibility, Feign Death, Feint and Soul Shatter are excellent examples of this. Each ability has its advantages and drawbacks, but by making good use of these abilities you will find that you will almost never draw aggro. Do not wait until the mob aggros onto you to use these abilities either. They are best used as part of your rotation - for example, with Invisibility, by using it after roughly 1 minute, you are almost garunteed to not draw aggro from the boss. Feign Death and Feint should be worked into a normal attack rotation, and will allow you to sustain a higher level of DPS without drawing aggro.
Please note that Ice Block and Fade are not aggro reducers - they merely make you less attractive to mobs, so they bugger off and leave you alone. Ice Block acts as Invulnerability - so the mob will go and beat on whoever is second on the list. Fade simply artificially lowers your threat by 2000 - for 10 seconds - after which the threat returns. So if you find that you have to use EITHER of these abilities during a fight, sit on your hands for 10 seconds to let your relative threat diminish.