About damagedealing/dps/damagetime and something on reading WWS logs in between.

About DPS

DPS is often seen as the most important way to measure someones abilities as a damagedealing player. Look at all the posts on public forums about: 'I did XXXX DPS on Brutalus!!!' or something like that. Very cool. DPS is nice, it's nice like a 4k crit, it makes you feel important. This feeling ofcourse is rubbish, because DPS is not the most important thing when youre a damagedealing class. 

Still, if you compare yourself to others with your class/specc and find yourself lacking on DPS, how to improve?
DPS stand for Damage per Second (duh). But how is this measured?

[quote="Someone in EJ's topic on WWS-log"]Q:Looking at these DPS numbers makes me wonder how WWS actually calculates "damage per second". Does it start calculating dps the second you are put into combat, and stop when everyone is out of combat, or does it only calculate dps time when you actually do damage, pausing the counter when you stop dps (during shatters)?

A:Every "damaging" action a player does, starts a 5 second window. If nothing else follows within those 5 seconds, you lose DPS. If you are a DoT class, you should basically be in DPS time during the full fight, unless you die early.[/quote]

So basically, you get best WWS-log dps if there are no factors that make you interrupt dealing damage (moving from fire is bad for dps :) ) but also for filling your timespent dealing damage, with as much damage dealt as possible. This depends on a few elements.

[b]1. Party composition[/b] is one rather important factor, but one you have little control over probably. It's important to check this when looking at WWS logs, because it can account for a good deal of the difference between you and a fellow classmate. For Hunters the difference between beeing in an optimal group and having no relevant group buffs can be as much as ~250 dps, for Arms specced Warriors/Retri Paladins the difference between having Windfury/Battleshout or not is probably even bigger.   

[b]2. Rotation. [/b]Dealing damage is restricted amongst other things by casttime, CD's and GCD's. Maximising DPS is about using those abilities (mana or other resources permitting) that deal maximimum damage per GCD. Haste may be a great stat for improving your DPS. This is especially true for those classes/speccs that have abilities with long (>1,5 sec) casttimes, because haste than allows you to cast more of the same abilities in a set frame of time. Check if your total damage done is composed of the same ingredients than your friends. If he's using more Shadowbolts and less Immolate (?) this difference may be a key to improving your DPS. 
For all damagedealing classes it's true that reducing the downtime (time not dealing damage for whatever reason) in your rotation when possible, will increase your dps. Try and weave your abilities as close to each other as possible. Spamming keys set to abilities can be usefull (when not having a spellqueue), and will probably improve DPS over mouseclicking. 

[b]3. Gear/Stats.[/b] Is your fireblast or whatever doing less damage on average than that of your friend? This maybe because of partycomposition (see 1.) but may also be because of his spelldamage being a lot higher, him making better use of his trinkets and boosting abilities etc. Timing trinkets/abilities together may be better then macroing all those to make sure you make optimal use of them, see what better for you. Also check for the critpercent per ability over a total raid, if your crit is lacking, then you have an easy answer of how to improve. Using the right consumables also can be a large factor here. 

[b]4. Specc.[/b] It's a fact that under ideal circumstances specc A can do more damage then specc B. Other aspects of a specc may well compensate, try and factor these in. For isntance a Fury specced Warrior will probably have higher dps than an Arms specced Warrior. The latter however gives all physical dps in the raid a 4% damagebonus, this may well be worth the difference in dps. Do ask for feedback on your specc though, because certain talents may well translate into more dps then others.

Different classes often have very different DPS values attached per Boss. The fact that you for instance just can't beat a Rogue/Fury Warrior on say Anetheron doens't mean you're doing bad, it has to do with the Boss' low armor, the necesity to move, the switching of targets causing some downtime, etc. Don't compare yourself to other DPSers, try to compare with class/specc mates. Ideally within the same raid, but if not available, try and find WWS logs of other players with your specc/class.

About Damagetime

You'll often see when looking at a WWS log that the person with most IMBA DPS doesn't have to be the person first on damage done. This is probably because of either early deaths or lousy/lacking damagetime. Damagetime is (one of) the most important stat(s) in a WWS-log to see how you're doing as a player with your specc/gear. Damagetime is about the time you have spent dealing your IMBA DPS. 

The other day I died early on Reliquary of Souls near then end of P1. Recount had me dealing 2000+dps! Was I doing well? No ofcourse not, because my fellow Hunters kept dealing damage well into P2 up untill the wipe and thus easily surpassed me on total damage done, which is what it's all about. A dead damagedealer deals no damage. I believe the stat 'presence' in a WWS-log may give some indication on early deaths?

Death is not the only factor in damagetime.

Immagine X and Y on a trash fight. Player X being allways cautious, waiting a few seconds before opening up to let the tank build ago, neatly following the MA and moving some to search for a good place to stand to keep some overview. Player Y being more agressive may get more done, he can open up immediately on mob A, and then when threatcapped move to mob B for a few seconds before returing to A when the tank has more aggro, allready knowing where to stand before the pull and firing an instant when forced to move. Player Y will have spent more time dealing damage. If capped on mob A he damaged mob B, when moving he used instants. For the pull to the all clear he's allways dealing some damage to something.

During a Bossfight it's ofcourse a little less obvious. Still damagetime there is about knowing where to stand, when to move, moving exactly as far as you need to and then immediately resuming your rotation with the ability that deals most damage first, etc. Improving damagetime is mostly about experience I think. When you get more experienced, you'll probably need to think less about your rotation, trinkets, manapool etc... You use your attention to improve on other things.

What you can do to check how youre doing in this department, you can compare the amount of damaging abilities used during say a bossfight with others using the same specc. The more abilities used the better, this is also linked to higher dps ofcourse.

Remember, using FeignDeath, Healing potions, Bandages or similar defensive abilities reduces DPS (use of GCD for other stuff than dealing damage) however it may well improve your damagetime by staying alive and avoiding being threatcapped and having to stop dealing damage.

WWS-log browsing

Check and compare damagetime, presence, amount of damaging abilities used over a period of time (Bossfight), use of trinkets and boosting abilities on long CD's, critpercent etc. Try and find out why a damaging ability does less damage per application if thats the case. Is it a groupcomp thing, use of trinkets or a low Spelldamage/AP count on your part. Try and find out why you have used less damaging abilities, have you been using other abilities, or were you just doing less? Etc...

Recap:

Improve DPS?
- Get into the right group.
- Use your best abilities every cooldown as soon as theyre available, if threatcapped yell at slacking Tanks.
- Maximise the use of your trinkets and timed damageboostingabilities.
- Reduce possible downtime in your rotation by keyspamming, using instants as fillers and getting hasterating on gear.
- Use Manapots to avoid being starved and/or Hastepots to increase the output of damaging abilities.
- Get better gear.
- Use the right consumables.
- Increase RaidDPS. The faster a Boss dies, the longer you've played under the effect of your trinkets, Heroisms, damageboostingabilities, etc. and the higher your dps is.

Improve Damagetime?
- Stay alive, use selfhealing (Healing Pots, Bandages, HS's) and yell at the slacking healers  :twisted: - warning, may actually have counterproductive effect.
- If possible temporarily switch targets when threatcapped or yell at the slacking Tanks - warning, may endager  staying alive by suddenly finding trashmobs flying your way.
- Reduce movement to a minimum (while staying alive).
- Use defensive abilities to avoid dying/getting threatcapped.
- Get more experience.

Bad for dps/damagetime is dying, pulling agro, adding mobs and moving around like a headless chicken. Try to avoid these things :)