Top Parse = Correct Way to Play

[Aphrel]

Depends on fight. On most fights there is a limited amount of dmg you can do on adds, so picking talent that maximize overall dps may not always be the most optimal thing to do, better to have a discussion with the raid and come to a conclusion of how much overall dps is needed on the adds and wich classes have mechanics that most effectivly can deal with that without losing singletarget dps on boss (since this is usually the most important).

For example, and aoebased spec with less singletarget dps is sually not the most optimal spec on a bossfight like misstress.

Your question seems abit to simplistic thou. Its akin to asking "Is the football player that scores the most goals the best player in the world? and should all football players strive to play like him?"
The obvious answer here is no, football is a sport that require teamwork, its the same with raiding, the most optimal way to play a fight is to thunk as a team and not as an induvidual. To utilize the teams combined abilities and in the most efficient way possible divide those abilities to defeat the encounter.

[Jaylock]

Someone who tries to fix up their broken car, and they try their best at it. It runs, but terribly well. Doesn't mean they did it correctly just because it can move from one place to the other.

This is pretty much the argument people are making for not trying to parse as high as they can.

[Donald Hellscream]

I think it is arrogant to presume that anyone who isn't in the 99th percentile isn't playing the game correctly.

[Jaylock]

For tanks, often you lose tankiness for more damage, so in progression, this can sometimes be a very bad idea to do.

Also, on aoe fights, there's a lot of padding that just isn't needed. So Mistress, if you want the highest parses, you aoe. But too much aoe wipes your group. So people will often go pure ST, accept not getting a good rank, and "take one for the team" it makes you the "better" raider (assuming you didn't need the aoe, which nearly no groups need more aoe)

But wait, don't you want to AoE to kill the adds so they aren't beating on the raid? If everyone just tunneled the boss, the raid would wipe as well because adds wouldn't die, tornadoes would 100% hit people because there would be no green goo to get rid of the tornadoes.

You have to play for what the situation calls for, and AoEing is absolutely part of fights. Its not just "padding" meters.

[Crissi]

as a healer, my priority is to keep people up. Im not going to spam myself out of mana and ruin other healer's time by heading for number 1 parse. That's stupid. If people are staying alive, I'm timing my CDs right, and I'm not being lazy, nothing else matters.

Good of the raid > good of the individual

[MoanaLisa]

The #1 goal is to do what's been assigned to you to the best of your ability and to help the group get the boss down.

[Jaylock]

The #1 goal is to do what's been assigned to you to the best of your ability and to help the group get the boss down.

Wouldn't it be assumed if you are getting top parses you are doing exactly that?

[Bhorin]

I see the pattern here. Start poorly thought out (or worded) thread. Immediately contradict people with poor logic if they reply with differing opinion despite the fact that almost everyone disagrees (even if at varying levels of disagreement).

This thread is definitely going places. I like the part where he neglects to acknowledge a group of 20 going for a #1 parse doesn't kill most bosses, which already eliminates most of the poorly thought out logic.

[God Save The King]

I think a player should aim for the top 1%. I have plenty of >95% as a resto druid, and consider myself okay at the game. The *goal* should be to kill the boss in the fewest number of attempts possible. No one cares about you doing top damage if they can't handle mechanics because you're ignoring them. Once you've gotten to the point that you one-shot the boss, then you should maximize damage. But it's generally far better to drop a healer than it is to eek out 1% more dps by letting them stand still.

[Phookah]

Wouldn't it be assumed if you are getting top parses you are doing exactly that?

Not if you have any knowledge of how people usually get rank 1's, no.

[dirtlits]

Do you agree with this statement?

Shouldn't the #1 goal be to rank the very highest you can on any given boss, whether you are a tank, healer and especially a DPS?

No, I do not agree as this being the goal people should be truly aiming for. This is the problem with a lot of the general WOW player base. Numbers are all that matter even if I have to tunnel to avoid mechanics to have someone else deal with them.

Few potential problems on top ranking:

How much RNG caused the outliers?

What was changed to artificially inflate the top 5% parses. Like for healers, some really high 98-100% ranks are 1 or 2 healing a fight so the HPS is crazy high.

If you don’t happen to have the proper legendary, it’s unlikely you will be able to be top in your bracket.

What are they avoiding to make the ranking that could be a problem for the group?

Even if those are not the issue, my thoughts on fights are generally:

Ideally shooting for 90-95% on rankings.

Looking for ways during the fight to do the most dmg, healing while properly using CDs while executing the mechanics perfectly.

Adapt and make split second decisions when needed to survive or recover if someone else makes a mistake.

SIDE NOTE: There was this warrior that was obsessed with parsing 98% higher and would put themselves into situations that make the healers life harder just to squeak out more DPS. Since asking to stop didn’t help, we used to troll him by waiting for lust, he pops CD’s an 2 sec into that, we would BOP him. He wasn’t amused.

[Saybel]

But wait, don't you want to AoE to kill the adds so they aren't beating on the raid? If everyone just tunneled the boss, the raid would wipe as well because adds wouldn't die, tornadoes would 100% hit people because there would be no green goo to get rid of the tornadoes.

You have to play for what the situation calls for, and AoEing is absolutely part of fights. Its not just "padding" meters.

For almost every group doing Mythic passive aoe from classes that gain ST dps for AOEing is enough to kill them, people shouldn't be aoeing if it's not a gain on single target.

[ONCHEhap]

Most top parses are attained by either padding like there's no tomorrow,cheesing tactics or in groups specifically made to help one person get sick parses,so it's not that reliable

[Emerald Archer]

You can, but you cannot get a #1 parse that way. Thus your "modified" version isn't the as the original and has 0 relevance to the conversation.

You can DEFINITELY get a #1 parse that way. How can you debate that? It's undebatable, because there's blatant proof. Go look at warcraft logs. There are definitely fights, where people did not ignore mechanics, and still got #1. Some fights you can't really, because mechanics are intensive, but NOT all.

[Deemerbob]

So many people fell for the bait in this thread.

[Eurhetemec]

I have no idea why people engage with obvious troll threads like these. As usual, Jay doesn't believe a single thing he's saying, but you guys are just throwing him steaks, as it were.

[MoanaLisa]

Wouldn't it be assumed if you are getting top parses you are doing exactly that?

No, it wouldn't. If your job is to go after adds during a fight then you won't be getting a top DPS on the boss. The correct way to raid is to do your assigned job in a raid group and that very definitely can be something other than getting a top parse on a boss. Even morons know this.

[Eurhetemec]

No, it wouldn't. If your job is to go after adds during a fight then you won't be getting a top DPS on the boss.

Come on, saying stuff like this makes you sound as if you've never done high-level raiding.

Dude, you're a mod, you're surely familiar with Jaylock as this point? You've seen the numerous threads he starts based solely on whatever is going trigger people, often clearly inspired by threads closed with blue comments on the official forums, why engage with him?

[D3athsting]

Nope, top parses are made of:
a) letting all others doing mechanics for you,
b) being lucky at not getting targeted by unavoidable mechanics (maiden bomb),
c) overgearing encounter to make the fight as short as possible
d) having bis legendaries and almost bis gear in every other slot
e) padding where possible (sasszine, harjatan, host)
etc...

[MoanaLisa]

Dude, you're a mod, you're surely familiar with Jaylock as this point? You've seen the numerous threads he starts based solely on whatever is going trigger people, often clearly inspired by threads closed with blue comments on the official forums, why engage with him?

Because there are players not named Jaylock who think this way. It's worth having the conversation. So have the conversation.