Ret paladin log reading

[Korie]

Hey guys, I've always been super awful at reading logs but I feel like I'm underpreforming in my raidgroup & I really want to improve meaning I'd have to learn how to read logs & how to improve from the logs I have, thing is..... I have no idea what to look for in logs as ret paladin, could anyone tell me, it would make me a very happy guy & hopefully keep my raidspot

[Kalshen]

What i look for is wasted procs like EDS and how many casts of cs judge and exo you have. also fight duration versus amt of wings and es usage. and how many pots you used. and wasted holy power.

[Korie]

What i look for is wasted procs like EDS and how many casts of cs judge and exo you have. also fight duration versus amt of wings and es usage. and how many pots you used. and wasted holy power.

How do I see wasted EDS ect though?

[Kalshen]

Look at how many times you gained the divine crusader buff and compare that to your # of divine storm casts

[Makh]

I sympathize - ready logs isn't helpful unless you're looking for something *specific*.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Uptime on Avenging Wrath - AW is a huge contributor to our DPS, and you want to use it at every opportunity. You can review logs to ensure that you use it every 2 minutes (or if you need to line it up for specific boss phases). The same applies to your 1min CD (ES/HoL).

2. Maximum uses of Hammer of Wrath - HoW is another one of our huge hitters. You can estimate how many casts you should have in optimal circumstances, and then compare it to the number of casts you actually had. For instance, if you're specced Sanctified Wrath, you should have *at least* 10 HoW casts per SW (since you cast it every second ability). This gets much harder if you are specced DP, or if you have the T17 2piece.

3. Proper order of Holy Power Generators - You know to use CS>Judge>Exo right? And given that CS has a 4.5 sec CD, and Judge a 6 sec CD, and Exo even longer, you'd expect to see way more CD casts right? Well, many paladins have more Judgments than CS, and even more Exo than CS because those abilities are easier to use (ranged). Good Paladins use lots of CS (less applicable with T17 4 piece because Exo because more valuable, and you use soooo many more finishers).

4. Full use of Divine Storm procs - you can count how many times you get an empowered Divine Storm, and how many times you used it. You don't want to waste these procs, and you want to make sure they are used with the FV buff.

5. No deaths/good boss uptime - The biggest contributor to damage done is the number of seconds you spend attacking the boss (it's the "S" in DPS). If you die in a fight, analyze why you died, and how to stop it from happening. A dead Paladin does no DPS! Also look at how much time you spend running around dealing with Mechanics instead of drilling into the boss. You can tell this by looking at the %uptime no the logs.

[xentropa]

Some of the basic log checks I do:

1. AW usage. I usually only check this if DPS is terribly low but it is something that should be verified.
2. Strength Potion usage should be = 2. 2nd should be Sync'd with AW.
3. ES usage. # of hits / 10 should = fight length in minutes rounded up.
4. EDS usage. # of DC procs vs. DS casts.
5. aCD on CS = Fight length in seconds / # of CS uses. Under 5 seconds is great, between 5 and 5.5 is decent, over 5.5 could use improvement (unless it's a fight that has mechanics taking you out of melee range for extended periods).
6. Wasted holy power. Ideally this is 0, especially on the easier fights.
7. Bad HoTR (avg hits per cast < 4) or LH usage (average hits per cast < 13.3).

- - - Updated - - -

2. Maximum uses of Hammer of Wrath - HoW is another one of our huge hitters. You can estimate how many casts you should have in optimal circumstances, and then compare it to the number of casts you actually had. For instance, if you're specced Sanctified Wrath, you should have *at least* 10 HoW casts per SW (since you cast it every second ability). This gets much harder if you are specced DP, or if you have the T17 2piece.

I've been trying to find a good method of quickly estimating a "good" HoW count but haven't been able to come up with an equation that gets a strong ballpark number without a lot of calculations.

What I have so far... at 0% haste:

For SW:
-AW w/ Time Warp. ~16 HoW casts.
-AW base. ~10 HoW casts. Available every 2 minutes.

For DP/HA:
-AW w/ Time Warp. ~5 HoW casts.
-AW base. ~3 HoW casts. Available every 2 minutes.

During final 35%:
Available HoW = (Fight Length in seconds x 0.35) / 6.

e.g. a 5 min 30 sec fight will have at least 19 available HoW casts during the final 35% boss health.

The calculations here get a little more complicated if you try to avoid double-counting AW HoW's and 35% HoW's and I'm hoping there's an easier way to eye-ball the count from here.

Ignoring double counting and hoping it will wash out when actual haste is applied is actually pretty close to what I have found in my actual logs for HoW counts.
Using the 5 min 30 sec fight example:
SW: 16 + 10 + 10 + 19 = 55 casts
DP/HA: 5 + 3 + 3 + 19 = 30 casts

[PapaNasty]

To understand what you need to check logs for, you need to have a pretty detailed knowledge of your class + how it works (or rather should work lol) in practical situations. The more you know, the more things you can check for. Also you need to ensure you have the basics right first, before you start concentrating on really fine tuning it.

So read up as much as you can about Ret theorycrafting, and then check that you're playing it optimally.

Also try to identify which areas you're stronger/weaker in. E.g. In my raid, there is another Ret Paladin who is in similar (or slightly better) gear to me. I usually beat him on fights where we can cleave, he usually beats me on single target fights. So try to identify your main weaknesses, or particular fights you do badly, and focus on logs for them.

Also download simulation craft and run that for your gear. That'll give you what your dps should be , and if you're well below, then you know you have a lot of things to look for lol (By default I think it's set to 8min tho, and setup for a single target patchwork/Butcher/Grull style fight, but it'll give you an idea and you can change some of the settings).