From Zero to Hero - A guide for topping meters

[hameli]

DISCLAIMER: im writing this guide to the full extent of my knowledge if there is anything wrong or missing please contact me to edit it asap.

Im copy-pasting this guide from my guild forums.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• UI and Keybinds
• Addons
• Classes
• Stat weights and BiS
• Warcraft Logs and Simulationcraft
• Bosses and Tactics

1. Introduction

I started playing mage on the first week of Fury of Hellfire (6.2), i remember talking to my Raid Leader telling him that i will be ready within a week or two, after few weeks have passed i managed to be at the top of the dps meter.

At this guide i will do my best to help understand what makes a good raider.



2. UI and Keybinds

Going with blizzard UI is fine as long as you have some core addons which i will mention later in the post, however, i would like to suggest ElvUI which is a fully modular UI, it helped me in tracking my mana or some boss de-buffs.

Keybinds are a crucial part of raiding, clicking every spell wont leave you time to notice what is happening around you or dispelling/counterspelling in time and a DPS loss overall. Some recommend keybinds such the letter (S) which is used for back-peddling any pro PvPer knows that you should not ever back-peddle an in-depth guide can be found here.



3. Addons

Deadly Boss Mods

this is a must have addon, no discussion here.



WeakAuras or Power Auras Classic

keeps track of any proc you desire on you, your friends or enemies.



OmniCC

a handy addon which displays your cooldown on the spell icon.



Recount or Skada

DPS meters, i prefer Skada it is had less impact on performance.



there are other tank/healer which you can find on websites such as curse



4. Classes

every expansions some classes undergo many changes which can change the way we play the class, these are some forums/websites which will show how to maximize your damage or healing output

Icy-venis one of the most useful website and a favourite of mine.

Elitist Jerks used to be one of the top guilds, you can find some good class guides here.

MMO-Champion you can find almost any class guide, and the forums are a good place to seek help.

Altered-time Mage specific, hands down the best website for mages.



wait, what about noxxic?

The last time i used noxxic was in cataclysm, the website had so many major mistakes which left me to distrust the guides.



5. Stat weights and BiS

Stat weights shows you what's the most impactful stat to your class/spec and according to stats Best in Slot gear lists are made. On most class guides you can find your class stat weights and you can input them in Stat weight score addon to see which item benefit you the most.

there is something called stat breakpoint, remember the old hit cap? it is the same concept. For some classes (lets take arcane for example) you need to reach certain point where a specific stat will reach it is peak giving you the most dps, however, this does not apply to all classes.



6. Warcraft Logs and Simulationcraft

Sometimes guides aren't enough and this is where we start analysing logs, take this log for example, the mage is running Unstable Magic/Prismatic Crystal and he is spamming Arcane Missiles and when going to the Mana tab you can see the mage burned(bursted) about 5-6 times in the encounter.

Here is a guide about analysing logs



Simulationcraft

Stat weights are calculated around having BiS gear, if you aren't in BiS you can check what stat benefits you the most by doing some simulationcraft on your character, this is a step where you have to do every time you finish a raid and acquire a new piece of gear.



You do the simulation and input the calculated stat weights in this addon.

This is a guide about simulationcraft.



7. Bosses and Tactics

Every time a raid is about to be released, you should have a background about the tactics or the boss wont go down easily.

Icy-veins shows an excellent written guides about bosses

There are some youtube channels which explain boss tactics such as Fatboss Guides or LoS Gaming

Classes PoV videos can show you some helpful tips or addons related to your class.





To sum up, raiding is an experience you gain and learn with time, as always practice makes perfect.

[proteen]

Want to really go from zero-to-hero? Don't focus on topping the charts.

[Shibito]

Well sure if you are a mage or a warrior.

[overdose]

Want to really go from zero-to-hero? Don't focus on topping the charts.

This should be the first line.

[hameli]

Want to really go from zero-to-hero? Don't focus on topping the charts.

you gotta make a catchy title , well the purpose of this guide was to help my guild mates and i hope other people can find it useful too.

[Elskrim]

Go big dick everyday - Asmongold

[Floopa]

pretty sure this was alrdy covered by kripparian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlrW0MY_n7g

[hameli]

laughed so hard on the prepot part

[nephzor]

I understand where you're going with that guide, but honestly dps doesn't mean shit if that player will be dead everytime the boss will cast something at him.

DPS is one thing, i'd rather have a 80th percentile player that will do 1 mistake in 200 pulls than a 95th percentile player that will fuckup every mechanics.

Sometimes you will find a really great player that can rank top 10 every fight while doing mechanics perfectly, but that's kinda rare

[hameli]

I understand where you're going with that guide, but honestly dps doesn't mean shit if that player will be dead everytime the boss will cast something at him.

DPS is one thing, i'd rather have a 80th percentile player that will do 1 mistake in 200 pulls than a 95th percentile player that will fuckup every mechanics.

Indeed, understanding the mechanics is a higher priority than DPSing. In my guide i cant simply explain each boss mechanics but i threw few links there to learn boss guides.

[barackohmama]

People can do so much shit just to top meters. Just don't. For example help out your team mates with adds and interrupts or try to minimize damage taken. Even if you get lower dps it will save your guild some 200 wipes on progress bosses. Then and only then you can focus on dps, b not overall dps, dps that matters like pushing hard in certain phases you struggle with.

[Molis]

This is title is really spreading the wrong information to Raid Leads.
Should we shit on the rogue because he ran around for half the Xhul'horac fight putting out fires.

Single target DPS is the only thing that matters.


It is up to each individual raider to dissect their logs and compare themselves to their peers.

[barackohmama]

This is title is really spreading the wrong information to Raid Leads.
Should we shit on the rogue because he ran around for half the Xhul'horac fight putting out fires.

Single target DPS is the only thing that matters.


It is up to each individual raider to dissect their logs and compare themselves to their peers.

Well even single target dps doesn't matter sometimes. For example if you keep dpsing the boss when important adds spawn and you need to nuke them down quickly or raid wipes. If you stick to boss just because it provides better single target dps you're just bad. It could also be the opposite, when you have to push boss and ignore adds.

[Deja Thoris]

http://iam.yellingontheinternet.com/...acticed-skill/

Link them this instead.

[Clrg]

A guide for topping meters

Step 1) Reroll mage, rogue or warlock, these are your safe bet since blizzard will never ever let any of these class be at the bottom of the sims.

Step 2) Learn how to leech dps and cheese mechanics AKA know your shit.

Step 3) laugh all your way to your garrison with all the loot.


Bonus step 3) Try to get priority in the loot if your guild use council loot, be friend with all your officers and talk about theorycrafting in raid and about how this 4P and X trinket will increase your dps and how much this will help your raid, know other class bis and what trinkets they use, if you see a priest disc rolling or asking for the class trinket go and say how according to X theorycrafter and logs, priest disc arent using that trinket.

[Molis]

Well even single target dps doesn't matter sometimes. For example if you keep dpsing the boss when important adds spawn and you need to nuke them down quickly or raid wipes. If you stick to boss just because it provides better single target dps you're just bad. It could also be the opposite, when you have to push boss and ignore adds.

Yeah I get what you are saying.
Boss tunneling is not advised either.

I meant purposely splashing damage to reach the top is just doing a disservice to your team.

Classes like DK have a "Passive" AoE that would inflate DPS on some fights.

[Bigbazz]

The thing is, guides generally cant turn anyone into top players.. Players who are good at topping meters are usually good at it even if they equip suboptimal gear and avoid guides, because ultimately it's about playing the game and the game is simple enough to figure it out for yourself. If we lived in a world of simple patchwerk fights then it would be a lot more down to the nails in terms of guides, but its not that... The fights themselves offer much bigger influencing factors that players can take advantage of and game, stuff that isn't taught in a basic class guide, rather it's learned through experience and experimentation.

You have people who can theorycraft all day long and they still can't do as well as people who have never read a guide in their life, because how well you actually execute that playing is generally far more important than anything else, learning each fight individually or each role that you will be doing and mastering it is much more important than the minor differences between perfect play.

Obviously some people will take both aspects to the extreme, these are the very best players... But for the absolute vast majority of people its not true, and if you want e-peen rankings then if you're starting from zero because of lack of playing ability then you're probably never going to be reaching hero no matter how many guides you read, practicing and actively seeking to improve based on self assessment is the primary way to get good.

What isn't going to make you good is making threads like "my dps sucks, should I change my enchants to mastery" - No, that isn't going to a damn fucking thing, if your dps is shit it's because of your playing... And this is where bad players usually get caught out, because they will focus entirely on stuff that isn't relevant if their dps really is all that bad.

Yeah I get what you are saying.
Boss tunneling is not advised either.

I meant purposely splashing damage to reach the top is just doing a disservice to your team.

Classes like DK have a "Passive" AoE that would inflate DPS on some fights.

Passive cleave is not inflation, it's maximising. If for example you are dpsing Archimonde as a dps Warrior during the final phase, it's better to just apply rend to the Infernal and use Sweeping Strikes + Execute dps on the boss, causing 50% of the damage to be transferred to the Infernal, then switching to the Infernal as it approaches 20% to do a full damage focussed execute (50% of which will go on the boss).

This is maximising your spec, an Arms Warrior single target dps while executing is absolutely ridiculously high (300-400k dps burst)... If for example the Warrior instead just targetted the high health Infernal he would simply be doing less dps to both the Infernal and the boss.

If for example you have someone suggest the Arms Warrior should instead just charge and dps the Infernal (as apposed to bringing it on top of the boss), that is bad raid leading since you're greatly reducing the effectiveness of that class, as a result reducing raid dps. A raid leader should always know the strengths and weaknesses of the classes in the raid, to maximise effectiveness.

[Radio]

DPS is one thing, i'd rather have a 80th percentile player that will do 1 mistake in 200 pulls than a 95th percentile player that will fuckup every mechanics.

I'd rather have it too, but the player that fucks up every mechanic is usually stuck at 80th or below as a result of dying on most pulls. And understanding and gaming fight mechanics is usually the best way to get bleeding edge ranks, so it is usually out of the realm of the types who die all the time.

[Haywire5714]

Step 1) Reroll mage, rogue or warlock, these are your safe bet since blizzard will never ever let any of these class be at the bottom of the sims.

I actually would advise against rolling a rogue if you want to top meters because you'll usually have to do the bitch jobs.

[Gaidax]

DPS is one thing, i'd rather have a 80th percentile player that will do 1 mistake in 200 pulls than a 95th percentile player that will fuckup every mechanics.

A person who constantly fucks up every mechanic won't be 95th percentile.

That said I'd rather have 80th percentile guy, than a 45% idiot who thinks it's gear/class issue... Got some in my guild... Ain't pretty.