What differentiates high DPS players from low?

[ruzhy6]

The poor DPS don't grasp that DPS means Damage Per Second. If you lose a second you're losing damage. Always do stuff, rather than standing around.

This would be my best explanation as well. Raising your lower end of your DPS range will increase your average DPS dramatically.

[Drihan]

No matter how many stat calculations you do, specc specifications to certain bosses/trash groups, rotation analyzation etc. Skill in how your class works from experience will trump no matter how many buttons and theoretical scenarios you run on a calculator.

[moff]

it's the love for big yellow numbers

[Jademist]

Knowing your class and spec, and knowing the fight.

[ThunderPussy]

Low DPS'ers just don't radiate awesomeness like you do.

Can I touch you? Maybe I'll start radiating too.

Okay seriously, we'll need a lot more info than what you've posted to find out why you spew win from every orifice.

Lol. Someday I hope to be as awesome as ddk.

[DMac84]

To give the exact opposite example, I was doing my daily one day, and this warlock was asked to fear CC a mob.
All he would do was sit there, casting Fear every 20 seconds. Not even throwing a dot on the other mobs. His dps was flat 0.

Wow. How hard is it to target the mob you want to CC and fear it, then switch to a diff target and dot it? After I fear a mob, I can switch target and do the following before I have to switch back and re-fear again: CoE > SoulBurn + ISF > BoD > Immolate > Corruption > HoG + Felstorm. Thats doing alot of damage while fear is ticking somewhere else. How could he just sit there? wtf

[romant]

common sense of class mechanics and rotations as well as awareness to react in a productive way and not panic

[Harsesis]

From a Destro Lock here is my perspective. There is a difference between a basic "rotation" and adding in the little things that add up. For example take the basic Destro rotaion. It's not that hard to hit buttons on CD with Incinerate as a filler. It's when you add in something like keeping the Improved Soul Fire buff up at all times. This included knowing when to hard cast it or if your Empowered Imp buff will last long enough to time an instant cast at the end.

Another thing I've noticed that not many destro locks do is make use of Bane of Havoc. There are several fights that have 2 targets up at a time. Some of which share health pools (Twin Drakes in BoT, Exposed head of Magmaw etc...) Fight's like this are a free 15% dps boost since you are double dipping in the same health pool.

[joumasepoes]

Can anyone point to any place where this has been proven? It sounds like gibberish to me.

ur kidding me right?

[boubadoo]

This game can be dropped in to 2 categories. The dont stand in shit category and the LINE UP YOUR COOLDOWNS category. Something so simple as popping trinkets then pillar of frost then your ghoul make such a diference for a Frost dk. Pilar is a % increase so any strengthgain is inreased more so.. Tracking those cooldowns so you know when to pop a potion. Using 2 potions per fight.

Also somethin not mentioned is uptime. How much uptime do you have on boss . This goes to the speed enchants especially for melee running out and back in.

If you are topping meters without any of these things, then evryone around you cold be so much better you included.

[ddk]

another factor is latency for sure

Actually, my latency hovers around 300 usually.

Hmmm, top dps on all your toons. Do you by chance have all Hunters? >:] Just sayin, Hunterz r Imba.

No, I've never really liked the class. I have a DPS warrior, death knight, shadow priest, rogue, warlock and soon a mage. I have no tanks or healers because I suck at both.

Elitist Jerks. Time spent moving is (in general) time spent not DPSing. Time spent running within range of a target is (always) time spent not DPSing. Movement speed enchants consistently beat higher-stat enchants that don't offer enhanced movement speed.

Yeah, absolutely. I learned this lesson the hard way in TBC where half a yard meant the difference between dying and living through to the next phase.

From a Destro Lock here is my perspective. There is a difference between a basic "rotation" and adding in the little things that add up. For example take the basic Destro rotaion. It's not that hard to hit buttons on CD with Incinerate as a filler. It's when you add in something like keeping the Improved Soul Fire buff up at all times. This included knowing when to hard cast it or if your Empowered Imp buff will last long enough to time an instant cast at the end.

Yeah, I'm thinking it's gotta be something like that; the little things adding up. For instance on my rogue I'm very aggressive. I'll stealth right up to the point where a mob will 'notice' me in order to start DPS'ing the target as soon as the tank pulls (Tricking him, of course), and use sprint to get to mobs faster or even rocket boots in fights where there's a lot of running in and out. I'll generally pool energy for better rotations and timing of envenoms and so as not to clip the envenom buff and usually always have 4+ points ready to go just before rupture drops off. I'm always looking to tweak my play-style for each mob and boss in order to maximise DPS, whether that means alternating cool-down usage or better timing/location on running in and out, I'm always looking for that incremental increase in performance, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.

I guess that kinda shit just adds up. Does it then just come down to a desire to be as good as you can be? My primary concern isn't to be #1 DPS on a meter and never has been. It's nice, don't get me wrong, but my goal has always just been to challenge myself and continually improve; I'm competing with myself and nobody else. I can't really answer if other people have that level of drive or not, given everything else being equal.

[Meowse]

...my goal has always just been to challenge myself and continually improve...

You might enjoy reading up on kaizen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen

[NstnctGaming]

Talent mainly, and to a degree RNG. I seem to be the same way, and don't really understand when people who dps don't even try to max their dps and just go half-assed

[Thallidomaniac]

Being hit/expertise capped or not can also make or break DPS-wise, as getting a crucial attack missed/dodged can hurt.

[Hoban]

I had a great experience tonight that I can share. From Vanilla through Wrath I was always a shadow priest. One of those players who frequented shadowpriest.com and EJ, knowing specific stat weights ect. I knew everything about my class and I had years of practice with it. Along comes Cata and I decide for a change so I heal for our guild now. Tonight we had an extra healer so I figured why not go DPS. Sure I only have healing gear but it wouldn't hurt (only doing normal modes anyway). So I'm running with a good friend of mine who I considered to be a great shadow priest. Figure it would be kinda cool to give him a run for his money. So we start in on omnitron and here I am blowing away the dps by upwards of 4k. My shadow priest friend asks me how the heck am I doing 4k more dps than he is (or more than the mage for that matter). I told him (as I tell him every week we do the fight =P ) that as soon as the other tron's shield drops, I'm back on him dotting him up. I am also using every purple goo and using each tron's mechanics to my advantage (getting a stack of the poison shield, popping on arcanotron as soon as his shield is stolen). He then asks how the hell I am doing all this, tracking multiple dots on both bosses, downing slimes, and properly utilizing cooldowns. This is when it occurred to me that I never really had to think about my dot rotation or what I was doing at any one moment as far as character mechanics go. All I had to think about was fight mechanics and how to abuse them. I had so much familiarity with shadow priest rotations that I didn't even have to consider my own mechanics, it was all just adapting them to the fight.

tl;dr
The difference between good dps and great dps is practice. The less you have to think about your mechanics, the more you can think about adapting to the boss mechanics. You make mistakes when you try to think your way through a fight. Do all the thinking and planning ahead of time so when the fight actually starts, your mechanics are flawless.

If you have seen the kung fu movie "Hero" (rent it if you haven't), there is a scene in there describing how two warriors battle with their mind before they even cross swords. It is quite silly to reference an awesome scene in a kung fu movie and compare it to WoW but it does apply. Cut the thinking out of the fight and just have action -> reaction. I guarantee you will improve your DPS by a large amount.

[Mathaios]

Link your dps in the guild chat, they will love you.

[Deleted]

would be nice if you guys could teach some enhancement shamans, i've only met 2 that are any decent other than myself from about 100+ in the 2.5 years i've been playing.......

[ddk]

This is when it occurred to me that I never really had to think about my dot rotation or what I was doing at any one moment as far as character mechanics go. All I had to think about was fight mechanics and how to abuse them. I had so much familiarity with shadow priest rotations that I didn't even have to consider my own mechanics, it was all just adapting them to the fight.

You know, you might have something here. I tend to practice my rotations/priorities until I have them so rote in memory that I don't have to look at my UI other than the occasional glance to check things like buff durations and dots. I also have my UI set up so that I don't have to look or hunt for things and everything is set-up in a HUD style so that I can easily and quickly get the information I need at a glance.

Operating this way, I free myself up to concentrate on movement, positioning, boss-timers, interrupts, etc. I could see how that could make a big difference between someone who has to alternate their focus between either DPS or everything else. I think this is referred to as "DPS Tunnel Vision".

[Bullettime]

1) Know and capitalize on your classes strengths. Prepare and overcome your classes weaknesses.

2) Knowledge of the fight. Knowing and preparing for the mechanic and movement prior will guarantee you get stationary again in the place you need to be to bring the pain again.

3) Consumables. They make a larger difference than people realize.

4) Group Synergy. Coordinate buffs, bring appropriate buffs/debuffs, and manage your cooldowns appropriately between your raid.

5) Dedication. This ties a lot into point 1. Many players don't/won't dedicate themselves to learning their rotations, min/maxing their gems, specs, and enchants, and checking any bit of theorycrafting regarding your class.


This game is not hard to do well in. It's by far one of the easiest to succeed with and do well of any of the games out there. The "good" and "great" WoW players are simply those that practice and play their character to the exact point of what they are developed around and intended to do. 99% of the "good" and "great" players are simply average gamers playing correctly but we look much better than we really are in comparison to the amount of idiots who play.

[Equilis]

This reminds me firmly of my lol-raid experiences in TBC.
Back then I was a very casual player (hunter, BM) and a very good friend of mine was a guildleader of a not so bad guild.
All I had where quest greenies, some pvp blues and some quest blues. Yea quite the terrible gear . Anyway, they had a spot left for a DPS and my friend asked me to join. It was my first real raid experience and I gave it a shot. So when I was summoned there (Gruul) the first thing I heard was: "WTF is this dude in green crap doing here." Yea all that gear-bashing crap.

So it all started and there we went. I had lots of fun and I ended up 2nd/3th on the damage meters (they all had almost full epic gear btw). Then the bashing ("OMG Pet damage doesn't count!" and more crap like that) on me started and the fun was gone.

I loved my hunter and after a while some epic-geared hunters came into the guild and my raiding was over. Noone cared for the actual dps-throughput, only for the epics they where wearing. Then I quit the game for a long time and to reroll as a druid just a few months back.

A few days ago I picked up my hunter again and yea well as many on this forum, I managed to do almost every run at least 40% of the damage, despite having no feeling with my hunter anymore (lvl 70, right back from TBC with still crap gear equipped ). Still love him .

As a hunter, there is nothing I like more than to cc a mob, pet-tank one and kite some others like in the old days. Now it's just way easier .