How to judge my performance while leveling...

[clevin]

OK, I started a baby lock to work on when I'm not raiding, etc. First Horde toon and it's been fun so far. He dinged 40 yesterday and has been Demo since 10. Demo seems fine... but I just did an Uldaman LFD run and felt my DPS sucked (in the few hundred range). Now, some of this is because things die so fast that dotting up tons of mobs doesn't really work well and Hand of Guldan seems to have a long CD relative to the trash mobs' lifespan. Shadow Bolt's cast time is so long I can get 1 off on a trash mob, *maybe* 2 if it's a high HP mob. If I HoG a group of a few trash mobs and then pick one mob to spamSB a trash mob, I do like 500dps. Hell, even if I have the Fury to spend a boss fight in Meta spamming Touch of Chaos with Corruption on the boss I was doing like 400 dps. It's annoying.

However, this post isn't really about that run or my performance that run... it's that I have no way to know what I *should* be doing in terms of DPS. Should a level 40 Demo lock be doing 200dps? 1000dps? 1500DPS? At 90 I could compare myself to other 90s and even simcraft but... how do I tell if my performance is even in the ballpark as I level and instance?

Oh, FYI, here's armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../Clevop/simple

PS: I'm not really worried about numbers but a) I want to pull my weight in runs, b) I want to be able to tell if I'm vastly underperforming so I can say to myself "Self, you need to figure something out."

[Deleted]

Here is how you judge your performance while leveling, this is all you need to know:

IT DOESNT MATTER.

Aoe lolfest everywhere. The person with the best aoe will be on top. Spec demo and spam Rain of Fire and Fire and Brimstone'd incinerates. Then proceed to act like you're madskilled. Your dps doesnt matter a flying fuck until Pandaria.
And if you really want to know how you're doing. Do it the same way you would at lvl 90. By comparing it to others.

[clevin]

I know that it's not that important. But it matters to me. I'd compare to others... but how? I dont want to know how I compare to hunters, rogues, shammies, etc I want to know if I'm doing well for the class I am. At 90 that's easy. At 40? WHere do I look... there aren't WoL things around for leveling toons.

This is all about me wanting to know how much of the classes potential I'm hitting. If that toon in that spec should be doing 500 dps, fine. I'm close. If it should be doing 1000dps I'm fucking something up and I want to know that so I can get better.

[Bawl]

I've been working on an alt recently. Balance is non existent in the mid levels anymore. Don't even worry about it until 90.

[clevin]

Ok. Next question... reasonable spec for instancing in the 40s?

[Lord Mega]

demonology and let your felguard do all the work

[Deleted]

I already told you. Destro and spam rain of fire and fire and brimstone incinerates.

The spec with the best aoe wins.

[Rucati]

Basically what people have said, DPS while leveling is unimportant. I've been leveling a Monk, at level 69 right now, leveling Brewmaster, I've topped the DPS meters in *every* instance I've done, and since I leveled purely in instances until 60, that's quite a lot of them. From what I've seen for leveling, tanks are the top DPS 99% of the time, then after that Ele Shamans with Chain Lightning and Hunters seem pretty good, because they're both strong AoE classes. But really, while leveling, damage makes no difference and it's impossible to tell you what you should have for DPS at level 40. It's simply irrelevant, things die so fast while leveling up that it isn't worth worrying about, just get to 90 and see how it goes then.

[Deleted]

PS: I'm not really worried about numbers but a) I want to pull my weight in runs, b) I want to be able to tell if I'm vastly underperforming so I can say to myself "Self, you need to figure something out."

go AFK with auto attack and it should provide the needed DPS, point being it matters not one bit while leveling, if you hit 90 and are pushing out 30k DPS then be worried.

[clevin]

Yea guys I GET that it's not important. You all don't need to repeat that... If that's all your going to say don't waste your time. Seriously, I don't need to hear that over and over.

What I wanted to know is whether I was doing well for the class and spec. It's not about competing with others, it's 1) about pulling my weight to the degree the spec allows and 2) so that I develop decent habits.

Traf - missed the spec advice the first time. Oops

[Deleted]

as others have said, you'll either want demo, then just use hand of gul'dan and harvest life on trash + felguard on autoattack, then save all your dem.fury for the boss, or go destro and spam rain of fire with some conflags.

the best way to compare dps would be bosses i guess, but if you're resource pooling all your demonic fury/embers you should be pulling ahead anyway. i leveled my lock back in wrath, but its hardly the same class anymore so can't really compare that well.

one thing i'll say though, most locks i saw when leveling my mage pulled similar numbers to me (me being the only one outdoing the tank), so the only other advice is to learn your class, read a couple of the spec stickies on here and apply it as much as you can, based on what abilities you have unlocked

[Woceip]

Another thing that makes destro nice while leveling is that since everyone is aoe'ing, once the mobs get to the point where they have a little bit more health you can snipe shadowburns on a lot of stuff. Makes for fun times.

[clevin]

Hmm I'll try Destro. No Felguard for another 1.5 levels and HoG was nice... hmm forgot about Harvest Life. Not something I need to use a lot questing which is how I've leveled this far.

[Deleted]

Hmm I'll try Destro. No Felguard for another 1.5 levels and HoG was nice... hmm forgot about Harvest Life. Not something I need to use a lot questing which is how I've leveled this far.

it makes up a fair portion of demo's aoe, without being close range and damaging yourself with immolation aura. plus it starts dealing damage quickly, so eliminates some of your cast time issues. but at your level before felguard, destro is probably your best bet anyway.

man, talking about leveling my lock makes me miss the old affliction way of leveling, just dotting everything and being unkillable xD

[Deleted]

Perhaps I can offer a different perspective:
It's understandable that your dps matter to you. Nothing's more annoying than those afk-ep-leechers in lowbie dungeon.

On the other hand: If you meet a tank who finds his aoe-buttons (especially warriors) and pulls enough mobs to stack his vengeance, it doesn't matter anymore what you do or don't: The tank will essentially kill everything alone - nobody can remotely compete with tank's dps in lowbie dungeons at the moment.

My advice: Try to do good numbers, but don't be overambitious. There is very few you can do in lowbie dungeons if the tank plays his part.

[Deleted]

Hmm I'll try Destro. No Felguard for another 1.5 levels and HoG was nice... hmm forgot about Harvest Life. Not something I need to use a lot questing which is how I've leveled this far.

2 times hand of gul'dan on stacked mobs, use the felguard's whirlwind and spam harvest life = top dps in instances. Good luck.

[Deleted]

At lower levels there just is no comparison. With buffs, heirlooms, other gear, talents, glyphs and skills at varying degrees there is simply no way to know if you're doing well or not.
Not to mention that not until Cata, and perhaps even just MoP dungeons stuff simply doesn't last long enough to make half the specs work or are just majorly skewed towards burst and AE.
When I leveled my priest and she got into a dungeon as dps I was just crap on trash while I was storing my Shadow Orbs and Shadowfiend and unloaded those on a boss that just died in seconds. Yay I was doing triple the dps of the rest of the group combined, but in no way was I actually playing properly or good. I just had stupid high burst by facerolling my cooldowns and bosses died before it wore off.


Honestly, just go with what feel right. Dots are typically bad in lower dungeons because things die before the dot does any damage. AE spells are the norm for trash and whatever CD you have that's longer than a minute save it for bosses. The actual numbers simply can't be compared to anything at those levels unless you happen to get a similarly geared, same spec, same level guy in your group. And even then it's really hard to see if the comparison is fair.

[Daedelus]

Rather than saying "it doesn't matter" I'm going to say "don't worry about it".

At anything other than max level classes are not balanced. Tanks will invariably do more damage than any other class (in an instance) and the class with the best aoe spec wins. Demo aoe in very strong in a raid environment but in a 5 man instance you're not going to have enough demonic fury half the time so Destro will always win out there - Rain of LOL and LOL & Brimstone

If you really want to compare your performance then you can only really do it on bosses, who live for more than 10 seconds.

[Deleted]

How i would level nowadays would be as demo once you can get a felguard. Just pick soul link & harvest life and you'll be able to pull 10 mobs to aoe them down without dying.

In low level instances, destro would probably be the best choice due to mobs dying in seconds.