Shadow DPS Combatlog Analysis

[Deyus]

My apologies. It's apparent we have been discussing different things. If you only wish to observe an active segment of the fight then I agree, anything is possible. If I consider my example Koralon parse on that basis I too have 98% dot uptime.

One thing to note however is that the the difference between mediocre and exceptional dps is most often casting uptime. I personally consider the entire combat duration starting at the moment the boss is engaged as the correct time scale for this type of analysis. After all, if I were to wait 10 seconds to engage and another priest gets 2 extra VT ticks / 1 more MB off in that time, doesn't that make him the more effective player?

[Worshaka]

We are talking 4 seconds before being active, not 10... and if you know the patchwerk fight you know that patch starts well out of range of the casters, once he's in place it takes 1.5 sec to land a VT... it's a bit ridiculous to expect your 100% dot uptime to start the moment the boss is engaged, you are supposed to give your tanks some time to position a boss and get intial aggro.

Unless you want the parses to involve the spriest pulling the boss you'll never see a 100% activity... some common sense needs to be applied.

[Deyus]

Are you referring to a complete fight or a segment? I think those numbers would be almost impossible to achieve over a complete fight (from pull until the boss is dead) simply because of the setup time following the pull.

Complete fights from the spriests that are doing the best dps seen in combat logs...

...

Naa. Nevermind.

[Worshaka]

You're grasping at straws to suggest that the 4 seconds of inactivity while a tank pulls a boss into a position redefines a parse from a full encounter to a segement... perhaps try again.

[harky]

To be fair, there's no reason for the 4 seconds of inactivity. As ranged you should be standing ~10 yards behind the tanks and if your Hunters aren't asleep you should be able to start DPS much earlier than that. I could see up to a 2 second delay. Any more is playing it too safe if you're serious about doing your best. Shadow has no chance of pulling aggro that early, so waiting for the boss to physically reach the tank in not necessary as it would be with say a Destro Lock who can dump 20k+ damage in those 4 seconds right from the start.

That said: Most DPS computations do not include pull time so the 4 seconds should be dropped. At the time it's unlikely that the Priest was even in combat. DPS spreads don't include 'waiting for the boss to get to the tank' time and neither should analysis of a parse. It's not a segment which leaves out a portion of a rotation that got screwed up, it's the entire active time of a player. It's not as if someone who maintained a solid rotation for 118 seconds spent 4 seconds looking for his VT button at the start.

[Deyus]

I'm not grasping at anything. I asked a question early in the discussion and you answered it, but have now apparently changed your tune (or simply misunderstood my initial question). In either case it's fine; misunderstandings via internet forums are inevitable, and it's your prerogative to change your position. Once it became clear to me there was a disconnect I made my comment about apparently discussing different things....

The 10 second example would be an extreme case, however the same concept holds between two different players who manage to engage 0.5 sec after the pull and 4 sec after the pull. Assuming you have a competent tank and misdirects, there is nothing a shadow priest can open with that will pull aggro even if you begin casting immediately (barring a MB/SWD combo, which is clearly a ridiculous opener). For those of us who open with VT/MB there are no such worries as it is nearly 3 seconds after starting to cast before the first damage is caused. I see no reason to only consider a given players uptime when reviewing logs, and will continue to use the entire duration as the basis for comparison as I believe it does a better job of truly representing a players value in a given encounter.

It is apparent you reject this concept outright. This doesn't particularly surprise or interest me. I've given my justification for analyzing logs the way I choose to and have no wish to continue arguing over the internet. I do hope however that this discussion has perhaps provided some others who are less familiar with logs a means to start analyzing their own performance (using whichever method of considering uptime they find to be more appropriate).

If you wish you may now post for the last word as I won't be returning to this one unless there is an interesting change in the discussion

[Worshaka]

I'm not grasping at anything. I asked a question early in the discussion and you answered it, but have now apparently changed your tune (or simply misunderstood my initial question). In either case it's fine; misunderstandings via internet forums are inevitable, and it's your prerogative to change your position. Once it became clear to me there was a disconnect I made my comment about apparently discussing different things....

The 10 second example would be an extreme case, however the same concept holds between two different players who manage to engage 0.5 sec after the pull and 4 sec after the pull. Assuming you have a competent tank and misdirects, there is nothing a shadow priest can open with that will pull aggro even if you begin casting immediately (barring a MB/SWD combo, which is clearly a ridiculous opener). For those of us who open with VT/MB there are no such worries as it is nearly 3 seconds after starting to cast before the first damage is caused. I see no reason to only consider a given players uptime when reviewing logs, and will continue to use the entire duration as the basis for comparison as I believe it does a better job of truly representing a players value in a given encounter.

It is apparent you reject this concept outright. This doesn't particularly surprise or interest me. I've given my justification for analyzing logs the way I choose to and have no wish to continue arguing over the internet. I do hope however that this discussion has perhaps provided some others who are less familiar with logs a means to start analyzing their own performance (using whichever method of considering uptime they find to be more appropriate).

If you wish you may now post for the last word as I won't be returning to this one unless there is an interesting change in the discussion

Grasping at straws confirmed above...

I seriously Lol'd when you define a segment of an encounter to mean not including the 4 second pull... seriously good stuff.