Jacemora: DPS - is it what it is cracked up to be?

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

DPS - is it what it is cracked up to be?

A word on DPS or "Damage Per Second". Looking at any given boss fight in a WWS I really think the standard of Epeening is better shown by total damage done and not damage per second.

I mean think about it, 2 people perform as such...

Player A. DPS is 900, total damage on the boss of 250,000
Player B. 1100 DPS, but only managed to take the boss down 200,000

Taking out all other factors since we are not talking about raid performance, class responsibilities, etc. (hopefully by now most people know there is not a connection between DPS numbers and being a good and beneficial raider) Player A did more to kill the boss plain and simple. That player found a way to stay in an DPS longer and make more out of his or her damage per second abilities. Player B although putting out more damage per second, regardless of why, contributed less damage to the boss fight. Basically DPS is saying that Player B has more potential... well that's nice to know, but Player A is the reason we didn't wipe at 1%... lol

So for pure showing off on the meters I think we need to start using a new term as the standard.

TDD - Total Damage Done?

Thought's?

2 comments:

TeePee said...

This is a subject I debate regularly with certain guildies... I seriously don't care what someone's DPS is - the further you get into end game, it becomes less about pumping out as much damage as you can do, and much more about doing as much damage as you can, while still keeping your threat under control. If you can do 1500 dps but can only stay in the fight 70% of the time, you are in essence being much less useful than someone that can do 1100 dps but can stay active 100% of the time.

Now, having said all that - the end result is about doing as much damage as is possible in any given fight. By having a higher dps, you do have more room for improvement as you tank's gear improves, or an encounter where threat doesn't play as big a part. What I'm mainly aiming at here are hunters (generally speaking) - they may not hit my level of dps in a given fight, but when it comes to overall damage most good hunters will still give dps classes a run for their money, and that's the marker that should be used for comparison imo; It doesn't matter if that ball goes 500 yards past the rope, or it just drops over the fence, its still a home run.

Jacemora said...

All I know is it is very easy for me to be 2-3 in DPS but 1-2 in total damage.

Total damage on a boss is what kills him, so my thinking is total damage done should be what sets the DPSers apart.

Again, this is all with the understanding that doing the right things in a fight > that any damage or healing you could possibly do.

I know at least where feral druids are concerned, I can easily be top 5 in total damage on lets say the FLK fight in SSC with being closer to 10th in DPS which suffers from spending the first part of the fight tanking and the rest in tanking gear sans a weapon and idol change. Not to mention our DPS suffers when we help heal, battle rez someone, or pickup and tank again in an emergency. Even through all that we still tend to be very high on the damage meter.

I am starting to think Feral druids got a bad rap for DPS because people don't know how to maximize damage around their gear and other roles between and even within fights.