10 ways to improve your dps

This post is a translation of a thread I started in our guild forums recently. As I mentioned that i did that kind of post I got a lot of requests what it was about, exactly. So now here it is, all in english and stuff. All feedback is welcome!

After a tough experience in Naxxramas last week this post intends to start a constructive discussion on how we can improve our overall raid performance, in order to aid every single player in terms of fun and success. I am going to try to outline the meaning, potential and possibilities in terms of dps as neutral as possible, and hope to offer fertile grounds for a florishing thread of awesomi-fying our future adventures.

Why are DPS so important – isn’t it about the tanks and healers?

It’s quite simple: Usually a boss fight gets tougher the longer it takes. There are hard timers on fights like Patchwerk (after 6 minutes he increases damage by 500% and attack speed by 50%) and other “soft timers”, like on Grobbolus who will cast his deseases faster and faster as time passes. Overall we can put it this way: The shorter the fight, the easier it is for the tanks and the healers. This is because the tanks can make better use of their cooldowns in short fights (popping a total of 1min cooldowns to reduce damage will be 50% uptime in a 2-min-fight, while only 20% uptime in a 5-min-fight) and healers don’t have to care about their mana pool as much. Plus, the group progresses through the instance faster.

But why are my dps so important? 200 more or less don’t seem to make much of a difference in a 10-man-raid.

Let’s pick Patchwerk 10-man. He’s got 4.3 million hp and a hard-enrage after 360 seconds. That means your 10-man raid needs 12k dps to beat the timer. Considering a progression lineup you’ll have:

• 3 healers (7 left)
• 2 tanks (each 1/2 dd, so let’s say 6 left)
• 5 pure dps

That adds up to 6 damage dealers and means you’ll need 2000dps per player to get that kill. Now if one person does 200 dps less, this means that the other 5 dps need to make up for it, thus do 2040 dps instead of 2000. This is a 2% increase, usually something along the lines of 2 talent points worth. 2% is a lot. So, yes – every single one’s dps do matter. Big time.

The color of your tooltips doesn’t increase your dps

Usually when an argument comes up about dps, the answer I get is: “I’m not yet geared”. This might be true, but for different reasons than people use it for as an excuse. Yes, epics do have a higher item budget than blues. That being said, your gear is only a part of what you do, and high item budget on wrong stats can lack behind low item budget in the right place. You do not need all-Naxx-gear to be able to deal competitive dps in Naxx. That wouldn’t make much sense in the first place. There are players who turn 80 and go do 2k dps in leveling greens and blues just as there are fully-decked-out-purplez-roxxors who somehow manage to do 1k dps.

So how can I increase my damage output, then?

There is a ton of things you can do, and equipment really is only one part of the whole picture. Let’s first have a look at a short list, and then go into further detail:

10 ways to improve your personal dps

1. More concentration
2. Positioning & movement – know the encounter
3. Buffs & debuffs
4. Don’t die
5. Spell rotation
6. Talents
7. Enchants & gems
8. Know your class: stats
9. Equipment
10. Consumables

1. More concentration

You know that last 5% when half the raid is down and you still see a chance of getting through the encounter? How all of a sudden you get really, really focused and squeeze out that last bit of damage? This is where you want to be throughout every percent of every encounter. Especially on progression fights, each and every cast is important. Don’t take things loose because “the fight seems to go well anyhow”. Don’t think about the health bar of the boss or the state of your fellow raiders. From this day on, every moment of the fight you shalth imagine the boss’ health bar at 5% and half your raid dead. Try it and surprise yourself.

2. Positioning & movement – know the encounter

There’s more to it than “melee get behind the boss not to be blocked/parried”. Consider the following next time:

• Am I within range for all buff auras that benefit me?
• Will the encounter require movement on my part? If so, where should I stand and move to in order to have as little dps-downtime as possible?
• Do I have to switch targets (adds, etc.) throughout the fight? From which position can I do this most efficient, with the least movement?
• Am I in healrange and, on such encounters that require it, in AoE-healrange?

Bare in mind that of course you have to know the encounter in order to make these decisions, and with some experience you will get better at it. YouTube can give you a good idea of what’s going to happen, but don’t get too obsessed – your raid may use different tactics.

3. Buffs & debuffs

First of all you have to know your buffs and debuffs. You will want to give your raid as much of an advantage as possible, while gimping the big bad ugly as much as you can. Know who needs what buff, which of those at your disposal most benefits the current raid composition or encounter, and act accordingly. If you already get the right stuff out before it’s called for from the raid lead you will at the very least leave a good impression. Raid leaders like people that think for themselves, because it makes the leading-part easier.

Also know when and how often to refresh those buffs and debuffs. Refresh close to them running out, not mid-duration. Because every buff/debuff cast means one less damaging ability. So don’t waste time and resources with debuffs on short-living adds. If there are more members of your class arrange with them who is going to take care of what. It also doesn’t hurt to know other classes buffs – sometimes you will only gain a very minor benefit from what’s usually your best raidbuff if there’s someone else with a very similar spell. Try to maximize overall effectiveness!

4. Don’t die

The formula is simple: A dead player doesn’t deal damage. “I didn’t get healed” is an excuse only valid in some very specific situations and encounters. Do not underestimate your survival tools: Bandages, potions, healer-communication, dodging damage. You know “get out of the fire”, but you should think of it as: “Where is damage likely to occur and how can I avoid being there?”. Last, because I know sometimes dps loves to do that: Don’t pull aggro, ever. Not even on adds – it’s unnecessary damage and distraction for a healer.

5. Spell rotation

To figure out your best spell rotation you have to do more than read about it on forums. Keep in mind your personal playstyle, your gear, your specific talent choices and which buffs you have and which debuffs are active on your target, what the encounter calls for and all the little things that could turn out as a huge difference. If the “best spell rotation” is layed out as a durability-thing you could probably do a better job in a situation calling for fast burst-damage, and the other way round. It requires you to know every single of your spells and how they work together. Read up on your talents and give those tooltips a chance the next time you’re waiting in Dalaran. And never be afraid to ask – others might give some new angles on things.

Also it does require practice. There are basically two options to do that: 1. Use a dmg-meter addon and analyze the statistics over and over again to figure out what abilities you get the most juice out of. You can do this on target dummies throughout major cities or in instance runs and raids for a more accurate live-situation. 2. Go PvP. Even if you hate PvP, this is an environment that teaches you new things. It requires huge burst damage, extremely fast reaction and situational awareness. PvE is much more relaxed and the skills you can aquire in the extreme situation that is PvP will aid you more often than not. Plus, you can get all crazy and experiment all out, for there will be no group that’s upset and no repair bills to pay.

6. Talents

I really think you should choose your talents to fit your personal playstyle. People who enjoy what they do are usually better than those who do it because it’s more efficient. That being said, you should still know why you chose what talents and, as soon as you step into a raid environment, reevaluate your choices: Does this benefit a raid? Or is it rather a solo-only improvement? Points in solo-talents aren’t bad, as long as they aren’t consistently picked over group-benefitting alternatives. You will want their buffs and best performance on their side, so offer yours, too.

7. Enchants & gems

If there is a piece of gear on you that can be enchanted, it should be. Full stop. Non-enchanted gear is a “I don’t care” kind of statement, and you shouldn’t bring that attitude to a group environment. It doesn’t have to be the latest fancy 6-crystal-high-end enchant on your green leveling bracers, but at least spare a few silver coins on a TBC enchant. One low level enchantment doesn’t push you on top of the dmg-meters, of course, but the added effect of five low-level enchants will improve your dps noticable. Plus It’s an effort, it shows you care and – if it’s the right enchant – that you know what you need.

Same thing for sockets. There’s green gems for cheap, and even some BC-stuff available for really really cheap. Don’t throw out all your cash, get just the gems you can afford, but don’t leave those sockets empty. It’s potential you’re wasting, and you don’t want to do that. Adding up all sockets and enchantable pieces of gear you’ll end up with quite a bit of extra juice for your greens & blues.

8. Know your class: stats

The big question to ask yourself is: “What stats do I need?” And the answer isn’t necessarily “ap/sp + crit”. There’s many things out there and you will at least want to know your class/spec’s hit cap, how which stat benefits what, if haste or crit are your friends, and so on. Don’t let those purple letters blame you – even some tier set items do have par-optimal stats on them. Know what you need, how much you need and in what order those are important, and then work towards one after another, utilizing not only gear itself but also enchants, gems and all other upgrades, buffs and consumables. This is theorycrafting and might be annoying at first, but the return on investment is huge and can make an enormous difference on those damage meters.

9. Equipment

If you still sport 70ies or quest items start to take a look into the opportunities WotLK offers. Know which factions yield what reputation rewards and work towards those. Also the world of warcraft these days is full of very solid crafted gear choices to every spec. Check out what’s available and get some upgrades. And don’t forget 8. – purple doesn’t necessarily mean superior. If you don’t really know what’s out there give the official armory a shot. Find your character, hover any item and click “check for upgrades”. Blizzard will then give you a list with all similar pieces of gear and how they can be obtained.

10. Consumables

I prefer to list this last and least, because in my opinion you should first max out everything else. Only in the moment that you stand there and the raid is about to begin should you decide if, and what, consumables you want to use to boost your performance some more. The major reason is that consumables are expensive bastards and most of them don’t last through death, which can result in a hell of a lot of burnt cash really soon. Anyhow, if you don’t see other options to improve and want some extra dps, consumables are your friends. A good idea is to also check out the good old BC-consumables, for they are really cheap and can be very, very close to their new shiny WotLK-followups.

Final words

Here are some resources for your researching-pleasure:

• WoWWiki gives all the information you seek in the well-established wiki-style
• Elitist Jerks is where the math geeks live and do their calculations
• WoWInsider has some basic information, a column for every class and some good introductory guides and articles targeted at fresh raiders

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