Measuring your dpsFollow

I've been slowly gearing up my feral druid. A lot slower than it would probably take a lot of Alla readers but I'm fairly casual, plus I have a few alts on the go. :) My gear is mostly from heroics with the T8 chest and the shoulders and neck from TOC.

Anyway my dps in heroic 5mans is usually between 1800dps and 2200dps. I'm comfortable with my rotation. Mobs just die too quickly in normal heroics these days for me to get some good dps in, with most groups I'm lucky if I can get 4/5 cp's up on a mob before he dies so no time for rips or FB's.

The other night the heroic daily was Halls of Lightning. We had a highly geared group and so we steamrolled through the instance real quick, at the end my dps was around 1850 according to my recount. The party leader then posted their recount for only the Loken boss fight, and I had around 3400dps.

Our group then decided to have a go at H-TOC, and I tagged along. I finished the instance with dps of 2600 or so.

So mobs with higher HP = more dps for me!

Am I Naxx ready? I usually tell people I'm a 2200dps and that usually scares them off. But it seems if the mobs stay on their feet longer, I can easily do more. So which measurement of my dps do I use when trying to get into groups? Can I say I'm a 3400dps on bosses?


Edited, Sep 16th 2009 3:14am by apothik

Edited, Sep 16th 2009 3:15am by apothik

If you have any epic gear at all, you're pretty much ready for Naxx (as DPS). There's only one hard gear check (Patchwerk), and one coordination/gear check (Thaddius). As for your gear...

You have PvP enchants on your head and shoulders. These should be switched for PvE 'chants. Head from Ebon Blade, shoulders from Sons of Hodir.

Your wrists are enchanted for Strength. Replace with AP ASAP.

Your weapon isn't enchanted... at all. You should fix that. 110 AP is cheap, or pony up for berserker if you have a lot of cash.

Replace your hand enchant with Agility. 15 Agi is good, 20 Agi is better.

Get your tier 8.5 helm. Make sure you have it socketed so your Relentless Earthsiege Diamond meta gem works.

Your belt should have an agility gem in it. The only gems you should ever use are Agi (Red), Agi/Crit (orange), +10 stats (prismatic), and maybe 1 Agi/Stam (purple) if you can't afford a +10 stats gem. Try to put your purple/prismatic gem in a blue socket where the socket bonus is Agi, AP, or Crit. An orange Agi/Crit gem in a yellow socket where the socket bonus is a DPS stat is generally better than just socketing for Agi.

Your legs and boots aren't enchanted either. AP/Crit armor kit for your legs, 16 Agi for your boots. Run speed doesn't help cats when you already have 2/2 Feral Swiftness.

For your trinkets, get a Mirror of Truth and a Darkmoon Card: Greatness. Or the ArP trinket from normal ToC. In order, these go Greatness > Banner of Victory > Mirror of Truth.

I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm a little surprised you hit 3400 DPS with the gear you have. The only thing I can think of off hand is that the fight was under a min, so your initial burst with Berserk brought your average way up. I'd guess you're a solid 3k DPS over a 3 min sustained fight.

A big thanks to both of you!

I've got some work to do on enchants/gems/buckles.

Astarinthedruid, noone was more surprised than I was when recount said 3400dps so no offence taken. You're right though, Loken went down fast so that probably explains it.

I got myself into a heroic 25man VOA run last night, first VOA ever, first 25man ever... was good fun!! We one-shot all the bosses and I managed 2956 dps on Emalon so your guess of 3k is right on the money. I made some mistakes on my rotation so I reckon I could push it a little higher too.


p.s... I've got a mongoose enchant sitting in the bank, I've been waiting for an upgrade on my Staff of Trickery to slap it on. And the pvp enchants are just temporary until I can motivate myself to grind the Hodir rep... yeah I gotta knuckle down. :(

I haven't bothered with enchanting much of my gear because I've been trying for the better stuff in ToC, then I can go nuts. Unfortunately it only spits out cloth or plate when I'm around.

But yeah not doing the weapon was just being el cheapo. /slap.

Hodir takes two weeks and it's some of the easiest daily gold you can earn...I don't really see why anybody considers it a grind

Edited, Sep 17th 2009 7:59am by Norellicus

As someone who did this simultaneously on 4 toons, I can tell you it does become a grind! :) If I have a choice between running an instance, leveling an alt or grinding dailys for rep, Hodir comes a distant 3rd. But it has to be done, and it is good money which makes it easier.

It isn't hard but its just so wearisome doing the same damn quests every day! A bit like work and this is supposed to be fun!

Ah, Feral...

Edit: Derail incoming - sorry.

It's really odd, because I can remember the days where playing as a Druid involved running with a Balance/Resto spec, stabbing stuff with your knife while healing yourself. I remember being in love with Feral from the moment its improved and updated version hit the streets and I remember the shaking and trembling the first time I experienced the pure sex of Mangle.

Now... not so much. At level 80 I found it natural to go Feral DPS/Tank, because that's what I've been doing through all of The Burning Crusade and some of Vanilla, hell, ever since it was an option, really. I went out and got me some epics, read up on rotations (or priorities, whatever), went into some heroics and delivered solid crap. No, really, it was. Decked in epics from head to toe and I was lucky if I could push 1800 DPS on bosses. On trash the rotations (or priorities, sorry) was complex enough to give me a mild seizure and if something went wrong - it should be noted here that later experience would tell me that this happens a lot - I'd easily lose 500 DPS before getting back on track again.

And that's without even mentioning tanking. I wanted to be a good tank, because I feel I've been throughout the game, just as I've always been good DPS. During TBC, I really polished up my tanking and felt comfortable with the rotations and stuff. Now... not so much either. Far too often did I join a group where I, despite being outgeared for the instance, had issues holding aggro if there was more than one or two mobs. Swipe spam? Yeah, not really my kind of fun, but it was necessary to keep that Skillstorm Warrior alive to continue his self-destructive fetishism.

All-in-all, DPS became a nightmare and tanking became Russian roulette, where you might win and have an awesome run or you might lose and wipe enough to make people leave your group and berate you for your performance. Not ideal when you're a tank.

I switched to Restoration/Balance, because ultimately I was sick of having a job that dealt in extremes. As a healer, believe it or not, you have way less responsibility. You join a group, keep them alive for half an hour, and people love you. Of course, the skill lies in not to do any instances you aren't horribly outgeared for - hence my earlier thread about Tree of Life numbers.

I only found it natural to go Moonkin for my alternate spec, seeing as I how I'd heard so much about Moonkin DPS, plus I thought if I went caster/caster, I didn't need to worry about fighting Rogues for loot. Turns out, I cared more about healing than DPS, probably because it's easier to find a group when you're a healer, but due to Moonkin being so bloody awesome, I could actually switch spec, keep my healing gear on and still outperform my epic'd Feral spec DPS-wise. Not sure if I should cry or laugh at it, but it's a bit sad, isn't it?

Really, I can join any heroic as Boomkin, wearing my healing gear, and do 2-3k DPS by spamming Hurricane alone. More than two mobs in a pull? Hurricane and get instant 3k DPS. Boss fight? Pop Treants and Starfall, get an Eclipse proc and do an easy 3k there as well. I get 350 crit rating and 450 haste rating from my healing gear. I swap out the bracers for some with +33 hit rating (1% hit or so), for that extra DPS, plus I switch to a crappy Moonkin idol, just because my Resto idol does nothing to my DPS.

I was Feral DPS/Resto healing at one point. After getting sick of Feral DPS, I went to the trainer, changed my Feral spec to a Moonkin spec, sold all my Feral gear (except the PvP stuff), went into a heroic and did almost twice the DPS of when I was Feral. It just doesn't seem right.



I still haven't started them. Two weeks, you say? In two weeks I went from barely being able to heal regular level 80 instances to now being able to farm heroics. I got two T8 pieces and I only need my wrists, rings and trinkets to get the epic achievement, but I fear I won't get it without going to Naxx a bit.

So why haven't I done Sons of Hodir yet? Why settle for 23 spell power and resilience when I could get 24 spell power and some mana regen? Because I absolutely loathe rep grind. I've gotten Wyrmrest and Kirin Tor to exalted through heroics (tabards, weee) and I'm now working on my Knights of the Ebon Blade (just need friendly before I can get their tabard). I don't see myself doing dailies for two weeks just to get some 6 mp5. Really don't.

If that's enough to exclude me from Naxx PUGs, well, I'm not sure I'd want to raid with someone who focuses on my shoulder augmentation rather than my overall stats, anyway. I think I'm better geared than most Naxx entry level healers. Entry level, because obviously you'll come across those Uld25 geared ones who are there for the emblems. I might lack 6 mp5 on my shoulders, but I've done so many heroics I no longer find any upgrades there. Not even H-TotC offers me anything anymore. Only upgrades I can find are bought for emblems and now that I have my T8 helm, I need T7 stuff (60 emblems to downgrade? Sure thing, boss!) or the gear you get from Triumph emblems - 2 emblems a day, 35-45 emblems a piece. Yeah, I think I'll wait.

Edited, Sep 23rd 2009 8:41am by Mazra

/incderailmenton



...with your epeen.

/incderailmentoff


Edit: In regards to mazra's post. I see his point. I hate having to be hyper-involved in my rotations that if I were to make a single mistake my dps drops heavily. Well with eclipse it's all rng so I'm not near as fault as I would be for letting something like SR to drop off.

I will though from a raiding stand point disagree with the whole "you don't need a shoulder enchant." That to me and my guildies sounds like you're not serious about raiding and all you are there for is for free epics. This doesn't fly with me and never will. If you want to raid and be great at what you do. You min/max your character, you have two crafting professions, and you're exalted with hodir. But, as I said, thats the raiding side of me.

Edited, Sep 23rd 2009 10:53am by ArexLovesPie

Feral DPS system is one of the hardest in the game and takes a lot of practice to get good at using. I ***** sometimes since I usually tank and make a bad decision or fat finger something.



Yes but if I have a choice between someone in roughly equal gear and the difference is PvP vs Hodir enchant I take the Hodir person. PvP wins over no enchant since that is just plain lazy.

Well when PuGing you had no idea if a person is competent or not so all you can judge on is gear. Getting Hodir enchants takes planning and time so usually indicates a player has some idea of how to play their class.

Also Maz, I would take you if you had on leather of the Bandit gear and were trying to heal just for the pure hilarious factor of it all.

You know, it's funny, because I'm starting to think there's a conspiracy out there. Every single time I join a PUG, it ends badly. It should probably be noted here that I have nothing to do with it, but seriously. Mages who Blizzard single targets. Warlocks who spam Soul Drain. Hunters who use Arcane Shot and, oh, auto-shot. Warriors who appear to be on something very energetic and insist on tanking stuff instead of the tank. Druid healers who run with specs like this <- I kid you not, by the way. He had to pop Innervate, plus borrow mine, plus use a potion during a trash pull in Halls of Lightning.

What the hell is wrong with people? I had a Shaman pull aggro from a Death Knight tank on group pulls in Heroic Utgarde Keep. He kept fighting the targets that didn't have skulls on them and when asked to at least reduce aggro by using Windshear or whatever it's called, he refused and told me his DPS would suffer. He was doing 1.6k on bosses. I had a Rogue who kept pulling aggro from everything because he was using AOE abilities (Blade Flurry, I guess?), but he refused to use Tricks of the Trade. Hell, I even went with a Hunter once whom I ordered to use Misdirection on the tank before engaging group pulls because the tank was struggling to keep aggro. The Hunter said he didn't need to because he didn't pull aggro (no ****, dumbass, but everyone else does) and later revealed to me that he didn't even have the damn ability - he simply hadn't bought it! We're talking someone in Naxx10/25 gear here, people.

It amazes me to no end how many clueless people there are out there. In the case of the above mentioned Druid healer, I told him to respec to something that at least included Wild Growth. He told me he was doing Arena and needed his hybrid spec.

What the hell, good sir, are you planning to achieve in the Arenas with Improved Insect Swarm and reduced threat on Balance spells? Oh, Nourish spam you say? Good thing you didn't pick up all those unnecessary talents that increases your mp5, because god forbid you'd have mana left when you die. It's much easier to just say OOM and fold, right?

My friends list is booming with people that I'm never going to group with - ever. Anyone know of a good addon that does that for you? An ignore list with the possibility of adding notes?

I swear to god, I'm gonna Fraps a run soon and post it, just so you can see I'm not kidding.

Eh? Sorry, what?