Considering raids, especially LFR ones – which are by all means lacking coordination between players – there are few major problems with DPS guys. Even if you’re overgeared and/or perfect with your rotation, showing best DPS numbers, you are a total ruin and shit as a DPS if you have serious problems with other important aspects. Please read and check if you’re one of them.
1. You don’t know the boss tactics. Even on your 10th run you don’t know what this debuff you got does. Shall it kill you? Shall it be shared with others or dragged out of the raid as far as possible? Shall it be dispelled? Where should I run and what to nuke? How come I’m suddenly in the middle of the half-field of “bad” with nowhere to go? How come all the raid received heaviest damage with 15% left and dying? Bloodlust on pull?
Problem: This obviously results in all possible troubles you could get your raid into. Some of the mechanics are surely not deadly which you can solve even with your own defensive or healing abilities. But some of the mechanics effectively wipe out the whole raid if you fail to do what you have to do.
The major problem here is: you don’t know which case is which.
Solution:
- Learn. Go read some resources. Wowhead provides the best short DPS guides for all the bosses, for melee and for ranged – and by my experience tactics for most of the bosses are easily and effectively explained in 5 sentences in a raid chat.
- Learn. Don’t ask the raid “What shall DPS do in this encounter?” You’ll get all hells upon your head and they will be right. Ask specific questions after each wipe: “I didn’t understand what to do with this bomb”. “I ran with this debuff there – is that correct?”. Try not only follow the quick tips provided by dungeon journal, wowhead, and plausible “kill adds” explanation by group members. Try to learn each and every boss and add ability so you know how to cope with it if it hits you.
2. You don’t follow the boss tactics deliberately. It’s deeper, and not that noticed by raid members, but it’s even worse scourge of raids and LFR raids. The reason here is: you presume that all the other guys know the tactics, so they will behave accordingly. So you decide: I will do something I shouldn’t but what is more comfortable with me. I will nuke the boss instead of adds, because well all other guys know they must nuke the adds and they do. I will not stand into this void pool where I must stand because well someone else will do. I will not interrupt spells because someone else will interrupt. I will run through this streak of fire because it’s a shortcut to the boss and this was healed at my latest run.
Problem: It’s the worst problem of DPS which leads to wipes even more often than the previous one. The thing is: you rely on other people to do your job and want to have a good time instead. You may follow one or two major mechanics but be lazy to learn or follow the rest.
Didn’t you think that there could be a critical mass of DPS in your raid who could behave the same?
Didn’t you think that there could be a big lot of newcomers who see this boss for the first time and don’t know what to do?
Didn’t you think that a healer who has to heal off a fire DoT which you put on yourself has to abandon your tank for a while? So this tank can panic and use his defensive cooldowns to survive now, left with nothing when boss will hit REAL hard. It will be YOU who killed the tank and wiped the raid, with your teeny-weeny small DoT on you.
Didn’t you think that a healer would possibly NOT heal off your DoT because it’s not critical – yet? And he has some important stuff to do, healing a tank or a newcomer which suffers heavy damage. But in the next moment you fail to step out of a sudden “bad”, someone will fail to interrupt an add, and BAM! the next critical ability of a boss makes you dead. You are to blame because you know how to avoid it and you failed to do so.
The thing is: small laziness and small fails lead to big, big problems.
Solution: Brace Yourself. Boss fights rarely last for more than 7-10 minutes. If in a raid, pay your full attention to the fight, be aware and do your best at the encounter. It’s not a constant tension that you can’t bear. You will have a rest at killing trash or when getting your loot.
Victory is inevitable when every soldier does his job. Be the one who always does. Be a reliable war machine. Be 100% sure you did what you had to do and never failed.
3. You blame others for the wipe. Yes, there are obvious situations when someone leads a critical bomb into the raid or tank leads the boss so that all the battlefiled is one big, big “bad” pool.
Didn’t you think that when an unexperienced tank leads the boss in the “bad”, melees shouldn’t follow but rather step out and wait, even if you DON’T DPS at the time? Tank could be battle resurrected, but not all the melees + tanks. But you’d rather follow a tank and die.
Ask yourself: did I do everything right? If you have an addon, check who got least damage during the encounter. It must be you who got only inevitable damage from boss or adds attacks. Not the one who ran through the fire because you could or thought it could be healed. Not the one who decided to beat the boss instead of adds just because you’re too lazy to run there or were afraid to loose your DPS numbers?
Remember: Dead DPS Don’t Bite.
And it must be you who did all the possible interrupts. And had best DPS at adds. And you were in all the void zones you could to close them.
It’s not the thing to boast with. It doesn’t enlarge your virtual penis. It only means you did your job right.
Have a nice day!
Gnomecore 