Link: Reviewing PvE Performance

[Millya]

An excellent blog article I read this morning, it essentially summarizes exactly how I feel about PvE performance.

Meters (DPS/healing/otherwise) are a tool that can help to improve performance, but they are far from the be-all and end-all, and they don't take into account the special tasks, synergy or overall "group output." Highly recommended reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts if you do read.

[Sinpree]

I have always felt that meters are simply a tool to judge ones performance or to find possible ways to improve. I think the number one goal of any encounter should be to do everything possible to reduce the damage you take. Don't cast that extra heal, or that one extra dps ability, number one priority should be raid awareness.

As you move in on progression through the fight you will learn how to increase your dps/hps as you adjust to the movements of an encounter, how to better predict where and when you should be. Perfect example of this, was the cloud on ODS last night, after a while I learned that if I know its a grip just don't run so far. This let me increase my hps towards the tank and hopefully avoid any bad tank deaths.

Meters also never take into account interrupts, or off healing, or other important roles that people fill that can bring down their dps. I know as a healer if I am strictly tank healing and not really jumping off to the raid my hps on the meter will go down, does that mean I am bad? Of course it doesn't, now if tanks are dying then well that is an issue. This sort of thing has always been why I think healing meters are garbage for the most part. Tons of times a healer can be doing great on the meters but really are crappy healers, heal the wrong people, don't time heals right, or just spam people that know they can get the most hps out of. High hps is good but only to a point.

Nice article though, there are a lot of factor to think about other then just doing well on meters.

[Paranon]

Addons like Recount and Skada are one of the worst things to come about in this game. Conversely, and perhaps at first glance contradictory, World of Logs is one of the best. It's hard to tell what type of meter the author is referring to, but I get the sense he's talking about the former.

My self-evaluation after each wipe is Situational Awareness > Survivability (which often goes hand-in-hand with SA) > DPS (again, dependent on the previous two since you can't do much damage if you're trying to tank the floor). WoL does wonders for the first two and which traditional damage meter addons, beloved by pugs and epeen strokers, barely touch. In actuality, meters and DPS play very little role in whether a boss dies. True, enrage timers happen but I can't really think of a single instance where everyone was alive and we then wiped to an enrage. If the situational awareness is there, the DPS/healing will follow. I don't even worry about trying to improve my output until I feel like I've got a pretty solid handle on the mechanics of the fight and my role during the encounter.

[Noodlestein]

I think Skada/Recount are invaluable tools tbh. This was the first guild I was in that used WoL so I used skada to help me figure out where I went wrong on fights and how I should improve myself.

But I would have to agree that most people who use meters have them for the "LULZ LOOK AT MY NUMBARS GUIZE"

[Shaen]

I use Recount to make sure I come in dead last in damage on every single encounter because I like being nice to everybody.

[Carlctrl]

Great article, it is important to remember that both success and fun come from clean boss kills, and that can happen even without great numbers in the meters.

[Fsob]

It's important to remember that the tools used to review pve performance are just that. Tools. And like all tools they can be misused and abused.

A great article by Zell. I would disagree with his general mantra however.

Zell wrote:

Gear, spec, encounter specific tasks, latency and raid composition all mean that a straight one-for-one comparison has no value. Instead, use your meter to maximise your OWN performance and you'll start to see across the board improvement in "output", enjoyment and success.

Of course the meter should be used to help maximize your own performance. But, even though latency, interrupts, buff/debuffs, and gear all make a difference, you can still gain "value" by comparing yourself to others. You just have to keep all those things in mind. Comparing the end results without knowing and comparing the formulas that determined the end results has no value and is incredibly stupid.