“D” from LFM: Need Healer Plz is continuing on with the non-meme memes, this time focusing on my personal favorite role in WoW – DPS! There was no tagging involved at all, but I’m a HUGE sucker for Q&A and I get to answer from 3 different perspectives! Huzzah!

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?
Sammich, Druid, Moonkin. Abigore, Warlock, Demonology (Meta/Ruin). Schoolgirl, Priest, Shadow.

What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Everything but PVP.

What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?
Sammich – Eclipse. I love the fact that Eclipse forces you to pay attention and not get lost in the “rotation” portion of DPS. Plus 7 or 8 20k Starfire crits in a row looks GREAT on the meters ^_^. Abigore – Decimation. I loved Soul Fire back in Vanilla-WoW and it’s nice to get to use it again. Big crits are big. Schoolgirl – Mind Sear. I don’t think I really need to explain why this spell is the cat’s pajamas.. the bee’s knees.. the.. you get my point. It kills a lot of shit with a lot of pain.

What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?
Sammich – As a Moonkin, I use all of my DPS spells whenever the situation arises but I’d have to say Force of Nature (Treants) only because the cooldown is longer then Starfall. Abigore – Searing Pain, Shadowflame. Searing Pain wins by a large margin and isn’t even on my bar. Shadowflame is fun for farming but I never use it in raids. Schoolgirl – Any Holy DPS spell, Shadow Word: Death. I suppose the Holy spells don’t really count, so SW:D wins. I use it solo’ing, but raiding I never use it at all. The damage is garbage, it scales poorly, it annoys healers.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?
Sammich – Significant amounts of sustained burst DPS. I crit hard and often. Being a Druid also allows me to toss Innervates on healers that don’t know how to manage their mana and battle rez the Mage’s who forget they have Ice Block. Abigore – Sustainability if that’s a word. A Warlock that can manage Life Tap properly will never run out of mana and never get their health too low to throw healers in to a panic, but Warlocks sure are a huge pain in the ass to heal aren’t they? Every pull.. Life Tap. How did Laeyla ever deal with me doing that for so long?! Schoolgirl – AoE and Replenish. Granted, other classes have Replenish, but Mind Sear is hands down the best AoE spell in the game. Shadowform’s damage reduction sure comes in handy as well.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?
Sammich – gear. A lot of the best itemized gear is cloth and there are a lot of Moonkin who can’t even roll on it because of guild loot rules, etc., which is stupid IMO. Better is better. Abigore – Destruction is still too dominant to make Demonology or Affliction competitive. Schoolgirl – Single target DPS. Anyone who has raided as a Shadow Priest will tell you that they’re getting destroyed by DPS’ers in half the gear on single targets. I think it’s mainly because haste and crit scale so poorly with Shadow Priests and there is really no burst to help with burn phases/Bloodlust (or Heroism).

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?
It’ll be the same answer for all 3. Every boss is different, so whatever gets the job done.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?
I LOVED playing my Shadow Priest until they changed Shadow Form and nerfed the dog shit out of our DPS. It felt like it needed skill to be successful and didn’t have a “rotation”. Right now though, hands down, Moonkin. It’s a whole lot of fun, requires reacting to buffs and managing cooldowns a bit more and I love prodiving so many raid buffs.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?
Anything melee, Mages, Hunters. I’ve never been a big fan of melee even though I raided as an Enhancement Shaman in TBC for about 4 months. Mages just seem to be too similar to Destruction as a Warlock which I also find to be a little boring. Hunters seem like fun, I just can’t get in to them to save my life. The only spec appealing to me is Beast Mastery which I don’t think is a good raiding spec anymore.

What is your worst habit as a dps?
Sometimes I get sidetracked while leading raids and forget to refresh DoTs or I notice I’ve just been spamming Wrath for god knows how long while yelling at someone to stop standing in fires or to DPS the burrowers. Tunnel vision FTL. Same thing for my Lock and Priest.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?
DPS who fail, have bad specs, poor gem choices, zero attention to rotations and do 1/3 of the DPS as the #1 slot.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?
Sammich – I don’t know about balanced but I put out as much or more as the other specs. It’s really the player behind the toon unless they’re a Shadow Priest. That sentence hurt to type but it’s true. Abigore – If by balanced you mean “only has one viable raid spec” than sure, yeah, why not.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a dps?
I use Recount on all of my toons and sometimes we use WWS in our guild, but I try not to look on my Priest. It’s depressing.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
Sammich – That Moonkin are still “Oomkin” but there has been a lot of changes to Moonkin mana regen and I have zero problems with mana. Abigore – That Meta/Ruin isn’t a good raiding build. I’ve beaten Destruction Locks on the meters before. Like I said before, it’s the player not always the gear. Schoolgirl – That Shadow Priests are still good DPS. They’re usually the same people that die to Whirlwinds, Fires, attack dragon bosses from the ass, etc.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?
Moonkin – How to gear. Warlock – To not let the naysayers get to you when you show up to a raid and you aren’t Destruction. Shadow Priests – Why their DPS is low.

What dps class do you feel you understand least?
Rogues, for sure. I don’t have a Rogue above 47 and never cared to try one.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?
I use ForteXorcist for all of my toons to track DoTs, debuffs, prcs, etc. On Sammich, I use Squawk-and-Awe to track Eclipse procs and cooldowns as well as WiseEclipse to squeeze out more DPS. I also use Decursive to help with poisons and curse removal. On Abigore, I just use Forte and Power Auras to track Decimation phases and to make sure the Life Tap glyph buff is up. On Schoolgirl I only use Forte and Decursive to help with cleansing.

One stat above others, or balanced stat allocation, and why?
Hit rating is #1 for all 3 of my DPS followed by Spellpower. I try to balance haste/crit on my Moonkin, haste on my Warlock and crit on my Priest. I need to balance haste and crit on Sammich because I need to crit for Eclipse to proc but I want to cast Starfires as fast as possible. Demonology is a heavy haste spec because you get so many crit talents in the build itself. Casting Shadowbolt/Soul Fire faster is much better than relying on crits. I focus on crit for my Priest because of Shadowform’s mechanic to let DoTs crit. Haste only benefits Mind Blast, Mind Sear and Mind Flay right now but it’s very minimal.