Still, I know that if I’m in a PUG on my warlock I won’t put up curse of elements unless the raid leader specifically asks me to. Why risk being booted for low dps?

As to buffs, its pretty tight for me as a warrior tank, speccing into the few buffs I have can seriously hamper my main function as a tank. Dual spec lets me decide whats best for each encounter, but its not perfect. Do I use my threat build and constantly re-buff as they fall off, or my survival/utility build and struggle to maintain my threat lead… either way I’m not as efficient at something as I could be in the other spec.

For this reason I appreciate any class that specs for the buffs, I know what kinds of costs are involved, its just sad that most ppl don’t see the broader benefits of buffs for the group as a whole and only notice the all mighty meter.

There is more to it than just the spec, gear and glyphs can also hamper/help any build, but for the sake of this question (and for the sake of long drawn out discussions that belong in a forum thread) I’d assume that a utility/buff build would gear and glyph for it and dps builds would go for the big shiny numbers

I regularly challenge for top dps slot – usually #1 or 2, and my buff is static, so I often take it for granted.

But we had one of our destro locks respec demo a few weeks ago, and while his dps dropped sharply, I can say that all of us in the raid appreciate his sacrifice because it’s clear how much better the raid does with this buff. Still, he doesn’t get to see his shiny numbers at the high end of the meters, and that’s pretty significant.

It would also be nice if there were some way – recount or otherwise – to quantify the effect certain buffs are having on the raids success. Posting those in response to someone touting their meters would be a very nice thing (we get this a bit with the ability to post things like dispels, but really, what we need is a chart that says, 5% increase in raid damage was due to MrBigglesworth, etc).

Take a look at an arcane mage. He does absolutely nothing for the raid besides damage. If he gets better gear, his damage increases.

Compare that to an elemental shaman who dropps ToW. If he gets the same upgrade his damage will only increase by 80% (making this number up) of what the mage got out of this piece of gear. Because the other 20% are the “buff tax”. And ToW does not improve with his gear.

Compare it to a Dark Pact warlock. He will also only get 80% (made up again) of what the mage would get out of this piece. But, he also gets a better buff. (The problem for warlocks is that they would gem and gear differently depending on if the have to supply DP or not. That’s also bad because they cannot, like a shaman, drop this or that totem.)

A “buff tax” is ok. But if the “buff tax” starts making your gear upgrades meaningless, something is wrong.

(exaggerate) It’s like a paladin at level 60 in MC. All he did was buffing the raid and when he finished start again (5 min blessings). This paladin could raid naked because his gear is completely irrelevant (besides manareg and stamina). Why should he raid to get better gear? He won’t be able to improve at his job.

It’s like collecting damage gear as a tank before dual spec. Yeah… the damage you did on the 5 bosses in ZA which require only one tank was reeeaaalllllyyy important.

I had it happen to me – my first raid after returning to WoW was Magtheridon. It is a straight damage fight with a bit of cube-clicking now and then.
If you fail to click the cube when needed, bad things happen. If you fail to dish out enough DPS, you usually still had/have much more DPS than needed to kill Magtheridon.

So I had to 1. fear and ban adds 2. click cubes and 3. do damage on Magtheridon in between that. On my first run. As the total novice.
Now it gets funny: With Tier 5 gear as Magtheridon veteran I exclusively participated in the DPS race. 1. Do damage on Magtheridon + Shatter Soul to avoid breaking aggro on the tank.

I have had Magtheridon runs with two tries because the well equipped “pro players” refused to do such vital things and rather played the numbers game. I have seen a rogue blow up the whole raid in Tempest Keep at Astromancer Solarian, he was the “bomb” but was too focused on the constantly switching place on the damage meter of him and his rogue friend.

I don’t know where to start and to blame whom or what… but it is stupid. It can imagine that pickup-groups kick you for somewhat lower DPS, especially if you are enhancing the DPS/performance of the rest of the group. Or maybe they take you, because you allow them to shine on the damage meters. The world has gone crazy…

The idea of the TEAM overcoming something TOGETHER got lost! It is a FIGHT against others in -your team-! As Tank or Healer you are exempt from this fight, but healers in raids also like to compare their healing penismeter.

Hopefully you raid with more sane people, Spinks. The notion that DPS players are nothing but stupid, damage-obsessed freaks is too often true, unfortunately.

So speccing for a buff spec? Yeah, someone else should do that to enhance my personal performance. :>

However for many people they simply don’t see the maths.

I’m very numerate and (90% of my potential plus a 10% bonus to everyone else) > (100% of my potential plus a 5% bonus to everyone else) is a blindingly obvious equation that I’m absolutely staggered to find I need to direct people which one of those to pick to get a boss killed.

But I think some people genuinely don’t know or forget or simply bring their soloing rotation to raids without questioning it. (Ret pallies that pause to heal themselves etc).

Once or twice I have seen outright selfishness. In a 5 man we had a shaman who refused to drop some totem which would boost everyone’s damage because “I won’t beat the rogue on the meter if I put agility totem down”. I’ve never seen people outright say this in raids but I’m pretty sure they’ve thought this and acted on it.

Meters are a part of the game like anything else. People find areas in which they can excel and dislike it when something interferes with that. Surely you’re not so stupidly stubborn to think that gold meters are the only ones that matter.