Once you have a full understanding of your rotation and buffs and gear then it’s simply a matter of time spent hitting. It’s important to maximise this, especially in fights where you run out then run back in etc.

If you get to the point where you feel you are playing perfectly or close to it then all you can do is re-roll fotm if you’re frustrated or wait for your turn in the spotlight if you’re not.

In general, because the rage mechanic gives Warriors a double whammy from gearing up Warriors start weak and end strong during Blizzard expansion cycles. This is because if you increase mage damage by 10% the mages hit 10% harder but if you increase warrior damage by 10% the warriors do 10% more damage and derive more rage from attacks allowing for a greater number of specials.

My advice is stick with it and work on improving yourself. Once you go Fury and are putting out reasonably competitive damage start working on your Unholy DKs for their buff.

Now as a part-time shadowpriest (I mostly heal as holy in raids) who runs in 10 mans with a ridiculously good shadowpriest, I know I’m never going to be top of the meters. I got a baseline for my dps last night, in Baradin Hold, (8.5kish), and I’m going to work towards improving that with better gear and making sure I’m well-spec’d and glyphed. While the other shadowpriest’s numbers give me a great pie-in-the-sky goal, I’m not trying to beat her. I’m trying to make sure I’m constantly improving, and if I manage top of the meters, yay. If not, oh well.

What I’m really trying to say is…
The best way to not get discouraged as DPS is to not compare apples (you) with oranges (kitties). Different classes and specs have different fights where they shine, and some specs will be OP or UP compared to others. Some specs are very dependent on gear, others less so. Focus on your own DPS increasing, maybe use other DPS warriors at the same gear levels to give you a vague baseline, but really, work on improving yourself.

Here, here! I do the best that I can with my desired class (BM Hunter… HOO-AH!) and to hell with what they say. Now, I don’t just screw off, I really try to contribute, and feel bad if I fail or die, and happily learn from my mistakes (if people will tell me what they are!)… I just love downing the bosses and doing my part. If we all live and they all die, its a WIN… who cares of the tank did more damage then me, he’s right in the middle, dropping bombs on 5 guys while I’m shooting one!

@ Tufva

There are players that ‘don’t get it’, and there are those that do their best in the time they have. I’m a decent player, but I only get about 10 hours a WEEK to play… which means I’m not going to be as familiar with the boss/dungeon as you are, but I’m going to do my best.

The key though is to analyse your logs and not just take an overall number from Recount. Examine the different parts of the fight and make sure you’re contributing where it really counts – for me I knew I had terrible AOE so I’d be low on adds fights, but that didn’t mean I could slack in a burn phase.

Similarly going over the log can help you understand why classes are performing differently. If it’s one ability that synergises well with the encounter mechanics (or conversely the encounter is just poorly suited for the class), that’s OK. Everyone has their days in the sun or shade.

If a particular spec is just plain overpowered, particularly early in a tier, you just wait for the inevitable nerfbat. If a class is woefully underpowered, you can count on getting a buff. If your *spec* is not doing well though, it’s probably time to switch.

Using interrupts will disrupt your rotatation, and now with more cc, the waters are even muddier.

The only fight where meters really work as a benchmark that I can think of is Patchwerk. Even then, one character may be doing less damage on the meters, but bringing a buff that is boosting everyone else’s damage.

I use meters at the dummies as a benchmark. If I am comparing gear, or practicing my rotation. Even then, the numbers do not reflect all of the buffs I may have from other people, so the numbers will be low. The numbers are consistant though, and that is what matters to me.

One of the other ranged is a very, very well-geared hunter. Apart from playing a currently OP class he is a very skilled player, so I know his high DPS isn’t purely down to class mechanics. However, measuring myself against him tells me nothing of my own performance.

He has overall better gear than me as he spent a lot of time and gold to kit himself out in as many purples as possible – I have 4 or so, mostly rep ones. And many pieces are enchanted/gemmed with stats that optimise my healing, not my DPS.
His class is known to be a bit OP atm.
He has played that class as a DPS for a long time. I only started dabbling with DPS towards the end of Wrath.

There are so many differences between us and the same for any of the other DPSers in the group that it is impossible to compare us.

What I would love to know is what DPS it would be reasonable to expect from a shadowpriest at this gear level. That is a useful number I could compare myself against and see if I am close or really should give up on the DPS side entirely…

IMO, these fights were a lot more fun than, say, Blood Queen(stand there), Marrowgar(turn him a bit..and…oh stand there), Deathbringer(guess), Festergut(stand there and pop CDs when he inhales), and some others. (Some were fun. Ulduar was fun.)

Cat DPS is a bit high right now from what I’ve read(I’ve seen some OS ferals do some rather silly numbers in piecemeal OS gear, and being OS they’re solid but not specialized in said spec). Not as high as Survival, but up there.

All I do is check some high end parses for one. Oh yeah, the real high end. See, I don’t expect to be out-DPSing Landsoul anytime soon(though I do try to be the best I can be.) But if I can bring my numbers to at least somewhat close to some of the higher end parses, it’s cool. I think some DPSers also get obsessed with *having* to be on the top, and I’m not sure if that’s the best mindset to have. I ended as 3rd of 6 on Atramedes on our first kill. I was happy. The quote that said ”aim for not being hit” I think is great. To me, if I can place halfway down, but have some of the least damage done to me, managed to do all my roles properly(interrupts, etc), and keep my debuffs up if I need to, then I succeeded. If my DPS meets the minimum for the required fight and isn’t holding the group back-it’s all good. Of course, I’ll try to keep pushing it.

If anything, being behind by design I think is easier to swallow, because I know it’s not *totally* me. I would rather be behind by design than number 1 due to an overtuned class(which would end up getting hit with a nerfbat anyway). When I played Fury at the end of WotLK(4 buttons, 100% ArP, rage never going down, OP nonsense) I felt very little satisfaction from that. When I topped a chart I knew it was because of an OP class with a resource that never ran dry. It would be like a mage topping a chart getting to chain-cast Pyroblasts while never running out of mana.

But yeah, some people maybe fit better with some roles than others-as in, they are more or less critical of themselves in some than others. I myself do NOT handle healing well-at ALL. I can tank, I can DPS, but I just cannot for the life of me do the healing thing; I’m a frazzled, stressy mess at the end who thinks they’re letting down the group(even though tanking has responsibility too-I can handle that just fine!) But healing responsibility? Can’t cut it. Tried a few times but it turns me frazzled in I dunno how long.