This issue has been kinda beaten to death, but I'll forge ahead anyway and hope that something new or something more precise transpires from it.
There are situations wherein Recount is a useful tool. If you don't clear the DPS threshold required for each of the Northrend Beasts on Heroic (e.g., the Jormungar spawn before Gormok has died), but all of your DPS do survive the whole fight, it could be relevant to look at the Damage meter. If people are dying, the Healing meter or the Damage Taken meter might give some indication of what was happening. If your healers are going oom, it might be due to overhealing.
Note all the "mights", though. Owing to the diversity of fights we have been given in Wrath, there is not a single solution or fault with any scenario. Of the situations mentioned in what is a very basic, hard-hitting gear check, let's take them in turn.
The reason why the Jormungar spawn too early (Or, rather, why Gormok doesn't die in time) could be a lack of DPS; however, not on Gormok himself, but on the Snobolds. If too many people are staying on the boss, debuffs will fade which can affect DPS. This is always the problem with splitting DPS between two targets without any overlap: if I were to target the Snobold, but our Warlock were to focus on the boss, Misery would fade from the boss and Curse of the Elements would not be applied to the Snobold. This kind of stuff won't show up on Recount. That we have low DPS might not even be reflected by mathematical numbers. (Total DPS / time allowed) compared to (health of boss / time allowed) may not necessarily result in the total DPS being lower than the threshold (My DoTs on both targets, for example, would hide any deficit), yet the boss may not be dying quickly enough.
Similarly, with targets dying too quickly, it could once more be a DPS issue because of the snobolds. Equally, though, I mentioned the "Healing and Damage Taken meters". The latter of these requires clicking on individual bars to see whether targets died to their stack of Fire Bomb being too high and thereby being unhealable (Two stacks is the minimum you are able to take, given reaction time and assuming you're standing still; as you should be unless running into range of attacking a Snobold. Three is manageable. Four is pushing it. Five is a sign of Plancktardation.*), or maybe because of Impale damage or a healer being Snobolled. Note the italics: you have to look deeper than the coloured bars.
Healers going oom? That could be poor tank gear, or poor Impale tank switches, or, again, low DPS causing a fight to go on for too long. It's not enough to look at overhealing and say that that is the cause of a healer's mana problems. On Algalon, for instance, it's impossible for Holy Paladins to find time to use Divine Plea for its full duration because of the insane tank damage. I've taken to dropping Shadowform after the first Big Bang to pop my Hymn of Hope. I don't need the mana myself because Dispersion is on a 75-second cooldown for that fight. I can safely stop nuking for a few seconds, whereas they can't really afford more than one GCD to drop Mana Tide or Shield a raid target.
So, what am I getting at here? Well, pretty obvious, really: Recount is useful, but you need to go beyond the coloured bars. Now, it's time to look at the boring bit: what Recount is not for. More importantly: why it is that there is never any situation in which being top of the charts is in any way meaningful or important. This has been said by many, many people, but it has never really been explained other than in general terms of the rabid Pure Damage class who stands in the fire for the sake of not losing 0.1% of his DPS time.
Instead, and initially, I'm going to display a mathematical approach using a recent example from my own raid group. In this example, a rarity! A shadow priest at the top of the list! If I didn't realise how pointless the victory is, and if I were part of that horribly aggressive and anti-social demographic which, unfortunately, is the reason for this post, I might brag about it. Instead, let's see how much the success really means.
We will, of course, ignore the fact that Deathfist and Tinytran died early. That is an explanation far too easy for me -- naturally, looking at their DPS values, they would have been first and second respectively -- and Abominable Power would have taken Razzmatazz over my level of DPS. Those arguments don't matter to meter-spammers, because to their limited brainpower, the mantra of "If the DPS dies, it's their own fault" must of course apply to every fight in the game.
Instead, let's destroy the fallacy by looking at the values on their own merit.
Sinespe: 2265456
Razzmatazz: 2249801.
0.14% separates us. The amount of actual damage separating us is the equivalent of one Mind Blast crit during Icehowl's stun. What is the point in getting excited over that? The RNG favoured me over him -- it wasn't down to my skill, or my gear, or anything. In fact, I screwed up my DPS quite a lot over the course of that fight: I always do, because it's so hectic. I even got spell locked at one point during Gormok because I wasn't paying attention. Getting help from the RNG doesn't just account for that 0.14%: in a simulation of perfect circumstances he would have beaten me based on my errors alone.
Aside from the RNG issue, why should it ever matter who did how much DPS, if the boss dies? It's as pointless as looking at HPS on a successful kill: If your assigned targets do not die when healing them, and the assigned DPS target does die, why should it matter how much "value" everyone brought? It's clear that everyone brought a sufficient measure to overcome the task set for us, otherwise we would have wiped and had to have re-evaluated. Evaluating these figures on a kill means nothing. It is, however, funny sometimes to see classes that scale incredibly well with fight mechanics do ridiculous DPS. It gives no real value aside from its humour, though.
So far, though, I've given far too much credit to the whole scenario: I've assumed a raid setting in which everyone is pulling equal weight. The reason I've done that, though, is that "Everyone pulling equal weight" is the only situation that comes even the slightest bit close to being relevant or being a "Strong argument" in favour of meter whoring (There are in fact no strong arguments). Even worse is when people meter-whore in PuGs. Fantastic, Imapwnu, you managed to out-DPS everyone by 3% or more. And what is your point here? You out-gear them. And if you don't out-gear them? Well, I guess you out-skill them. Well done. You out-skill a random collection of people on your server, who probably are not putting 110% effort into their performance because it is a PuG, not progression content.
I've gone into the realms of ranting now, so I'll reign it back a bit into more sober territory. Meter-whoring (I promise I'll end on a positive note. My conclusion isn't "Meter-whores suck". Well, not the main one, at least.) is a sign of division within a raid. It is a sign that at least one of your members is confused about who, exactly, is the "enemy". You are not supposed to compete with each other in a raid setting: your adversaries are not your fellow DPSers; your adversary is that massive three-part robot trying very hard to P3W*2 your face off. It is absolutely fine to want your personal DPS to be as high as it can be, but pushing yourself for the sake of yourself is much different to pushing yourself for the sake of "Beating everyone else".
Yet, going back to PuGs, I will say that Recount is useful for building friendships if used in a civil, jovial manner, rather than a jerkish, braggardly manner. I know one of the best-geared Shadow Priests on my server, of equal skill to me, because we were in an Eye of Eternity PuG together and we were trading places on the meter with every failed attempt. This is where I have to admit something: while I don't use Recount as an e-peen measure, I do use it to see if people aren't shaping up to how they should be. I do allow myself to get somewhat annoyed when I see a Rogue in full Tier 8.5 pulling 3k DPS on Koralon, for example. Thus, when I find someone who actually uses their gear to its full potential, I have a tendency to reach out to them either in lighthearted competition or in outright appreciation. I was most impressed at a particular Warlock whose name, alas, I can't remember: in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, in a mixture of heroic epics and blues, he came pretty close to out-doing me in my 2/5 Tier 8.
Though I'm elitist, I don't want to sound arrogant by what I said in the last paragraph: I don't talk to these people out of a sense of relief, per se, that I've found someone "Worthy of my time" -- more the opposite, really. In such a negative environment that the Internet seems to encourage through anonymity, it isn't very often that kind words get spoken. Particularly when I'm healing, it's nice to get complimentary whispers on a job well done -- but that applies to my DPS, too. I don't consider myself "above compliments", by which I mean I will reply to people who say "Nice DPS" with a "Thanks" rather than an "I know". The latter I consider arrogant.
I've strayed from my point somewhat. That's what I get for being distracted all day and coming back to this again and again to write a little more each time. I think my point is: use Recount constructively. If you feel that you "need to be at the top", you need to rethink your priorities. What's more important: being at the top, or killing the boss?
*Apparently that is a word I shouldn't use. I do rather like it, though.
There are situations wherein Recount is a useful tool. If you don't clear the DPS threshold required for each of the Northrend Beasts on Heroic (e.g., the Jormungar spawn before Gormok has died), but all of your DPS do survive the whole fight, it could be relevant to look at the Damage meter. If people are dying, the Healing meter or the Damage Taken meter might give some indication of what was happening. If your healers are going oom, it might be due to overhealing.
Note all the "mights", though. Owing to the diversity of fights we have been given in Wrath, there is not a single solution or fault with any scenario. Of the situations mentioned in what is a very basic, hard-hitting gear check, let's take them in turn.
The reason why the Jormungar spawn too early (Or, rather, why Gormok doesn't die in time) could be a lack of DPS; however, not on Gormok himself, but on the Snobolds. If too many people are staying on the boss, debuffs will fade which can affect DPS. This is always the problem with splitting DPS between two targets without any overlap: if I were to target the Snobold, but our Warlock were to focus on the boss, Misery would fade from the boss and Curse of the Elements would not be applied to the Snobold. This kind of stuff won't show up on Recount. That we have low DPS might not even be reflected by mathematical numbers. (Total DPS / time allowed) compared to (health of boss / time allowed) may not necessarily result in the total DPS being lower than the threshold (My DoTs on both targets, for example, would hide any deficit), yet the boss may not be dying quickly enough.
Similarly, with targets dying too quickly, it could once more be a DPS issue because of the snobolds. Equally, though, I mentioned the "Healing and Damage Taken meters". The latter of these requires clicking on individual bars to see whether targets died to their stack of Fire Bomb being too high and thereby being unhealable (Two stacks is the minimum you are able to take, given reaction time and assuming you're standing still; as you should be unless running into range of attacking a Snobold. Three is manageable. Four is pushing it. Five is a sign of Plancktardation.*), or maybe because of Impale damage or a healer being Snobolled. Note the italics: you have to look deeper than the coloured bars.
Healers going oom? That could be poor tank gear, or poor Impale tank switches, or, again, low DPS causing a fight to go on for too long. It's not enough to look at overhealing and say that that is the cause of a healer's mana problems. On Algalon, for instance, it's impossible for Holy Paladins to find time to use Divine Plea for its full duration because of the insane tank damage. I've taken to dropping Shadowform after the first Big Bang to pop my Hymn of Hope. I don't need the mana myself because Dispersion is on a 75-second cooldown for that fight. I can safely stop nuking for a few seconds, whereas they can't really afford more than one GCD to drop Mana Tide or Shield a raid target.
So, what am I getting at here? Well, pretty obvious, really: Recount is useful, but you need to go beyond the coloured bars. Now, it's time to look at the boring bit: what Recount is not for. More importantly: why it is that there is never any situation in which being top of the charts is in any way meaningful or important. This has been said by many, many people, but it has never really been explained other than in general terms of the rabid Pure Damage class who stands in the fire for the sake of not losing 0.1% of his DPS time.
Instead, and initially, I'm going to display a mathematical approach using a recent example from my own raid group. In this example, a rarity! A shadow priest at the top of the list! If I didn't realise how pointless the victory is, and if I were part of that horribly aggressive and anti-social demographic which, unfortunately, is the reason for this post, I might brag about it. Instead, let's see how much the success really means.
We will, of course, ignore the fact that Deathfist and Tinytran died early. That is an explanation far too easy for me -- naturally, looking at their DPS values, they would have been first and second respectively -- and Abominable Power would have taken Razzmatazz over my level of DPS. Those arguments don't matter to meter-spammers, because to their limited brainpower, the mantra of "If the DPS dies, it's their own fault" must of course apply to every fight in the game.
Instead, let's destroy the fallacy by looking at the values on their own merit.
Sinespe: 2265456
Razzmatazz: 2249801.
0.14% separates us. The amount of actual damage separating us is the equivalent of one Mind Blast crit during Icehowl's stun. What is the point in getting excited over that? The RNG favoured me over him -- it wasn't down to my skill, or my gear, or anything. In fact, I screwed up my DPS quite a lot over the course of that fight: I always do, because it's so hectic. I even got spell locked at one point during Gormok because I wasn't paying attention. Getting help from the RNG doesn't just account for that 0.14%: in a simulation of perfect circumstances he would have beaten me based on my errors alone.
Aside from the RNG issue, why should it ever matter who did how much DPS, if the boss dies? It's as pointless as looking at HPS on a successful kill: If your assigned targets do not die when healing them, and the assigned DPS target does die, why should it matter how much "value" everyone brought? It's clear that everyone brought a sufficient measure to overcome the task set for us, otherwise we would have wiped and had to have re-evaluated. Evaluating these figures on a kill means nothing. It is, however, funny sometimes to see classes that scale incredibly well with fight mechanics do ridiculous DPS. It gives no real value aside from its humour, though.
So far, though, I've given far too much credit to the whole scenario: I've assumed a raid setting in which everyone is pulling equal weight. The reason I've done that, though, is that "Everyone pulling equal weight" is the only situation that comes even the slightest bit close to being relevant or being a "Strong argument" in favour of meter whoring (There are in fact no strong arguments). Even worse is when people meter-whore in PuGs. Fantastic, Imapwnu, you managed to out-DPS everyone by 3% or more. And what is your point here? You out-gear them. And if you don't out-gear them? Well, I guess you out-skill them. Well done. You out-skill a random collection of people on your server, who probably are not putting 110% effort into their performance because it is a PuG, not progression content.
I've gone into the realms of ranting now, so I'll reign it back a bit into more sober territory. Meter-whoring (I promise I'll end on a positive note. My conclusion isn't "Meter-whores suck". Well, not the main one, at least.) is a sign of division within a raid. It is a sign that at least one of your members is confused about who, exactly, is the "enemy". You are not supposed to compete with each other in a raid setting: your adversaries are not your fellow DPSers; your adversary is that massive three-part robot trying very hard to P3W*2 your face off. It is absolutely fine to want your personal DPS to be as high as it can be, but pushing yourself for the sake of yourself is much different to pushing yourself for the sake of "Beating everyone else".
Yet, going back to PuGs, I will say that Recount is useful for building friendships if used in a civil, jovial manner, rather than a jerkish, braggardly manner. I know one of the best-geared Shadow Priests on my server, of equal skill to me, because we were in an Eye of Eternity PuG together and we were trading places on the meter with every failed attempt. This is where I have to admit something: while I don't use Recount as an e-peen measure, I do use it to see if people aren't shaping up to how they should be. I do allow myself to get somewhat annoyed when I see a Rogue in full Tier 8.5 pulling 3k DPS on Koralon, for example. Thus, when I find someone who actually uses their gear to its full potential, I have a tendency to reach out to them either in lighthearted competition or in outright appreciation. I was most impressed at a particular Warlock whose name, alas, I can't remember: in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, in a mixture of heroic epics and blues, he came pretty close to out-doing me in my 2/5 Tier 8.
Though I'm elitist, I don't want to sound arrogant by what I said in the last paragraph: I don't talk to these people out of a sense of relief, per se, that I've found someone "Worthy of my time" -- more the opposite, really. In such a negative environment that the Internet seems to encourage through anonymity, it isn't very often that kind words get spoken. Particularly when I'm healing, it's nice to get complimentary whispers on a job well done -- but that applies to my DPS, too. I don't consider myself "above compliments", by which I mean I will reply to people who say "Nice DPS" with a "Thanks" rather than an "I know". The latter I consider arrogant.
I've strayed from my point somewhat. That's what I get for being distracted all day and coming back to this again and again to write a little more each time. I think my point is: use Recount constructively. If you feel that you "need to be at the top", you need to rethink your priorities. What's more important: being at the top, or killing the boss?
*Apparently that is a word I shouldn't use. I do rather like it, though.
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