View Rules of DPSing
Category:Lord of the Rings Online -> Raid
Brangemarth’s Rules of DPS’ing
I’m just going to put up a general list of things people should take to raids that I have picked up over the years from WoW (where I’ve been rather accomplished first generation raider ie when it first came out) and some tips on the champion and things I have seen when I have been playing. Some of these may also reflect types of encounters not in game yet but may be coming down the line. As I have noticed quite a bit of encounter types bouncing back and forth between LoTRO and WoW. This is just general info for those who have not raided alot its a bit to take in but most of it you’ll have picked up on as you have leveled and when your gearing up in instances ect.
5 second rule
This is a pretty simple rule to follow. Don’t even autoattack/start casting a spell for the first 5 seconds after the tank hits with their first skill.
I’ve stopped counting how many times over the years( I first started raiding in WoW in September 2005) I hear “oops I pulled aggro” in the first 5-10sec of a fight because of someone decided they needed to exercise their E-peen and got an unlucky string of crits or proc’s and over did it. This may not only kill the player but wipe the raid because after said player is dead you know who is usually next on the list (and if you said DPS bang your head on the desk, nd if you said tank bang your head on the desk 3 times harder) its the healers.
Don’t go Full Bore DPS until the Tank has Aggro/Threat
The first min of the fight(or after a tank threat swap/complete threat drop) don’t go crazy full bore DPS. Even though the tank my have aggro they have no cemented it. It takes time to build threat and even more if the boss has thread reduction abilities (that lower the tanks threat level). Save your big CD’s for after the first min usually then your safe to go balls to the wall. Unless a fight requires you go nuts off the bat. Bosses like Brutallus( Brutallus – WoWWiki – Your guide to the World of Warcraft ) in WoW where you were on a very tight timer till he wiped the whole raid. I don’t know if there is anything like that in LoTRO but thats about the only exception I break this rule.
Use your Threat Drop
If you have a threat drop use it and abuse it. As a champ I have ebbing ire and I abuse it all the time (usually right after blowing raging blades) to give the tank the highest amount of threat possible. I usually do this right near the end of the first 30sec on a boss fight so I don’t pull aggro and get as close to the tank as possible for the greatest effect(in terms of threat). I know hunters hate to use it but they are one of the classes that have control over their threat be it increased threat (Strength stance) or normal threat (Precision) or threat dumping (Endurance quickshots). The biggest one is the last one if your getting close to pulling (it takes time to learn the encounter and your tanks but eventually you’ll know your limits on what you can do with them) change to endurance and quickshot.
There is such a thing as too much DPS
Heres a little math to prove the point. I do 500 000 DPS for 1 second and die. Someone else does 1000 DPS if a fight lasts 500 sec(6 min 20sec) second the guy with 1000 DPS has caught upto my insane DPS at the start or the middle or near the end and odds are he will pass me as most fights will last min of 10 min. Moral here is balance the limit of your DPS is the TPS (threat per second) of the tank with your threat dops and any threat gains factored in. Now this is harder in LoTRO due to not having the kind of threat logging systems which WoW had (which I’m happy about because too many people relied on their mods too much in that game). This now leads to point 5.
Know a few rotations
Every class as DPS should know 3 basic types of rotations.
Type1: Sustained Rotation/skill use
This is a moderate DPS, moderate threat gen, moderate power usage use which odds are is what you will use during the main portion of a fight. Know it know it well each class has several. It also may be a combination of Types 2 and 3(in what I term spike builds in relation to if your charted the DPS pattern it would have alot of spiked from baseline DPS).
Type 2: Power Saver/regen
Low DPS, Low threat, low power usage
Pretty simple save power for when its needed ie. bosses that have vulnerable times. Or just flat out regen after a burn phase using type 3. At these points there is not a huge need for power expenditure is needed or you have just finished blowing up the target and need to regen using a combination of tyops 2 and 3 as listed above.
Type 3 Max DPS/Burn Phase
High DPS, High Threat gen, High power usage
Pretty simple this is when you uncork the can of woop ass and say to hell with pretty much everything short of how high you can push your DPS (short of ripping aggro off the tank). This is when DPS’er get to have their fun in the sun and let loose all their flashy stuff and make a bosses life miserable. But it comes at a a few costs. This is when people can pull aggro outside the first min or so of a fight and is also when you can run out of power and need to swap to a more power saving skill use.
I’ll be frank here I don’t combine types 2 and 3 as other do unless the fight calls for it. With a good type 1 you’ll basically be using power as you regen it or at a rate where you can use it type 3 when its time(part of the reason I like 2h’ers over DW as a champ due to the difference in power usage).
The easiest one of all of them
When your new to a fight spend 15 min reading up on the boss if you have notice of who/what your fighting. If everyone does this I’ll tell you right now it will cut down on wipes alot. In WoW as a progression Raider and leader(which I just don’t have the time to do anymore) I was one of the people who was coming up with the strats of how to kill a boss from little to no information. I’ll tell you if it takes an average of 50 wipes for a progression guild to figure out how to kill a boss and everyone spends 15 min reading up on what the boss does and a suggested strat on how to kill them (or the planned strat) you will easily cut that wipe time in half. Which saves you and however many others alot of wasted time, frustration, and consumables/repairs.