Rational DPS Measurement

Okay, so we've all seen them... The guys who are wearing so-so gear and haven't even gotten the player-crafted epics on their new level 80 toon claiming insanely high DPS numbers. You ask them when they measured this and they say "Last night in Heroic Naxx".

Well, that's all well and good for the makeup of that particular raid which generally includes a helping of AoE damage as well, but it doesn't really represent a realistic or rational measurement. That same toon might well be barely able to outdamage your pet in a 5-man run with only one or two buffs available. This is why you need a sane baseline method for DPS measurement. Period.

How you get a sane baseline for DPS measurement is actually pretty simple thanks to an addition Blizzard put in in last fall's content patch--specifically, the target dummies. You can find them in every major city with multiple types available. There's level 60 dummies, level 70 dummies, level 80 dummies, and usually one Heroic Target Dummy. This is basically the one you want to be shooting at if you're trying to come up with a useful DPS measurement for heroics and raids.

How do we go about it? Well, there's got to be some rules first, just to eliminate the things that can cause wild disparities in damage. What would a "wild disparity" be you ask? It's easy... Anything that's going to skew results by a third or more. One thing that really leaps out would be the duration of the fight In theory with a good group makeup this can vary a great deal with Replenishment and Hunting Party going. because mana == healing == life and we all know when the healer runs out of mana, things go south fast. This won't really affect classes with no mana bar, but for the ones who do use mana it means it'll take longer to get a good read on your DPS. You're going to want to start attacking and go like crazy until your mana runs out and then you stop and drink back to full. The saner cooldowns should be ready again now (anything longer than 5 minutes, just forget about) so you'll do it again, and then one more time for a total of three passes. Then you check Recount. Everyone else, just go hog wild for 2-5 minutes (time it, based on the paragraph below and then stop).

The length of the fight matters with respect to abilities with long cooldowns, because if someone's got a couple of cooldowns at 2 minutes, and they attack for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, those abilities will be disproportionately represented in the resulting damage totals. Each cooldown should be considered to be of two parts... the time the ability runs, and the time the ability can't be used. So... if your longest cooldown cycle in question is 20 seconds on, 120 seconds (two minutes) off, you'll want to attack for a multiple of that time meaning 140 seconds or 280 seconds.

Buffs are a hard issue. On the one hand you want to measure the effect of your own buffs. On the other hand, you don't want to go overboard and have other people's buffs, or buffs based on money (like food and potions) so they're out--don't use them. You also have to keep a close eye on the Heroic Target Dummy and make sure some other class that puts a debuff on the target that say, increases crits by 3% or increases damage taken by 5% or reduces armor doesn't come along and slap a few of those down because those will screw up your measurement. By the same token, damage-increasing buffs cast by the well-meaning among us as they pass you at the target dummies are also out of the question. Click them off and start the phase over again or just be patient until they wear off.

This should cover most of the bases and give people a solid baseline for measuring their DPS without artificial epeen enhancement being involved. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments. I'll see if I can come up with rational answers.