Questions about Warcraft Log Stats

[Cardio33 3]

I just started raiding again at 25 man.  I feel I'm playing lock to 95-99% capability as destro and afflic.  However, when I look at the statistics for warcraft logs the numbers seem obscenely high, a lot more than what I am doing. 

 

I'm currently 583 ilevel without a single piece of H WF.  Shouldn't make that much of a difference though.

 

Guild is currently progressing at 11/14 heroic and when comparing my numbers on Thok and Siegecrafter my numbers are below the average on warcraft logs.  

 

I'll use Thok as an example:

Warcraft logs average is 433k.  When I go absolute HAM, perfect opener, no fixates, good use of unending resolve for interrupt, keeping haunt uptime above 60%, extending super dots, I do well to break 410k.  Simcraft has afflic running for me at 400k.

 

Is there something I'm missing?  

 

 

Same thing happens with Siegecrafter, I can snipe shadowburns and havoc into the additional add and a great attempt for me is 350k.  I see locks as destro posting 460k on that one.

 

What am I missing?

[Recklessfear 33]

Those numbers becomes skewed after most top guilds have had it on farm for so long.

 

Short kill times, cheesing mechanics, etc.

[Orthios 271]

Well, first off, logs to see what you're actually doing would be nice. :P  Without those, we can't really say what you're doing wrong and what you're doing right.

[Lockybalboa 618]

Those numbers becomes skewed after most top guilds have had it on farm for so long.

 

Short kill times, cheesing mechanics, etc.

 

 

That + RNG, RNG can swing Aff DPS by 200k.

 

Desto is *normally* more smooth, but RNG can still swing it by a huge amount.

[Zagam 1,982]

Go read my Hello, RNG thread.  RNG can easily add 100k+ DPS in any one, random week which makes a high parse.  With the THOUSANDS of Warlocks putting up parses, SOMEONE is destined to get the RNGeesus blessing and put up asinine records.  Percentiles at the end of tiers are NEVER a true representation of a class.  Affliction isn't THAT overpowering at the beginning of a progression tier.  Know that no one gets a #1 parse based purely on skill.  In fact, a 99% player can get beaten by a 90% player who has better RNG.

[Kazistrasz 216]

The only thing to actually judge yourself by is going into your logs and checking all the important points about the spec. Comparing yourself to everyone else after a year of killing the same bosses is like trying to compare your penis to a porn star's. Just worry about your spell usage, uptimes, etc.

[Desos 18]

Most of the top logs are skewed by unusual strategies, like Immerseus(one lock bombs adds, rank #1 has ca 1.5M dps) or getting tricks all the time. 

A friend´s guild on EU-Frostwolf used mana-leeching weapons on Thok, which prevented Thok from gaining energy(counted as mana game-internally for Thok). So they had to bring a minimum amount of healers and got a Patchwerk fight. This bug was fixed BTW and was not used by them during progression but on farm for 1 id.

Also your raid members dps/general attention matters. I almost improved my best IJ log, but someone got fuzzy and kited a laser through tar, thus killing 6 people and therefore lenghten the fight.

[Lockybalboa 618]

Best way to get top logs is to invent ways of cheesing. You don't have to be the best, you just need to be first. By this point of the xpack, you're kind of out of luck unless you can pay off a lot of rogues and sacrifice your first born to RNGeesus.

 

I held HM Iron dogs in ToT #1 world destro for 9 weeks, #1 world  Demo for 4 weeks, and #1 world Aff for 2 weeks because my guild was the first in the world to invent how to cheese it. It in no way meant I was the best at the fight, it just meant that my raid leader and I were the first to come up with the best way to cheese it.

 

if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

[Cardio33 3]

The only thing to actually judge yourself by is going into your logs and checking all the important points about the spec. Comparing yourself to everyone else after a year of killing the same bosses is like trying to compare your penis to a porn star's. Just worry about your spell usage, uptimes, etc.

 

Favorite post of the thread, thanks for the feedback guys.

 

I'm still putting out big numbers and running 12/14 heroic at the moment but I'm still wayy behind just the average warcraft logs that I'm seeing.  I've been on this site reading different log analysis techniques, extending snapshotted dots, etc all sorts of shit and I can assure you I'm playing afflic to 95% of my capability and destro to 90%.

 

I don't buy the RNG excuse b/c for some person getting shitty RNG, someone will get good RNG, which will even out the average.  It definitely matters for the top of the top 1-5% of logs but shouldn't matter for the general average.

 

I was cruising at 500-550k on paragons progression last night for example, based off RNG.   

 

I guess I would feel better about my play if I knew what some of these cheesy strats were, that way my guild could apply it or I wouldn't feel as shitty about my crap dps lol.  I'm applying * and ** to bosses below where I feel I under-perform.

 

Couple examples, looking at 25 heroic SOO averages:

Immersus - afflic (288k) destro (285k) seems very easy, depends on how much you cheese aoe.

*Protectors - afflic (831k), this one is RNG as hell.  We never have a clean attempt and a shit ton of people die, my best is 750k.

Noru - afflic (372k), this one is easy, go down early, cleave like hell, I've broken 420k on this one.

Sha - afflic (483k), all about empowered titans buff, sometimes I'm rolling at 500k w/ buffs and sometimes I got nothing and I'm 400k.

Galak - destro (419k), fairly easy to break if you havoc SBs correctly.

**IJ - afflic (456k), this looks like a HUGE number to me for the average afflic lock.  My goal is to break 350k.  We use run away strat.

Shaman - afflic (702k), I have no clue how that's possible.  My best attempt ever, perfect procs, 75% haunt uptime, was 460k.  We separate shammys.

**Naz - afflic (562k), this also seems like a huge number.  Do you guys just burn through defensive stance?  I don't break 400k on this one.

Malk - afflic (455k), I can absolutely see that number.  If locks are all +580ilevel with a strong guild that doesn't have a lot of people die on the attempt.  Still quite good on a single target fight.

Spoils - afflic (403k), I have no idea how afflic can compete with destro on this encounter.  I'm usually 400k-450k as destro.

*Thok - afflic (430k), that definitely seems high for our strat.  We try to extend the phases and usually get 3 jailors.

Siege - afflic (447k), I wouldn't know, I'm too busy on mines and belt as destro.

Paragons - afflic (475k), I'm sure I'll clear this by a wide margin when we get him down.  I'm usually 500k-550k

 

 

TL;DR - What's some of the cheesy shit people are doing that I am missing?

[Liquidsteel 279]

RNG for Affliction is everything. Check out this absurd RNG from Dark Shamans:

 

 

834k DPS and we tanked them APART. Nor did I have a rogue for tricks. If we tanked them together probably would have been 1.3M+ with that RNG as I would have been able to extend my opener DoT's for much longer.

 

You talk about cheesy shit when really for Affliction there are two factors: RNG, and Kill Time. Did you spend 6 minutes on Thok or did you kill him in 3 and a half? Did IJ die in 2 and a half minutes or did your guild take over 4? 

 

As you aren't 14/14H I'm guessing your guild kills stuff pretty slowly. This hurts your Affliction DPS massively.

 

Also, I can tell by your low Fallen Protectors numbers that you likely aren't using Soul Swap to its full potential. Are you keeping your opening Agony going for 2 minutes or do you find you have to refresh it early? If so, you aren't extending correctly. This is what you might likely be referring to as "cheesy shit". 

 

DoT extension via Soul Swap is the way to high DPS on multi target fights. E.G on Spoils you get monster DoTs up and just soul swap to everything, then extend when new targets aren't available. On Blackfuse you extend off of the Shredder and the Mines. On Norushen you get 10 stack DoTs on the boss, inhale those DoTs then click the orb and exhale on the big add. Pop nitro boots and zoom round the room swapping to the small adds. Exhale before you get out and back onto the boss. Proceed to rape everything. I managed close to 650k yesterday and we 9 manned it!

 

I could go on for ages about this and how to do it on each fight but with 6.0 looming it's kinda pointless now, but I hope you get the picture.

[Cardio33 3]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I do most of what you said, except the Noru inhale/orb strat.  That biggest thing I'm gathering is that it really is guild kill speed.  This late in xpac running 25 mans for progression, you have slim pickings recruiting and there are a few people sub 560 ilevel.  I notice this w/ IJ run away strat and slow Thok kills (6 min usually).  Coming out of first phase Thok I'm usually cruising 500-600k dps depending on procs but the fight goes so long I do well to stay above 400k.

 

 

PS That RNG on BBOY is hilarious.

 

I need to start snapshotting my logs at the 4 min marks on bosses to get a more accurate measurement of how I'm performing.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Cardio33