Why the hell can I only just break 2k DPS on a dummy, and only get 1800 DPS in Heroics still....

[jettzypher]

dummies arent an accurate reflection of your numbers. they dont dodge, parry, block, crit, attack or anything. so you miss quite a bit of info by attacking them. the dummies are only good to test out new abilities, rotations, etc.

Umm, training dummies definitely can dodge, parry, etc, and your attacks can miss against them. Wouldn't be very useful otherwise.

Since they don't attack back, certainly abilities that require you to be attacked (e.g. Overpower) will not trigger. For casters this isn't really an issue.

Dummies are a very accurate reflection of your numbers against training dummies. :-)

i rarely use em and the times i have ive never seen a dodge, parry. i know attacks can miss but thats on your behalf. i still support that theyre not worth more than working out rotations and learning new/changed abilities. good way to check numbers....go find some mobs and kill em, youll get the full affect.

[Kaynin]

i keep seeing some of you talk about doing it manually. Ok, so how? when your tanking,healing and DPSing? I have tried to do that but there is just no way in hell its better than a castrandom when your having to tank and heal as well. Please explain? I mean I'm all about maximizing my dps, even when boxing. I understand that doing it manually while solo is way better dps, but how do you manage to keep track of everything else while boxing?

Well, I quad-box shamans so for me it's a bit easier.

Just test your dps on a shaman solo, do some solo dps rotations and see what happens. Dunno exactly what your gear is like but I reckon you should be able to reach 2500-3000 single target dps on a dummy at least.

Shaman Elemental DPS just has a complicated DPS rotation(compared to other classes) that require some time and getting used too. A method of how to do it in a tank+heal+dps box would probably be to:

1. /castrandom your tank in a single macro and put it on Q, E and F (as example but whichever bind you like)
2. Control your healer with 1234
3. Set you shaman up as
F) Flame Shock
Q) Lightning Bolt
E) Lava Burst
Shift-E) Chain Lightning
Shift-F) Magma Totem

Learn the rotation F->E->Q+Q+Q+(Q)->F->E->Q+Q+Q+Q->F and fit your other characters in on that button rotation to function as best they can. The main thing is, most other classes can be put on one or two buttons without losing much effectiveness, unlike shamans.

[heffner]

I just spent the evening trying to maximize my DPS as well. I have mixed classes though (Fire Mage 20/51/0, Boomkin 55/0/16, Elemental Shammy 57/14/0, SPriest 14/0/57)

I split up my DPS rotation into 2 macros. One to start with DoTs etc (using castsequence).. and my spam macro (using castrandom)

I tried comparing this to just a basic spell spam (e.g., just lightning bolt, fireball or wrath) and I got pretty mixed results. I couldn't reach a conclusion as to what was better.

I did some trials against the highest dummy in Org for 30seconds each. I am guessing that the longer the fight the higher DPS the more "complex macros" will have,given the random nature (i.e., can't take full advantage of the special procs like Hotstreak etc.. that probably make the big difference).

Going to have to spend more time on this unfortunately.

I might try multiple /castsequences with commas within the macro instead of /castrandom (this removes the effect of cast "lag" I believe and provides a sequence) to see if that helps.

Feel free to offer your DPS sequences =)

[Hachoo]

i keep seeing some of you talk about doing it manually. Ok, so how? when your tanking,healing and DPSing? I have tried to do that but there is just no way in hell its better than a castrandom when your having to tank and heal as well. Please explain? I mean I'm all about maximizing my dps, even when boxing. I understand that doing it manually while solo is way better dps, but how do you manage to keep track of everything else while boxing?

Depends on what DPS classes you're using. For me, a DK tank and 4 shamans its not too bad. Mostly all I need to cast on my shamans is Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, and Flameshock. On my DK Tank mostly I just use 2 buttons, 1 for DnD and 1 for a castsequence tanking rotation.

So, when I'm fighting a boss and want to up my DPS, I spam my tanking rotation on my DK ("1" key) and then I basically do the following, WHILE I'm spamming the "1" key

hit shift+c to cast 4x flame shock
spam ctrl+alt+2 (which replaces the "1" key temporarily) to cast lava burst
spam 1 and 2 at the same time ("1" for tanking rotation, "2" to just cast lightning bolts repeatedly)
hit 1 + 3 whenever I need healing ("1" for tanking rotation, "3" to have my shamans cast lesser healing wave)
After ~8 seconds, spam ctrl+alt+2 again for another lava burst
spam 1 and 2 at the same time for more lightning bolts
as soon as flameshock goes away hit shift+c for 4 more
after 8 seconds from the last lava burst spam ctrl+alt+2 again

repeat until boss is dead, etc, but usually the boss dies after that last lava burst.

For trash I don't bother doing this and just spam a castrandom:

/castrandom Lightning Bolt,Chain Lightning,Lava Burst,Purge

[puppychow]

Just try both, you may find you don't need to manually control everything. Again, track both overall dmg and DPS -- dps is a very misleading number, you may see very high DPS numbers but lower overall dmg, so you think you are doing great but in fact doing worse.

Me personally I tried heroics with manual control of everything and found the overall dmg boost during bosses very minor, and so haven't bothered. I have 3 basic buttons I always use:

1 = my resto shaman casts lhw on my tank. shift-1 my resto shaman casts chain heal on himself (heals group).
2 = my prot pallys tanks /castrandom macro, it does pretty much everything. I use two lines, to always keep holy shield up:

/castrandom Holy Shield,
/castrandom Consecration,Hammer of Righteousness, etc, etc

2 = my shamans castrandom macro of lightning bolt, lvb, chain lightning, purge, lvb. also my mages castsequence (ya i know lower DPS, but he is super geared and pulls aggro if I go all out lol)

shift-2 = flame shock

so most of my fights just consist of starting with avengers shield, shift-2, and then spamming 2 till stuff is dead. ez. And I've cleared every heroic except Oculus and Halls of Stone (haven't tried either yet since 3.08).

I in fact I have seperate buttons for FS, LvB, LB, CL, Purge, etc and could control it all manually but heck I'd rather just press 1 button.

[Gares]

I may have to try this and see if I manage to down bosses faster....I don't know its just pissing me off.

[Vicker]

My fire mage has two castsequence macros. One for attacking enemies that have more than about 8 seconds to live, and one for when the enemy is going to die soon. The one for enemies that have a while to live includes fireball, pyroblast, living bomb, scorch, and fire blast. The one for enemies that are about to die includes just scorch and fire blast. I also used a little "double comma" trick to make sure that a fireblast cooldown from one castsequence macro doesn't lock the other macro when it hits fireblast.

Example of the double comma thing:

/castsequence scorch,,scorch,scorch
/cast fire blast

When it hits the double comma, it tries to cast fire blast. If fire blast isn't ready, it moves on.

[Gares]

Well I did a Vault run with my best solo shammy (Gareb) and I only managed to pull out 2050 DPS, I didn't actually look at his overall damage but it seems low to me still. I guess I really need to work on his gear still in order to see bigger numbers, IE Deathchill cloak, Heros Gloves and Breastplate, wrist enchants etc

[Bigfish]

I don't see anything wrong with 2000 DPS. Heck, I'd call that good

[Gares]

Maybe but I have seen better and I know I should be doing better.