Why do people do low DPS?

[Gadzooks]

* Pressing these buttons as fast as you can

I actually disagree with this - most rotations do have time involved, and if you push the GCD, you can screw things up for crits, especially with casters.

Here's how I break it down:

Class knowledge. Do the right attacks, at the right time, in the right rotations, to do the right job. You want to crit as much as possible, if you're not draining, interrupting or anything else like that. This takes some effort on the player's part. If you're raid leader, learn to pull reports for boss fights and study them for problems, like the mage never getting a crit.

Gear. Obviously. But enchants, jewelry, gems and other goodies also make a HUGE, HUGE difference. Are all your casters wearing titanium spellshock at minimum? The better gems? Does everyone have good glyphs, trinkets, and idols?

Raid knowledge. This can be the hardest part. Back when I raided, I joined a new raid team that had to learn as we went - we knew the tactics, but we had to learn to act as a group, and learn that what we do can effect other players. The raid leader and the players have to be willing to learn their role as DPS, heals, and tanking, AND as a whole. Like, what buffs to use, what totems to drop, should the rogue take a poison off because of the WF totem, things like that. Are the casters and healers using their talents effectively, or just spamming buttons and wasting mana? Do the druids never cast innervate on anyone else? See what I'm saying.

The raid I was in was all casual players, and we started in Zul Gurub, and we figured it all out in about a month's worth of raiding.It took a lot of talking on vent, explaining everyone's role, especially the tank - and teaching people what things like offtanks were and assisting were, and targets - it was kind of scary how little some players who'd been through MC did'nt have a clue about any of it, because they'd been carried in a 40 man where mistakes could be overlooked (and usually were).

Attitude. If the raid leader freaks out at wipes, you'll lose the team fast. Patience is key. Communication - you want people talking about what they're doing, not about American Idol - and most importantly, your players need to not be afraid to show they don't know something, and ask about it. I have run with many, many, many refugees from raiding guilds who were expected to be experts when you join, and were thrilled to pieces they could ask questions on our raids, no matter how stupid.

Mostly, have fun. If you're not having fun, it's time to scale back and give the team a few wins on bosses on farm, to get their spirits up. Wiping endlessly where everyone runs back in silence and the raid leadership are cussing or freaking out or being mean is a good way NOT to play.

Take your team, go to an instance you have on farm, even if it's not Ulduar or Naxx, and practice, practice, practice. Call a practice raid once a week in an Outlands 10 man, like Shadow Lab or Mechanar, and practice - it'll be easy enough that if you screw up you won't wipe.