DPS not increasing as I get new gear (macro help?)

[wakasm]

TL: DR; - Can't seem to kill bosses faster with more gear, not sure if it's bc I need to update macros

I am not sure if this is normal.

I thought I had "figured things out" leveling 1-85. I am even leveling a second team to eventually 10-box but getting quickly discouraged... and I am hoping that perhaps this is more of a macro issue than skill.

Here is my story. First team: 1 Pally (Tank), 2 Lock, 1 Mage, 1 Priest (Healer)

Early dungeons were cake and I was able to learn thanks to these forums. WoTLK dungeons were slightly harder but easily doable (without gear). Cata got hard - but I've been able to down every boss in normal mode with some patience and dedication to the fights.

The problem I am having is that my DPS seems to be getting worse with better gear.

For instance - I was able to beat The Stonecore at level 83 with my team (with a lot of hard work), and zero epics. My fastest kills on all the bosses seem to be from when I was level 83. (No Gems, No Enchants, No Glyphs etc)

I am now level 85, I just got my iLvL high enough to queue for Heroics, and when I go back to the older dunegons, my boss to beat times are always 10-20 seconds LONGER than when I had no gear. Hell, I didn't even have spells like Time Warp and Dark intent macroed while leveling, My DPS feels really low even after gemming, enchanting, reforging, and glyphing (The highest I've ever peaked is 10k on one of the locks, but it's generally around 5-8k depending on the fights).

People in my guild say that's REALLY low for my gear level - but none of them multibox. I've never done this content "solo" before. This probably doesn't help.

My instinct tells me that I should be tweaking macros as I get better gear (especially because of haste) but I am not really confident with how to change macros for the better. I've read countless threads here, on elitist jerks, and maxdps.com. I always assume that you guys know more than me.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any ideas? Am I just being paranoid or should I feel a significant dps increase when going to 0 to 4 epic pieces, etc. Is the problem behind the wheel or did I miss a step somewhere? lol.

Or, if I am able to down content - am I just doing fine? I'm afraid that maybe I shouldn't be RAFFING my other 5 accounts because I may never be ready to ever 10-man if I am having this much trouble.

Thanks! (Sorry for the long ass post - I love these forums! They have forever renewed MMO's for me)

Some last bit of tidbits:
- Right now I am gearing using askmrrobot until I get the hang of my classes
- Almost all of my macros came from these forums (Mercuio's 2 Step macro, Ualaa guides, etc)
- I am only enchanting / gemming / reforging, etc epic gear that I pick up

[Khatovar]

A lot of things can cause DPS drop with ilvl increase. You could not be accounting for haste, you could have traded off a lot of hit or crit on the new pieces, your macros might not account for set bonuses or Glyphs.

If you're only reforging epic pieces and ignoring anything less, then you could well be gimping the hell out of your stats if the reforge tool you're using is reforging based on everything.

If you're not gemming gear just because it's not epic, you can also be gimping yourself. The gem slot is a part of the ilvl and without the gems filled in it can end up being only a minor gain and sometimes even a loss. +30 Int x however many naked slots you have from dropping in an uncommon quality gem is a lot of missing stats.

But there's not much anyone can do but guess without seeing your characters and macros.

[wakasm]

Do you have any advice on how to play around with macros (in regards to haste?). Is there a method to how people figure that out or is it a lot of trial and error?

I'm going to keep on trucking through the gear just because this is my first team and didn't have the mats / gold to really do it properly.

I will hold off on posting my characters / macros until I get at least all the JP and Crafted gear. If I am still having issues by then, I'll go that route.

[Khatovar]

You'll have to look at Elitist Jerks to see how things like haste, mastery and whatnot effect your classes and adjust your macros accordingly.

[Mercurio]

Are you using the 2-step method in your macros? They really helped me to increase my DPS. I've posted my macros for most non-melee classes in the sticky in the Macros forum. A number of people have said they've been helped by using them - I hope they are useful to you as well.

Haste and timing would have to be optimized through trial and error, but that would only increase your DPS by 2-4K or so at most. Your DPS is much lower than mine is, so optimizing based on haste is not your biggest worry at this point. DPS depends hugely on the fights, but in most fights that last more than 25 seconds my DPS is above 13K and many are at 17K or so. That's with the macros in the thread I mentioned before.

Good luck!

[wakasm]

Are you using the 2-step method in your macros?

Good luck!

I am using the 2-step method. (and 80% of your macros!). And it has greatly helped. I am starting to think my issue was from not reforging ALL my gear. I feel kind of stupid for not thinking that through sooner. I quit at the end of BC before reforging was introduced and then started 5 boxing straight away a few months ago. (Thanks for that tip Khatovar).

I am going to go do 2 normal dungeons tonight and see how much of an increase it actually was and report back.

Are there any tools you guys use to track macro efficiency? i stare at all the macros posted and often can't piece together how you guys came up with the timing. I find recount not to be very helpful at the training dummy (unless I'm using it wrong... ) For instance, a way to see the order of how spells were cast or if there was any "Downtime" between spells when something should being cast?

So much math. I love it, but very overwhelming as I'm also playing 3 completely new classes to me. The macros are what completely confusing me at times as I see so many variations posted and when i google off this site, almost all are not written for multiboxing purposes.

[Starbuck_Jones]

If I had to guess, it would be the different math you are subject to at 85 than you were earlier. The biggest thing I remember with my shaman when it hit 85 was the dramatic drop in hit. It went from excessive to almost none. Same with haste and crit. She still doesn't have the same dps at 85 in better gear than she did at 84.

She went from the ability to hit anything and a 30% some odd crit rate to 15% miss rate on level 82 and higher mobs and a 6% crit rate. I might be exaggerating a bit, but I really remember dinging 85 and everything became insanely harder, even just questing.

[Bollwerk]

One thing that has helped me is occasionally playing a toon solo in a 5-man or raid and using the same 'button mashing" macros/etc that you use when boxing, but paying close attention to everything, in case one of the macro seems to be getting hung up on a cooldown or a typo in the macro.

Of course, it's also very helpful to read up on your class/spec on places like ElitistJerks (as others have suggested) to figure out your ideal spell rotations, talent specs, glyphs and stat weights.
For what it's worth, I've had to tweak some of the 2-step macros that Mercurio posted, to keep up with my gear progression and play style. The macros are a good place to start, but don't take them as gospel. Feel free to tweak them to see if you can get better DPS.

[Khatovar]

When I'm building macros, I try to break them up into sequences that fit together. For my paladins I have my base sequences which center around getting and using Holy Power. Any secondary sequences will be things like fillers. For my Enh shaman, I have it broken up with strikes in one sequences, shocks in the other.

As for seeing what's getting cast and what's getting missed, the simplest way to do it is go to a training dummy, pull your spells out of your spellbook and onto a blank bar and start casting your macros. Tedious, yes, but it's a lot easier to spam away and visually see what's getting hung up or what's sitting off cooldown too much.