Dps Questionnaire

This all started over at Death Goddess with her doing a dps questionnaire and inviting people to join in. It hasn't gained as much attention has the Healer chain or even the Tank chain that went the rounds which is interesting considering how many MORE Dpsers there are but here is my poor stab at it. (Yes, even bad rogue jokes.)


What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?
Daraia, Combat, (15/51/5) Rogue.

What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
10 and 25 man raids, 5 man heroics and some battle grounds. (Though the battle grounds I do mutilate spec.)

What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?
Killing spree. It is just a FUN move. The ability to hit so many targets, some times even targets up in the air. It makes me laugh every time I use it. Even when it miss fires and sends you flying over a cliff.

What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?
Backstab. As a Combat Rogue I NEVER have a dagger in my main hand and when given a chance to open from stealth  I prefer to Garrote.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?
Our abilities to mitigate or avoid damage all together, Evasion, Feint, Cloak of Shadows, and at last resort Sprint. They allows us to continue to Dps when many other melee classes have to reposition.


What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?
Rogues are very gear dependent, especially with our weapons, even when you upgrade all the other pieces your dps will only see a slight increase if your weapons do not improve. This can hurt a lot of more casual players as often the best weapons are located in more hard to reach areas such as hard modes or final bosses in raids.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?
Single target focus but I enjoy when I have such things as interrupts, or other situations where I get to use all the tools I have as a rogue.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?
Death Knights or Enhancement Shamans. Horn of Winter and Windfury. What is not to love?

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?
Those who are more concerned with being the top of the damage meter and then risk the other members of their party because they won't do simply things that can help the whole run go smoother because all that matters are "the numbers".

What is your worst habit as a dps?
Tunnel Vision. Getting SO focused on what is going on with my target that I fail to notice what is going on with others around me. This is worse with some fights than others.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?
People who link Recount in group. As well as individuals who just assume that everyone is going to already KNOW everything about a given instance or perfered tactic and then call others names when they fail to preform to their standard.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?
Yes, though I still hear that rogues are "over powered" it seems to be more directed at PvP rather than PvE now. But this may be more due to there not being as many rogues as there once were in PvE.


What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a dps?
Recount, Wowmeters, and World of logs. Put them all together and they give you a nice over view of what you have done as compared to everyone else in the raid from more than just one perspective.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
That Rogues are really easy to play well. They are a much more physical and mathy class than many people realize.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?
How to manage your cool downs. It really comes down to experience, knowing when to use them and when to hold off for best effect.

What dps class do you feel you understand least?
Death Knights. They have just so many variables to them I can't seem to rap my head around what makes a good one or not. I just know when I encounter a good one I want to run with them again and when I run into the multitudes of bad ones I avoid them.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?
Recount, Tidy Threat, X-pearl, Satrina Buff Frames are just some of the mods I use.
The macros I use the most are the following two for Tricks of the Trade:

/cast [help] [target=focus, help] Tricks of the Trade
or
/cast [help] [target=targettarget, help] Tricks of the Trade

Agility over other stats or balanced stat allocation, and why?
As Combat it is really more about the Attack Power and Armor Pen (if you have the right Trinkets which I unfortunately have not been lucky enough to get my hot little hands on.) My personal preference has really been to run for a more balanced stat allocation but as Rogues are now that is not how you get the best dps.

Combat has a little more play room than Assassination spec in that we don't have to worry about Expertise as much (and we will usually get to cap without even trying). Even our Hit Rating is not something we worry about as that is something often easily reached with gear alone. (315) Most of our focus is on pure attack power. While Agility does give some nice mitigation and crit when it comes to pure dps Attack power edges it out by just a hair. So in the end it just comes down to personal preference. A little more Dps or a little more survivability. I personally do a mix of the two because I have two sets of gear. One I use purely for Combat that I keep gemed with Attack power based gems and the others I use Agility gems in are the pieces I use for both my Combat AND Assassination sets.