Recount - Adding flavor, me vs you

Meter maids...they happen. They are the jelly of the pbj sandwhich...they are the sweet stuff that brings together the tanks (bread) and healers (peanut butter). DPS in world of warcraft is what kills a boss, and, with a good amount of DPS, you can clear an instance within a feasible amount of time...because, without it, bosses hit enrage timers, and things just take much much longer.
With DPS comes the competition though. Ever see UFC? Where two guys go at it for fame, glory and blood? Sure, to the victor go the spoils. DPS is a competitive thing, not only because it seperates those who know their class from those who REALLY know their class, but it shows who is really doing what. And what a better way to track that then an addon just for situations like that?

Recount is an addon that can track a multitude of things, from the number of interrupts performed in an encounter, to healing done overall, to even the damage taken per person (tanks usually get the top here). But the sweet stuff, the most viewed and talked about option in Recount...is the DPS.



Recount records DPS in several useful ways. First off, it records who is performing what attacks, combinations, number of times an ability is used in a fight, and several other interesting features including how often an ability crits. The Second part, and sometimes the most annoying, but also useful, is the damage per second (or damage overall depending on the category) raiting. So, if person X is doing really good damage to a boss, he might indeed be at the top of the charts. Below him, will be person Y, A, and B will be at the bottom.

Here's the usefulness of DPS (or overall damage done) part of Recount:

• shows whos undergeared by stating low damage done per attack
• shows whos missing attacks in a rotation (might lead to the person needing to learn how to play their class)
• it shows (per person under their abilties) crits and hits per number of attacks per boss, including misses, glances (partial damage), dodges, blocks, and parries

Overall...its a useful thing. Recount can track everyone in the raid with a 1% difference per meter from person to person (some might show a tiny bit more then someone else's meter)

Here's where the usefulness drops off --- spamming the meter in raid chat everytime someone does top 3 or so on a boss. The worst part, is sometimes, people don't see that person do their usual post if their not in the top...almost as if they feel shamed for not contributing to the raid. But that's the thing, they are helping, and even though they might not take the top, they still killed the boss, moving the raid along. And people have forgotten those roots.

In terms, it is indeed a damage race to kill a boss before he enrages, gaining something like a 500% bonus to damage and 150% bonus to attack speed. But people now take it too far, and race against themselves, to the point where they might fight over who plays what role during some boss encounters, where not everyone can just stand in place and DPS a boss to death. And it's during those times that posting a raid meter doesn't show who is helping the raid overall but dpsing a contruct during Ignis, or who is interrupting the bosses during Iron Council. Overall though, it can be fun to post when people get to stand and DPS a boss like Patchwerk, where only the healers and tanks dont participate on the DPS meters.

Recount also doesn't show DPS loss when a player is temporary unavailable to DPS the boss, though his DoTs, or Damage over Time effects still tick, thus reducing his overall damage. This is shown on some fights like Ignis, inside the slag pot, or even Kologram, where he grabs random people, leaving DoTs to tick with no other damage being applied.

Overall though, Recount is an exceptional addon that can show so much that isn't seen, but can also become annoying when used improperly. It can be both a helpful addon that can be used to reviews players in fights, or a spam method to show who "dedicates" themselves to the boss. So for all the DPS out there, no one really cares about your overall DPS, or how much you do, the boss still dies, and we all move on together, if you must post the meter, whisper it to someone else, don't bother the rest of the raid with your great lifetime accomplishment.

-pwrtoppl

-out