Hey folks,
It feels weird to post in the section “new players”, even though I am hitting 500h in this game
So yes, the basic question is why do I suck in this game? I am playing with my frost mage with 415 ilvl and whenever I go for a raid my numbers are an utter… Yea you know what. Even on a normal, I am always struggling to be ahead of the tanks with the DPS.
My gear is far from perfect - I barely have 22% crit, which is a bugger - I know. I am also quite behind with the essences, as it is almost impossible for me to join any raid with 415 ilvl.
My question is what am I doing wrong? I know the right rotation, I am adjusting talents to fit the bossess and I am still getting terrible results. The situation is a bit better on dungeons, but still far from what I would consider okay.
What annoys me is how much time it costs me to actually still suck in this game. Is the problem with my class or do I simply suck? Is it actually possible to reach any decent output, without spending 20+ hours / week in game
Well, “suck” is pretty vague, and when you’re trying to improve from any level to any other level, the most important thing to avoid is “vague”. You really need to be as specific as possible, and drill down into each separate point - with numbers.
Break each point down and work on it separately.
I would have been completely clueless about what you’re doing wrong from what you said (which was nothing), but as it happens a couple of your raid bosses are on WCL, so here are the recommendations from WoWAnalyzer based on one performance:
Now, that lists several important issues that are mostly easy to fix. However, I suspect that the deeper problem lies in your rotation. Even if you know your rotation, there is a difference between knowing and implementing.
Over a 5-minute fight, you should be doing ~25K in that gear, against a target dummy. IF YOU ARE NOT DOING THIS, you cannot possibly expect to do your potential in a real raid, where you are distracted by movement and damage.
Test yourself for 5 minutes. See what you do. Don’t just compare the total DPS. It’s much more important to compare the detail - how many Frozen Orbs, Frostbolts, did you get off? How many times did you Shatter?
When you can reliably perform correctly against a target dummy, then any further problems are because of the distractions and mechanics of a raid.
Oh wow, thats an amazing source of getting better in this game
Seems I just need to get over it and eliminate my errors with the dummy and stop blaming anything else! I guess I might have picked something easier for my main character - but well I am up for a challange!
A damage meter so you can compare with other mages damage
TellMeWhen, an addon that makes it easier to follow your cooldowns
OmniCC, that shows in numbers how long time it’s left for your cooldowns
Just join a few lfr so you can prioritize your damage with guides from the internet.
Also, a great source for better gear is doing M+
I see you are in a guild, maybe run a few with your guildies? If not the LFG tool has several listed at all times.
If you feel unsure, start at a lower key and work your way up. From a key 10+ you get 440 gear and an item on server restarts.
One-liners like these are dangerous. Some people might take them seriously, because they’re easy to follow, even when inaccurate.
In many specs, including current Frost Mage, your stat priority depends on your build, your talents. It also shifts depending on your current stats. For example, Icy-Veins gives, as a generic Frost Mage
very basic, likely inaccurate template to work from:
Mastery;
Critical Strike (to 33.34%);
Haste;
Versatility;
Intellect;
Critical Strike (after 33.34%).
but that will crucially depend on your build.
For example, if you are running GS, and are able to execute it efficiently, and are prioritising ST, I think it is likely that Mast > Crit, even when current Crit is low, but deciding that will depend on the character and current stat balance.
Critical Strike proc effects will skew this. They will cause an effective drop-off as you near 33.34% due to the nature of being Shatter capped for part of the fight, but not all. This issue is why simming gear changes, rather than relying on stat weights, is the best option in all cases.
i agree that he should sim everything, but ice mage ST means mostly lances and glacial spike - dont know about that pure frost bolt build that was live for some time), he needs most of his spells to crit as ice mage
with all quite close. But even if they weren’t close, shifting them around a bit would not get anywhere near the extra 30-60% damage he would have needed for a Blue parse on that log.
Stats are very rarely ever a reason for low damage: it’s always about the rotation, gear comes afterwards. OP’s problem isn’t his gear, so focusing too much on that is kind of counterproductive (it also gives people an excuse to be bad, which I think is always even worse). Don’t get me wrong, gear is important: but it won’t make you go from bottom of the pack to topping the meters. You can have really good damage with poorly optimized gear if you know your rotation well enough.
and when you’re trying to improve from any level to any other level, the most important thing to avoid is “vague”. You really need to be as specific as possible, and drill down into each separate point - with numbers.