How expensive is your DPS?
by Matthew Rossi 
Apr 11th 2008 at 2:30PM
My lovely and talented wife (she of the hunterish disposition) and I were talking last night about DPS in raids and instances. Specifically, an aspect I'd never really thought about before: how 'expensive' is the DPS of particular classes? Is it sometimes worth it to bring a lower DPS class over a higher one because the lower class is cheaper to maintain? And what, exactly, defines 'cheap' or 'expensive' here? She brought up ret paladins... they don't do as much damage sustained as a similarly geared rogue would, but they provide a lot of group utility and buffs and auras, and they're wearing plate, so they tend to be more durable than rogues, requiring less healing. But the rogue, despite potentially costing more in terms of healing and often using items like Haste Potions, generates quite a bit of DPS, so that if you take into account the amount of damage he does vs. what it takes to keep him up doing it and what he has to spend to do it at peak, it might still be better to bring the high sustained mana-free rogue over the mana-dependent paladin. Or it might not be. Honestly, she lost me at the point where she started talking about co-efficients.
We started talking about all the different classes and what they have to do or have to be competitive... warriors need buffs from outside like Blessing of Kings and Windfury totem, hunters need ammo and food for their pets, mages are pretty low-maintenance but are still chugging mana pots and mana gems, warlocks can life tap and drain life but are still at risk and need some healer attention... and we didn't come up with any conclusions. I found it interesting to consider the idea, though: when I DPS, how 'cost-effective' am I versus another class? How much in consumables, how much time and effort from other players does it take for me to generate the damage? And how would you rate your own class, are you 'economy' DPS, cheap to keep going, or 'luxury' DPS, requiring a lot of upkeep but bringing higher performance, or are these even valid considerations?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Zali Apr 11th 2008 2:46PM
My resto druid is a rather high maintainance spec. My Boomkin spec seems to cost me far less. That may just be due to the fact that I pretty much only raid as resto, and grind as lazerchicken. Less in mana pots and repairs. Of course, the TOL has almost all purple gear, the Boomkin is mostly blues.
The more I think about it, the more I'm unsure now how the costs would translate with lateral armor levels and raid times. Hmmmm.
Knucker Apr 11th 2008 3:49PM
Well, as a feral druid, I just pop a Agi pot and I'm fine, and I'm still in the top 5 in DPS
Nuke Apr 11th 2008 2:55PM
Hunters are the most efficient. Hunters tend to do less dps than clothies. But misdirection + feign death + mail armor means hunters are low maintenance for healers.
Isherwood Apr 11th 2008 3:13PM
My guess is that Blizz keeps tabs on things like this (i.e., *they* know those coefficients) and that part of their class balancing is to try to keep things pretty equal.
Or maybe not.
Still, it would be interesting to see calculations for things like:
- Total damage points / total healing mana points
- Total damage points / gold spent on repair, potions, ammo, etc.
- Total damage points / total buffing mana points
- Other metrics?
Rob Apr 11th 2008 2:56PM
Raid leaders should certainly consider the healing cost angle. If there were less melee dps, and less locks, then raid healing requirements would mostly be for tanks (except for raid damage of course). Of course locks are OP because they can life tap indefinately. Whereas hunters (my class) need fel mana pots, mana oil, plenty of ammo, plenty of pet food. So, we're fairly high maintenance but the raid doesn't have to worry about that, the player does. Meanwhile locks can just LT the whole day and get healed, so their personal requirements are much lower. But really costs aren't that big of a deal, I'll spend maybe 20g on a raid in ammo/food costs (tops). Most of the cost is from fel mana pots and oil, but the huge cost is repairs. Anyway that's what dailies are for. I don't think anyone should sweat the gold costs of dps, its minimal considering gold making potential nowadays.
Isambaard Apr 11th 2008 3:33PM
But if you put the locks in an SP group they don't really "consume" healing, and they LT less to boot.
Knucker Apr 11th 2008 3:57PM
You do know that mana tap costs life, so we have to life drain every once in a while, lowering our DPS
Cirna Apr 11th 2008 2:58PM
The chance to comment on the first page is bringing me out! Although, someone will probably post something before I can finish...
Anyway, I am an enhancement shaman, and although I am currently 63, it is my main so while I can't really vouch for the end game yet, I think I have a good sell value for group consideration. Many of the totems that I bring have invaluably useful effects that you don't find with other support classes.
Windfury as mentioned, and explained, tremor, which just plays down a potentially annoying battle, mana/health spring for the entire party, poison/disease cleansing, which also makes things a little less stressful even though plenty of other ways exist to remove them, and not to mention the grace and wrath totems. I would even like to argue the usefulness of earthbind in PVE because it gives tanks an easier time to catch stray aggro, I always drop it for an initial pull until they are fixed.
On top of all the totems, while we don't wear plate we are in the middle of the road with mail, we can heal, and IMO we are incredibly mana efficient with water shield, I never need drinks/potions in PVE anymore unless things go FUBAR. Anyway, go shaman!
gd1107 Apr 11th 2008 3:29PM
Enhancement shaman are one of the most efficient dps classes that exist in game (as long as you can control your threat). I am consistently top 5 DPS on boss and trash kills. I rarely run out of mana. Kaz tries to eat my mana and I just laugh at him. On top of that I provide WF for my rogues and warriors along with strength, fear or whatever buff is needed for the particular encounter. My "team" of melee DPS are the top 5 usually, except for one fire mage that tag teams the top spot with one of our rogues.
So I'd have to say I'm pretty damn cheap when it comes to consumables. Aside from clefthoof meat and a flask or some elixirs (if i feel they are warrented) I only have to pay for repair bills.
We cannot heal if we are in DPS gear - and thats a fact. You'll go oom faster than you can say "heal me" I have healed for archimonde, though, and did pretty damn decent on the meters.
Isambaard Apr 11th 2008 4:00PM
Blah, I'd much rather have windfury right up front in the pull. I know how fast mobs move, and I want them in position and being tanked faster not slower. If people are getting aggro before I have mobs positioned the last thing I'm going to do is chase them down. They'll come back to me when they've killed the idiot who hit them first.
Zali Apr 11th 2008 4:27PM
Sorry.
thain Apr 11th 2008 3:02PM
DPS classes require 2 factors Of which I only consider the first one Expense.
1. How much healing will they require of the healers.
Any melee person will require more healing than ranged. But a druid will also be causeing substantial healing for his group, as will a ret pally if he is keeping light judged. Also worthy of note, anything a dps can do that saves a healer time could be considered in here also, moonkin decurse, shadow priest shackle.
2. DPS. This includes buffs (raid dps +), sustainability (mana classes lower dps in long fights, melee lower dps in fights they have to run around alot). And pure epeen meter.
Costs such as potions, bandages, weapon stones/oils. These are not class exclusive. Nothing prevents a Ret Paladin from chugging a dps potion every cooldown (haste, or insane str, or heroic). Cost of the players consumables are merely the players concern. EVERY SINGLE CLASS can increase their individual dps via consumables. This is only truely a concern if said INDIVIDUAL only has enough of their consumables to last the first couple of bosses. Which in this case they would do less damage later in the raid.
Harmun Apr 11th 2008 4:13PM
The definition of cost being used by Matt here is ambiguous- there's cost of consumables, cost of healer time, cost of increased chance of wiping, and opportunity cost of DPS. I think the most important here is opportunity cost of DPS: having a ret paladin (assuming s/he ONLY does personal DPS) will cost you a good chunk of a "real" DPS slot. If the paladin can be out DPSed by the rogue, then you will have to "pay" for the additional DPS by taking longer to kill the boss, which increases the cost of the fight in terms of gold and possibility of a wipe.
However, ret paladins are not about pure personal DPS. If they were, they would not have been given the ability to add as much as they do to the overall effectiveness of the attack: they can add a paladin buff, they can refresh all the judgments on the target (increasing the healing, mana regen, and effectiveness of the holy and prot paladins in the group), they can add %crit to all melee DPS, and they can increase the raw damage output by all players. In addition, they can do more damage before having to curb their agro gaining, and they (if fast enough) can save a raid from a complete wipe by sacrificing themselves to save a healer.
Still, I wouldn't want more than one in a group- too many of them and the loss of your DPS will become more important than all these factors.
Balasan Apr 11th 2008 4:18PM
please please please please get this right. The 3% extra chance to crit from Imp. SotC is for ALL attacks against the target, melee, ranged, spell. It never was only melee, so I have no idea where people got this idea.
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=20337
Schadow Apr 11th 2008 6:06PM
Also worthy of note is that when a ret paladin judges wisdom on a target, he is providing the equivalent of somewhere in the vacinity of 130 mp5 while casting to all your mana-using DPS.
He also brings things to the party like the additional Blessing and Aura.
Similar to an enhancement Shaman, you have to look at what they do for the party overall, instead of just their personal DPS.
Arkensis Apr 11th 2008 3:15PM
I play as an elemental shaman, and I do a lot of PvP and my fair share of PvE. Generally speaking, I find my class to be fairly cost-effective. First, water shield generally keeps my mana up unless I have an exceptionally long fight, or I'm taking some sort of epic beating. Secondly, when I do get into trouble, I've got heal spells to mitigate damage. Finally, with totems, I become an asset to the teams I'm in, whether it's for damage absorption (Grounding Totem or Stoneskin Totem), damage buffs (Windfury Totem or Wrath of Air Totem), or any of the other useful things shamans can do. While the class certainly has its downside, elemental shamans are very self-sufficient.
Jake Apr 11th 2008 3:17PM
As a shadow priest this topic brings a lot of things to light from the standpoint of this particular spec.
For one, a shadow preist can be particularly taxing on healers if SW-D does not get addressed by even a renew, as a non-talented Vamp Emprace will not heal back the amount dealt by the time that SW-D comes off CD.
From the standpoint of consumables it is literally impossible to maintain a high dps cycle from this spec without literally chugging mana pots or wasting the cooldown of an Innervate or Mana Tide totem etc etc. Furthermore the added cost of Flask of Pure Death or any combo of elixirs adds up over time plus the added cost of constant wizard oils, granted many other casters or dps classes may or may not drop the same amount of cash for the same ends, but for a shadow priest the mana potions are the huge divider between our cost and other casters/dps costs.
I believe the only other dps that may cost as much as a shadow priest is a rogue, but that's only when you've reached the T6 level as I don't believe any rogue will be dropping a load of money on Haste potions until that point in progression.
Saido Apr 11th 2008 4:04PM
There's also the issue of "utility" with a SP (and some other classes as well) - When we take the time to keep VT up, dispel magic or diseases, CC via MC, Stack 4 Rank 1 SWPs so that a full shadow-weaving stack is there as quickly as possible for the warlocks, etc. we drop on the DPS charts .. and that may make it look like our "cost per DPS" is high.
phaedra Apr 11th 2008 3:24PM
I'd like to think that as a feral druid, when I am not tanking, that I am pretty cheap to maintain. Sure, I benefit from outside buffs, but I bring my own buffs. As for healing, as long as I am not tanking, I can take care of myself when needed. I've been on the wrong side of a couple of infernal drops, out of range of the healer, and been able to keep myself up. As well, I will pop up and back-up heal if things get bad.
As far as consumables, the costs have definately gone up now that I can use the BS weapon buffs in forms. Still, a flask of relentless assault (for both tanking and DPS), some mudfish or crawdads, and a couple of weightstones and I am a happy kitty.
Replex Apr 11th 2008 3:24PM
I am an end game hunter, I chug Fel Mana Pots (4g per pot) on cooldown, on top of 40g for a full quivver of arrows... on top of mail repair costs, on top of pet food, on top of Major Agility, Major Mageblood and Mana Oil. Well Fed food for myself and my pet.