Tips on using Recount for tanks and others
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 8th 2009 at 7:00PM
Just in case you missed this excellent post about how to use Recount to its full potential (we also snuck it in our Daily Quest column a little while back), it's definitely worth a look. Most players just use Recount to check their own damage numbers, but as 4 Haelz points out, there's definitely a lot more to it than just that. Not only can it be used to examine overall output on fights and instances, but you can use it as a tool to monitor what kinds of spells are producing the most for you, and how your damage or healing output changes over time. You can also have it track who you've healed the most, or which targets you've really gone to town on, and you can then make adjustments to your play style from there.Now, Honor's Code has another great post about the addon, this one specifically for tanks. Recount will actually let you bring up a "Death Report" feature that will allow you, as a tank, to suss out exactly what went wrong on that last wipe, whether it was something you were late on, or whether your teammates should have done something that they didn't. You can even broadcast that Death Report, so you can show the person at fault (of course you have to be tactful with this -- you have to make sure the person you're "correcting" understands that you're just trying to get better, not attacking them) exactly what happened and when.
Recount is such an excellent addon, and so many of us just use the top level functions of watching the meters (sometimes to the point where it isn't helpful at all). But used in the right way, Recount provides a treasure trove of information on what you've done during a boss fight, and how you can make yourself and the rest of your raid even better.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Odds and ends, Add-Ons, Raiding, Bosses
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Locane Jul 8th 2009 7:15PM
As a raid leader I use Recount for a lot of things. i follow the dps with it seeing who is doing her thing and who is slacking to how my healers are doing, what spells they use as well as what spells and attacks the rest of the raid is using. For tanks it shows me hits and miss so I can help direct them to improvements.
Another great addon for deaths and seeing where things went wrong is Acheron.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/acheron.aspx
It is a rick click breakdown of what happened to that person before and as they die.
Silversol Jul 8th 2009 7:12PM
The poor naga getting ganked by the rogue in Zangarmarsh!
Magresda Jul 8th 2009 7:13PM
As a healer Recount is my second most important addon (after grid) - yet I rarely look at the healing meters.
As these articles were about, I only use it to monitor my own performance - what I did wrong, what I did right, what I could change, etc.
I think that is the real power of Recount, not the lists of who did the most DPS or HPS, but rather the highly detailed information you can get out of it.
Nick S Jul 9th 2009 12:36AM
Typically my use of Recount as a healer is to monitor throughput on a given healing task - for example, does spamming glyphed Holy Light on the raid during Tympanic Tantrum yield more net healing than ultra-rapid FoL/Holy Shock?
Total healing done is only really meaningful if one healer is really far behind, or taken with significant consideration for the kind of healing each class does (the classic Disc vs Holy thing.) To examine healing strategies on specific fights, though, meters can be really helpful.
Acestor Jul 9th 2009 9:41AM
As a Discipline Priest I have grown less and less fond of recount. I believe I am correct in thinking it's the way blizzard makes the combat logs that screws up recount and WWS for PW:S, Divine Aegis and Renewed Hope. I can personally live with it because I'm more concerned with the tank living than the meters. The death report is good when the tank dies, but I usually already know what I could have done differently in those moments.
The problems is when semi-ignorant PUG leaders complain to me about my healing meter numbers while healing as a discipline priest. I almost got kicked out of an OS 2D pug for it (though I was shielding and healing up a storm) and it was very annoying to have to defend myself...
Sleutel Jul 8th 2009 7:20PM
Personally, I use Acheron to figure out how people died. As a tank, the biggest use of Recount for me is parsing ability usage--am I actually prioritizing my abilities the way I think I am? Recount will give me percentages that tell me just that.
Ducrush Jul 8th 2009 7:23PM
One of my favorite features is the real time graphs. I set up one for each tank showing incoming damage per second (i.e. the damage that the tanks are taking). Much easier to spot spikes quickly that way.
yokumgang Jul 8th 2009 7:52PM
Half of a rogue's damage coming from melee? Man, what a noob lol
Riley Jul 8th 2009 8:16PM
you do realize that's not far from normal, right? especially for combat, you usually have about 40-50% white damage
Cyno01 Jul 8th 2009 9:04PM
Yeah, HAT breakdown in a raid is something like; Melee :~45%, Evisc:~30%, Poison:~20%, Hemo:~5%.
So thats not too far off for an ungrouped meter when you gotta generate your own combo points.
Valt Jul 9th 2009 6:57AM
As the article said, learning to use recount correctly, which you clearly cant?
"Top 3 attacked:
Standard mob(This NPC can be found in Zangarmarsh)
Standard mob(This NPC can be found in Zangarmarsh)"
That is not from raid/dungeon of any sort. Mobs die before you can even use special abilities :(
Roland Jul 9th 2009 11:37PM
If we're going to call that rogue a noob, do it because he or she isn't using poisons. And is leveling Subtlety.
Karilyn Jul 8th 2009 8:04PM
Huh...
I had no idea you could do a death report with Recount.
Add one new trick to the dozens of things Recount can do.
Riley Jul 8th 2009 8:17PM
insert token "lolhemo"
RogueJedi86 Jul 8th 2009 8:47PM
What does the Friendly Fire part of Recount mean? Aside from situations where a boss Mind Controls you, how else can you do Friendly Fire?
Silversol Jul 8th 2009 8:48PM
Seal of Blood, life tap, stuff like that i believe.
DasHeals Jul 9th 2009 12:42AM
It's also useful on fights like Deconstructor as light bombs will register as friendly fire, so you can see who is being slow on moving out, same thing with Thaddius.
Nick S Jul 9th 2009 12:43AM
It counts for abilities like the debuff from Kologarn trash, where you damage those around you with a debuff on yourself. Or charge damage on Thaddius. Things of that sort.
RogueJedi86 Jul 9th 2009 4:43PM
So friendly fire isn't a bad thing, just something that happens? Well okay, you need to move away from others if you have a damaging debuff(like when fighting Ionar in HoL), but otherwise it's not something bad like "you're destroying the party!"?
paragorillabear Jul 8th 2009 9:00PM
I actually used Recount last night to figure out why the tank we had in ST was sucking so hard. I had already inspected his gear and seen that he was outfitted in greens that would be better suited for someone 15 levels lower. But after he left the group after our first wipe (with no communication -- hate it when that happens -- Ah! one of these days I'll get out of these PuGs maybe)
I checked Recount and saw the real picture:
35% of damage from Melee (which was his #1 source of damage, Thunder Clap was 2nd at 34%)...
No Heroic Strikes, No Sunders...
Just Thunder Claps and Shield Slams with barely even a Devastate...
Now, lest anyone think I am just pointing the finger at someone else's faults, I must say I am looking forward to using this on myself the next time I tank with my main in Nexus.