How to Use Meters Successfully
Meter readers tend to be a waste of space in a raid setting. Elitist has a chat channel called elitistmeters where the e-peen strokers can sit and link meters to their heart's content. Anyone linking any type of meter in raid chat will first get a warning and then a raid kick.
Comparing pure HPS and pure DPS is not helpful to anyone. A DPS who is spamming interrupts may not keep up with another DPS who is just spamming. Raid leaders should realize this and look at all the meters to judge DPS performance.
Comparing DPS:
A DK is at the top of the DPS meter with 10k. He has to be rezzed twice because he doesn't move when he's supposed to and he dies in a fire.
A mage is towards the middle of the meter with 6k. He stays alive the whole fight and is still dpsing when the boss goes down.
Which you take to a raid if you had to choose?
The meters will show the DK above the mage. I personally would take the mage over the DK, due to his situational awareness.
Comparing HPS:
A resto shaman is topping the HPS meter with 7k HPS. He's been told to focus on a tank as his healing assignment. His tank dies, but the meter shows him at the top, above the other healers.
Good healer? Or not?
Another example of comparing healers:
One resto shaman is pulling 8k HPS. He's at the top of the meter. He calls out for two innervates during a particularly long fight. At the end of the fight, he is completely oom. He is also topping the overhealing meter, above the druids and pallies.
A second resto shaman is pulling 5k HPS. He's a little lower on the meter, maybe 2nd or 3rd. He has no need for innervates and has about 10% mana left when the boss dies. He is very low on the overhealing meter, above the disc priest and just barely above the holy priest.
Both shamans have about the same amount of regen and about the same mana pool.
Which is the better healer?
In my opinion, the second resto shaman is the better healer. He knows how to manage his mana and knows when to cast and not to spam. The first shaman is just spamming in the hopes that he gets some heals off. In this way, he does obviously catch several targets with heals before the other healers. But in the process, he's wasting more mana than he's actually efficiently using. If he had been healing like the other shaman, the targets would have still gotten their heals, as the heals would have been more spread out between healers. And the innervates could have been saved for a healer or dps that died and had to be rezzed.
Meter Cheesing
While I do giggle at this terminology, meter cheesing is very real.
A DPS who ignores snobolds on Northrend Beasts so that he can keep up his rotation on Gormok is meter cheesing. He may show up on the top of the meters, but was he doing his job?
A healer who spams like the shaman mentioned above is also meter cheesing. A very specific example of meter cheesing is a Discipline shield spammer. Shield spamming can be very successful, for certain fights. Twin Valks and Anub phase 3 are specific examples. Fights were damage is either constant or easy to anticipate are perfect for Disc, being mitigators. A disc priest who keeps the entire raid shielded and needs several innervates is not a good healer. His absorbs may be very high. His absorbs may also beat out the other healers because he's causing them to heal less. But wasted shields are wasted mana. And wasted mana is wasted heals.
So how do you judge healers/dps in raid settings?
Watch out. You may have to think here. My simple answer? Use your brain.
The more complicated answer:
Comparing pure HPS and pure DPS is not helpful to anyone. A DPS who is spamming interrupts may not keep up with another DPS who is just spamming. Raid leaders should realize this and look at all the meters to judge DPS performance.
Comparing DPS:
A DK is at the top of the DPS meter with 10k. He has to be rezzed twice because he doesn't move when he's supposed to and he dies in a fire.
A mage is towards the middle of the meter with 6k. He stays alive the whole fight and is still dpsing when the boss goes down.
Which you take to a raid if you had to choose?
The meters will show the DK above the mage. I personally would take the mage over the DK, due to his situational awareness.
Comparing HPS:
A resto shaman is topping the HPS meter with 7k HPS. He's been told to focus on a tank as his healing assignment. His tank dies, but the meter shows him at the top, above the other healers.
Good healer? Or not?
Another example of comparing healers:
One resto shaman is pulling 8k HPS. He's at the top of the meter. He calls out for two innervates during a particularly long fight. At the end of the fight, he is completely oom. He is also topping the overhealing meter, above the druids and pallies.
A second resto shaman is pulling 5k HPS. He's a little lower on the meter, maybe 2nd or 3rd. He has no need for innervates and has about 10% mana left when the boss dies. He is very low on the overhealing meter, above the disc priest and just barely above the holy priest.
Both shamans have about the same amount of regen and about the same mana pool.
Which is the better healer?
In my opinion, the second resto shaman is the better healer. He knows how to manage his mana and knows when to cast and not to spam. The first shaman is just spamming in the hopes that he gets some heals off. In this way, he does obviously catch several targets with heals before the other healers. But in the process, he's wasting more mana than he's actually efficiently using. If he had been healing like the other shaman, the targets would have still gotten their heals, as the heals would have been more spread out between healers. And the innervates could have been saved for a healer or dps that died and had to be rezzed.
Meter Cheesing
While I do giggle at this terminology, meter cheesing is very real.
A DPS who ignores snobolds on Northrend Beasts so that he can keep up his rotation on Gormok is meter cheesing. He may show up on the top of the meters, but was he doing his job?
A healer who spams like the shaman mentioned above is also meter cheesing. A very specific example of meter cheesing is a Discipline shield spammer. Shield spamming can be very successful, for certain fights. Twin Valks and Anub phase 3 are specific examples. Fights were damage is either constant or easy to anticipate are perfect for Disc, being mitigators. A disc priest who keeps the entire raid shielded and needs several innervates is not a good healer. His absorbs may be very high. His absorbs may also beat out the other healers because he's causing them to heal less. But wasted shields are wasted mana. And wasted mana is wasted heals.
So how do you judge healers/dps in raid settings?
Watch out. You may have to think here. My simple answer? Use your brain.
The more complicated answer:
- Watch to see who is dying before it's a wipe. You want to have raiders who are situationally aware. Raiders who can survive to continue tanking/healing/dpsing.
- Who is interrupting successfully? Who is dispelling whatever needs to be dispelled? Especially on a fight like Faction Champions, dispels/interrupts are extremely important. Raiders who keep up with this demonstrate situational awareness and good timing.
- For healers, (this is easier in hard modes) whose target is consistently dying? It could be a healing problem or a tanking problem. It usually isn't hard to figure out.
- On a "burn" fight, a DPS meter can be used to measure DPS. Also, a DPS who is pulling 2k or 3k and doesn't have a specific assignment other than kill the boss is quite possibly not pulling his weight.
- Healers should be competitive on HPS. What does this mean? This means that healers should be moving around the meter each fight. A healer consistently at the bottom may be undergeared or not pulling his weight. A healer consistently at the top could be outgearing the other healers or spamming to cheese the meters.
- Overhealing meters are useful, but you have to realize something. Druids and paladins should be at the top, as they are going to overheal due to their style of healing. Make sure that your overhealing meter is something like this: druids/paladins, then holy priests/shamans, then disc priests. Somebody out of place may not be doing it right.
- A healer who needs innervates and mana tide consistently could be a potential problem. He may not have enough regen on his gear (spirit, mp5, int) or he may be spamming too much.
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