Mar 2
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Performance Analysis
Posted on March 2, 2009 under Thoughts | 2 CommentsWorld of Warcraft is an ever-changing game. While reading this post, keep the date it was written in mind—changes may have occurred since then!
Let’s take a look at this theoretical DPS chart below, comparing the DPS of five members of a heroic dungeon run (not necessarily to scale):
Which of the three DPSers did the best job? The insinctive answer is “the rogue, they did the most DPS.” And in a way, you’d be right.
But what if I told you the rogue stole aggro on half the pulls, refused to sap the correct target, and rolled need on every boss drop? And what if I told you that the hunter consistantly trapped mobs that got loose and ran toward the healer, never Multi-Shot mobs that were CC’d or minding thier own business, and offered a feast every time someone died?
I’ll tell you right now, as a tank and someone who often puts together and leads instance runs, I’d take the hunter anytime they wanted to run, and I’d add the rogue to my NotesUNeed list under “Avoid.”
It is very common to judge the worth of a player quantitatively–that is, based on how much damage, threat, or healing per second they can produce. Partly, this is because we’re human–how often are first impressions the only judge of a person we care about?
In the guild’s first Obsidian Sanctum run, which I blogged about a while ago, there were two particular guildies (who are no longer with the guild) with us: one of them was very well geared and had good DPS, the other one was a bit lacking in both gear and DPS. The first guildie, however, couldn’t manage to avoid the lava walls–I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me he got hit by every single one. The second one, with the lower DPS, avoided almost all of them, if not all of them.
In this situatation, the ability to follow directions and follow WoW Rule #1 (”WoW Rule #1: Don’t stand in the ______!”) was much, much more important than the ability to pump out tons of DPS.
While sometimes the numbers are important, don’t fall into the trap of judging people quantitatively. THE METERS DON’T TELL THE WHOLE STORY! Take the time and make qualitative assessments of party and raid members!
PS: Because I said I would: Yoder is awesome.
Related posts:
- Paid Name Change
- Pets Walking into Combat
- Why Can’t I Decide?
- New Blog Azeroth Rule
- Not Joining the Bandwagon
