Last night I came along to a guild 10m OS3d run – they were happy to bring me, since I already have the drake. :) I should have tanked it, but I actually requested to come along as DPS.
I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to test out my Ret DPS. I sometimes have to go ret for those increasingly rare 1 tank fights. My DPS set is full of nice gear from badges, ICC10, and TOGC10 and there is no excuse not to be pulling competitive DPS.
I was exceptionally disappointed to find that I was only pulling around 5k. That’s including flask, str food, 10m raid buffs, potion of speed, heroism… I expected better.
I don’t know if there’s much I can do better as far as gemming, enchanting, and rotation goes. I think some more of my noobness comes from plain inexperience with melee DPS.
Positioning: I am a little slow to position myself in the right place (behind the mob, in melee range) because damnit when I am tanking the mobs come to me. Getting behind mobs with the camera zoomed out & big nameplates is sometimes a challenge …
Adjusting FCFS: I use CLCRet with priorities set as the EJ thread says maximizes DPS for ret. But I don’t know how to adjust my “rotation” to account for multiple mobs vs single target fights, or whether I should. Does ret adjust? Should I be popping Consecration or DS at the beginning of a multiple-target fight? Or should I start with Judge -> CS -> DS -> Consecration as usual?
Appropriate cooldown use: I figured popping my trinkets, Avenging Wrath & my Potion of Speed when heroism goes off is the best way to maximize the DPS boost. Is this right? What order…?
Spec Adjustments: I’m sure my spec needs some looking at. I know prot specs inside and out, but I’m a little clueless about ret.
Gear Adjustments: I should probably bite the bullet and buy a Darkmoon Card: Greatness for my ret set. That expertise trinket really isn’t doing me any favors since I am so long on expertise. I wish my nice ICC10 weapon didn’t have arpen and expertise on it.
Ugh.
Any other suggestions? Recommendations for me? Spec adjustments from ret pallies? Good blog posts about how to melee DPS without being a noob?
I mean, 5k isn’t bad, but I have strong enough gear to theoretically raid as ret and 5k is not great from that perspective.
Tankadin Errant 