When I say this, I mean primarily for operations. I define "Good DPS" as one who can maximize their damage without harming the group by dying or causing others to die. This person would also use their utility to make it easier for a successful raid.

I. Class Awareness: A Good DPS knows how to allocate his skill points and infer a rotation/priority from those skill points. He should know the basic rotation/priority of the class by just reading the skill tree and should experiment with different "fillers" to maximize dps.

II. Rotation Management: A Good Dps knows which skills to use when to ensure he does not run into resource problems. It may take weeks or even months of practice, but good DPS has his resource management down to a science. He knows which skill to use without even thinking about it. That way, he can improve on the next quality.

III. Mechanic Awareness: A Good DPS uses raid mechanics to his advantage. He does not have "tunnel vision" He knows when certain mechanics appear; for example, when the boss will throw down red circles, or when the boss will move to where. Knowing the mechanics of the fight will not only prevent you from wiping the group, but it will maximize your uptime as a dps. More actions per minute = higher dps. If you know when you will take the most damage, or when you have to do something other than dps, it will lessen the pressure on yourself and result in less mistakes.

IV. Gear Itemization: A Good DPS knows how much of a stat he should stack for his build. It may take some experimentation or research, but a good DPS should at least come within a ballpark figure for a particular stat. I can't tell you how many times I've seen way too much crit, not enough accuracy, wrong augments, too much surge, or too much endurance while inspecting someone's gear.

V. Utility Awareness: A Good DPS sometimes uses abilities other than damage-dealing to help his group members. CC is the obvious example, but the following are good examples, as well:

1. Off-Heals: If a healer would happen to go down, it may be in the best interest of the group for a DPS to throw some off-heals for a bit until the healer is rezzed and ready to heal at full capacity again. A Good DPS should be aware of this and make no hesitation to do this if needed.

2. Off-Taunts: If a fight needs tank-swapping and one of the tanks goes down, a dps may have to step in for a few seconds and taunt the boss while the tank is being rezzed. Sometimes at the very end of a fight both of your tanks may be dead. It should be second nature for a dps to taunt the boss and take one of the team if needed to give you more time to kill the boss.

3. Group Buffs: The best example of this would be a marauder's group speed boost or their damage boost. A good dps should know when to use these buffs to make it easier in burst phases or phases when you have to move quickly.

1. Off-Heals: If a healer would happen to go down, it may be in the best interest of the group for a DPS to throw some off-heals for a bit until the healer is rezzed.

And continue for a few seconds after the healer is up, since they will rez with little health, or energy, or both.

Additionally, if a DPS has off heals, they also have a combat rez, and it should be they, NOT the other healer, that does the rez. It should be done immediately, and without being asked to do so.

EDIT: combat rez is also for boss fights only, not trash pulls.

And continue for a few seconds after the healer is up, since they will rez with little health, or energy, or both.

 

Additionally, if a DPS has off heals, they also have a combat rez, and it should be they, NOT the other healer, that does the rez. It should be done immediately, and without being asked to do so.

 

EDIT: combat rez is also for boss fights only, not trash pulls.

If a DPS has a combat rezz, they should be priority over healers to use it, but they should NOT use it without being asked.

There are plenty of times you might not want to automatically burn your battle rezz (e.g. opportunity in near future to execute combat stealth + rezz).

And continue for a few seconds after the healer is up, since they will rez with little health, or energy, or both.

You are correct. Edited original post to include this.

If a DPS has a combat rezz, they should be priority over healers to use it, but they should NOT use it without being asked.

 

There are plenty of times you might not want to automatically burn your battle rezz (e.g. opportunity in near future to execute combat stealth + rezz).

Yes, they should, however they should of course also use their head and realize that sometimes it's better to not use it yet. That's rare though.

Yes, they should, however they should of course also use their head and realize that sometimes it's better to not use it yet. That's rare though.

My Ops group runs 2 Op healers and 2 Sin tanks.

Over 50% of our in-combat rezzes are not battle rezzes.

It depends on group makeup obviously, and individual competence, but saying that anyone should automatically battle rezz is a little silly. It is always situational, and if there's any ambiguity whatsoever, the raid leader should make the final call (and live with the consequences).

My Ops group runs 2 Op healers and 2 Sin tanks.

 

Over 50% of our in-combat rezzes are not battle rezzes.

 

It depends on group makeup obviously, and individual competence, but saying that anyone should automatically battle rezz is a little silly. It is always situational, and if there's any ambiguity whatsoever, the raid leader should make the final call (and live with the consequences).

Being in an organized raid group is very different from being in a pug - each raid group will look different and will thus have their own rules for it, and if you are in that raid group, you'll know about them, hence it's pointless to add exceptions for that - but the default behavior, if not told otherwise, should be to use that res.

Manage your threat. Dump your aggro regularly. If you're going to burst, let the tank know.

At the same time - if a healer pulls aggro (more often on trash than boss fights), try to get that mob off the healer if the tank is busy. Or kill it.

Manage your threat. Dump your aggro regularly. If you're going to burst, let the tank know.

 

At the same time - if a healer pulls aggro (more often on trash than boss fights), try to get that mob off the healer if the tank is busy. Or kill it.

glad you mentioned threat management as it is the MOST important thing for a dps not to fail at. pulling agro and flipping the boss around just before the frontal goes off far out weighs anything the op posted.

All you say is true, but also can be said in one sentence.

A true DD tops the Damagelist and is bottom at the healing received and death-list.

All you say is true, but also can be said in one sentence.

 

A true DD tops the Damagelist and is bottom at the healing received and death-list.

^ That is true (but it doesn't mean you should start wearing tank equip )