What Makes You a Top DPS Player?

[hallucigenocide]

This isn't really relevant to what I'm asking.


In trying to help members of a core static improve. So of course they know the fight as well as anyone else in the group and are under the same conditions. Yet every team has that one member who is always/nearly always last, and one who usually cones first. What is the difference in these two players?

to put it blunt.. they're not equal. allthough you'd have to share what classes where involved since that can have an impact on the fight since some favor one more than the other.

[PiedPiper]

to put it blunt.. they're not equal. allthough you'd have to share what classes where involved since that can have an impact on the fight since some favor one more than the other.

Fights favor classes, but not much. For us it's a blm that's struggling and a monk that's best.

And I'm aware "they aren't equal" but that's not a very helpful thing to say to someone: "get more equaler with that other guy."

[Umero]

...

aside from having good internet connections, and know your job/class exceptionally well.
having a most comfortable headup display and hotkeys binding, etc. etc. would greatly improve your performance.

[Caraway]

Honestly what I've seen is that while some folks can call off a rotation based on forum posts, they don't actually read their abilities. They "expect" something to work the way they think it will and that isn't always the case.

Case in point; I know a DRG who didn't realize Elusive Jump was an enmity reduction.

Sometimes a lot of folks will just take a cursory glance over their skill and come to assumptions which can often be very false.

Another thing I've noticed is people often ignore the benefit of DoT spells, and of properly timing your buffs with them. People see "Potency 30" and wrinkle their noses. But all class DoTs amount to a goodly amount of damage. And if you have your buffs up when you apply it, it carries through the whole life cycle of that DoT.


Then you get down to more minute things, like re-applying just after a DoT/buff expires instead of just before. You want to let things completely run their course before you go on to the next application. Use those oGCD cycles more effectively.

[T1M0N]

I think i understand what the op is saying.
So yeah there are players like this,they clearly know their class and what to do.And yet,they're not giving the performance we're expecting.
I think they know what to do,they just do it "slowly"
Example:A blm who is dpsing with astral fire totaly normal ,switch to ice with Ice 3 but instead of using swiftcast+thunder 3,cast thunder 3.They're wasting time,they could have go back on astral fire sooner but they lose about 2-3 sec.On a long fight,"mistakes" like this result in a lower dps than a "top " one.
It's just my opinion guys i've seen some people doing this multiples times in many classes.

[skaterger]

I'm nowhere top tier dps but from what I can tell

1) Exp - If you have played mmos before or are an avid gamer, it helps because many skills are shared among these games

2) Uptime - Very important. Never stop casting, never stop attacking. If an add is going to die and you need to cast fire 1 as blm, cast on a high health hp mob if not the mob will most probably die in mid cast.

3) Good UI - You need to position your skills properly so you can see when buffs run out and reapply them asap. They should also not clog up your screen so you miss important aoe markers on the floor.

4) Knowing the fight mechanics - This has been said many times but just knowing when to use go all out or when to hold back because a big attack is coming is invaluable.

5) Dedication to want to improve - No matter how much you think you know your class, there is always room for improvement. You need to have the desire to read guides/forums to learn small nuances about your class.

6) Motivation to try your hardest - Whether you are killing lvl 3 mobs in fate or doing t5, try your darn fricking best! Be angry at yourself if you screw up your rotation and tell yourself not to do it again. Spam your hotkeys, With the 2.5 sec gcd, you need to make sure your spells go off immediately after the last one. A 0.1 sec delay over the course of a fight can add up. If you are dealing less dps then someone equally/less geared than you, be angry at yourself and ask yourself why. I realize this might border on elitism, but the OP was asking about the TOP dps right ? =p

[givemeraptors]

I would also advise PS3 players to really work on their hotbar. Switching between hotbars is an underrated hurdle for DPS on a PS3, especially if you're a SMN and need to manage your pet hotbar. Try and arrange your rotation in a way that feels natural for your fingers, the symbol and directional buttons can feel very different, especially when you're holding down either L2 or R2. I personally find that I can cast R2 spells faster than L2 spells (i.e. press buttons faster), so I arrange my bar accordingly to keep most of my attacks on the right side and long term cooldowns I don't need to constantly press on the left. Things like this will help improve your casting times more than 400 spell speed.

[Freyt]

Communication - Tactics - Strategy - Experience

Communication allows you to learn what you don't know, and to convey that to others.
Tactics is your ability to implement what you know and use it to change the circumstances around you.
Strategy is your whole teams ability to employ what tactics you have in a single instance.
Experience is your own experience, ranging from leveling, dungeon experience, class experience, and so on.

A Dragoon who has never played any other class before, for example, might end up targeting random targets, causing the healer and tank to work over time. Someone who's never played White Mage might not realize that Conjurer has a sleep spell. A Warrior or Paladin who's never played Monk might not realize the importance and stress behind positional movement. A player who's never played Summoner might not realize they can't contribute very much immediate damage. And of course, the overall experience in the game and in the dungeon applies as well. That can range from simply pointing AoE's away from the group to knowing that Eye monster AoE's can be avoided by simply looking away. However implementing previous knowledge might lead you to never discover certain aspects of this game. If you always avoid the Eye AoE's for example, you'll never learn that they always miss if you look away. I learned that from someone who told me, not by discovering it on my own, and I use it frequently.

[Huntington]

Nothing, I'm told I do average DPS or "good enough" on most runs because repeating content over and over eventually gets draining. Of course I could do very well if I wanted to stretch for it, but I'm not very bad or very good, I do my role well enough to where I do content at a steady pace and that's it.

[Huntington]

I would also advise PS3 players to really work on their hotbar. Switching between hotbars is an underrated hurdle for DPS on a PS3, especially if you're a SMN and need to manage your pet hotbar.

This, I was heavily annoyed when I came back a few days ago and noticed that the mandatory pet hotbar was taken out when a Pet was summoned, luckily someone directed me to the UI Settings and I got it put back in, those months of playing and muscle memory made my SMN rotations wicked efficient, doesn't happen and I chocked badly when I tried to do a run when it wasn't there, made it through two mobs and quit because I was just slowing everyone else down by that point.