My paper that would've gotten an A

It's not going to get an A here, but just remember, in my head it was worth that much :)

So I like to see the damage meters after every run. At first it was because I needed to see that I was actually doing damage, and later on to see if the increases in my gear and also of my familiarity/experience with the instance were upping it. And it was. So really at that point I didn't need to see the damage reports. But I still wanted to know, and I was thinking about why I wanted to know, which got me to thinking about why I've heard/seen other people express dislike for listing the damage meter. And this is where I pull out my soccer analogy, because it really illustrates the point I wanted to make.

A soccer team fields 11 players, consisting of a goalkeeper, 4-5 offensive players, and 4-6 defensive players depending on which lineup your coach chooses. The offensive players are typically the ones who score the goals, the defensive ones prevent the ball from reaching their own net, and the goalkeeper is the hub of the entire team, being the last line of defense and the one to start the team on the offensive again. Without each part of the team working together as a whole they will be beaten. It won't matter how many goals your forward scored if the other team scores more than you. And the defense preventing any penetration is also excellent, but without the forwards scoring goals you might tie but certainly not win. And if the goalkeeper is off their game then you're hosed.

Now I'm gonna apply that to WOW (I've had to stretch a wee bit to make it work, but I think it still gets my point across).

A raid consists of 10 players. A tank, an off-tank, 2-3 healers, and 5-6 DPS (at least based on the raid setups I've seen so far-I don't know how other people do it). The tank is the goalkeeper, the one on whom the raid hinges. The off-tank is the rest of the offense, the healers are the defense, and the DPS'ers are the midfield (which I consider to be offensive but not necessarily the front line). Now, the damage meter is like counting how many goals you scored. Very nice and shiny, we all will cheer you, good job. However, you can't just go by how much damage a person did. Without the healers keeping everyone alive you're gonna wipe. Without the DPS people who can CC sheeping/fearing/ice trapping/etc. the raid can be overwhelmed and you wipe (pally's, don't criticize. I know you can take on a whole room and be shoutin' "yeah, baby! woot!" the entire time. I'll get to that). Without the tank doing all his aggro-buttons he loses threat and you wipe. And without the DPS rocking the charts you never down the big bad dude whom you're fighting, the healers run out of mana, the tank dies, and you all wipe. Everyone has their part to play. Even with a pally tank (i.e. a super goalie who saves goals AND scores them :) the healers have to keep them alive and the DPS have to rock the charts in order to down them all.

So those who pick and choose solely based on damage meters really are being a bit short-sighted. And those of us DPS'ers who see that they and their pet combined equaled the damage output of the shiny-purple-stabbystabby-rogue Cassie in ZA (I was just a tad excited to see that-she's a DPS machine) need to remember that while that's good, without the rest of the team it wouldn't have mattered.

So, while I'll still ask to see what the damage charts looked like, what I'm really asking is how many goals I scored for the team.

P.S. I'm hoping that this all made sense because I don't feel like editing it. Cheers!

P.S.S. Because I've been worrying all morning that my view regarding damage meters was not clearly stated in this post (I had only had 2 cups of coffee, after all :) I figured I'd do what my English prof's always said: "Say what you're gonna say, say it, and then say it again." This is saying it again :)

While damage charts can be interesting to look at they are only a part of what makes a successful run. CC, tanking, healing, and figuring out how to play your class to the best of your abilities is far more important, imo, than worrying about massive damage output. And on that note I'd like to congratulate Blu, Shrinn, and Occulus for a wonderful job of CC'ing last night, Nas, Doodle, and Shade for their healing, Fal and TripleB for being super-tanks, and Cassie for doing all her awesome rogueish things. And Boru for being the awesome bigredkitty that he is :)

Ok, now I'm determined not to worry anymore and enjoy watching Stargate SG1 season 6 while my Orclette naps.