How can an addon report DPS different from overall damage?

[tobindax]

I notice recount routinely reports differences, big differences.

e.g. a guy with DPS 1st; on the 'Overall Damage' list he is 4th; big difference.

Why?

Simple math says Damage per Second will have a flat equality with Damage in overall since well, the 'seconds' are specific.

Ah wait. Is it dead people that 'screw' the numbers?

Though if it's dead people the reason, why can't it be compensated on the meter and accordingly put them at the same order (in DPS and 'Overall Damage').

Hrm, DOTs that are on after you die? Though I think those despawn. Or do they.

Or wait, is it because if I die, I get no 'data' from others?

But wait, that still doesn't explain a DPS-Overall Data discrepancy at all.

[Nibelheim]

A few factors. Presence and Uptime being the two big ones. This results in total dps vs active dps vs overall damage done.

[karl_w_w]

It's obviously true that dps x time = total damage, but the time is not time from start to end of the fight, it's time spent dpsing.

[tobindax]

Originally Posted by karl_w_w It's obviously true that dps x time = total damage, but the time is not time from start to end of the fight, it's time spent dpsing.

So it's dead people or people out of range etc. right?

No wait, dead or offlines, out of range would count normally, I guess.

Or those that left the group obviously.

[Rilgamon]

And when does a fight start ?
When do tanks, dps enter combat ? When the healer ?

damage meters are statistics tools. and for statistics it is important to have rules for collecting data. the numbers of one player are not important when playing in a group because you're looking only at a subset of available data.

there is no easy way to share your collected data with a friend in a honest way.
if someone tells you he is doing 20k dps that means nothing. i can do 20k dps with my warrior tank when I have enough targets and heal.

the "best" results you get from webservices where you can upload different logs for the same fight.

[Xinhuan]

It's all about how you measure "time" in the "Damage Done divided by Time Taken".

Is it time from first damage event, to last damage event? What if the player dies and DoTs continue ticking?

Or should time be "boss engage" to "boss death"?

What if you enter combat before/stay in combat after boss dies?

How about the time players aren't doing anything, and how would you measure this?

Every addon and combat log parser will treat "time" differently. AddOns also generally have more information (in real time) than from a saved /combatlog.

[Seerah]

Say the tank runs ahead and starts the next group of mobs. I was left behind looting all of the cloth from the mobs (GO tailoring!) and catch up a few seconds behind everyone else.

I start to cast Arcane Blast, and do not enter combat until my cast goes off and hits the target. Time in combat starts ticking away.

Now, say I have a string of huge crits and the tank was slacking off. The mob runs towards me and I hit Invisibility. I go out of combat and invisible before the tank pulls the mob back. Time in combat stops counting.

I start to cast Arcane Blast, and do not enter combat until my cast goes off and hits the target. Time in combat starts ticking away....



In addition to the example above, keep in mind the following information. DPS and total damage done as presented by these addons are (as mentioned above) statistics. Not a picture of the entire fight. The following are examples of GOOD things to do which NEGATIVELY impact your DPS and damage done.

• staying out of the fire
• silencing the target
• crowd control
• kiting (and having to stay in range)
• threat-reducers (invis, etc)
• healing oneself (pots, self-heals, etc)
• changing targets

[Crissa]

Yeah, I've totally been there - bottom of the dps, but I show up high on the damage soaked, healed, etc. And I've spiked and flamed out by the unlucky dodge into the damage aura that wasn't displayed or being the poor unlucky sot to get the 'x is about to explode' several times in a row. (Oh how I hated Molten Core)

Since everyone isn't in combat the same amount of time (via positioning, when they have to wait to engage, on FIRE, or whatever) the DPS and total damage scales are going to be different.

Sometimes this is fair; someone pulled aggro and died, someone was too far away, someone wasn't using the right attacks. Sometimes this isn't fair; they got more debuffs, the healer on their side got nuked or lagged off, it's a fight that favors a type of damage or makes the melee run around like crazy while the ranged doesn't have to move... Etc.

-Crissa