Hulk Smash!

I know... I always make fun of the silly little DPSers and their odd ways. The way that they attack targets before the tank does; the way that they go off and do their own thing and aggro mobs that you were going to leave well alone; the way that they try to keep themselves warm by standing in the fire; or even the infuriating inability to switch targets at a moments notice before the horrible exploding add wipes the raid.

Well, guess what? Now I'm one of them...

Let me tell you, it's hell down here.

I'd managed to get myself used to raid tanking. You hold threat, make sure that your target is stood where you want it to be, that it's facing the right direction, and you try to not die. You do all of those things and and you're a good tank. Okay sure, you're usually stood near to the end of the boss that has teeth, claws and fire coming out of it, but that's what healers are for, right? At most, you have to share your personal space with another tank, but at least you can see what's going on.

As a melee DPS, you don't get your own little personal space and personal healer. You're hanging around the bosses' backside with all manner of Warriors, Rogues, Ghouls, Hunter Pets and Ret Paladins. All you can see is people waving weapons around and explosions. Slime pool? What slime pool?

Oh...

/releasespirit

So, I'm having a little bit more sympathy for the melee DPS, who have to scurry around, trying to keep up with the boss that's being kited around a room, whilst trying to maintain some semblance of a rotation/spell priority. If tanks are the generals; calling the shots and determining when and where things happen, and healers are the support crew; keeping everything going and stopping things from going pear-shaped, then DPS are the troops; there to get the job done.

For all the chaos and change of focus, I'm loving it!

I get to see things from a different perspective, do some more gearing up, research and fine-tune priority systems, hammer away at target dummies, and basically try to hone the old Death Knight into the best damage dealing weapon that I can.

Conveniently, Skeleton Jack has just put up a post about Mr Robot, a DPS simulator. I like it. I've had a look  at it and played around with it; I can see it becoming something I refer back to quite a lot.

So there you have it. Rachkalos goes DPS, hits things, things die. Maybe he makes less fun of the poor guys who have to chase after the boss and hit it.

Don't think that changing my view of you squishies on the back row, though. What are you guys up to... sitting around there, 30 yards away? Are you guys having a picnic over there, or something?