Death Grip of DPS!

Circle of DPS?
Nowait! DEATH GRIP of DPS!

Yes, that's right!
My main is a dps after all!
Miss Medecina started it (/APPLAUSE btw),
Koriel extended it to Tanks.

So I'll be a complete copy cat and apply it to DPS.
I enjoyed the healing circle so much, I did think it would be fun to do as a DPS class, and the variety! Oh, the variety!

I'll call it the Death Grip of DPS.
Being almost completely unoriginal shames me somewhat, but hey, why mess with a good thing? This was indeed too fun to let it end!
I did change a few questions for the most part, but mostly left it with similar questions, just slanted for the death dealers amongst us.

Enjoy!

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?


Hinenuitepo, Draenei, Unholy glyph of disease spec



What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

Raids raids and moar raids. I try to complete all the 10 and 25 man Tier 9 content I can each week, but I also run the daily heroics most days. I DON'T pvp except the occasional Wintergrasp.



What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?

Yes, not fair to pick only one, I love so many. So, I'll list them:
-Death and Decay. Awesome graphic, satisfying sound, great dps!
-Corpse Explosion. It's been a long time since I've been specced for it, but who can argue with exploding corpses?
-Heart Strike. That single rune slash of awesomeness that hits even more baddies is fun fun fun.
-Scourge Strike. I love the big SS crits!
-Death Coil. Name stinks as a lock knockoff, but the graphic is great - oozing death simmering and sliding towards the mob... mmm
-Dancing Rune Weapon. I just love my current weapon duplicated and bashing away!
-Dual Wielded Obliterates. Feels so good.
-Ghoul - I just love my little buddy.
-Death Grip. Couldn't leave that yankage of soooo cool out.



What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?

Um... Army of the Dead, due to cooldown and situational effectiveness. Blood Strike? If I'm blood, Heart Strike replaces it. If I'm unholy, I'll only use it because I have to - and I'll pestilence whenever I can. The graphic is meh, the damage is weak....



What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?

DKs bring outstanding versatility to the dps game. They can do very solid single target dps and with the right spec unparalleled aoe.  They can survive very well and even self'-heal in a pinch. They have really cool utility abilities like Death Grip. But ok, the biggest? AOE.



What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?

Movement fights that require going in and out of melee range. I could be silly and say ranged fights, but that's just a melee thing and not really fair to DKs in particular. But yes, we don't really have a way to get back on target quickly and when we're out of range, our disease stacks and other dps-building abilties can fall off. We can't sprint, we can't charge, so getting back to melee range sucks.



In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?

Particularly with my glyph of disease spec, staying on a single main target with multiple adds that can be clustered around the boss. I'll do very solid dps to the boss, and TEAR UP the adds without even having to target them.



What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?

Clearly, my DK. I very much enjoy the double mechanics of rune cooldowns and runic power management. I find they're just complex enough, with very satisfying abilities. I loved my rogue throughout Burning Crusade and still have a soft spot for him. I really enjoyed being able to stealth and then attack and the dual-wielding damage-dealing was great fun. 



What tanking class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?

TBH, of all the dps classes I've raided with, I enjoyed my warlock the least. Of course, that was the height of destro lock shadow bolt spam, so it wasn't really fair to the class.



What is your worst habit as a dps?

Tunnel vision. like many pve dpsers, I can get very focused on spam spam spamming my dps abilities. I don't die in fire often, but sometimes I don't interrupt or do other things as well as I should.



What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?

Players that won't follow instructions. We're a team. Do what is asked of you. I'm as focused on topping the meters, and kill kill kill as anyone. I'm very competitive. But sometimes killing a boss comes first. A close second would be people that keep dpsing long after a wipe has been called, trying to pad their meters (and healers that keep healing. Shoot, that's just a waste of time).



Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?

I've posted on this before. I think DKs are fine. They're probably about 6th in terms of dps classes; I have to work hard to stay on top of the meters and 'pure' dps classes should be better. That being said, I think a few dps classes should get some love.



What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a tank?

I do use recount all the time. Overall damage is actually more accurate than dps because casters always have time that doesn't count against them. But, consider the role. I mean, I should be way on top on Onyxia if ranged are asked to ignore whelps and dps Ony. That's not a fair comparison. I like WowMeterOnline for combat log parses and spend a lot of time looking at mine, my guildies' and top guilds' parses. I like to see if my attacks are balanced with what I see elsewhere, and look at everything from cooldown usage to miss/dodges, to how big my biggest attacks are.



What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?

That we're all 'Deathtards.' It's easy to be a mediocre DK. It's hard to be superior, even more than for many classes. We're all adolescent kids that don't know anything. Unfortunately, this is true in many cases, but the top guilds are full of the their very best players that rerolled DK for Lich King.



What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?

How to balance an effective rotation with priorities (like for my spec, keeping a strong stack of diseases up) and cooldowns.


What dps class do you feel you understand least?

I've never ever played a hunter. My RL neighbor was new to the game and rolled one, and I couldn't really help him beyond the very basics. I couldn't help with spec, I couldn't help with rotation. Nada.



What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?

Lately my favorite is Bleeding Hearts, which I've written about. It helps set up rolling diseases, but it's useful for every spec in knowing when to pop cooldowns. I also really like Mik's Scrolling Battle Text for proc announcements and when to do things like refresh Bone Shield or use Howling Blast. I like my MetaHud for displaying my health and the health of my target. Those are the main ones I can think of.



Strength over other stats or balanced stat allocation, and why?

I think the conventional wisdom is to stack strength. There is plenty of debate over getting hit and expertise to the cap first before stacking strength. Some even argue about armor penetration for blood DKs. I find capping expertise is nice, but not horrible if I'm a few ratings below 26. I find having hit much below 232 (draenei and raid buffs ftw) can start to hurt, fast. But once my hit is capped, I'll do everything I can to get strength. EVERYTHING. I'm completely unconvinced of the arguments for the superiority of arpen over str for high-end blood raiders. Sure, I have a high-arpen set for my blood spec, but I don't sacrifice strength for it.

EDIT:
In trying to find a few dps-oriented blogs to tag, I realized how few of them there are! I'm sure there's dozens I'm not aware of, so it would be very cool if a few folks got tagged and responded, but for now I did tag a few friends that are dpsers: Calli of Pew Pew Lazers, Sam at Slice and Dice, and Elnoria at Plagued Candles (his DK is mostly a tank, but he has several dps classes). If you fill this out, let me know and I can add a link to your blog and/or tag a few other dps bloggers out there!