Kheldul's Hunter DPS Tip #8: Low FPS FTL

Tip 8: Low FPS FTL
When raid AoE starts crashing in if your Frames Per Second fall to single digits most likely your computer needs some upgrading. Anything under 30FPS is probably going to affect your DPS -- from minor, to major, to severe. Most raiders will be getting 60FPS. 60FPS is a high quality video on the internet. 30FPS is a standard quality video. You can think of numbers below 29.875 as degraded. Often sound doesn't synchronize with the video. If you are getting 30FPS you probably need to have your enhanced video settings (dimensions, shadows, spell effects, etc) turned down. Maybe you already do. Spell effects are important. Make sure your setting allows you to see the fire you are standing in. The color and effects of the fire vary all the time. So does the floor color. Experiment. Seek guild advice. Don't run in windowed mode. That will lower your FPS. Don't run in max resolution. Knock it down for a speeder response.

If you have adjusted your video settings and you're still below 30 while in an active raid, then you can use this completely made up rule of thumb to see your DPS penalty: for every 3 FPS below 30, you will be doing 10% less damage than if you were at or above 30. When you're at 0 FPS you'll be at zero DPS. Okay, maybe that heuristic is crap, but you get the idea.

If you are still out of luck with tuning settings down, ask a knowledable person what you should upgrade on your computer. It could even potentially be a bad router, hub, or faulty NIC. But generally, you'll want to upgrade your computer RAM, video card, and CPU in that order of priority.

Kheldul's Hunter DPS Tip #7: Network Latency

Tip 7: Network Latency
Do you usually have high network latency? Do you live in Australia and have your server in California? Do you work in Iraq or Afghanistan and raid in New Jersey? Do you have a crappy internet provider? Or is it just temporary? The Australia connection can be dealt with to some degree. You can use quartz and stop-casting-pre-cast. You can focus more on DoT and channeled casts. You can hit things a little earlier and switch targets a little sooner. You will suffer a DPS penalty, but it doesn't need to be tremendous. If you're in Iraq and coming in via satellite with two second latency, you can ... solo. If you are like me and have a 300ms latency cross-country then you will basically just be taking a 50-100dps penalty. Not a big deal. If you have crappy internet then you should scream and shout. If you are red-lined and not normally, then check for background downloads (virus definitions, windows updates, podcasts, etc.) on your computer and your housemates.

Kheldul's Hunter DPS Tip #6: Pre-Combat Pottin'

Tip 6: Pre-Combat Pottin'
For a crazy extra little umph, quaff a pot just before combat begins. You won't get the combat pot debuff, just the normal potion cooldown. I recommend this only for hard-modes where you have a good plan. You don't want to use it on any boss with a in-combat pulse but a long speech before anyone can attack. And you want to let people know you're doing it (they might be impressed!) so that the potion isn't completely wasted before the actual combat engagement.

Kheldul's Hunter DPS Tip #5: Time on Target and Movement

Tip 5: Time on Target and Movement
You do need to move. You don't need to continue moving. Figure out how to move less and spend less time doing it. Be quick to keep your target in range. Use disengage to move left and right instead of just backward. You can disengage between autoshots and other cooldowns. Consider the movement enchant instead of icewalker for your boots if you don't need the hit. Stutter step so you let your auto-shots fire. Get an addon to help visualize your autoshot timer. If you use wowwebstats.com, challenge yourself to increase your "DPS Time" in boss fights.

Kheldul's Hunter DPS Tip #4: Buff That Pet!

Tip 4: Buff That Pet!
Get a truckload of the pet food buffs. Even the bad stuff is better than nothing. Use them when you eat. Walking around with an unbuffed pet makes them slightly more squishy. Think of an un-strength-buffed pet as a negative to your DPS. All the calculators assume your pal is bee-you-eff-eff'd. Don't make Fluffy sad.