Has Recount Ruined WoW?
- June 17th, 2011
- Posted in World of Warcraft
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We’ve all used it. Most of us still use it. Recount. The addon that is chalk full of information used to either stroke the e-peen or call out the idiots for not doing something right. At some point throughout almost any dungeon or raid, you’re going to see a stream of numbers cycle up your chat box giving an in depth description of how everyone did with their damage. Usually, it’s continuously spammed by the person who is at the top of that chart just so everyone in the group/raid knows that “THEY are the badass”. But we don’t live in a game now where that is a huge deal. Big numbers are always good to see and with the current stats on gear, like it or not, you’re going to see them.
Personally, on my shaman who is freshly 85, I’ve seen healing crits for 56K. Even on my tank (which isn’t supposed to be a dps hound) I’ve seen 31K crits. As a dps, you’re going to see big numbers all the time. BUT, looking at how heroics and current raid content is set up, you’re constantly on the move. As everyone knows, when you’re moving (for the most part) you’re not casting anything that’s not an instant spell. When you’re not casting spells, you’re not doing damage. What many players fail to realize is that when you’re dead, you don’t get to cast ANY spells at all. Period. I’ve been in heroics where a dps dies and then immediately posts recount. Is he (or she) at the top of the list? Yup! But guess what you snot slinging reject, you stood in the fire and died because the healer felt healing the tank was more important than your dumb ass. NOW, you’ve gone from the top of the charts, to zero. Congratulations. And you continue to wonder why you’re time in LFG is about 40 minutes? Tanks and healers don’t want to put up with you, but really have no choice.
On the flip-side however, there are times where this addon can prevent a wipe fest. A lot of the Cataclysm encounters require to you play the game by the mechanics and not just burn the boss down and heal through the damage. There are things that have been thrown back into the game like interrupts. Interrupting a bosses ability can do wondrous things. It can prevent the boss from healing himself back up to full health. It can prevent him from summoning adds and overwhelming the tank. There are limitless mechanics that the interrupt ability puts an immediate stop to. Recount will tell you how many interrupts were cast in a particular fight. That’s right DPS! You guessed it! Recount tells things BESIDES how awesome you think you are! Please don’t feel cheated….. If someone doesn’t confess that they don’t know the fight, and interrupts NEED to be cast, that will tell you right away when the persons name doesn’t even show up on the list for interrupts. That is where the tool can be useful in preventing wipe after wipe after wipe.
The last thing that I would like to point out about recount is the fact that you can click on each player and see what their primary spell is. If someone’s gear is very good, however they are pulling half the dps they should be, it’s an easy way to see exactly where the broken link in the error chain is. I’ve seen mages who have 75% of their gear from raids and they are only doing about 6K dps. Upon further inspection, they are only spamming frostbolt. I’m sure you can see the problems. If the rotation looks good, you can then question their “give a shit” level. Again, after a 40 minute wait, you’d think that they want to go all out and add to the group as much as possible, but alas, so many stupid people in this game.
So I guess the overall point to this post is this: Has recount ruined wow? I personally believe it’s a 50/50 split. When it’s apparent that dps is all someone cares about, then yes. They are only stroking their e-peen and making life rough on the rest of the group. You’re big numbers don’t do a single thing for the healer or tank except make life more difficult. However, if you can actually spot why the boss isn’t getting killed or why someones dps output doesn’t equal their gear rating, you can offer the help which will in turn change their numbers and make you look like a hero.
I apologize if I was really hard on dps during this post. It was a rough couple of randoms and they all had the same theme…….”look at how much dps I’m doing!”.
Twizz out.
Follow me on Twitter! @TwizzleTank or you can shoot me an e-mail at TwizzleTank@gmail.com
I hate recount. I hate running randoms and the dps posts numbers through out the run. Its annoying.
That was the theme of all my randoms this past week. “I’m at the top of the DPS charts!!!” yeah, you’re also at the top of the “# of deaths” chart too. Thanks for reading!!!
A. Thank God I didn’t run any randoms with twizz this week.
B. I’v seen idiots posting scores time after time, but I can ignore it, though I do look to see how their recount is synced with mine. My reason for using it is to measure my output as a DPS in relation to the group. I know that if I’m down close to the tank (or God forbid that Shaman healer!) that I’m not doing something right, and it spurs me to pay more attention, and/or check my rotations and gear set.
That said I will post recount only on request by someone in the group (and only if no one else does). Most hilarious posting of recount by a DPSwhore I’ve seen, was a guy (had to be a guy) that posted and wooted with no trace of sarcasm, after the joust phase in TOC.
Oh yeah, I’ve seen that before hahaha! or how about at the very end of Throne of the Tides when everyone goes into SUPER buffed mode and all of your numbers are ridiculous and someone posts the recount on that. “Good for you! If you can do 1.5 MILLION DPS on every fight I have a spot for you on my raid team. Artard.”
Another solid one. I like your topics because they cover things that go beyond certain expansions. That ‘s the kind of quality I look for in a blog, so that I can return 6 months later and be reminded of something, when needed.
I use Recount myself, but i’m too lazy to actually use or even learn the damn addon to the extent that i’d need to become as good as I can be. At the same time, if things die ina heroic and I learn from the mistakes I do, i’m fine with it. That’s why buying a new computer might make me go for a more serious approach a’la the mentality I had in TBC. Being serious is more fun, even for a wealthy, sober, drunk druid playing a hunter.
Recount, when used in raids in order to spot things that can be improved, I love it!! When used for DPS, healing or any other kind of” I do the most” metres I fucking hate it to no end. If I ever link DPS I do it to players with a good attitude and in a /w.
Awesome blog! I found it by googling “recount ruined wow”. I had downloaded it on a Saturday morning and spent HOURS in tears, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong in dungeons to come out at not just last place, but a sad last place. Next thing you know, I learned a whole bunch and became a way better player for it. And I’m sure people LFD are happier for it as well… even though they are still pricks.
Ha! I’m glad that you liked my article!!! Recount is a great tool for figuring out where you’re at and what you’re doing, but people use it to measure your actual skill as a player and “how good you are”. Those people can eat a whole bag full of dicks!