If the formatting is sloppy this week, it’s because this is the first post Fimlys isn’t submitting for me.  It may take me a while to familiarize myself with the WordPress bells and whistles (edit – thanks to Fimlys for swooping in with the link fixes).

I love Recount. Well, at least when it has the good sense to list my name first under “Damage Done.” But while many of us run some form of stat-tracking addon for dps, heals, damage taken, dispels, etc. there are websites that do it even better. The point of them, beyond simply comparing online “dps sizes” *cough* is to have some information that we can then learn from to improve our performance.

Several sites feature this in an in-depth format. Today, sticking with veiled references for the male member, we’re looking at World of Logs.
http://www.worldoflogs.com/

This site will give you more information than you’re ever likely to need, but is heaven for stat lovers.

A quick download of their application will allow you to record every boss fight in a given night, which can then be uploaded to the website for perusal and analysis. To give an example, here’s the damage done from my guild’s first ever downing of Lana’thel about a month and a half ago:

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/m3notg8t3e6k1d3t/analyze/dd/source/?s=5008&e=5314

And while it pains me to post a fight where I’m not first, the other hunter and I have both led that fight depending on who is bitten first. Still, I think the lesson learned from this is that hunters are awesome.

Two other uses for this site that I’ve found very beneficial:

1.Identifying WHAT is damaging you is often just as useful as knowing your damage done. Let’s look at another Blood Queen attempt from that night:

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/m3notg8t3e6k1d3t/analyze/dt/target/?s=4371&e=4695
Scroll over the names and you’ll see what the damage is from. Nearly all the damage done is shadow, which would tell us that we need as much shadow resistance as is possible. But while this particular fight is rather easy to identify in terms of damage type, there are plenty of fights with multiple types of damage, or spells that do a mixture of damage types (nature + shadow, for instance). Identifying what is killing you on wipes, then planning accordingly with your group, can be one of the most helpful things you do.

2. Let’s say you get as much information as you need from Recount, and don’t feel like uploading everything to a website. WoL can still be useful, or at least fun, because it can show you what classes are doing the best on which fights, and also what the max potential is for the class you play. Looking at the best numbers from Blood Queen (10M) on any server or class:
http://www.worldoflogs.com/rankings/players/Icecrown_Citadel/Blood-Queen_Lana%27thel/10N/dps/

…we can see that Mages are absolutely crushing it on her.

Or we could see what I could be doing in my MM spec if I were uber-l33t:

http://www.worldoflogs.com/rankings/players/Icecrown_Citadel/Blood-Queen_Lana%27thel/10N/Marksmanship_Hunter/

Holy damnit, MM can push 20K. Time to go cry in a corner with some Orcish Brandy. To be fair, my earlier parse was from Feb. 1 and was several upgrades ago, and my best recent result are much better, but I’m still a long way off.

Or say you’re a dps DK with a decision to make about your spec, and your guild is stuck on this boss. Comparing the 3 specs might give us some insight into which you should bring into it:

• Blood Spec
• Frost Spec
• Unholy Spec

Blood, it seems, has the highest potential, but there’s also a quicker drop-off in the totals than there is in Unholy. Frost can be tentatively eliminated, and the decision between the other two can probably be determined by which you feel more comfortable with. Not being a DK, there’s likely other factors that I’m not aware of, but this is to illustrate what kinds of conclusions you might be able to draw from such information.

In all there’s a lot to do on this site, more than I have time to cover. But if it seems at all interesting to you, browse around and record some of your own raids. Chances are you’ll learn something about yourself or your group.

(Editorial Comment: Please make sure to virus check your computer after this or any downloads onto your computer. There is no information at publication date that this site or its applications are harmful in any way, but caution should always be exercised.)