JB decided that this would be the weekend where she starts doing normal dungeons. She has an i343 gear level. She needed enchants, but they did not have to be top of the line since it was only dungeons (not raids) and her gear will be changing too quick to spend great gobs of cash on. Wild provided JB with enchants for cape, chest, bracers, gloves, and boots. JB bought the level 80 leg armor, the belt buckle for the extra gem, and the rep enchant for the shoulders. JB doesn't have enough rep to get the head enchant, yet. I then followed the advice of the AskMrRobot site to reforge her gear. I used the "5 man" setting, not raiding. Even so, JB's buffed melee hit was only at 11.89%, well short of the 17% needed to ensure JB didn't miss.
After getting all of that done, JB packed up her gear and headed for the Target Dummy. There are two types of target dummies - one for raids and one for level 85 mobs. I'm not sure which is more appropriate for dungeon level mobs, but JB knew that she would be missing quite a bit no matter which she used.
JB started practicing, trying different things and making sure to remember all of her spell priorities. With the spell cooldowns (cd), it's impossible to cast spells continuously. Sometimes every spell is on cd and there is nothing to do but stand there and do white damage. In real combat JB could self-heal when that dead time hits. She could even throw in a long cast spell like Lava Burst, but long cast spells can easily delay getting to higher damage spells coming off their cd.
JB initially was doing just under 8k DPS. She had forgotten to use Lightning Bolt during her Maelstrom procs and with that and further practice she pushed her DPS up over 10k. Finally, JB started mixing in Lava Burst when she hit a dead spot, and her DPS went up again, to 11.6k.
JB did remember to use her Searing Totem and her Feral Spirits, two spells that have longer cds and you need to make sure to cast them as soon as the cd is up. JB didn't drop either of her elemental totems, though, which would have increased her DPS further. Those totems are on a ten minute cd, so can only be used once per boss fight. She also did not use any flasks or buff food, which would also increase JB's damage dealing.
OH! She forgot to drop her normal dungeon totems! Ok, one more time at the target dummy.
So, after hitting up both the raiding dummy and the 85 dummy, using all normal totems and every spell except the elemental totem, here is how it shook out:
Raiding Dummy: 8.7k DPS
85 Dummy : 13.6k DPS
It was late Saturday night that JB joined the Looking for Dungeon (LFD) queue for the very first time. Even though she was signed up as a DPS, JB only had to wait about five minutes. The random choice of normal cata dungeon was the Lost City of Tol'vir. One quick comment about Cata dungeons. Wild has been in every one of them, but it's been quite awhile and Wild's memory of them is not very good. Wild was healing those dungeons, of course, which is also different from JB's melee DPS role.
The five of us gathered up, got our buffs, and waited for the tank to lead us in. JB picked up two dungeon quests. The tank took his time getting started, even commenting about the DPS paladin that he noted was in pvp gear. I thought it was a positive sign that the tank bothered to check our gear before launching. The tank laughed and said that it should be a cakewalk anyway.
We cleared some trash without any issues. As always, targeting was a challenge for JB, particularly when dealing with a group of mobs. The initial target was usually obvious, but after the first target died there were no marks or other way to know who to attack next. The tank routinely switched targets to maintain aggro so JB couldn't really use him to focus on. No one was assigned as main assist, either, so I just hammered at whatever mob was in JB's face.
The first boss was General Husam. Wild didn't remember the fight so wasn't much help to JB. JB avoided what looked bad and managed not to die as we took the General down. There were plenty more mobs between each of the bosses. I think we skipped one boss. The tank led us across rooftops and into a stream directly to the third boss, the alligator Lockmaw. So, we never encountered High Prophet Barim. Wild remembered Lockmaw. In Wild's days of cata dungeons we used a trick to avoid spawning mobs by standing on a ledge near Lockmaw. No one bothered with that in JB's group and Lockmaw died before I saw any spawning adds.
We had a healer change in mid-stream, one druid replacing another. The new healer didn't seem to like healing much, and our group was rarely at full health as the tank kept plowing forward. There didn't seem to be a mana issue, either, but JB was forced to self heal several times when she got down to around 25% health and still hadn't gotten any heals from the healer.
The final boss was Siamat, and that fight started coming back to me as things happened. Several types of adds spawn, but Wild vaguely remembered that the three largest ones were the key to the fight. Siamat is mostly immune to damage until those three mobs are killed. When Wild was doing this fight, players could be easily be thrown off the platform by Siamat's Wailing Winds during the second phase. JB was hit by that, but JB was just tossed around a bit at the edge of the platform and was never actually thrown off, so that part of the fight was likely nerfed at some point.
When Siamat fell, JB had her first clear of the Lost City. Normal Cata dungeons drop level i333 gear. JB still had four pieces of gear worse than that going into the dungeon. When she came out she had a new i333 ring to replace her i318 ring.
Siamat Falls
JB's DPS was nothing to rave about. Here is the order by DPS:
#1: tank, 10.6k DPS
#2: pally, 10.2k DPS
#3: JB, 8.0k DPS
#4: shdw priest, 5.8k DPS
JB's melee attacks missed about 12% of the time, but AskMrRobot did a good job getting JB's spell hit right. She never missed with her spells, even against the bosses.
Given JB's 8.7k DPS on the raiding dummy, I'd say JB's real 8.0k DPS in the dungeon was about right for her gear and skill level.
I think it's just going to take practice for JB to figure the best way to target, remembering to attack from behind (or, more specifically, to the side of) the targeted mob, and using all her abilities at the right time. JB used her Bloodlust only once, on the last boss. She should have used it on every boss. I still don't really understand how to use Assist. I know what it is, and what it's for, but the practical application of it still eludes me. JB and Wild are going to group up and play around with the /assist command and with some assist macros to see if I can make some sense out of it.
I do like being a DPS. When a target is in JB's sights, the dual blades are slashing, the spell casting is ablaze, and the blood is flowing, there is a kind of peaceful, worry-free fury. Someone else is keeping me alive, and my only responsibilities are to kill my target and try not to do anything stupid that the healer can't save me from. On this night that worked well enough.
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