I'm A Harsh Judge

I am a harsh judge as a raid leader when it comes to damage dealers.  I firmly believe that the game is all about them.  Healers and tanks are just support characters to the main game of dealing damage.  Healers are just there to keep people alive.  Tanks are just there to keep the mobs attention.  The damage dealers are the ones that kill the big baddies and as such that is where I expect the most of people.
The faster the bosses go down, the easier the fight is.  Healing is easier when the boss goes down faster.  Tanking is easier when the boss goes down faster. 

When I heal I love healing for high DPS and hate healing for low DPS.  Same when I tank.  It is just the way the game is designed.  Everything is easier when you have good DPS.

The damage dealers have to do all they can do to avoid all damage and do as much damage as they can.  If a damage dealer gets caught in avoidable damage.  I get upset a hell of a lot more than I would if a tank or a healer did.  I demand more of my damage dealers.

Outside of that is the basic fact of numbers.  No matter what I see from them I want to see it better next time.  There is a theoretical cap on damage you can do and no one I know has ever reached it which means that there is always room to get better.

I look at it from my own perspective of my hunter.  There is a cap to the damage I can do and I try to get as close to that cap as possible.  I consider 80% to be a fair number for a non heroic raider.  If my personal damage cap is 28K and I can pull at least 22400 I am okay with that.  Okay only.  I can do better.  My damage cap means there is something for me to aim for.  Sure, that number means no movement and there are rarely any chances to get a no movement fight, but that is why I say 80% is acceptable.

It kills me when I see people doing 14K in raid that have a damage cap of 30K.  You are doing less then 50% of your potential.  You do not even have a right to be in the raid.

See what I mean?  I am being really harsh on the damage dealers.

As long as a tank does their job I never complain about them not putting out their theoretical TPS or even 80% of their theoretical TPS.  I honestly do not care what their TPS is.  Do they keep the mobs on them and never have aggro issues?  Then I don't care.

As long as a healer keeps people up I never complain about them not putting out their theoretical HPS or even 80% of their theoretical HPS.  I honestly do not care what their HPS is.  Do they keep the raid alive and give us a chance to down the boss?  Then I don't care.

If the boss dies I do not care what the tank and the healer did.  I still care what the damage dealers did.  I don't care if 14K was enough to kill the boss.  If you are capable of 30K there is no excuse for doing 14K.  24K is fine, it is 80% of the theoretical cap for your gear but 14K is unforgivable.

I mentioned this to one of my DPS yesterday and he said he will try to step it up some.  I explained to him that I completely understand when someone is new to a fight.  I understand that DPSing a fight you are new to your DPS will be lower.  I am totally fine with that.  DPS, just like tanks and healers, need to learn the fight and a DPS learning the fight can usually be seen easier because it shows up in the numbers everyone sees.

I've noticed since the inflation of stats on gear that there are fewer and fewer good damage dealers out there.  Maybe with the higher numbers it is more noticeable now but it is surely something I have been noticing.

Not many people are pushing 80% of their potential and to me that means they are not doing their job.  At least not doing it well.

I've been looking at the bigger picture and I start to wonder if it is just me that does this.  It is just me that has become an overly harsh judge when it comes to DPS?

I want more from them.  I do not care if 14K from everyone will down the boss.  I want 24K from everyone.

I am not asking for 100%, all I want is 80%.

I don't think there are more then 10 people on my server that I have seen consistently pull 80%.  Are all DPS on all servers that bad or am I just asking too much from people?