Someone tell me how this works?

[Gonzo550]

Guildleader says zerkers can do 2k dps zonewide with a dirge, templar and scouts. how? is it specing or luck? I'm practically mastered out (missing like 2 t6 attacks) in fabled gear with an uber weapon (87 dr hammer). Is it possible or something SOE has nerfed?

[Kaberu]

As a side to this post... I wonder if this is an example of where all out of hand  "nerf!!!" cries come from? Please don't take this personally, but this post presented an excellent chance to point out something we see all across these forums. First, someone told you that it's possible to do 2k zone-wide but it's obvious that you are not near that otherwise there would be no reason to ask the question. Second, you seem to have no idea how other classes affect you (such as the dirge class)... no biggie from a perspective of someone learning, but it's a major factor in DPS when raiding. You are also mastered out and fabled out and I'm assuming at cap for level which leads me to believe you've played at least a little while. Is there anything wrong with any of that? Nope. You are probably a representative of the majority of players out there. You play to have fun and gather loot. You play your character and it's probably all manner of enjoyable. And then people like "us" step in and muddle it a bit... "Us" have a lot of time on our hands. You have your more popular forum regulars like Kemt, Skel and the like but it also includes all the people who have just played a really long time and even those that just love statistical data to chart and calculate. I can't say I speak for Kemt and the others, but I'm pretty sure I can take a really good guess at the things they do. When I play with non-berserkers, I ask all sorts of questions. Not all at once, just gradually as time goes on. A couple of them I have played as alts, but most of them I have just peppered with various inquiries... What does that buff do? What is that spell effect from? What tactics do you use when soloing? Etcetera, etcetera... I even browse their forums just for the heck of it. When I'm tanking for a group, I often scan my buff bar checking out every buff, debuff and effect that is not my own. Not for any particular reason, but just to know... just to learn for the sake of learning. I've wasted many a plat on respeccing just to toy around with gear and specs that I'd never seriously consider using. But I specced for it anyway just so I knew what it was like. I have also died numerous times fighting monsters I knew I could not beat just to see if I could find a way to last a second longer. Right about now, the word "psycho!" might be running through your head but don't worry, I have a point... I know a lot of stuff about Everquest 2, probably a lot more than I should. And I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I (and others) take that for granted. It's not because we are smarter or teh ubers compared to the next guy, but at least as far as myself, I think I am just some random dude. I forget that just because you might be another random dude, that you might not have figured it all out yet. To bring this in perspective of your post: It's easy for me or Skel or your guild leader to say, "It's easy to parse 2k+ in a raid!" It's also easy to say, "Do A, B, and C to parse 2k+ in a raid!" The truth is that it really is easy... but only because we've made it easy for us through our experiences. What I'm thinking is that we know why, not just how. "Why" is more than just reading the explanations on the forums. Just putting someone into a buckler spec (for example) does not just make them better. I can't really explain it clearly, but there's a "feel" for each spec. A certain rhythm and beat that makes your character dance just the right way. The only way to understand it is through experience. Experience takes time( unfortunately for those who only want a quick adjustment). So here is what I offer, mere suggestions with a condition: Take the time to learn their flow... even if you don't like it at first. They each have a distinct beat to their heart and it's possible that only one, or even none, will match your own tempo. For raiding, a buckler spec works well whether you are tanking or not, but not necessarily as well as a two-handed spec if you are solely DPS. Here are some of my favorite specs (just the base builds, not the full point spread). Have fun and I hope you find what you are looking for! > STR 4-4-8, WIS 4-4-8, INT 4-4-8  Nice Two-handed spec built for damage, especially when coupled with a two-hander that has a large damage range (like what the Kettleleader's Katana has). You take a huge hit on tanking/survivability unless you switch to a good tower shield for heavy fights. It means you either hit really hard or tank very well, but not both at the same time. > STR 4-4-8, STA 4-8-8-8-2  Extremely durable build for nearly any condition. Going from full defense to full offense is as simple as switching stances. Right now I spent my extra points in the aggro boost in the STR line. Going INT 4-1 would boost my DPS some, but with the various forms of reactives I have (which do not benefit from haste), I figured I could improve my AOE hate generation with the STR-line boost. Coupled with the two antideath abilities and the ability to pump out a ton of damage while being OOM, this will always be my favorite build. The final does a very nice job at conserving power and keeping health up. It's also fitting to the berserker class that spamming attacks like a madman is a method of healing! > STR 4-4-8, INT 4-4-8-8-2  Another one for Two-handers, this provides a nice boost to your CA damage output (along with autoattack) but can turn you into a mana burner on par with brawlers if you are not careful. The final is nice because it reduces reuse times that stack with the Berserker-only AAs that also reduces reuse time on abilities like Destruction and Open Wounds.

[Triste-Lune]

with shity weapon (villucidae sword) i parse about 1K5 in Inner sanctum. if you want to raid tank str 4 4 8 8 stam 4 5 8 8 or str4 4 8 7 stam 4 4 8 8 2. or ditch stam for agi line. if you want to off tank DPS only : str agi stam 4 4 8.

[Schmalex23]

Armus@Oasis wrote:

Guildleader says zerkers can do 2k dps zonewide with a dirge, templar and scouts. how? is it specing or luck? I'm practically mastered out (missing like 2 t6 attacks) in fabled gear with an uber weapon (87 dr hammer). Is it possible or something SOE has nerfed?

Its somewhat true.  As far as i know only me and a few other zerkers can hit 2k ZW in EoF.  You have to have exactly the right gear, group setup, and right classes in the raid for this to happen.  I would say a more realistic goal is 1500-1700 ZW's in EoF.  Thats what most of the upper end zerkers are putting out.  So yes, its possible for a berserker to put out 2k.... but not likley. Also Kaberu's post above is pretty well writen and i would have to say i agree with the majority of it.  He is also right, we can tell you how you should spec but you have to understand why you are spec'd that way.  What classes boost your DPS, what stats you need, what type of armor is good etc.  If i told you i wore teir 5 gloves to DPS you would think im kidding... but im not. What we do by giving you specs and ca orders and little tips/strats is build the foundation for you to grow your DPS.  Its up to you to whip out the parse take an indepth look at your zonewide see where all your DPS is comming from and find areas to improve on.  Its not something that will just instantly happen, you need to try xx strat/spec/ca order over a week and compare it with the previous week.   So lets start with what your role is in the raid, how much do you tank, what instances are you clearing on a regular basis, is your raid setup static, etc.

[Hardain]

Str 4-4-8 Sta 4-4-8-8 Int 4-5 seems to be quite common build for raid tanks, i use it too. It gives you nice dps, but you are still able to tank every raid zone. And if that 87DR hammer is from Mayong, you should be able to do near 2k dps zonewide with that spec.

[Kage8]

One thing also is your raid makeup, and im not talk about buffs/debuffs. I'm talking about the dps of the people you raid with. I'm in a very casual guild. We have like 4 or maby 5 high dps players...The rest are dps but they don't have the gear or ability to do the dps they should be. ( on a side note we don't care. We raid with friends and people we like and if we cant do a zone because of that then so be it ) So our overall raid dps is pretty low. If the raids dps is low then your dps will be low cause the raid is taking longer to kill the mob, there for you DAMAGE PER SECOND goes up cause it takes more SECONDS to kill the mob. So with that being said no one in my guild raid will zone wide parse 2k. Im not sure if this is ur situation or not but think of it this way.. Don't judge you dps skill on the dps number...Base it on 2 things: What place did i finish zone wide? 1st,2nd,3rd,10th? And: Who did you beat out? Or who did i finish behind? Know your raiders. Example....This is my situation btw...I come in 3rd on every zone wide parse (~800dps). The 2 guys ahead of me Warlock (~1200dps) and Nec (~1kdps). Now these 2 mages know there classes inside and out and have good gear, same as me. I would beat out Wiz's, Conj, every single scout in the guild, and we have a few. So in conclusion your damage in a raid is not as cut and dry as oh i did this dps zone wide. There are many MANY different things that go into what your doing damage wise. Uber raid guilds 2k dps is not the same as my guilds 2kdps. And it may have nothing, or little, to do with skill lvl or gear.

[Frakk]

What other classes have the biggest impact on zerker DPS? My guess would be dirge #1 for all the stuff they bring.  Maybe troub or illusionist #2? What else would have big impact?  Instinct from a warden I'd imagine if you're fighting lvl 73+ mobs. The assassin poison proc is good, I think only one person gets it though; not sure if you get anything from rangers/swashies/brigands. Monk and bruiser probably won't do much if you're already over 100 haste/dps.  I've heard SK can be decent, I don't know what they do really though.  Casters have various procs. Can any of you people with broad class knowledge let us know what has some decent impact?

[Schmalex23]

Frakk wrote:

What other classes have the biggest impact on zerker DPS? My guess would be dirge #1 for all the stuff they bring.  Maybe troub or illusionist #2? What else would have big impact?  Instinct from a warden I'd imagine if you're fighting lvl 73+ mobs. The assassin poison proc is good, I think only one person gets it though; not sure if you get anything from rangers/swashies/brigands. Monk and bruiser probably won't do much if you're already over 100 haste/dps.  I've heard SK can be decent, I don't know what they do really though.  Casters have various procs. Can any of you people with broad class knowledge let us know what has some decent impact?

My perfect DSP/offtank group would be Dirge: tombs calm, CoB, DPS, Disso boon, crits, double attack Warden: + melle skills Illy: double attack, haste Assasin:  apply poision Inquiz:  DPS mod, conviction, fanat They have other benefits too but these are the major ones that affect our DPS.

[Gonzo550]

I do appreciate the posts but would ask to not treat me as nearly as much as a noob. I've raided since April, 2005 and been mt for many a guild - just never in this roll and under so much demand.

Do I believe you use t5 gloves, Skel, sure. I know some t4 pants that are uber still at t7 (and leather). The how something is the way it is, I do understand. That's the easy part. Truely the hard part is finding the groove.

Skel you did confirm for me one thing though, I'm not in the right group to do the right damage. I do in fact know what the other classes do but I now believe my role will not allow me to meet the GL's aspirations. She wants 2k from me while using my buffs for at least 3 scouts. Since I only have a templar for proc increases, an assin for apply poison, and a dirge for cob and other things. I don't have a choice to request an illusionist or coercer or warden but yes, i do know what they are good for. I also know I am missing some gear but I would be happy to average 1700 or so. As it is, the only way I can get above 1600 on a solo mob is with a dirge and destruction and/or open wounds. The down side is, once hit, I have a 2.5 min recast and the tank pulls every minute. so unless i stager the buffs, I'm not being consistent with the damage. One mob will be 1700+ while another will be 1100 or so. That makes the GL think I'm slackin.

Also, I'm trying to use less CAs and rely more on auto attack. Is this right? I wait for the attacks to hit a slight pause before hitting a ca. Of course I'm running 74 percent doubleattack and 40 percent ae attack. On solo mobs I'm not sure about relying on the auto attack but I feel very justified on the group mobs. With my present gear, I run 20 dps and 25 haste before berzerk. With berserk and the shield proc and all, gets up to about 89 dps and 54 haste (without ow or grp buffs). The down side to relying on auto attack I found out today, you dont use much power so you look like your slackin!

oh and yes, now that i'm on i can tell you the name of my hammer, grim brimstone

[Schmalex23]

well tell me your AA setup, group setup, and post a parse pic like this so i can see where your damage comes from and what you could do different.

[YummiOger]

Hi ya Armus, to jump right into it, the guys that have already responded are right. To obtain a 2k+ ZW as a tank is an extrodinary thing. iv only seen 2 Zerks in game do it, Skel and Kobal. both are extrodinary players IMO. You MUST have the correct gear and group setup to pull down those kind of numbers.

After the reduction in DA and the nerf to both attacks procing CoB, our #s did come down a little. But a 1400+ range is still very doable for most Zerks.

To be honest, Ur a Tank that can usually pull down 15-1700 DPS zone wide. Does ur guild leader know how good that is? I think she is pushing u too hard. Helll , tell her to come here and read this thread, maby it will open her eyes some.

[uux]

My last Clockwork run before my guild split (pre GU36). This was tanking with a group setup of dirge, assassin, defiler, templar, and warden.  I don't have extraordinary gear.  In fact, I'm using a Vilucidae's Sword of Shielding. If you look down the right side column in the above parse, you'll see the accuracy is quite high considering the mobs in there are all yellow con.  That was key to achieving that high of a zonewide.   The difference for me between the above and a zonewide of 1600-1800 was other players debuffing the mobs.  Accuracy would be between 65-73% when not debuffed, and as high as 90% when fully debuffed.  It made a huge difference.

[Chay]

Kaberu wrote:

> STR 4-4-8, WIS 4-4-8, INT 4-4-8  Nice Two-handed spec built for damage, especially when coupled with a two-hander that has a large damage range (like what the Kettleleader's Katana has). You take a huge hit on tanking/survivability unless you switch to a good tower shield for heavy fights. It means you either hit really hard or tank very well, but not both at the same time.

This is pretty much what I had when using my Kettleleader's Katana. Kind of miss it. How I wish I could just change builds on a whim.

[YummiOger]

Uux, were u Main Tanking on that parse? would be harder to get those #s from a ST/OT standpoint. Bringing the importance of Gear / Group up even further.

[uux]

Yes, I was MT.  It's definately nice to have a group built around you.  I just wanted to point out that it's not just your immediate group that benefits you.  If our brigand had not shown up, then my DPS would have dropped like a rock and it's not because he casted anything beneficial on me. As far as gear, I don't have anything special.  For the above parse, I was actually using pristine imbued acrylia rings of strength and agility, as well as the Planar Orb of the Wanderer collection reward.  The weapon used was a Vilucidae's Sword of Shielding (as mentioned previously) with a Buckler of the Howler.  These are pretty common items. Armus@Oasis wrote:

Also, I'm trying to use less CAs and rely more on auto attack. Is this right? I wait for the attacks to hit a slight pause before hitting a ca. Of course I'm running 74 percent doubleattack and 40 percent ae attack. On solo mobs I'm not sure about relying on the auto attack but I feel very justified on the group mobs. With my present gear, I run 20 dps and 25 haste before berzerk. With berserk and the shield proc and all, gets up to about 89 dps and 54 haste (without ow or grp buffs). The down side to relying on auto attack I found out today, you dont use much power so you look like your slackin!

Combat arts are extra damage.  If you're using them properly they will not hurt your autoattack.  I use everything I possibly could think of for extra damage.  That's using CA's when they refresh and it makes sense to (had curse of insanity on me for a while in the above parse, so missed some opportunities).  I use Master's Strike as well as potions (elixir of tactics and elixir of thorns).  I even tossed out an Iksar racial trait that didn't perform so well.

[Schmalex23]

uux wrote:

I was actually using pristine imbued acrylia rings of strength and agility, as well as the Planar Orb of the Wanderer collection reward

Thats actually some of the best jewelry to DPS with =P  Nice parse BTW

[Mazim98]

Is that ACT you guys are using to break dps down like that?

[Keno]

it is

[Kaberu]

I might have missed the part where you said, but based on the group make-up you listed, I'm assuming you are extra DPS and not the main tank. As I mentioned earlier, a buckler spec is awesome for all around DPS but not always if you wind up in a situation where you are never the main tank. The combat arts Weapon Aegis and Taunting Defense, the AA Buckler Reversal, the (AA enhanced or not) skill Riposte, reactives from armor/adornments/potions/racial traits, as well as any reactive buffs from from group members are all not going to work unless you are hit. Berserk will even happen less frequently when not getting hit. If indeed the group berserk overwrites the self berserk (might need to check that) and you are not getting hit, you wind up with a small chance of actually proccing, comparatively speaking. Personally, I cast my group buff and then cancel it on myself to ensure I use my self proc instead. If you are expected to off-tank or pick up the tanking duties in emergencies, it's better to keep the stamina spec since your offensive mode still includes a shield and better defensive bonuses (8% riposte). Another thing about being expected to off-tank, you don't really have the freedom to wear much crappy gear for those excellent DPS bonuses. As straight DPS though, you can pick up a little boost in DPS from the more weapon focused damage of a two-handed spec as opposed to the more reactive friendly buckler spec. It's not necessarily that a two-handed spec does the most damage overall, it is just easier to focus more damage through active means than passive ones. Also, being grouped with scouts, aside from Bards, you are not getting much return for yourself as scouts are notoriously greedy when it comes to group buffing. However, despite the lack of any notable group buffing from a Brigand, they do an excellent job of boosting your DPS when they are in the raid, as Uux mentioned.

[Gonzo550]

trying to get act to generate a nice picture like you did skel but can't figure it out. did you use a screen capture program or can act do that?

[Slayer505]

Kaberu wrote:

I might have missed the part where you said, but based on the group make-up you listed, I'm assuming you are extra DPS and not the main tank. As I mentioned earlier, a buckler spec is awesome for all around DPS but not always if you wind up in a situation where you are never the main tank. The combat arts Weapon Aegis and Taunting Defense, the AA Buckler Reversal, the (AA enhanced or not) skill Riposte, reactives from armor/adornments/potions/racial traits, as well as any reactive buffs from from group members are all not going to work unless you are hit. Berserk will even happen less frequently when not getting hit. If indeed the group berserk overwrites the self berserk (might need to check that) and you are not getting hit, you wind up with a small chance of actually proccing, comparatively speaking. Personally, I cast my group buff and then cancel it on myself to ensure I use my self proc instead. If you are expected to off-tank or pick up the tanking duties in emergencies, it's better to keep the stamina spec since your offensive mode still includes a shield and better defensive bonuses (8% riposte). Another thing about being expected to off-tank, you don't really have the freedom to wear much crappy gear for those excellent DPS bonuses. As straight DPS though, you can pick up a little boost in DPS from the more weapon focused damage of a two-handed spec as opposed to the more reactive friendly buckler spec. It's not necessarily that a two-handed spec does the most damage overall, it is just easier to focus more damage through active means than passive ones. Also, being grouped with scouts, aside from Bards, you are not getting much return for yourself as scouts are notoriously greedy when it comes to group buffing. However, despite the lack of any notable group buffing from a Brigand, they do an excellent job of boosting your DPS when they are in the raid, as Uux mentioned.

Not true at all unless you have a really really bad one hander and an amazing two hander.  Very little of the DPS from buckler spec comes from buckler reversal and ripostes (reactive means as you put it).  The majority of it comes from double attack.  Even after the nerf, buckler still beats two hander and dual wield for a pure DPS spec.  I'm specced for MT/OT and when I OT/DPS I can still put out close to 3k on multi mob raid encounters and just over 2k on single target encounters and that's with Vilucidae's Sword of Shielding.  With Grim Brimstone Hammer it'd be much higher (unfortunately after around 15 or so Mayong kills one has yet to drop ).  Of course we run with two complete tank groups so I always have a Dirge, Inquisitor,Shaman and Coercer in my group giving me the sweet buffs, which helps a ton.

[uux]

Skel@Butcherblock wrote:

uux wrote:

I was actually using pristine imbued acrylia rings of strength and agility, as well as the Planar Orb of the Wanderer collection reward

Thats actually some of the best jewelry to DPS with =P  Nice parse BTW

Thank you.  I have to say though, I was determined to raise my DPS after seeing you post your break down in that other forum.  With the same AA build as you, I wasn't coming close to your numbers.  I had to shift points around a bit to compete with some of your gear.  9% double attack on the EoF set, as well as 11% on the hammer.  Well, that's just a straight up 20% modifier to autoattack.   Bye bye hate gain and hello Accelerated Strike.  My weapon was lesser in damage, so I still needed more for it to have the same potential.  I ended up shifting points around between str, sta, and int to the point I was happy.  Also, I figured the imbued rings wouldn't hurt. My lesson learned.  Don't just copy someone else and expect the same results.  Tune everything to what you and your team have currently and are capable of if you want max potential.

[uux]

Armus@Oasis wrote:

trying to get act to generate a nice picture like you did skel but can't figure it out. did you use a screen capture program or can act do that?

I just hit the PrintScreen key in Windows.  You can then open up MS Paint and paste.  From there, I just clipped it in MS Paint and saved it.

[Kaberu]

Karsgaar@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Not true at all unless you have a really really bad one hander and an amazing two hander.  Very little of the DPS from buckler spec comes from buckler reversal and ripostes (reactive means as you put it).  The majority of it comes from double attack.  Even after the nerf, buckler still beats two hander and dual wield for a pure DPS spec.  I'm specced for MT/OT and when I OT/DPS I can still put out close to 3k on multi mob raid encounters and just over 2k on single target encounters and that's with Vilucidae's Sword of Shielding.  With Grim Brimstone Hammer it'd be much higher (unfortunately after around 15 or so Mayong kills one has yet to drop ).  Of course we run with two complete tank groups so I always have a Dirge, Inquisitor,Shaman and Coercer in my group giving me the sweet buffs, which helps a ton.

With those kind of buffs, your personal spec has far less to do with reaching the 2k+ range on single targets. You only mentioned what's in your group, if there is a brigand in the raid, it's even less focused on you as the source of your own damage. You also only mentioned two of the reactive damage sources... there are at least 4 other potential sources (2 of which every Berserker has regardless of spec), plus the group buffs from other players which can include anywhere from none up to 3 or so, aas well as the armor/accessories/adornments which can include many more. So no, Buckler reversal and Ripostes alone aren't much, but reactives altogether can add a few hundred points per second to your parse if you are tanking. There's another tip! Switch any gear and adornments (where it's feasible) that are reactives to procs. And if you are focusing on melee damage and less on combat arts, get as much +crit, followed by as much +haste and then +DPS. In that order of preference too. Just play it smart though, I'd take a +10 DPS over a +2 crit chance for example. Also, point out to your guild leader that other Berserker's that parse 2k+ have far better group makeups that focus more on boosting their DPS. Putting you with other DPS scouts to boost their DPS (and that don't have buffs to reciprocate) distributes that 2k+ parse to other players, lowering your own. You can even tell him that we told you to say it for us (well, from "us" if others agree with me). Getting you to 2k+ personally might not be the best thing for the raid as a whole. On top of that, 2k+ from you is far more aggro than 2k+ from a scout (which has aggro reducers). Your MT probably has enough buffage to compensate for that, but keep that in mind just in case he doesn't. Multi-mob encounters are of most cause for concern.

[Gonzo550]

Thanks for the help with getting this to work skel. This was a good run for me in fth with almost a perfect group. coercer, warden, assassin, dirge, defiler. don't know if this is exactly right but act lists my exit dps at 1765. I didn't include the third named in this parse though as we joust it so my dps was in the toilet, 800. I only tanked the second named. otherwise was dps

 

[Schmalex23]

hrmm thats odd, you should have an extended DPS column on that page... i cant really read it without that.  Also click on the damage column to sort it by that before you screenshot it, then it shows me most to least damage.  One thing i can notice right away is that bladechime ranks in rather low for you.  Does your dirge have a 3 piece EoF set?

[uux]

Armus@Oasis wrote:

Thanks for the help with getting this to work skel. This was a good run for me in fth with almost a perfect group. coercer, warden, assassin, dirge, defiler. don't know if this is exactly right but act lists my exit dps at 1765. I didn't include the third named in this parse though as we joust it so my dps was in the toilet, 800. I only tanked the second named. otherwise was dps

That screenshot lists your total damage done as 1,975,595 damage for a duration of 20m56s in-combat (1256 seconds).  That puts your extended DPS at 1572.93 dps. You weren't kidding when you said you weren't using combat arts.  Just quick estimates, but ... Demolish (60s reuse timer):  used 14 times out of a possible 20 Agonizing Press (20s reuse timer):  used 14 times out of a possible 60 Persistent Battering (20s reuse timer): used 37 times out of a possible 60 Stampede (20s reuse timer): used 56 times out of a possible 60 Executioner's Wrath + Dragoon Spin (30s reuse timer): used 14 times out of a possible 40 Violent Pledge (10s reuse timer): used 18 times out of a possible 120 Breach (10s reuse timer): used 43 times out of a possible 120 Ruthless Strike (20s reuse timer): used 26 times out of a possible 60 Frenzied Blows and Disfigure are a bit hard to determine just how often you used them.  Same with Juggernaut, Destruction, and Open Wounds.  There is no reason not to use these often. Using the average hit, the number of opportunities missed, and accuracy, you can somewhat predict the potential damage you could have done.  I won't include the AA abilities.  I also won't include Berserker Onslaught, Stunning Howl, or Bloodbath.  You actually benefit from not using them a lot. Demolish: 6 more uses * 1547.36 average * 1 accuracy = 9,284 damage Agonizing Press: 46 more uses * 995.69 average * 0.93 accuracy = 42,596 damage Persistent Battering: 23 more uses * 959.83 average * 0.95 accuracy = 20,972 damage Violent Pledge: 102 more uses * 563.28 average * 1 accuracy = 57,454 damage Breach: 77 more uses * 524.43 average * 0.93 accuracy = 37,554 damage Ruthless Strike: 34 more uses * 528.48 average * 0.88 accuracy = 15,812 damage 183,672 potential damage from combat arts not used.  Roughly, an additional 146 ext dps.  That would have brought your total up to around 1720 dps, which I believe was your target range. At some point it appears you switched weapons from the Grim Brimstone Hammer (I see the Chilling Darkness proc, and you mentioned it earlier) to a Swords of Destiny reward (gonna guess Soulfire Gladius, I see an Absolve Vitae proc).  That throws your autoattack parse off a bit because the time you were using the SoD reward is included in the hammer's parse.  In the screenshot, you got 960 dps from crushing (the hammer).  It was probably over 1K if the time wasn't counted against it.  The AGI line isn't so hot for single target dps (which is what FTH is mostly).  You would probably parse a lot higher on single targets with some points invested in INT instead. I don't think you would have had any problem breaking 2K if you were tanking and you use those combat arts.

[Schmalex23]

good evaluation, i just wanted to be lazy with a better layed out screenshot.  But yeah, Ancalak is right on pretty much everything he said.

[Gonzo550]

I ended up tanking a little as I usually do so I switched to sod a couple of times. I know it throws my zw off some. Big question about the CAs that you all mentioned. Should I be hitting them as often as possible?? I know there's a thread on this just above but since a CA will not trigger the AE attack and possibly not DA (i think it does DA) then why rely on it? I'm working on revising the list for Skel. Yall have been really awesome to help. I do appreciate it.

[Gonzo550]

ok this is part of an EH run last night. I was in a pretty good group until the GL moved things around. Had a coercer, dirge, assin, mystic and swashy. I was running 209 max on dps buff, haste could spike 177 with openwounds and cob going. Usually just ran 110 or so.