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Daewen,

I think a decent amount of the damage discrepancy comes from all the spreadsheets and whatnot are assuming that you've got every beneficial raid buff possible, are always optimally fed, flasked, and poisoned, and never ever miss a single hit in your rotation. I know that we are often missing one or more of the raid buffs that would amp our output and I often mess up my own rotation as fights play out.

The log and simulation results show your damage percentages are right about where they should be, so it's unlikely to be a rotation thing. For now, I'd suspect it's just a missing buff causing the differences.

Lag (although much less of an issue for many of you west coast folks) can also be a factor. Not just lag but how spikey it is, a fairly constant slightly higher lag can actually work out better for me than a lower average but higher spike lag. I know that while I can certainly improve in playstyle, lag is a major contributing factor and if I could get consistent ping down to 150ms that would be the single biggest dps upgrade I could get. Playing as far away as I do it's more of an issue for me than many others, but it can be a factor - albeit a difficult one to affect.

The other major factor in simulation vs reality is loss due to movement if applicable to the fight/your class/your role. For anyone running simulations keep in mind whether the fight you're running the simulation for is one where you can spend all of your time in active combat or whether it's one were you can expect to have to do some movement/CC/wack-an-add. I for instance find very little use out of simulations or what spreadsheets tell me I should be doing for most of the ICC fights because of how much movement is involved for hunters. Spreadsheets and simulations tend to assume that you're standing and fighting 100% of the time and able to use all your normal dps abilities, the last boss that was like that for me was Patchwerk.

I am in the same boat as Twist as far as having the gear/gems/etc...but the DPS isn't showing it. Frankly, I get kinda depressed at my numbers and that I am letting everyone down with not doing better. I have looked at MANY a theorycraft site, talked to Cenon, other boomkins, and respecced at least 3-4 times by now. Swapped out trinkets(which I am lacking good ones) I am wondering if I need even MORE haste, I dunno I have like over 600 now....but was told that there was a cap and it wouldn't matter if I got more. I'm shooting for more crit now since that seems to be where boomkins do the most damage.

While with warlocks it is DoTs.....with boomkins it seems to be burst damage. I swapped back in a trinket I THOUGHT didn't do much for me, but now that my gear has improved overall....the previous triumph idol is actually doing better for me than the lower idol did previously. But, yeah, I've actually looked at Rawr and while I haven't put Tsukiki through Simulationcraft....I agree with Hildur that there is a lot of movement sometimes, and even though I can moonfire and insect swarm on the run, it isn't exactly very much dps. ^^;; Most of my DPS is in Starfire and Wrath. I have my rotation down, but I am thinking I need more practice or concentration on keeping up my rotation so I am not getting out of it. I do have Squawk and Awe, it's just in the flurry of some of the fights.....it's very confusing to get back into the rotation with so much going on. ^^;; And I admit that may be gimping my DPS right there. With Festergut though, it's pretty much mostly standing and pew-pewing, but with the spore thing and people not travelling close to the ranged for spore injections, I get confused if I need to run into melee or what? then there is where my DPS falters. It's like, do I move? or do I stay here and hope someone from melee comes out and THEN I can move?

But, I'll welcome kind criticism because I feel as if I should be doing more, but it isn't getting there. I'd like to at least shoot to be closer to the caster DPS pack. I don't even try to think I can play with the big boys/girls in melee/hunter zone. If I can I'd be surprised. But, please tell me where I am faltering and what I need to do to improve it.

Just be gentle. ^^;;

I ran SimCraft for Tsukiki. Output can be found at http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~janin/Tsukiki.html.

I know 0 about boomkin, and only started using SimCraft a few weeks ago, so I'm probably not the right one to offer advice, but it looks like crit is slightly preferred to haste and that SP still dominates. I think you're over the hit cap by a fair margin, but I expect that's unavoidable.

Hope this helps,

Adam

Looking at Adam's simcraft and Tuesday's numbers on boney we've got:
Spell: Actual / Optimal
Starfire: 34.3% / 34.8%
Wrath: 24.7% / 37.5%
Moonfire: 23.5% / 11.8%
Insect Swarm: 10.3% / 8.0%
Starfall: 5.1% / 3.3%
Typhoon: 0% / 2.3%

So, with the same stipulation of having never played a druid, it would appear that you need to wrath more often, moonfire less often, and typhoon a little bit if possible. Note that if you've respec'd since the tuesday run, this probably isn't accurate.

Looking at raw numbers, it appears that starfire is your biggest damage followed by wrath, so if wrath isn't getting cast as much, your dps would naturally be lower.

Again, looking at dps on Deathwhisper, you had much higher output when primarily using starfire and wrath so I'd guess this to be some indication. If Moonfire is an instant, it may be that forced movement is causing you to fall back on something to cast while escaping damage.

When I'm forced to move, I usually move as little as possible to escape whatever is causing the movement so I can return to dpsing. I also tend to use the wasd keys for movement and hold the right mouse button to strafe when needed. Maybe not optimal, but that's my method.

I've read this thread and the loot rules thread with interest this morning, and as the FNG around here, I feel like I'm overstepping a line somewhat here, but I've got a couple of thoughts I'd like to put on the table...

1. Guild progression in end game content is so closely linked to the individual DPS/HPS of each raid member that I am glad and encouraged to see this conversation happening. Summarily, I think there is an intrinsic culture in this guild to help each other out. That's a very good thing, especially for someone like myself who, let's face it, has more 'welfare epics' than I'd like to admit. However, I share the concern that others have shared here about how advice is given. My gut feeling is that people tend to get defensive about advice on their game, especially when there are many conflicting sources. As a Hunter, I've heard more than a handful of changes I could make to increase my DPS, all of them contradicting each other. So that only leaves me with two options - figure it out on my own, or trust one set of advice and ignore the rest. Mentors, I think, mitigate this. As a Hunter, I'm going to listen to Ishildur because she has insane DPS and plays the class well. My point really is that perhaps we can match a couple of people up with the regular 'A' raiders on a class specific basis to mentor their game and share knowledge about gems, enchants, trinkets, stats etc.

2. End game content isn't everything. I play the game because I love the storyline. I'm somewhat obsessed with Warcraft lore. I definitely want to see end game content, but my motivation for doing so isn't to get the best gear, or be the highest DPS, but to see aspects of lore and story played out in an interactive way. While this motivates me to be a better player and to figure out why my DPS sucks and then unsuck it, that only goes so far. I'd be just as happy to see 10-man Arthas die as I would 25-man Arthas die. I say this to illustrate that the fight and the gear are not necessarily the motivating factors for everyone, and I'm wondering what allowances can be made in terms of content accessibility for those in the guild with different game motivations such as that.

Just my $0.02 for a Monday morning...

Thanks guys!

Ok, good advice.....I will use it in tomorrow's raid. I've actually read a few things and I admit, I AM hitting moonfire way too often. I gotta stop doing that! Same with Insect Swarm. I know I have to keep it up, but I think my OCDness is wanting to keep it up constantly without it dropping off. With a recent website I read about boomkin DPS....they advise to re-cast it ONLY after it falls off.

Adam, yes, the "too much hit/over hit" issue with me is kinda something I just kinda have out of the gear happens to have hit as well as haste. I'm trying to shoot for more crit now obviously and laying off hit and haste since I am well above both I believe. I am aware my trinkets kinda suck atm...so, I hope to get better trinkets soon. Especially ones that improve crit and have a chance to raise spellpower etc etc....I think I will get that Frost Boomkin idol to replace the one I have....as it adds more crit rating AND it lasts longer. I think once I have a 2-set of T10, it will improve my DPS as well. But, I am gonna try to move as MINIMALLY as possible as well as I know that gimps my DPS sometimes. But sometimes it is unavoidable, like say, during the Marrowgar fight. ^^;; Also, I don't tend to DPS during the Bone Storm, maybe a moonfire and/or Insect Swarm, but I'm more concerned about keeping myself alive and not getting damaged too much.

Anyway, thanks everyone for the advice...I will take it and put it to use tomorrow if you'll have me. ^_^;;