Like someone just said- the only thing that matters is damage done on specific bosses, excluding trash. If the bosses have adds, then you need to look at dps and damage done by target.

Showing overall recount reports is worthless as a large portion of that will be for non-boss encounters.

In theory, the more dps you can dish out, the more overall damage you'll do, provided you don't die or spend time not doing damage for some reason (for example, if you or your pet have to move/bandage/hold dps more than the rest of the dps in the raid). The emphasis has always been on dps rather than total damage, though. There are a few of reasons for that; it speeds up a kill, it allows you to see if you can optimally use your given skills, and, last but not least, due to the fact that it doesn't depend on the health of whatever it is you're killing, it provides a good benchmark for some good, old-fashioned competition. And enrage timers are built around certain dps requirements, not amounts of damage done

Or, they were on the more resilient adds and could afford to keep the same rotations and roughly the same dps level, while he was on the skeletons and had to switch targets a lot, which means his dps in phase one was lower than theirs, but the dps on phases 2 and 3 was close to or greater than theirs.
At any rate, I'd recommend starting with a few Patchwerk reports to get a feel for what everyone else in your raids is capable of under ideal circumstances, and then see how everyone's performance shifts when the conditions change.

Best answer I have ever heard. Thank you.

Now it makes more sense. You are right about the Kel fight. I am on skeleton duty, because I can autoshot them without "blowing" mana. I do spend a lot of time doing "hunter stuff" in the raid -- MDs, Freezing arrows, kiting Gluth Chow...

DPS is only one theorycrafting benchmark.

Agreed.

My primary solution to this is to check the "keep only boss segments" option in Recount, and then analyze the run from the perspective of the bosses alone. Even in that case, there is some clutter that can happen (because of adds during boss fights), but you get a pretty good overall picture.

I tend to compare myself to others mostly on the "normal" fights like Anub'rekhan, Faerlina, Loatheb, Patchwerk, and Thaddius. Some fights are unfair to mages (my main competition) because they have to decurse (Noth, Sapphiron) or because of threat management issues (Heigan). Others are unfair to me because of my unique duties (breaking wraps, kiting skellys).

On the fair fights, I'm almost always top damage done. However, sometimes I'm not quite top dps. I suspect that this is primarily because I enter combat earlier than anyone else (with an MD), but my dps during the first few seconds is low, as I carefully manage my specials to ensure that I don't leap above the tank (meanwhile, the mages are just staying out of combat entirely).

Hopefully this counts as a simple question... is there any way to abandon a pet from the stable? Or if I've got an exotic pet stabled, am I stuck with it in there until I respec BM to take it out to abandon it?

Yes, you'll have to respecc to beast mastery to abandon it. And it doesn't change on the actual ptr, so waiting for 3.1 won't solve your problem.

Simple question: I am regemming after powering up JC the other day.

Trying to figure out if A Glinting Monarch Topaz plus Enchanted Tear is better than a Delicate Scarlet Ruby plus Vivid Forest Emerald.

The stat breakdown would be 14AGI, 6INT, 6STAM, 8hit, with a +4 haste socket bonus vs. 16AGI, 12STAM, 8hit, but losing the meager 4 haste socket bonus. I'm 7 hit under cap when I do this so the 8hit gem is my best option when factoring in all the other gems and enchants. I know it's a waste of 1 hit, but no other combo compares.

Basically it comes down to 2agi and 6stam vs 6int and 4haste.

Yeah, I have been configuring it every way possible for the last hour or so. It seems to place a high value on the actual mana, which is a non-concern for me in 25man raids. I don't run out on bosses. On an unbuffed 6 minute fight the Tear+Glint was nearly 4 dps better, but on a Mana-return buff only fight of 1 minute it was only .5 better.

I guess 2 ap and 4 haste is better than the negligible crit and 60 hps the other option provides. Of course with expose weakness and other effects it's slightly less than 2ap and a miniscule bit more crit. But after thinking about it and your reaffirming it, I think the Tear solution is the better option at best and nothing less than equal at worst.

Keep in mind as well: having a Tear in your gear means that you won't have to shift any gems for our prime Meta-gem if you get a helm for it. I prefer the Tear over most substitues (unless it's gear I'm replacing, or betting on replacing, soon. Tear's are pricey!).

I searched this thread for "kill shot", but the results didn't cover this question.

Does ammunition contribute to Kill Shot damage, the way it does to auto shot (and now, steady shot)?

[edit: apparently the "weapon damage" on this tooltip and others includes ammo, so the answer would be yes.]

If I run around ~400ms, would it affect in any way to go over the haste soft cap, to deny latency issues?