Dps role vs Healer role

I am not very active in blogging these 2 months since everyone is just waiting for Legion while WOD slowly rest in peace. For the sake of keeping this blog alive, today I’ll just rant about random stuffs =)

Time really fly, we have already play this game for 12 years. That’s a decade! I remember starting WOW as a tank for 1 year, switch to healing for the next 8 years, and finally a DPS for the most recent 3 years. Although I still off-spec heal and tank once in a while, my main focus is DPS nowadays.

Tank Role (2004)

nah, there is nothing relevant to talk about here. i am just a noob, doing 5-man dungeons and having fun :)

Healer Role (2005 to 2013)

I started raiding as a healer because back then it is very easy to join a guild if im raiding as a healer. At that time, all healers wear cloth (it is quite funny that many players don’t understand why my paladin is still a tailor today) back in classic wow because the best healing stats are usually found in cloth.

Healer role is quite stressful because we have to look at the HP bars of everybody and also respond to boss mechanics and re-positioning, etc. In addition, I often find myself at the mercy of other players too. What I mean is the stress of healing is greatly affected by the performance of the DPSer and the tanks. Many things will make a healer job tougher. For example:

• when the tank is not using proper gears
• when players make mistakes / stand in fire
• when DPSer/Tanks are not using their own defensive CD to ease damage-taken
• when everyone is under-geared and boss takes longer to kill
• when players did not research / min-max their class potential

Naturally, most of these usually happen during progression when everybody is not ready to tackle the challenge. Due to all these difficulties, it can be very rewarding for a healer when the boss is finally down the first time.

I specifically mention (the first time) because on subsequence kills, the job of a healer will be significantly easier as compared to the first time it is down. And then it became relax for the healer once the bosses are on farm mode (assuming it is still the same team of players/characters). This will also become the ceiling heal cap for the healer because in most encounters, once you managed to out-heal the damage, there is only so much to heal and the next efficient way is to reduce the number of healers in the raid, which is kind-of weird.

DPS Role (2013 to 2016)

My guild took a long time to accept the reality that I finally decided to switch to a DPS role. Well, I did heal for 8 years after all. Eventually, everyone will get used to me as a DPS.

At first, I thought DPS role would be easy because I only need to take care of our own position, and then I just focus on my DPS rotation, like a solo job. I was wrong of course, as the more I played, the more I realized how dynamic DPS role can be.

Blizzard principle of “easy to learn, hard to master” really shines in a DPS role.

For example, 2 players with the same gears can have very different DPS result. The one with a better DPS rotation is the main factor why he is better. Talking about our own class, Ret paladins have single-target rotation, 2-target rotation, 3-target rotation and the AOE rotation. In addition, our rotation changes again during the uptime of a major CD or talents (AW / HA / DP). And once we acquire tier set bonus, our rotation will change again.

Even when 2 players are equally geared and equally skilful in our DPS rotation, the player who spends more time to research is still capable of pulling quite a margin ahead. There are many creative ways to do higher DPS. For example, if you know the timing of events in the fight, such as the timing when a wave of Adds appear for you to AOE, or a timing period when you will receive a buff to double your DPS, or when the boss is weaken for you to max DPS, etc.

Unlike a healer role, there is no ceiling healing cap. As a DPS, we always strive for more DPS. We will min-max every possible advantage to deal more DPS.

Ret Solo Terrance of Endless Spring Heroic 10m

hello everyone,

i am busy playing diablo 3. for those who doesn't know, playing d3 season 5 will provide you an extra stash space. that's something you definitely wouldn't want to miss. the game itself is very fun to me so i decided to complete the season 5 guardian journey as well.

anyway for today, i like to try solo heroic TOES 10man as a ret pally and it turns out to be very challenging.

Terrace of Endless Spring - Heroic Mode, 10 man

1 Protectors of the Endless
2 Tsulong
3 Lei Shi
4 Sha of Fear


Protectors of the Endless - Heroic Mode, 10 man

seal choice: SOT
talent choice: AW, ES, FV
trinket choice: EDH, Vial

although this is a 3 boss fight, it is not meant to be an AOE fight. you have to focus on single-target dps only because when you kill 1 boss, the remaining boss will be restored to full hp. this make cleaving / AOE practically useless here.

the kill order for solo-ing is going to be different from raiding. for raiding, the most dangerous boss abilities are raid-wide damage. however for solo, the most dangerous boss abilities are those that stun us. for example, regail can cast Lightning Prison and i decided to kill him first

kill order: regail > kaolan > asani

this kill order is easiest for me to solo. immediately on pull, i pre-pot and use all major CD to nuke regail down. while fighting kaolan, you will notice Minion of Fear spawn constantly. be happy because these adds are very important to our survival. when we kill this add, we gain a buff Supplication that allow us to top up our hp in a single flash of light.


Tsulong - Heroic Mode, 10 man

seal choice: SOT
talent choice: AW, ES, Sera
trinket choice: EDH, Vial

this is the easiest boss for us to solo.

simply stand inside the pillar of light (to reduce our damage taken) and dps the boss with all your major CD


Lei Shi - Heroic Mode, 10 man

seal choice: Seal of Insight (this seal help me a little bit in survival)
talent choice: AW, ES, Sera
trinket choice: EDH, Vial

this is the most difficult boss that is almost impossible to solo as a ret paladin.

but we can still bet our luck on RNG and defeat heroic lei shi.

Strategy part 1

pre-pull, i cast scared shield, then ate a strength potion while running in.

on pull, i build up to 4 holy-power, during the 1 sec idle down-time, i refresh scared shield on myself. yes, i really recommend any opportunity to max survival on this fight.

at 0:10 minute, when i have 5 holy-power, i use all major CD (ES, AW, Sera, Ring, Vial) together. within a couple hits, the boss will enter the first intermission phase at 80% hp, find and kill 1 water-elemental asap to end the first intermission phase before our ring expire.

at 0:25 minute, my legendary ring explode on the boss, bringing it down below 60% for the next intermission phase. find and kill 1 water-elemental asap. at this time, you already have 20+ stacks of debuff and around 50% hp.

at 0:40 minute, the boss will either cast (Hide) or (Go Away!) this is the RNG i previously mentioned. if the boss cast (Hide), simply run away from the boss and go out of the instance to reset the fight. if the boss cast (Go Away!), you stand a chance to win so make use of this opportunity.

what you need to know about (Go Away!)

(Go Away!) last for half a minute (30 second).

do not hit the boss at this time! if the boss lose 3% hp, she will stop (Go Away!) and continue the fight. we don't want this to happen! we prefer the boss to waste time in this phase as we are waiting for our major 2-min CD to be up again at a later part of the fight.

another reason you definitely want the (Go Away!) to last the full duration is because this is the only part of the entire fight where you have the opportunity to heal yourself to full. how to heal? you move forward against the wind, then cast a flash of light. repeat and move forward, etc. in this way, you will not take damage debuff stacks and easily maintain 100% hp.

get up to 5 holy-power in this phase too.

Strategy part 2

at 1:20 minute, boss starts to fight again. use AW and Sera and push the boss hp as much as you can.

at 1:30 minute, boss will do a (Hide). there is nothing much we can do here except to survive. keep using flash of light to top up yourself. when i am oom, i use a divine-shield, follow by execution-sentence on myself, trying to top up my hp as much as i can.

at 2:00 minute, i have around 20+ debuff stacks again and boss reappear. boss is already around 40% hp, so it will enter intermission phase immediately. find 1 water-elemental to kill asap.

at 2:10 minute, all my major CD is up again, and i use it straight away. im around 30 debuff stacks at this time so a LOH is necessary here.

at 2:20 minute, boss enter the last intermission phase 20%. this is the most crucial! i must kill the water-elemental before my ring explode.

at 2:25 minute, ring explode and boss die.


Sha of Fear - Heroic Mode, 10 man

seal choice: SOT
talent choice: HA, ES, FV
trinket choice: Vial, EDH

this boss is quite easy, as compared to Lei Shi.

on pull, use all major CD. when the ring explode, it will bring the boss down to 65% and we will enter the next phase, the dread waste.

in the dread waste, you can't move at all. this is because you are the only player in the raid, and will be under the effect of Champion of the Light pure light. that is ok, because the boss will come to you. dps the boss normally until the first submerge. heal yourself to full.

once the boss return from his 1st submerge, look around the room for an add, Dread Spawn. this add will spawn somewhere far, and move slowly to the player with the pure light, which is you. do not let this add touch you because it will immediately end your life.

when the add is near enough, use AW and throw your hammer and judgment at it. once you kill the add, continue dps the boss until the 2nd submerge. heal yourself to full while waiting.

when boss return from 2nd submerge, prepare to use AW. keep a look out for two Dread Spawn this time. it is very crucial to kill the nearest one asap, so that you have time to react to the second add. when both adds are down, your major CD should be almost up.

once your major CD is up, cancel away your current AW (yes, just cancel it) and pop all major CD together and burst the boss down asap! you should be able to kill the boss before the 3rd submerge, otherwise you have to pray to god for a FVEDS to handle the three Dread Spawn.


if you are interested, i can upload my video on these bosses.