Aside from the obvious way of fighting the boss and running either a damage meter, or checking out a WWS report afterwards - there is another way to determine what your expected DPS should be against a boss. I have found the site, Max DPS, to be fairly accurate in determining what my dps output should be against a given boss, provided I bring my “A” game and perform my dps rotation properly. The combination of this site and WWS reports help show when I am slacking off, and possibly what I am doing wrong.

I have not evaluated this website closely with an Elemental build, but for my current enhancement setup, it’s proving to be a nice barometer of where I should be. I am still currently gearing up my enhancement set, and as such I still have a few lackluster pieces (like my green wrist slot, and the fact I have no melee trinkets whatsoever!). Even so, when my DPS rotation is on point, I am pulling DPS above and beyond what your average player will pull in the equivalent gear. For the curious, I am currently playing with a SS->ES->FS->SS rotation

So what is this Max Dps site, and what does it do? Well first off, it provides a decent ranking of loot based on your general spec, buffage and current stats. You can filter out the loot sources that don’t apply to your current situation (ie: if you don’t pvp, then you probably don’t give a damn about pvp gear). For another loot ranking website, check out Loot Rank which let’s you weight the gear stats with EP values. Aside from that neat little feature, once you input your current stats and submit them, it will show you your attack table and your DPS based on these numbers.

How can this help you as a shaman? Well first off, if it says you should be pull 900 dps against a boss, and you are only contributing 650 dps - and the fight doesn’t require a ton of moving and totem moving, then that should be a big neon warning sign that you are doing something wrong. At this point, you should probably browse the WWS report, compare the dps numbers and see what’s up. Are you missing your rotations? Are you getting resisted a lot? Missing a lot - if so, check your talent spec.

As a practical example - with my current stats MaxDPS says I should pull 748dps against Maiden of Virtue. In my last encounter with her (actually, I have two upgrades since) I pulled 731dps. It’s mostly a tank and spank fight with little movement for the melee characters. Also remember, I have to drop totems and keep grounding totem down. To go along with that, in our Hydross kill last night, I only pulled 588dps when I should have pulled 731dps. However, as you may know, Hydross is not a fight where you stand in one place and continually whack at the guy. There is movement, changing targets, redropping totems frequently and the fact that Earth Shock is taken out of the picture for a good portion of the fight. Even so, browsing the WWS report I can see where I wasn’t performing an optimal rotation. I may have been able to pull 650dps if I had been on point

One thing to keep in mind, the boss armor value that it defaults to is very low. Below, I have listed some common boss armor values. These are not exact, but should be fairly close. This data was gathered from the EJ forums as posted by Lactose and Dayve

KARAZHAN
Attumen the Huntsman: 41.5% — 7500
Midnight: 43.5% — 8200
Maiden of Virtue: 39.0% — 6700
Julianne: 36.5% — 6100
Romulo: 42.0% — 7600
Strawman: 41.0% — 7300
Roar: 31.0% — 4700
The Curator: 36.5% — 6100
Shade of Aran: 26.5% — 3800
Kil’rek: 24.5% — 3400
Terestian Illhoof: 39.0% — 6700
Nightbane: 42.0% — 7600
Netherspite: 34.0% — 5500
Prince Malchezaar: 42.0% — 7600

Gruul’s Lair:
High King Maulgar: 7700
Gruul the Dragonkiller: 7700

Magtheridon’s Lair:
Magtheridon: 7700

Zul’Aman:
Nalorakk: 7700
Akil’zon: 7700
Jan’alai: 7700
Halazzi: 7700
Hex Lord Malacrass: 6200
Zul’jin: 7700

Serpentshrine Cavern:
Hydross the Unstable: 7700
The Lurker Below: 7700
Leotheras the Blind: 7700
Fathom-Lord Karathress 6200
Morogrim Tidewalker: 7700
Lady Vashj: 6200

Tempest Keep:
Void Reaver: 8800
High Astromancer Solarian: 6200
Al’ar: 7700
Kael’thas Sunstrider: 6200

Hyjal Summit:
Rage Winterchill: 6200
Anetheron: 6200
Kaz’rogal: 6200
Azgalor: 6200
Archimonde: 6200

Black Temple:
High Warlord Naj’entus: 7700
Supremus: 7700
Shade of Akama: 7700
Teron Gorefiend: 6200
Gurtogg Bloodboil: 7700
Reliquary of Souls:
- Essence of Suffering: 0
- Essence of Desire: 7700
- Essence of Anger: 7700
Mother Shahraz: 6200
Illidari Council:
- Gathios the Shatterer: 6200
Illidan Stormrage: 7700

Sunwell Plateau:
Kalecgos (Dragon): 6200
- Sathrovarr the Corruptor: 6200
Brutallus: 7700
Felmyst: 6200
The Eredar Twins:
- Grand Warlock Alythess: 6200
- Lady Sacrolash: 6200
M’uru / Entropius: 7700
- Shadowsword Fury Mage: 5700
- Shadowsword Berserker: 7100
- Void Sentinel: 6800