Learn 2 World of Logs - How to Analyse & Improve Your Raiding

[TeaLeaf]

It is very common on sport for teams or individuals to have a coach.   The coach sees what happens and provides advice to the athlete on what to change and how.  The evaluation was always subjective though and due to the speed of the action a lot could be missed unless you were able to analyse it in slow-motion.   That's where video cameras came in and in sport today they regularly use high speed video to record what an athlete did so that they can go back and watch the footage afterwards, analyse what happened then develop an action plan for change to improve their performance.   World of Logs is WoW's high speed video camera and if a raider wants to improve their performance they need look no further than the DMR's World of Logs web page.  So click on the link and let's go to the web page and start to explore what WoL can do for us.  The web page should look like this:

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This is basically a month view of the raid logs that have been uploaded.  Find the date of the raid you want to look at and then click on it; you should then get a summary page (called the "Dashboard") of that specific raid.  It will look like this:

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I've highlighted the useful parts of this page with yellow boxes:

• This is the location bar and it tells you which Guild you are looking at, the date of the raid, a generic page type drop down list (e.g. select Dashboard, Damage Done, Healing Done etc), which section of the uploaded log you are viewing (e.g. all of it or just one specific boss fight), whether you are viewing all players or just a single player and finally if you are viewing a specific boss, boss minion or adds.
• This is a summary of what is contained in the raid log you selected.  The useful bits are the Activity level (top right) which shows you how much time you spent in combat as opposed to just talking or waiting, and the list of encounters (i.e. each boss pull is listed whether it is a wipe or a kill).  
• A list of abilities or spells contained within the log of the entire raid.  If you are particularly interested in a specific spell (e.g. you m,ight want to see how many people got hit by a boss ability) then just click on the name of the spell in the list and you'll be taken to a more detailed page about just that spell.
• A full list of any bosses or adds/creatures that you fought during that raid.  If you want to look at one specific add and see what happened with it then just click on it and the page loaded will focus on just that boss or add.

Let's select a specific fight to look at and then see the types of things we can find out.  In this case I am using the RGT log from 17/01/2012.  If you want to load the log and follow the guide whilst clicking on the same log in a separate browser window then click here.

In the Location Bar mouseover 'Full Report' and you'll get a drop down list of Bosses, Kills and Wipes.  If you mouseover Kills it lists the encounters where a boss was successfully killed, if you mouseover Wipes then you can see which bosses were wiped on and by mousing over the boss, how many wipes were recorded.

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Let's look at the Warmaster Blackhorn kill.   On the location bar mouseover "Full Report", then "Kills", then "Warmaster Blackhorn 10N (05:42)" and click to select that encounter.   The 10N simply means it is a 10 person Normal mode kill, Heroic kills or attemps show up as 10H.  The 05:42 is the time taken for that kill, 5 mins 42 seconds in this case.   The page should now look like this:

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Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Damage Done
This will list the damage done for the fight.  
The graph shows a timeline of the fight and the level of DPS at each point during the fight.
-adjust the graph by ticking or unticking the lines of data you want shown
-left click and drag to select an area of the graph you want to examine more closely
-right click on the selection to zoom in or out, or click 'Set Page to Selection' to change the graph to show just that time selection

You can do the same analysis as above for:
Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Damage Taken
Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Healing Done
Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Healing Taken
Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Healing Done
Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Friendly Fire

[TeaLeaf]

Now let's look specifically at one player during that fight - let's use Teaell as an example: Via the Location Bar, mouseover Players>Priest>select and click on Teaell.   The page should now look like this:

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This page shows a lot of information about the player and what they did during the selected encounter, so let's break it down into bite-sized chunks.  Under the Location Bar are two tabs, Report Info and Buff Details.   Make sure Report Details is the selected top tab.  Now look at the line of tabs just above the graph:

Tabs: Graph - Damage by Spell - Healing by Speall - Damage by Actor - Healing by Actor - Buffs Gained - Buffs Cast - Deaths

Graph
This just shows a visual representation of the damage done during the fight by the player, the healing done, the damage taken and the healing taken.  

Damage by Spell
Click on the Damage by Spell tab and your screen should now look like this  - it's a bit more interesting.

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You can see the Damage Done and Damage Taken.   Under Damage Done you can see which spells were used, how often, if any were absorbed or missed and the Uptime of any dots or debuffs.  So what does this tell us?

• we can look at other logs from DMR or from other guilds to compare our spell casting selection against others of the same class on the same fight.  In theory if we're all performing to the highest level then they should look very similar.  Where there is a difference then we need to look into it and understand why.   I'm happy with the balance of spells cast in this example given the multi-DOT nature of the fight.
  
• we can see if we're losing too much dps through not being hit capped.  I ran that fight with about 16% hit, so had a 1% miss chance but seemed to do ok.   Your mileage will vary depending on class - shadow priests can get away with a small miss chance, typically non-DOT classes cannot.
• Uptime is a great stat to look at.  Are we keeping our DOTs up all the time to maximise our dps?  In this case the numbers are low and would normally be unacceptable, but this is where the 'understand' bit comes in - the fight has a lot of movement, has periods where there are no mobs available to DOT and due to the time being spent multi-DOTing 3 mobs instead of just 1 mob the Mind Flay percentage will be far lower.   As a comparison you can see the difference in 'uptime' for Teaell on the 'stand still and just dps' fight called Ultraxion by clicking here.
  
• Under Damage Taken you can see I get hit by all the things I should get hit by but also that I got hit twice by Shockwave.   Shockwave is avoidable, so I know I must improve my reaction time & movement and cut the healers a bit more slack by giving them less to heal!

The Healing by Spell tab gives similar data to the Damage by Spell, so it is self-explanatory, but it also shows Overhealing!

Damage by Actor
Click the Damage by Actor Tab and your screen should now look like this:

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Now you can see where Teaell sent his spell casts and whom I took damage from.   This can tell you if you are hitting (or being hit by) the right or wrong things and helps you get your DPS priorities straight.

Healing by Actor
This tells you similar things to the 'Damage by Actor' tab.  Is the healer who is assigned to the MT healing the raid by accident?  This tab will tell you where the healer is prioritising heals and you can then see if it marries up with their specific healing assignment or the raid need.

Buffs Gained and Buffs Cast
These tabs are MASSIVELY educational and let you know which buffs you received, which debuffs I received and the power gains I received.  It also shows me the number of times I got each and the uptime of each.  Click on the Buffs Gained tab and your screen should look like this:

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Ok, so far they might not look that exciting, but have you noticed that each ability listed has a hash (#) on the rigthand side?   Let's see what it does - click on the # that is to the right of the Buff called 'Empowered Shadow'.  The web page will now load a graph and a timeline for this spell and will look like this:

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The graph tells you the amount of DPS Teaell did throughout the fight and compares it to the DPS the Raid as a whole was doing at the time.  The purpose of this is to highlight differences: are there periods when the raid is doing DPS and the player is not?  Why?  It might be movement, targeting issues, the current DPS target is now dead and you have to switch targets etc, but the graph lets you check where you need to understand the differences.

[TeaLeaf]

#Empowered Shadow - is a powerful buff that is important for a shadow priest to keep up as it increases all DOT damage.  Where there are gaps in the uptime you need to understand why.  In this case it's simple, with more movement, multi-DOTs up and targets dying the buff is difficult to keep up during the first phase of the fight, but there is clearly still room for improvement.

Let's go back to the comparison shown on the graph of Teaell's DPS versus Raid DPS.  There are two clear times at about 21:20 and again at about 21:30 on the timeline where Teaell's DPS drops further than the raid's generally DPS does.  Let's look at why:

#Shockwave - click the # next to Shockwave under the Debuff list.   Your screen should now look like this:

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Here you can quite clearly see that getting hit by Shockwave coincides with the drops in DPS.  Now we know why there was a relative drop in DPS for Teaell at that time and we know it can be avoided and therefore we can expect better DPS next time if the error is not repeated.

Out of interest, let's also click to add the follow #buffs to the graph:

#Dark Evangelism
#Power Torrent
#Lightweave
#Velocity
#Power Infusion

The graph now looks like this:

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I can see my procs from enchants, & trinkets kicking in nicely & regularly - but wait a sec, what's with the Power Infusion?  I clearly need to have a word with our discipline priest as he's only cast it on me once during a 5:40 fight where I could have had it 3 times.  Further investigation even shows he gave it to a resto shaman once!   I'll have to follow that one up!  The message is, the graphs allow you to see what you get & when to make sure you are using your CDs on time each fight and that you are getting all the buffs or debuffs up each fight.

Click the Red X at the righthand side to get rid of each buff and just be left with the graph.  

Click on the Buffs Cast tab and from the Debuff list add:

#Shadow Word: Pain
#Vampiric Touch
#Devouring Plague

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You can now see defiinte breaks in the uptime of DOTs and debuffs.  Why?  A lot of the breaks coincide with low raid dps, so it is reasonable to assume these are the periods with fewer mobs or no mobs, so those breaks are fine.  If raid dps is high and there are no DOTs then ask yourself why.

You'll notice the green striations (stripes) for each spell seem to get brighter or darker at different points.   Use your mouse to hover over a brighter part of the Shadow Word: Pain row and you'll get a pop-up note showing you that there were multiple SW:P up on multiple targets at that time.  Brighter means more!

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If the lines are not clear or you want to superimpose a specific spell on the graph then click it.  Try clicking the checkbox at the left of the Shadow Word: Pain green striped row.  Your graph should now look like this:

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As you can see, you now have an enlarged & easier to read version for that spell overlaid onto the graph.

[TeaLeaf]

Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Analyze>Damage Done/Damage Taken/Healing Done/Hostile Healing
From the Location Bar, mouseover Details for Teaell>Analyze>Damage Done.  Your screen should now look like this:

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From here you can click on the individuals you want to see in or out of the graph and compare how they did on specific parts of the fight.  You do this my adjusting the options on the lefthand side of the screen.   Let's see how we handled the Twilight Sapper and who did damage to them.  

Firstly, put a tick against Torgen, Teaell, Hubbah and Leggs as we'll want to compare their damage done on the Sapper.    Then on the lefthand side, make sure the radio button for Damage Done is 'By Source', the Source dropdown menu is blank and from the Target dropdown menu select Twilight Sapper.  You should now see this:

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If needed you can zoom in to get a closer look to see who did what & when and also see who missed the first Sapper completely (Teaell in this instance!).

Change the radio button for Damage Done to 'By Target'
Use the Source dropdown menu to select Teaell and click Go.  
Now click the box for all the targets listed under the graph.

You should now see this:

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This allows you to see who a player was doing damage to throughout the fight.  Where more than one graph line is above zero at the same time, it means multi-dots or AOE damage was in progress.  Very helpful to track if you were hitting the right thing at the right time!

Change the radio button for Damage Done to 'By Spell'
Use the Source dropdown menu to select Teaell
Use the Target dropdown menu to select Twilight Elite Slayer
Now click Go

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Now you can see when and with what I hit Twilight Elite Slayers even though it was my secondary target not my primary target.  


Selecting Damage Taken/Healing Done/Hostile Healing instead of Analyze Damage Done gives you the same view of those different aspects, so I'll not repeat instructions for them here as they work in the same way.


Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Deaths Overview
Go to the Location Bar and select Deaths Overview and then Wipes>Yor'sahj.  The Location Bar should now say:
DeadMenRaiding 17-01 18:54 Deaths overview  All Yor'sahj the Unsleeping wipes  Players Creatures

The list shows you the last 3 lines of each death log for that player.  Click the (more) link to the right of each death and a pop-up window will show you the full log which you can scroll through and also filter to show Power Gains, Spell Casts and Buffs/Debuffs.

Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Survivability
From the Location Bar select Survivability Overview.  This is a seriously handy raid tool to show who died when on a fight.  If the same people are always dying first then you've got a clue as to where to start problem solving.  The percentage shown in the table reflects the amount of the combat time that person survives for, i.e. 60% means that they lasted for 60% of the combat time for that fight before suffering their first death.

Via the Location Bar: Dashboard>Log Browser & Expression Editor
The Log Browser is self-explanatory, but the Expression Editor is more complex.  The Editor allows you to build custom queries to run against the combat log.  Once you get to know a bit more about WoL, why not read more about the Query Language used by clicking here.   For example, to see overhealing then the query code to enter would be:

Code Select Expand

amount = overheal and overheal > 0



Conclusion
I hope this guide helps those who have previously been a bit hesitant to get involved in looking at your own logs to analyse performance and gives you some pointers as to the types of information WoL can provide.  It's an incredibly powerful resource and a massive help during those wipe nights, particular if you use the Live Logs feature to upload each attempt's log immediately after the wipe - that way you can all see the log on the website before the next pull and help spot any problems.

Happy log browsing!

[Switchback]

Wow! Great thread Tl,ive been learning what to look for just by playing on the log site. This post  has just given me a massive insight to what i can do and what i should be looking for!

So i urge all RGW to look at this, read up and learn from it. It will benefit us untold amounts!

PLease RGW members read this and cooment that you have taken noticed and understood....i will be quizing next raid about this and the boss threads to see if you have read up.

[Sithvid]

Read and learned... some of it.

[Cynba]

Really nice guide! Used to check WoL just to see the dps/damage done per boss fight, but never really got into detail. Thanks for this

[JonnyAppleSeed]

This requires a hearty bump for are new guys