I type in /combatlog, I update the log to wowwebstats.com, but I don’t see the correct totems for the correct owners.
For example, if I lay down a Searing Totem for the entire Solarian fight, I will see not only my totem but the other two Shamans I raid with as well. Most damage meters don’t provide the right data either, lumping the totem damage output into overall raid output.
Our dps classes in our guild spam damage meters all the time (gets annoying even if I am on top of the meters), so I decided to look deeply into WWS parsing and see what (if any) I can do to remedy the inaccurate shaman totem syndrome.
Unfortunately, the WoW combat log does not keep the names of the pets with their owners. In WWS, you assign an “Actor” to a mob type (i.e. player, pet, mob, totem) and if you have a pet for tha actor, WWS will provide a space to assign the pet to an owner. However, for shamans the totem names are the same (e.g. three shamans pop Searing Totem and therefore you will see three Searing Totems doing damage, but we cannot identify any one totem to a shaman).
I started keeping track of totems by having my fellow shamans throw down a lower rank totem when they are using the same totem type. I plant a Searing Totem VII and my other shaman buddy throws down a Searing Totem VI. If I scan the combatlog, all my totems with VII are assigned to me, all totems with VI are assigned to the other shaman in the raid.
The end result of all this is…. I’m missing out on 8.9% of my total damage output in the WWS reports. Based on this fact alone, I might be changing to SWStats because it uses the WoW API to identify pet owners correctly. More testing in store for me.
Can you believe it? After patch 2.3.2, we hurled into SSC and 6 Nether Vortex drops in less than 2 hours.
Have you tried the Ace 2 app called Recount (damage meters app)? It’s even more flexible than SWStats (it includes a graphing function that serves little purpose other than seeing output in a nice piechart) and is considerably less of a memory hog.
Yep. Swstats reports too manny WOW errors, so it’s not good for me either. I’m testing Recount now and it looks good, even though I never use the graphs!
I’m sure you know this, but with 2.4 this problem is substantially fixed: the SPELL_SUMMON creates a unique ID for the totem, and that ID can be tracked in the rest of the combat log.
If you’re trying to piece together raids, though, you need to see the SUMMON event to get the ID-on-creation of the totem (or pet). You’ll always be able to track your own totems, and usually other players’ totems. But if someone comes into the instance with a pet already summoned (or resummons it after a wipe when you’re not nearby), there’s no mechanical way to associate the pet with its owner.
Yeah, this topic was done before the new combatlog of 2.4 patch.
Good point on the summon event, Benbash.