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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eamon" data-source="post: 5567240" data-attributes="member: 51942">In comparison to WoW, there's no doubt that in 4e DPR optimization is less relevant.If we take WoW out of the picture, then it's quite relevant.  DPR (if properly weighted to include encounter/daily DPR) one of the best predictors of absolute combat performance - the other being defenses+damage soaking ability.  Incidentally, this holds for all roles.Not that nothing else matters in combat (not to mention out-of-combat), but if a party's DPR is low, good tactics will generally not be able to compensate, since good tactics tends to act as a multiplier.And as to DM's compensating - well, that depends on the DM.  I play in two games where this isn't entirely true.  In one, the DM is entirely story-focused, and combats are ripped whole-sale from modules - the DM might pick a more difficult module if it's too easy, but he's not going to make major changes - and that means that more damage really does make combats go faster.  And although the other game is run by a DM that does like to fiddle, he'll still use mostly by-the-book monsters.  And so there too damage matters since you'll need to slice through almost the same number of hitpoints regardless of whether the party is optimized or not.Not to mention that fact that cool combo's - particularly those involving several party members - are part of the attraction of combat.  And they just don't work well if people don't do much damage.</blockquote>

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