Two in-game "DPS meter alternative" ideas I might suggest implementing

[Alidra-stormrage]

There’s baseline improvements to the default blizzard UI that could be made and still keep the style too. Instead I’m using BetterBlizzPlates, Better Character Panel, Blizzard Nameplates Threat, Target nameplate indicators (because the default white box is HORRIBLE), Better Wardrobe and Transmog, Voodoo Casting Bar (timers and latency on castbars along with targets), Premade Groups Filter, Litebuttonauras (makes your hotbar your weakaura) and NameplateAuras just to make the default usable. Those are all modifications for the base blizzard UI and not really replacements.

Other stuff that gets into almost replacements like MinimapStats, Bartender4, FrameColor, and Leatrix Plus (for the square minimap and other QoL) further make the default usable, but replace or redesign elements of it.

Virtually all of the above addons offer so much quality of life over the standard default UI I’m not sure how I’d live without them. All of it would be great improvements on what they’ve done with the DF UI without changing the overall Blizzard style.

[Arandroxz-stormrage]

Thats how parsing still works, meters do not equal parse.

[Galabris-alexstrasza (Galabris)]

OP your premise is wrong. Blizzard absolutely wants and expects players to have addons. In fact, they literally design the game trusting addon developers will bridge the divide between the players and whatever is needed to get the encounter cleared. This literally has meant, in the past, addons designed solely for one boss and always means cheap auras doing the vast majority of the mental work in optimally playing any given spec by distilling information down to simple audio and/or visual cues for the human monkey to react to. Shiny squiggly line popped up? That means I press this button! Uh oh buzzer beep going off? I did a naughty and stood in an ouchie!

Meters are absolutely essential to giving the player AND the group actionable feedback. Just because, like any tool, they can be misused doesn’t make them bad. The truth is in the vast majority of cases, simply looking at the damage done meter IS sufficient intel on if a player is carrying their weight or not. I’m not going to entertain left of bell curve arguments like “I was doing every mechanic and also had to spend every global on self preservation/healing myself”…all that means is you probably suck and likely your group is also very left of bell curve skill and aptitude wise. No fight keeps anyone locked down full time that would justify trash tier damage done meters.

[Tornel-wyrmrest-accord]

Are you finished?

At the end of the day I did more Dps than him, simply because I survived the fights and didn’t die like a chump.

[Kinemetra-barthilas]

@Maldazzar-medivh

I get it; most people use addons. And having an in-game DPS meter probably isn’t the mindset Blizzard wants players to have, as it could potentially lead to even more griefing.

So, I’d like to suggest two possible solutions.

The first is simple; a revamped “Target-dummy”. When you walk up to a target-dummy, it is instead an NPC that gives you two options: “I’d like to test my abilities against a single combatant” and “I’d like to test my abilities against multiple combatants”.

Whatever you click, it spawns in a hostile dummy or a group of dummies, and a timer appears on your screen… You get a 5-second count-down, and then the on-screen timer starts counting down. I’d say give it a 2-3 minute timer. Once the timer expires, the game tells you how much damage you did in the allotted time.

Easy peasy. Gives players a rough benchmark of their performance, and they can ask other players of a damage number to shoot for.

The second idea is what I’ll just call “Anonymous DPS meters”. Which is… exactly what it sounds like. Once you complete either a full dungeon, or a single raid-boss, have it show your performance in comparison to other people in your raid – however, it doesn’t show their names or even classes, simply how much damage you did, and how much damage “other” people did.

My thinking is that by keeping anonymity, it attempts to alleviate any sort of witch-hunt (at least, using in-game tools), and also relieves potential anxiety by allowing the player to feel like even if they perform poorly, they can sort of “hide” behind that anonymity.

I think either, or both, of these approaches would be great.

The objective here is simply allow a player to gauge your own performance, without the express need to use third-party tools. It also lowers the barrier to entry for newer players to see their relative performance and see how much they might be lagging, but with some context for what’s possible, without anyone feeling like a spotlight is being shone on them if they’re struggling.

Just a couple of ideas that I feel like would be relatively easy to implement, but could go a long ways towards helping players improve their performance

Download the bloody addon. It’s been 15 years. Get over it.

[Awkward-frostmourne (Awkward)]

Generally speaking I’m not against ubiquitous addons having some of their features added onto the base UI, but considering that DPS addons in general are a pretty massive memory hogs, I don’t think adding them to the baseline UI is the greatest idea.

I think if you’re interested in using something like Details to actually improve your gameplay, you’re already invested enough in the game that you’ll probably install one or more addons regardless.