I was looking at logs on World of Logs earlier today.  On the side of my screen there was a little box that read “Ranked Players”.  I saw my name, so naturally I was curious.  Well, I’m still not sure what exactly put me on the list, but they had DPS listed for our DPSers and HPS listed for the healers on the list.  But HPS is…. well… kinda a useless number.  

For most fights, your DPS on the boss is as much as you can push for.  But HPS isn’t the same.  We are always limited by the amount of damage actually being taken.  In addition, there is only so much to be healed, so the number of healers, and how good the other healers are greatly effects your HPS.  

A friend and I sometimes joke that we can only break 10k HPS on heroic twins if the DPS is being stupid.  When they pay attention, they take less damage, and there is less to heal, thus lower HPS.  If a fellow healer dies, there is less competition for the limited healing, and thus your HPS will inevitably go up.  

What I’m trying to say is that HPS is, for the most part, a stupid measure of healing.  

/rant