Damagemeters/CombatStats/Recall/etc: good or bad?

[bonemage]

My stance on this is like my stance on firearms.

damagemeters = good
Some people who use damagemeters = morons
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I like the logic here on the comparison with firearms. DamageMeters (and similar mods) are very powerful tools and can improve teamplay if used properly. However, there is a temptation for abuse/misuse that can be very destructive. There are lot of people that just can't be trusted with the information.

The types of practices that some people have adopted that are bad have been discussed elsewhere in this thread, so I won't comment much on it, but I will on my experience with the mod:

We have a fairly regular group of guys, and I had DamageMeters installed for our 3 instance run on Friday.

Who is getting too much aggro is pretty clearly displayed when looking at Damage Taken (be sure to consider any off-tanking done). In RFC (with alts) my rogue clearly got too much aggro from the tank (I'm a new rogue) as I had 22% of the damage taken. I did do a little off-tanking when there were too many or with some of the casters in the bigger pulls, but not enough for me to take that much damage. I clearly need to pace myself better, but I also lack any aggro reducing abilities at my level, and the tank doesn't have all of his tools yet either.

It was a great way for us to gauge the performance of one of our newest members. He's a new player, and as a hunter he consistently was #3 on the damage done (he lacked traps, only DPS mode curretnly, and for most of our instances, numbers 1 and 2 were WAY overleveled) but also one of the lowest on damage taken. Might be able to increase his damage a bit, but it also means his target selection was good as he wasn't grabbing mobs the tank hadn't locked down.

In SM Library, where all of us were a bit underleveled (33-34) except for Concillian's overleveled tank (41), the mage briefly took flak for not being higher on the list of damage done, until we remembered how much sheeping he was doing, and how often it needed recasting due to level differences.

Utility contributions are completely ignored by DamageMeters (no way to track that like the other things that DamageMeters tracks) so it must be used properly and people must remember what those skills add to the group. It would be nice if there was a way (there isn't) to calculate the DPS reduction received to the party for the duration of the sheeping or similar abilities. Also, a warlock can spend quite a bit of time banishing a target and using curse of recklessness to stop runners. These are large contributions to a party (runners are SO bad) that don't show up to in DamageMeters.

In conclusion, I think that Damage Meters can be a very nice tool for a regular group to further study themselves, but in pickup groups, the mod itself often becomes the goal rather than group success, and this is bad. Use the mod wisely.