DPS

I've been wondering what difference gear makes to dps.

For example, I've been practicing as arms on the target dummy in IF. With crap enchants, greens, blues and a few purples I pull 2k (although this may be skewed a little high because of the bug where the dummy is at 1 health so I can execute a lot). It will be lower in real raids of course, unless I can AoE during encounters with bladestorm.

I aspire to be above 3k in 10 man raids and I guess to get there I need synergies from raid members, some buffs, some practice (aka skill) and some gear. Realistically however, I wonder what sort of difference gear will make. Can I really expect a 50% increase in my dps simply by getting better gear? I think not.

Is it reasonable to assume that if I upgrade my levelling greens and blues to ilevel 200 purples then I will see a 25% increase in dps?

Is it reasonable then to assume that 10 man raid buffs might add another 10%?

I just want to really understand how much of dpsing is gear, and how much is skill. I see people in my raids in Naxx 10 gear pulling less than 3k dps, and I look at some of the top dpsers in our guild who beat 4.5k regularly. Surely that 50% can't all be gear and 25 man raid buffs?

I have done one 5 man instance as a dps warrior (one instance ever, including levelling) and pulled 1.4k dps thoughout the instance. This I found really depressing. BUT there was a lock in the group, mainly in ilevel 200 purples, who did 1.1k... What was he doing? Seriously? Was he not trying? Watching television? I used to pull 1k in Mount Hyjal on my undertuned level 70 shadowpriest.

I don't understand how people who nominally play dps classes can slack off during groups and raids. It is incredibly easy to see if a dpser is not pulling their weight - the feeling you get when you are bottom of the charts is dreadful (been there). It's much harder to see whether or not a tank or healer is slacking unless they do something stupid.

I find I am getting less and less tolerant of mediocre dps as I get older, which is as it should be I guess.