So yesterday I promised that I would provide some insight into why 'varsity' players seem to be so much more on the ball. A lot of it has to do with their mindset. I can't give you tips for that. It is what it is. If you do not have the drive to succeed through self improvement then you aren't going to make it. I cannot give you that drive, that passion, you need to decide you want it bad enough. As far as practical changes that you can make to your play, I have a few.
The first and most important is your UI. Your UI is how you directly interface with the game. If it is not set up well then you are setting yourself up for failure. Are you a healer that has your raid frames off to the side or down in a corner? How can you expect to keep your eyes on the action and still play whack-a-mole with the health bars with a UI like that? Those are the healers who keep dying to the environment because their eyes were nowhere near the action and they didn't see that giant wall of fire coming towards them. Do you need to dispell or decurse on certain fights? If so is your UI set up for it? I can't tell you how many times I have wiped because the mage was the only decurse we had in the raid and they had never set up their UI for it. Spare yourself the embarrassment, especially if you are a healer, and instead look like a pro! Have CD's to watch (who doesn't)? Then why would you ever have a UI without that info easily displayed. One of the ways I can consistently squeak out more DPS than the competition is that I can easily track my CD's. If I get 10 more seconds with a CD running than you did, and all because I was able to watch it and pop it 10 seconds earlier... you get the idea.
There are many more examples I could give, but the general concept boils down to this. Make a list of the important things that you need to do and keep track of; then take a good, hard look at your UI. Is it set up for success? Notice that I did not ask if it looks smooth and cool; nor did I ask if you are comfortable with it. If it is not set up for success then you are pulling the rug out from under yourself.
The next is key bindings. I wrote a simple how-to guide some time ago and you can find it here. Let me reiterate what I say in the guide. If you are a clicker you are failing. I don't need to look at my bars, find my interrupt button, get my mouse over to it, and click all in the space of a 1 second cast. My fingers just know which button the interrupt is, and press it when I see a spell start casting. On my UI the action bars aren't even displayed front and center, because I don't need to see them.
Another tip would be your general knowledge. I have seen and heard every stupid mistake you can think of due to not knowing your shit. Back in TBC when WF totem put a 10 second weapon buff on you and refreshed it every 3 seconds did a warrior ask for someone to give him another WF buff because his was wearing off? Yes, he did. I have seen countless melee attack from the front and then wonder why their DPS suffers and the tank takes a pounding like he is wearing cloth. I have wiped because people don't understand basic game and class mechanics, like how taunt really works or how being just 1 point below the required level of resist makes you still vulnerable to those spells. The truth of the matter is that G.I. Joe had it right. Knowing is half the battle, and the more you know the more battles you will be prepared to win. If you really want to shine like a superstar then you need to know what you are doing.
Are there other tips and little methods that separate the decent players from the truly great players? Absolutely, but these three are by far the most important. If you are reading this and saying to yourself that you are fine, you don't need to make these improvements, then you are one of the players that will always be stuck just below the bar of excellence. Get over it and make yourself better.
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