The game tells me my DPS for each weapon, but I’m not entirely certain everything it takes into account when calculating that.
I’m consistently getting weapons with higher DPS that are yellow than those I find that are green or blue, even of higher level. Sure, some of those add skill points, but even with those skills the yellow weapon still does more damage.
I mean, I get it: even if you add bonuses and buffs to something, you can’t argue the fact that you do more damage per second if you simply attack faster!
But it’s depressing to get this awesome blue weapon and realize it’s being completely outclassed by a yellow one that is ten levels lower. I’m nearly level 40 and my assault carbine of alacrity is 30 and out performs everything else I’ve found. (Granted, I don’t find many assault carbines)
If anything, I don’t need a loot filter by color; I need one that filters out anything with that isn’t of alacrity.
(Provided I’m not misunderstanding the mechanics behind all this)
But if I already have high base AS, doesn’t the weapon AS buff just make it do even higher AS, thereby causing more DPS and still ending up better than other weapons?
DPS on your character sheet is not the best way to determine your actual damage potential. the # is basically your auto attack + most modifiers and gear bonuses.
This is why the number can be affected so drastically by AS. If your character has 1 or more skills outside of the default attack that generates a large portion of their DPS, then your DPS stat is useless.
good example: I have 2 toons, a purifier that relies heavily on auto attack (full blown fire strike build), and a tactician that is essentially a caster/melee hybrid. the Purifier’s DPS is listed at around 70k DPS, while the Tactician is only around 40k DPS on the character sheet. But they both have about equal kill times, as my Tactician depends on about 4 different skills for DPS production, and his default attack is pretty meager. My Purifier pretty much spams flashbang and default attack.
Overall DPS can be tough to calculate in this game. Best approach is trust your gut and look at the stats on the gear. if it’s a solid DPS gain, You’ll feel it when you play. And yes, if you get a lucky roll on an item and have high AS on it, then it can be lopsidedly OP in a default attack build. but then again, that applies to just abut any build that heavily relies on a single stat.
example: I was leveling my physical damage warder focusing on blitz and forcewave (both high weapon damage skills). My DPS stat was low on my character sheet (default attack was meh at best), but I was one shotting most of the mob in the entirety of normal with a blue lvl 22 one hander. Didn’t replace it until lvl 50. This was all due to the high base damage of the weapon synergizing in crazy ways with blits and forcewave.
that same toon would have killed allot slower if i would have picked up a green with high AS on it but crappy phys damage.
diminishing returns, if you have AS of 150, another 10% brings it to 160, so it is less valuable than if it brings you from 100 to 110. At that point getting more flat damage or higher crits etc. might give more benefit - and again the whole attack speed is mostly relevant for flat weapon damage builds only, not casters, retaliation builds, DoT builds, pet builds etc. It definitely is not the one suffix which makes all others obsolete / is OP
It’s actually borderline useless unless the only thing you do is autoattack. It doesn’t take into account any debuffs you might do, it only adds buffs currently affecting you (so if for example it has a proc that gives you a buff, you have to look at your sheet right them to see the change), and only considers what skill is on your LMB (or RMB if LMB is bound to movement).
The only way you can really get a feel for your dps is to eyeball it by looking at what numbers pop up with you hit the target dummy between two weapons. Not the most accurate thing either, but at least that way you can figure in debuffs and other skills bound to keys.
So if I’m a Demolitionist, I do use my two-handed gun a lot, but I’m playing with my wife who is tanking. Thus, a lot of my damage is also coming from Thermite mines, grenado and the mortar.
So, my current example is that I’ve my L30 assault carbine of alacrity. (+27% attack speed)
I’ve a L36 Vampiric Carbine of Conflagration. It adds:
9-14 fire damage
10% of 500 damage over 3 seconds
63% Fire damage
85% Burn damage
10% damage added to health
+2 to Fire Strike
Its DPS is 400 less than my L30 alacrity gun, even with the +2 to Fire Strike, my default attack.
Now, I’ve 300% fire damage and 250% burn damage already, so what you’re saying is that the L36 would increase those, which would increase the damage of my fire attacks (Only some of Grenado, obvs) at the cost of 400 DPS on my default attack.
Correct?
So I need to find stats on a weapon that generate greater benefit to my other skills that cause damage/DPS for it to beat out alacrity based weapons, yes?
To a percentage based on the ratio I use the default attack versus the damage causing skills.
Which is part of my problem, since I use the gun pretty heavily. Even during boss fights it’s “Skill, shoot, skill, shoot, skill, shoot, skill, potion”. I know a single use doesn’t matter, as it’s based on the total damage of each skill/shot used, so I guess I’ll have to look at all the actual damage from each. …then try to consider the multi-target vs single target calculations based on the skill…
…this really is sort-of impossible to calculate, eh? :undecided:
Hehe yeah it can be pretty tough. Best thing to do is try both and play a bit, see how it works for you. honestly, you’ll probably level fast enough that you’ll find something else by the time you’ve made up your mind.
A silver lining in the whole issue is that the high end items that you will eventually want at end game for your build, most have AS built into them, so it won’t be you using a lvl 30 item for the rest of your career.
I consider it a good general rule to not too hung up on an item’s level requirement. I have level 100 characters for whom a level 58 item is better than anything I could replace it with. My level 74 characters are often still using level 50 items. Level ~50 characters might be using a level 20 set item. You get the picture.
Is Alacrity= Weapon Speed? Then yeah, those are pretty awesome. One of the reasons in Titan Quest I was hunting Tigermen in China, because the Monster Infrequent Sabertooths they drop can have a +30% weapon speed bonus.
The thing is two-handed weapons in general have lower attack speeds than one-handers. As manba pointed out, attack speed benefit diminishes the more you have (like everything), but since you’re using a two-hander you start on the lower end of the attack speed spectrum and hence it’s really good to get if you’re shooting a lot.
I would check the spells you use with and without the weapon equipped. It should show you a change in damage for the skills. While not an exact comparison it should give you an idea of what’s best. Personally i would go for the attack speed if i didn’t need the life steal because i can’t stand slow shots with my carbine
Ditto. Same reason I’m still clinging to my quickdraw gloves that toss in an extra attack and +100% attack speed for a sec every now and then
Mixes things up
I have trouble determining the damage difference when looking at weapons that are large increase in straight damage vs ones that have an added % to cast a damaging effect
