DPS Confusion

[Chaosblaze]

Hey guys I am a new player to World of Warcraft.

I often get confused about the term DPS (Damage Per Second) I know that is a average with a weapon on how much Damage per second you would deal.

The thing that is confusing is people saying that rougues dps is high, does that mean they deal alot of damage really quickly?

And I am wondering that whateva weapon I choose, the more DPS the better?

My last question is in Raids/Instances people say like "Ok DPS NOW!" what does that mean?

Thanks
Chaosblaze

[Tanitha]

1. Rogues have high DPS. So yes, that means they deal a lot of damage per second. High damage. Each class will do a certain amount over time, the higher the average the higher the DPS. Some classes burst really well (Insane DPS over a short time) other have better sustained DPS.

2. When they are indicating that you should DPS, I'm pegging that the tank has grabbed aggro and feels they have a confident enough hold of the monster. Damage you do (And healing, etc.) can take the focus of the monster off the tank and onto you. DPS classes are typically squishy or low in armour / health and they try to keep monsters hitting the tank. So the tank hits the monster, uses their abilities to work up a decent amount of hate (aggro) and once they've got the monster focussed on them send out the call "DPS NOW!" to let the other classes know they can join the fray.

Hope that helps!

[Chaosblaze]

So burst dps is good damage over a time, but then slowly goes down abit? and sustained DPS is average damage over a long time?

[Tanitha]

Hmm. Maybe I'm not too clued up on the nomenclature. As I understand it, DPS is simply damage per second although it is typically used to indicate "high damage output".

Burst, by itself, indicates damage coming in spikes. Sustained indicates damage over a length of time. Or maybe I'm just over-complicating it, which is entirely possible :grin:

Curious though - why? What scenario have you run into recently?

[Justinledwards]

Burst DPS - something that you can do in a short period of time. For example, a lot of critical hits, attacks that are on cooldown, use of trinkets that increase attack power for a period of time - all contribute to high burst damage

For example, as a hunter - I have a trinket, rapid fire, quick shots which are pretty much my ultimate burst - if quick shots happens, i trigger the trinket and hit rapid fire... I can double my DPS, but for 15 seconds only every few minutes.

Damage over time - aka DoT - is something that you attack with, that then causes more damage to the target over a period of time - e.g. 75 poison damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds is a DoT. Serpent sting for hunter, flameshock for shammie, Tanitha the warlock can tell you about uber-warlock DoTs

Sustained DPS - ability to maintain your DPS, not reliant on talents high-cost spells, trinkets. Hunters typically have high sustained DPS, along with rogues and warriors as the DPS is not mana dependant

[Toxicshadow]

Burst DPS on a rogue: Ambush + Backstab. If you got the right talents, nice weapons, and time it correctly you can do these 2 attacks as well as an autoattack off each hand within 1 second, the ambush having 100% critical strike chance, the Backstab over 50%, meaning that any 'clothie' will die before the packets containing the info of these attacks reach him. However, after doing this combination your Energy will be 0 and thus your DPS will drop to that of your autoattack while you regenerate enough to strike again.

Sustained DPS: What damage you can keep throughout a fight that'll take several minutes, meaning what you can do with the mana you regenerate while fighting. Here I'm counting life tap, drain mana, evocation, and various gems and potions as regeneration.

"Rogue DPS is high": While in combat with a single target, with a warrior, paladin, or druid to tank it, rogues can combine "Backstab" and "Slice and Dice" to give them the highest damage of any class in the game - even more than mages. If in combat with multiple targets or a poor tank, however, the rogue will have to chase the targets (or be chased by the targets) and he can't do damage to more than 2 targets at a time.

"Ok DPS now!" is when you should start your burst DPS. Until it's given, wands and auto-attack is to be prefered. When it's given, the tank will have lots of threat and lots of rage, and thus be able to hold the bad guy on him.

[Clavina]

And I am wondering that whateva weapon I choose, the more DPS the better?

This is a whole different kettle of fish! If you have special attacks that are based on weapon damage then the weapon speed needs to be taken into account as well. This affects pretty much all classes that deal melee or ranged physical attacks. A slower weapon that does more damage per swing (or per shot) will do more damage per special attack than a faster weapon of equal dps.

For example,
Sword of Omen
39 - 74 Damage Speed 1.90
(29.7 damage per second)

Vanquisher's Sword
46 - 86 Damage Speed 2.20
(30.0 damage per second)

These 2 swords do virtually identical DPS, however equipping the Vanquisher's Sword into your main hand will result in higher damage from special attacks such as warriors heroic strike, rogues sinister strike etc etc

[Eonblue]

In reference to termonology, consider DPS = Damage.
DPS is a method of messuring damage and has become an accepted verb to 'attack' a target such as when a group leader says 'begin dps'.
Keep in mind, some classes will not actually do damager per second such as a mage, who will spend 3-6 seconds casting a spell that will do damage but you still calculate their damage in per second terms. As mentioned above dps is refering to average damage per second.
:)