DPS display!

[Jan]

Hey, I think there should be a possibility to see your character DPS. Now I have to guess if a weapon with a certain speed is better than another with maybe lower speed but higher DMG per hit.

[Chris1984]

was asking myself the same question!

[feliscon]

DPS is really complicated to work out though. It depends on damage, speed, accuracy and enemy DR. Nevermind that a single estimate would be almost useless since most of the time you want to debuff enemies and a lot of classes/races have situational modifiers etc.

[Haas]

Originally posted by feliscon:

DPS is really complicated to work out though. It depends on damage, speed, accuracy and enemy DR. Nevermind that a single estimate would be almost useless since most of the time you want to debuff enemies and a lot of classes/races have situational modifiers etc.

Certainly it would not be accurate due to those factors, but a simple statistic to indicate the amount of average damage/per second would be relatively easy to show (simply based on the damage and a numerical speed value). Especially since the "speed" on a weapon is such a meaningless word right now (as it is not numerical). For instance, "Average" on a War Bow does not equal "Average" on a Hunting Bow. Looking at the two weapons (talking about the bows at the very first vendor) you would think the War Bow is better, period (Because the War Bow's damage is higher and both say they are speed: average). That is not the case, Hunting Bows are faster despite the wording being exactly the same (As a result Hunting Bows are better if you rely on faster actions, such as an interrupt build, and War Bows are better for pure DPS purposes due to DR -- but that's another story).

[Findanniin]

Originally posted by HaasGaming:

Originally posted by feliscon:

DPS is really complicated to work out though. It depends on damage, speed, accuracy and enemy DR. Nevermind that a single estimate would be almost useless since most of the time you want to debuff enemies and a lot of classes/races have situational modifiers etc.

Certainly it would not be accurate due to those factors, but a simple statistic to indicate the amount of average damage/per second would be relatively easy to show (simply based on the damage and a numerical speed value). Especially since the "speed" on a weapon is such a meaningless word right now (as it is not numerical). For instance, "Average" on a War Bow does not equal "Average" on a Hunting Bow. Looking at the two weapons (talking about the bows at the very first vendor) you would think the War Bow is better, period. That is not the case, Hunting Bows are faster despite the wording being exactly the same.

Are they?

... Dangit.

Vague wording needs to be less vague!

[feliscon]

Originally posted by HaasGaming:

Especially since the "speed" on a weapon is such a meaningless word right now. For instance, "Average" on a War Bow does not equal "Average" on a Hunting Bow. Looking at the two weapons (talking about the bows at the very first vendor) you would think the War Bow is better, period. That is not the case, Hunting Bows are faster despite the wording being exactly the same.

Now THIS I agree is a problem, but I'd rather they solve it by changing the speed 'adjectives' to actual numbers (and show effect of Dex while they're at it) than add a not-very-helpful DPS guess.

[Scorba]

Aw, crap.

How do I tell at all which weapon to use?

[rn_archl0rd]

The comments above don't make mention of the fact that enchanting your weapon further complicates the math. You would eventually need a speadsheet to account for all the variables affecting damage and speed: e.g. DR, type of enchantment, type of enemy ( Kith slaying, beast slayer) etc.. The values would change with each different encounter.

[Separa]

Look at the character's damage, with the weapon; and look at the weapons speed. When you take those two things into account, you should be able to make a decent enough guess. Just keep in mind that there are things like armor (DR) and accuracy/evasion to take into account. It's hard to really know just how much you are going to do. At best, you can get a rough idea; which, frankly, is all you really need.

[EleventhStar]

Doesn't this game have a combat log? What more do you need

[Separa]

Originally posted by EleventhStar:

Doesn't this game have a combat log? What more do you need

:p I almost said the same thing. I decided to indulge them a bit though, instead.

[rn_archl0rd]

The combat log is a good tool once you have the weapon chosen but not when you are trying to decide what weapon to buy (in Gilded Vale, early) or to sell inbetween combats after looting. To use the log you have to save before combat use one weapon and check log; reload and use other weapon and check log. Would get tedious.

[Separa]

Originally posted by rn_archl0rd:

The combat log is a good tool once you have the weapon chosen but not when you are trying to decide what weapon to buy (in Gilded Vale, early) or to sell inbetween combats after looting. To use the log you have to save before combat use one weapon and check log; reload and use other weapon and check log. Would get tedious.

As far as that goes; all weapons are made the same, within a given type. The only difference is in the enchants. And if it seems otherwise; that's only because of the enchants. A weapon with a fine (or higher) enchant will have higher damage, than one without any, in the display. So, whatever you get; get it for the enchant. Also keep in mind that not all enchants are made equally. Some use up more 'space' in the weapon than others. So be aware of that, when you're buying.

[rn_archl0rd]

Don't forget that some enchants overwrite others. If you have a weapon with accurate 1 enchating it with fine overwrites the accurate 1. So you have to consider the overwrite when looking at how much room you have to enchant.

[Scorba]

Originally posted by The Universal Void:

As far as that goes; all weapons are made the same, within a given type. The only difference is in the enchants. And if it seems otherwise; that's only because of the enchants. A weapon with a fine (or higher) enchant will have higher damage, than one without any, in the display. So, whatever you get; get it for the enchant. Also keep in mind that not all enchants are made equally. Some use up more 'space' in the weapon than others. So be aware of that, when you're buying.

There is more than one kind of bow. Which should I use?

There is more than one kind of slashy sword weapon. Which should I use?

There is more than one kind of daggery type weapon. Which should I use?

etc.

Each weapon has a speed listed and a damage range. But as others have pointed out, that's not enough to figure out which does more vanilla DPS. Never mind the tricky stuff - they just list simple information. It's simply not enough.

I would like to know the combination of speed and damage range for a DPS total. Vanilla.

[Separa]

Originally posted by Scorba:

Originally posted by The Universal Void:

As far as that goes; all weapons are made the same, within a given type. The only difference is in the enchants. And if it seems otherwise; that's only because of the enchants. A weapon with a fine (or higher) enchant will have higher damage, than one without any, in the display. So, whatever you get; get it for the enchant. Also keep in mind that not all enchants are made equally. Some use up more 'space' in the weapon than others. So be aware of that, when you're buying.

There is more than one kind of bow. Which should I use?

There is more than one kind of slashy sword weapon. Which should I use?

There is more than one kind of daggery type weapon. Which should I use?

etc.

Each weapon has a speed listed and a damage range. But as others have pointed out, that's not enough to figure out which does more vanilla DPS. Never mind the tricky stuff - they just list simple information. It's simply not enough.

I would like to know the combination of speed and damage range for a DPS total. Vanilla.

Control freak. =p I say that with love. Not, you know, romantic love; but, you know, the sort of brotherly kind. Not that I would know much about that. I only have a half brother, and he is a good deal older than me and I barely know him. But yeah, you know; love. Anyway, self-amusing-rambling aside; the only difference, between weapon types, are damage, speed and range. You may not know what is best, but you can figure out what is best for you from that. And frankly; they probably tried to make them as balanced as possible. I'm not sure they were 100% successful with that, but they came close enough. So don't stress the unnecessary details so much; just pick what works best for you.

That said though; most characters will probably do better with either a single 1-hander or a slow 2-hander (ranged or otherwise), because of DR. But the classes with high accuracy, and the characters with high mig/dex can probably work with just about anything.

EDIT: I should add that some weapons types have bonuses and/or penalties. Like pistols offer a DR-piercing bonus, but I think they also suffer a penalty to the crit multiplier. So, yeah, my generalization wasn't entirely true; but, still, my advice, to not overthink it, stands.