Who is the best DPS hero on Nightmare?

Everything you need to know about choosing and building a DPS hero on Nightmare difficulty.

Introduction

Most of the inexperienced but also experienced players will answer this question with; The Barbarian is the best DPS hero. This isn't true at all, we have a long close look at it. Talking about a DPS hero includes also talking about armor, weapons and pets. Therefore I will explain some basics first before I will get to the heroes itself.

Building a DPS

To get started you need armor but not any kind of armor. You have to wear a set!

What is a set?
The type (e.g. Chain or Leather) does not matter but using the same type on all pieces gives you a bonus on the stats. You are wearing a set if you see a nice blue outline on your pieces at the 'Hero Info' screen. Using pieces from different types isn't worth it even if the stats seem better. The bonus is just too good.
You gain a 25% bonus on your stats for Godly pieces, 30% for Mythical pieces, 33% for Transcendent, 36% for Supreme and 40% for Ultimate or higher quality pieces. There is no need to have all pieces from the same quality you can mix qualities of 'Cursed - Godly' and 'Mythical - Ultimate++'.

Upgrading your DPS gear
Resistances are really important for a DPS hero, doesn't matter if your DPS is ultra high. If you can't stay alive then you are literally useless. When upgrading DPS gear you are upgrading resistances first. Considering the set bonus you need to reach 164% resistance in total to get 90% resistance on Nightmare.

So in general 41% on each armor piece with a few exceptions (see below).


You start with the highest resistance and upgrade it to its cap. Please note that you are able to spend an additional point into it every ten upgrades. This is very important, don't miss it. Your second choice to spend points on will be Generic or Fire resistance until you reach their caps. You will 'overcap' Generic and Fire resistance to 41% (or whatever the graphic above shows). Once you have upgraded all resistances to their caps you will spend points on hero stats, preferably hero damage.

I advise to hit 90% resistance on Nightmare for at least Generic and Fire damage resistance. Other resistances are less important but not unimportant. You are also able to compensate other armor pieces with bad resistances if you up higher than the suggested values. I have done this a lot with my Ultimate pieces to compensate some Transcendent pieces with less upgrades. Some people say I have wasted my beautiful Ultimate pieces but I don't mind spending up to 10 points into resistances (to hit 90% resistance on NM) than on hero damage which gets nerfed on Nightmare.

Picking a pet
You have to choose between Dragon, Seahorse and Mega Chicken. The usage of a Cat is pretty much limited to a Barbarian all other heroes are better suited with one of the attacking pets. The Mega Chicken is superior and your best choice but Dragon and Seahorse are also extremely powerful. Do not underestimate them.

For more details, visit my guide...
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=197161711

Picking a weapon
There are a lot of weapons for each hero but not all of them are qualified to be a DPS weapon on Nightmare difficulty. It is almost safe to say that all generic weapon drops are junk so you have to choose between weapon rewards. Much more important for a DPS weapon on Nightmare will be the upgraded Base Damage than the stats itself.

Explanation of important terms

Please read this section carefully in order to interpret the results properly.

• melee - you hit with melee attacks,
  your Mega Chicken hits with melee attacks
  
  
  
• melee-range - you hit with ranged attacks,
  your Mega Chicken hits with melee attacks
  
  
  
• short-range - you hit with ranged attacks,
  your Mega Chicken hits with all projectiles
  
  
  
• long-range - you hit with ranged attacks,
  your Mega Chicken hits with one projectile

• weapon only - your DPS output using only your weapon, you do not use your ability
  
  
• hawk only - your burst damage output using only your ability (here hawk)
  
  
• combined - your DPS output using your weapon and ability, your burst damage output will be calculated down to a DPS

• 1st row - your DPS output using your weapon and ability if available
  
  
• 2nd row - your DPS output with equipped Mega Chicken
  
  
• 3rd row - your DPS output with equipped Mega Chicken, boosted by Monk's Hero Boost
  
  
• 4th row - your DPS output with equipped Mega Chicken, boosted by Monk's Hero Boost and Propeller Cat

DD Armor Calculator

The well known DDFRBR website went offline with the amazing Armor Resistance Calculator I'm offering my very own calculator, created with Excel 2007.

Download: DD Armor Calculator v0.2.1[www.dropbox.com]


Feedback is very welcome, don't hesitate to contact me :)


Update:
According to feedback I've received, the graphical version of the calculator just works with Excel 2007. You have to use one of the light-weighted versions when using any other software.

Apprentice

The Apprentice does not get much love although he is a great Upgrader with enabled Overcharge, much better than his counter part Adept with her Instant Upgrade. Unfortunately his second ability, the Mana Bomb scales horrible on Nightmare which is a huge drawback compared to other hero abilities. Another drawback is his low health which makes him very vulnerable outside of a Strength Drain Aura.

However, DPS wise he isn't bad at all but compared to other heroes he is one of the 'weakest'. The most common Apprentice DPS weapons are:

• Classic's Eagle Crested Standard obtainable on Boss Rush on Insane or Nightmare difficulty.
  
• Eternian Staff, a reward for completing Crystalline Dimension on Nightmare difficulty.
  
• Obsidian Clava randomly awarded for killing the Golden Mech on Akatiti Jungle.

A surprisingly good weapon but uncommon is the Bloodshot Staff from Moraggo Desert Town Survival. This weapon has the highest DPS regardless of your distance to the enemy - a huge profit. On the other hand it only deals Poison elemental damage.

Click here for Apprentice' data sheet

Barbarian

The Barbarian is for sure a strong DPS hero but he is overrated by far. Most people just see those numbers at the Tavern dummy and will be thrilled. Often they forget that heroes are dealing just 15.5% of the damage on Nightmare which they dealt on Insane meanwhile our lovely pets are receiving a boost. These two reasons dethrones the Barbarian as the best DPS hero on Nightmare.

Things are getting worse - the usual equipment of a Propeller Cat makes him to the weakest DPS hero (Note: Summoner is not a DPS hero!) in a team. To be fair all teammates profit much from this equipment but still - the weakest - absolutely unexpected. You say 'Hey you d****ss, you forgot Hawk Stance!' Sorry, no! Hawk Stance was already considered and added to his DPS.

So how did I calculate it? I have done a video analysis of his Hawk Stance. It takes exactly 4.8 seconds to be able to use Hawk Stance again. The cooldown of three seconds will be active once the Hawk Stance animation is completed, which takes 1.8 seconds. We are also able to use our weapons in this time. So the final calculation looks like:

• combined DPS = [ ( 3s * weapon DPS ) + hawk burst ] / 4.8s

Most common Barbarian DPS weapons are:

• Eternian Greatsword for beating Old One on Crystalline Dimension as Squire or Barbarian.
  
• Obsidian Gladius randomly awarded for killing the Golden Mech on Akatiti Jungle.
  
• Steam Saw for successfully jumping back from the Goblin Battlecruiser on Sky City.
  *cough* That's a joke. *cough* I've had my issues to jump back for a long time like many other players.

Things can only get better. If someone else of your team uses a Propeller Cat and you are able to use a Mega Chicken on your Barbarian then he will be again an equally strong ally.

Note: Don't think that I hate Barbarian, I play a lot with my 2k Barbarian. His Hawk Stance can be very useful if you need to release a lot of damage at once.

Click here for Barbarian's data sheet

Huntress

The Huntress is one of my favorite heroes, extremely easy to play with. You are able to cover a whole side of a map easily and let her be almost alone using an attacking pet. Just build a Gas Trap, activate your Invisibility and stay with her in the path of enemies. Only Dark Elf Warriors are able to track you but those shouldn't be an issue for your pet. If you are using a pet which does elemental damage then you only need to build an additional Darkness Trap and your pet also attacks elemental immune enemies.

Not only is her Invisibility powerful, so is her Pierce Shot. For example, to fight Mega Cupids or to shoot in way of incoming Ogres. It's really one of the easiest heroes to play with, sadly a lot of players underestimate her abilities. However, her most common DPS weapons are:

• Blaster Rifle awarded for completing Tinkerer's Lab on any difficulty.
  
• Eternian Energy Cannon obtainable on Crystalline Dimension on Nightmare difficulty.
  
• Pawn Shot given for successfully finishing King's Game on any difficulty.

Click here for Huntress' data sheet

Jester

The Jester is one of the most common heroes and also played a lot by me. High health, high damage, high casting rate, everything you need to be a professional Upgrader. She can equip two weapons simultaneously therefore one slot will be used for a Lupine Bow and the other slot for a badass DPS weapon. You are using a Genie with 8k-15k Mana Collecting Bonus (no need for 29k if you are using a Lupine Bow) until all Defenses are fully upgraded. Then you will change to an attacking pet and start playing as DPS hero.

Her Tower Move ability can be useful in rare cases. Much more useful is her second ability the Wheel O' Fortuna. You are able to greatly support your defenses and teammates with this ability. Most important combinations are ...

Although Jester is able to equip any weapon of the game she is used to be a ranged-wise hero, so I have only compared Apprentice and Huntress weapons. You may want to equip a Squire weapon with 100% damage reduction to be invulnerable as long as you hold your right mouse button.

Apprentice's Bloodshot Staff from Moraggo Desert Town Survival is also for Jester a great weapon. Remember that this weapon deals only elemental damage.

Click here for Jester's data sheet

Monk

The Monk, my all time favorite, is the badassest hero of the game. His pure weapon DPS is one of the weakest compared to all other heroes but his damage scaling for pets is by far the highest. Therefore you are basically forced to equip a shooting pet like Dragon, Seahorse or Mega Chicken. Using any other pet is a pure waste of DPS.

Do not use a Genie to collect Mana for something which gets called Boost Monk by the community. A Boost Monk is absolutely obsolete if you miss an offensive pet or you mess with your stats. I strongly advise you to keep your stats balanced at least until you hit the 2k mark. Once you reach this mark you can specialize in Boost or Hero Damage. I continued to keep my stats balanced since both abilities are not scaling well. Take a look at the table below and ask yourself: 'Is it worth to spend 500 more points into boost just to get a tenth?'

Don't get me wrong Monk's abilities are extremely powerful and in my opinion the most important of the game. A DPS team without a Monk isn't a DPS team. Monk's Hero Boost beats any Propeller Cat with just 500 points into Hero Boost.

If this wasn't enough, Monk's Tower Boost greatly supports your Defenses and he can be used to cover a whole side by building a Strength Drain Aura and Ensnare Aura. This requires about 500 points into Tower Range other tower stats are unimportant. Just place yourself inside of the auras and your pet does usually well. All this makes the Monk to be the strongest DPS hero of the game, simply the badassest. Enough talk, most common weapons are:

• Eternian Spear awarded for killing the Old One on Crystalline Dimension.
  
• Monk's Wrench from Sky City for beating the Goblin Battlecruiser.
  
• Obsidian Sparus, a random reward on Akatiti Jungle.

And again the question; Using Monk as range or melee wise hero? It does not really matter considering the DPS output. It is more a question of your liking. If you like to run all over the map killing enemies and hunting Ogres then I strongly advise to run around with a melee weapon. You are hitting multiple enemies in all directions not just in front of you. This means also that you are moving smoother through a flash mob and therefore you are lowering the risk of getting webbed by Spiders. In addition you are still able to lure Djinns and Copters with your non-upgraded ranged damage. If they are stuck on each other then well ... it takes a bit longer to kill the first stuck enemy. Who cares? If you prefer to stay near to your defenses then indeed you have the choice.

I've started to play with ranged weapons but I changed to melee weapons. It's so much more fun for me to run through mobs like a Berserker. ;)

Click here for Monk's data sheet

Series EV

The Series EV is an underestimated hero. A lot of players dislike her as being a DPS hero since her Proton Blast consumes 'a lot' of Mana. If we take a closer look it does not consumes as much Mana as people think. You have a lot of time to collect Mana so you are usually filled. Assuming that you are at Hero Level 100 half of her Proton Blast is already charged once you drop your Mana. So you need to kill only four or five more Ogres to fill her Proton Blast but you don't need to. Often the half-filled Proton Blast is enough to kill an incoming Ogre mob or bosses.

Series EV has a second weapon slot like Jester therefore she can be also used as Upgrader, using a Lupine Bow in one slot and a DPS weapon in the other slot. A Genie with 8k-15k Mana Collecting Bonus (no need for 29k if you are using a Lupine Bow) will do a great job collecting Mana. Once everything is fully upgraded you simply change to a shooting pet.

You are also able to cover a whole side of a map using an offensive pet and building a Physical Wall with a Reflect Beam in front of it or by using her Holographic Decoy. However, she is able to equip Apprentice and Huntress weapons although Huntress weapons seems more common.

If you take a look at Series EV's data sheet then you will notice that the combination of Propeller Cat and Proton Blast makes her a stronger alternative to a Barbarian with Propeller Cat in a 2-player team. Keep in mind that you cannot permanently use the Proton Blast but still impressive and highly unexpected.

Click here for Series EV's data sheet

Squire

The Squire has nooo paaaantsss! - Such a wisely guy :)

Ok, ok, to be serious, his pure weapon DPS isn't great compared to other heroes but his Blood Rage ability greatly increases his overall DPS and makes him a real competitor. He has the second highest DPS for soloing but unfortunately his Blood Rage and Monk's Hero Boost doesn't stack well so he will be passed on, otherwise he would do more than 100! million DPS on Nightmare.

However, it is much fun to play with him especially with activated Blood Rage, worth a shot. Squire's most common DPS weapons are:

• Eternian Greatsword for beating Old One on Crystalline Dimension as Squire or Barbarian.
  
• Obsidian Gladius randomly awarded for killing the Golden Mech on Akatiti Jungle.
  
• Steam Saw for successfully flying back from the Goblin Battlecruiser on Sky City.
  *cough* That's another joke. Up, up and away. *cough*

Click here for Squire's data sheet

Costumes

Every hero does have plenty of costumes to unlock. All costumes were provided within of a DLC. Meanwhile some costumes are immediately unlocked with the purchase of the DLC some others needs to be unlocked by playing and beating the DLC.

Only a few costumes are changing your hero attributes. In general we can say that a bonus on Hero Health will be result into a malus on Hero Speed and vice versa. That means as higher your health will be increased as lower will be your movement speed.

Click here to enlarge

Monk's anomaly: Some of Monk's costumes comes along with a new attack animation. The Ninja with the easiest to recognize. However, this will result into an increased weapon DPS and you will deal 116.66% pure weapon DPS. The actual damage scaling will be not changed, means you deal the same damage with one hit like before.

Summary

The biggest surprises

I've played this game quite a lot but during the progress of creating this guide I was surprised a few times. There are things I never thought about, things which were expected to be true but not so extreme and others which came out be absolutely wrong. I cannot list every single thing I've noticed (a few are 'hidden' at the data sheets) but I'll disclose the biggest ones.

• Apprentice's Bloodshot Staff - I never expected that this weapons comes close to an Eagle Crested. In fact it is much better.
  
  
• Barbarian's DPS - Did you expected Barbarian's DPS that low? It's a real bummer! I knew that his DPS wasn't better than Monk's but it was highly unexpected that also the Apprentice has a higher DPS. The lack of the shooting pet is huge meanwhile other heroes profit by Barbarian's Cat. Remember this if you claim next time that you have the highest DPS as Barbarian ;)
  
  
• Huntress' Blaster Rifle - Since her damage output of the Pierce Shot depends on the Base Damage of the used weapon I thought it would be better to run around with my high-end Pawn Shot but the combined DPS of the Blaster Rifle is like Eternian Energy Cannon higher. The Pawn Shot disappoints.
  
  
• Monk's Wrench - Just wow, if I could remember who told me that Monk's Wrench is a ranged weapon I would slap him/her. What a bummer ... again. Time to farm Sky City even if all weapons of the Monk are very close.
  
  
• Series EV's Proton Blast - Actually expected to have the highest DPS of the game with an equipped shooting pet but now with a solid proof. She deals about 20% more damage than the Monk and 85% more damage than the Barbarian. Yes, you have read 85%.
  
  
• Series EV with Cat - Actually every hero which deals more damage than its pet on Nightmare (e.g. Apprentice, Jester) could change to a Propeller Cat with at least 178 Boost Intensity but Series EV with Cat will be stronger than Barbarian with Cat. That means for a 2-player team;
  Series EV + Monk > Barbarian + Monk
  
  
• Squire's DPS - I've expected that Squire's DPS is the highest of the game but sadly his Blood Rage and Monk's Hero Boost doesn't scale well together. He is still a very strong DPS hero with one of the highest DPS but I could have sworn he beats Series EV.

Who's the best DPS hero on Nightmare?

All in all every hero can be powerful if you play and choose your equipment wisely. Some abilities are extremely useful such as the Wheel O' Fortuna from Jester, Hawk Stance from Barbarian, Pierce Shot from Huntress and so on. A good team includes several heroes to cover a few situations. However, I can just speak for myself but considering a few things then Monk is the best DPS hero on Nightmare for several reasons.

• He has by far the highest DPS on Nightmare soloing (almost 25m)
  
• His Tower Boost greatly supports your defenses (additional damage to fight enemies)
  
• His Hero Boost increases the DPS of the whole team much better than any Cat (no Monk - no DPS team)

Final Notes

This guide is still subject to change. I've done a lot of work and checks to be sure these numbers are correct. Anyways if you believe I've screwed up something then please write a comment below including as much details as possible.

All checks were done with 2k stats into Hero Damage and both abilities. These results are representative for any kind of stats as long as you have similar stats on your heroes. Do not compare a 2k Huntress with a 5k Barbarian for obvious reasons. I am going to add more heroes if I'm in a good mood. Too much numbers for now ;)



I want to thank ...

• jemmajule for checking the spelling and grammar. You are awesome!
  
• ddace and grey-1 for handing me out weapons, gear and other stuff.
  
• DanielSound for his great work in the past.
  
• and all others I've forgot to mention, no offense. :)

If this guide gave you some assistance then a would be much appreciated :)

In case you are going to vote this guide down for any reasons, it would be nice to contact me first in order to get further details and thoughts.

Feel free to take a look at my other guides by clicking » here «

Changelog

• 3rd July 2014
  
  • Released the guide
  
  
• 22nd July 2014
  
  • Added a new section 'Costumes'
  
  
• 3rd November 2014
  
  • Fixed broken links due to the changes of the official forums
  
  
• 4th June 2015
  
  • Fixed broken links to the data sheets

[NeoBlade]

i suppose it would mainly be for killing stationary bosses

[NeoBlade]

ive acttualy seen a barb hawk for 700m before it can get crazy

[pew pew pew]

thx thora :)

[Yorn]

still the best guide for DD

[Bandit Hadron]

Really wish the CDT would fix some of these numbers...

[Riflas]

didnt read lol

rated it anyway

[pew pew pew]

Its working just fine

[PrideGroupIsEvil]

"click on them" i tried that...

https://youtu.be/bp53DQvPtWE

[pew pew pew]

Click on them...

[PrideGroupIsEvil]

Your pictures are small and blurry. I can't read of the text you have in them. rendering much of what i see useless.