Thread: Getting better at DPS - a guide

This guide is written to combine different aspects of how to maximize your DPS.
The information in this post is based on my experiences and most numbers are based on my gear, so it might differ from your numbers.
I will update this post in the future and add other aspects based on your feedback.


1. Achievements

Most of the achievements needed to maximize damage are easy to recognize but since people ask for them consistently I will list them here.
There is nearly no room for alternatives - the few I have listed.

Predator Tree:

Strength: 4-6-4-8-1
Agility: 4-6-4-8-1
Intelligence: 4-5-4-8

* There is always the discussion if perfection or intoxication is better: my opinion, get a spec for both.
When doing instances with many mob groups and mobs are dieing fast take perfectionist.
When fighting single mobs who are living at least 40 seconds take intoxication instead.


Ranger Tree:

Poisoning: Caustic Poison 5, Fettering Poison 4, Ancillary Poison 5, Conservation 1
Trapping: Snaring Shot 5
Focusing: Survival Instincts 3, Focus Aim 5, Honed Reflexes 5, Killing Instinct 5, Extension 1
Survival: Hawk Attack 5
Multishot: Searing Shot 5, Natural Selection 5, Triple Shot 5, Storm of Arrows 5, Double Arrow 1

* The remaining 5 points can be spent wherever you like, they are not DPS relevant.


Shadows Tree:

General: Bountiful Feast 5, Hearty Constitution 5
Scout: Quick strike 5, Sinister Strike 5, Evasive Maneuvers 1
Predator: Insidious Strike 5, Cut Arteries 5, Critical Mastery 5, Noxious Enfeeblement 1
Ranger: Focused Attacks 4, Leaping Shadows 5, Hidden Embers 5, Arrow Reclamation 5, Ranged Mastery 2, Explosive Arrow 2

* The 10 points in general line can be spent wherever you want, it is not directly DPS relevant.

2. Combat arts and casting order

In this chapter I will list our combat arts and show how to prioritize them in your casting order.
This will be a bit more mathematical but I try to keep it simple.

When a combat art crits its damage range goes from max+1 to max*(1,3+crit mod).

I summed up the damage of combat arts that consist of multiple hits/ticks.

Based on the casting time (including recovery which is 0.5 seconds for a combat art) I have built a coefficient to determine the efficiency of each combat art.
This is based on the assumption that you have to do the maximum of damage in a given time. It does not consider the recast of the combat arts.
This is what you see in the last column called "DPS" below - the higher the value, the higher the priority to cast this combat art, when it is up.



As you can see Bloody Reminder is the best combat art to cast, but keep in mind that it only does its full damage when it lasts its whole duration. On fights with multiple mobs you might also consider using another cast order, since the damage from some combat arts is multiplied by how much enemies you are fighting (Fittest Survival, Shower of Arrows, Explosive Arrow).

You can see there is another column called "DPS" in that table.
This is the possible DPS in a 5 minute fight if you would cast every combat art immediately once it refreshes.
So this is basically the priority on longer fights, where the recast matters and where you can use all your combat arts.

* I have always used crits for those calculations, so this may differ because normally melee crit is much lower than ranged crit.

3. Autoattack and its stats

Our mainsource of damage.
The bread and butter for a rangers (and all other scouts) DPS.

Crit hits are working the same as they do for combat arts, if you hit critically, your damage range goes from max+1 to max*(1,3+mod).

Aside from crit chance there are basically 4 other stats, that affect your autoattack damage:

Haste:

Affects how fast you can swing your weapon or shot your bow.
It ranges from 0 to 200. If you have 0 haste your weapon delay will be the same as the examine window of your weapon shows.
If you have 200 haste you will attack 125% faster which means you divide your weapon delay by 2.25.
You will see the percentage value when you hover with your mouse over the number in your persona window.
This stat is on a dimishing return curve, which means the higher you get on that stat, the lower the benefit for every increase.
It kicks in at about 120 dps (~105% more damage) making every gain less effective than the gains before, but it still increases your damage.

Damage per Second (dps):

Affects how hard you hit with your weapon or your arrows.
It works the same way like haste does, you can have 0 dps and do the damage the weapon says or you have 200 dps and hit 125% harder - also multiply by 2.25. This stat is also on dimishing return curve.
Normally this stat is harder to raise for a ranger than haste.

Ranged Double Attack Chance (rda):

Affects how often you have the chance to land an additional autoattack hit with your bow.
This ranges from 0-100 and is not on a dimishing return curve.
Double attack damage is calculated the same way as a normal autoattack.
It also does not matter if your normal shot hits or not- it is just the chance to shot a second arrow.

Strength:

Affects how much damage you do with your autoattack.
In my opinion this stat is totally overestimated and that is why I list it at last, just for completeness.
This stat is on dimishing return and even with 0 strength you do 60% of your maximum damage.
So even with 600 strength you are already doing 90% of your maximum damage and with 800 strengh you reach almost 95%.


So how to decide which stat you should raise and maybe drop a few points of another?

As I said earlier, the higher your haste and dps goes the less effective will additional gain be.

The following part will be a little more mathematically now, so you can skip it, when you dont bother with that number crunching.

Autoattack basically is calculated as follows (not involving crits):

damage = base damage * (1+haste%) * (1+dps%) * (1+rda%)

Lets take a simple example:
I just wondered if I should change an item with 10dps for an item with 6rda - my stats with the 10dps item are 74dps, 89haste, 44rda.
We only use this example for simplicity, but keep in mind:
Some stats are not static and change during fights because of shortbuffs and procs, so consider that when doing such calculations.

The damage multiplier would be: 1.84 * 1.72 * 1.44 = 4.56
while with the double attack item it would be: 1.84 * 1.64 * 1.50 = 4.53

As you can see I lost 0.08 dps and got 0.06 rda which was a little loss overall.
Concidering I have a proc which does 45dps this calculation will change:

with the 10dps item: 1.84 * 2.01 * 1.44 = 5.33
with the 6rda item: 1.84 * 1.96 * 1.50 = 5.41

You see the dps gain from that 10dps item got so marginal that the 6rda beat it.


If autoattack is such an important part of my DPS, how can I time it correctly?

This question has no general answer (yet) - there are different ways to do.
Some watch their toon and damage numbers above the mob to determine when their autoattack went off.
Others are using custom triggers on ACT or autoattack plugin.
Personally I am looking forward to finally get the great autoattack bar made by Razieh which currently only works on test server.

... to be continued

great post saf
gotta talk about crit, dimishing returns, and what to practice parsing on
thats not avrg mobs in kunzar....

=P
but great guide

nice post Saf

Nice write up, should get it stickied

Your average crits are all wrong. Crits get weighted either towards the min, or they are the actual average. Not to mention, if your spread is non-existant, your min crit will be above the max+1, thus actually having it as the average. No idea about the rest of your post, but just commenting on the wrong math.

Actual math for Min Crit is:

If(MinDamage * CritBonus<MaxDamage +1)
MinCrit = MaxDamage +1
Else
MinCrit = MinDamage * CritBonus

Actual math for Average Crit is:

If(MinDamage * CritBonus<MaxDamage +1)
mincrit = FLOOR((MaxDamage + 1)/CritBonus) - MinDamage
range = MaxDamage - MinDamage
AverageCrit = (((MaxDamage + 1) * (mincrit)) + (((MinCritDamage + MaxCritDamage)/2) * (range - mincrit)))/range
Else
AverageCrit = (MinCritDamage + MaxCritDamage)/2


With FLOOR function returning the largest integer less than or equal to the value that it's used against. For example FLOOR(11.7)=11, and so on.

That crit calculation is pissing me off lol -.- Gonna correct it

Edit:
Well I decided to not change the table I posted because the tolerance is rather significantly.
If I would do it 100% correctly I had to change the calculation for multiple hit combat arts to calculate them for each hit seperatly.
However I plan to add a chapter about crits to the guide anyway.

Je ne peux pas parler français, mais heureusement, il ya de Google translate =P

I thought Euro fags all spoke like 5 languages, and French is kind of a big deal tbh.