Real DPS

#1

The concept of Damage Per Second as a way to compare weapons, classes, and sets abstracts away from several aspects of gameplay. As a result, it can be misleading. A weapon/setup with lower DPS may be more effective in various situations.

One aspect of gameplay not captured by DPS is the amount of time for which a weapon is fired. DPS is actually the limit of damage/time as time approaches infinity. If we start timing at the moment the first shot hits a target, then real damage/time begins at infinity and remains much higher than DPS over the first few shots of a weapon. This is one reason why items with high damage and slow rate of fire are more powerful than a simple DPS calculation would suggests. (The other reason is that they are less impacted by enemy DEF.)

Below are graphs of average DPS over time comparing Acclaim and Ancient Stone Sword on maxed Knight with tops, and comparing Doom Bow and Leaf Bow on Archer with tops, assuming enemy DEF is 20 . The graphs show that the real average DPS of these high-Dmg-low-RoF weapons is greater for the first 2-3 shots.

DPSoverTime
DPSoverTime.png711x587 34.3 KB

#2

generally however in boss fights you’ll be firing your weapon multiple times over a fight. hence leaf bow and acclaim are generally more useful (excepting ass extra range)

#3

This is a great point, especially noticeable when fighting enemies with repeated invulnerability phases. Deca has hp scaled most things to the point that it doesn’t really matter anymore but in the past, that tiny time frame (i.e. a notable example would have been Davy’s and how helping clear the lanterns could mean you’d miss that 0.5 second chance to get your SB in) where a boss goes invulnerable was critical to getting all your damage in.

It’s still quite noticeable for things that tend to die fast, hence why “burst” damage is still such a popular tool. For example a warrior might outdps a wizard in the long run, but man is that jade spell OP for killing things that can be killed within a few seconds.

#4

At the risk of sounding completely sarcastic, I just want to say, it makes me smile when people bring analytics to a flash game

#5

Yeah but can you perfectly time your shots to be hit exactly when the boss goes out of invulnerability? Most of the time I’m shooting constantly at the boss and the difference in time from the moment the boss comes out of invulnerability and when the first sot hitst he boss may be enough to make dbow’s burst obsolete.

#6

Yeah using a faster rof weapon is probably the safer choice since sb isn’t that high anymore. I think assassins have to time their poisons if they don’t want to go in for some reason (tomb bosses maybe?).

#7

Let me show you my plague

#8

LET ME SHOW YOU ITS FEATURES!

#9

Thanks. I am fascinated by things like the complexity behind seemingly simple game mechanics, exploring what numbers can and cannot express, designing meaningful analytics, and the visual display of such information.

#10

I do the same thing. It’s probably why I like merching so much. Because I can analyze exactly what is going on in the realm economy

#11

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