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weapon damage vs dps
bufflez
Member Posts: 53 Arc User
So, I've been googling for like... an hour. And everything I've come across seems to be a little different and not quite clear. When I look at a weapon, whether it be ground or space, there are two numbers under "to target:" The first, is followed by the word damage. The second, is in parentheses and is followed by DPS. Could someone please explain these to me? I've read that DPS should be high and damage should be low and vice versa. I've read they should both be high and both low. Which one should it be to get good damage with a quick cooldown before firing again?
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Aside from the many different weapon types for most content a fast firing weapon like a full auto rifle or minigun -or dual pistols for the looks- are good.
Only against borg you need hard hitting weapons like pulsewaves -which generally are good, but its like a shotgun, so firing on point blank range provides the most damage, or melee-weapons, as Borg cant adapt to them. The adaption is triggert by shot, so if you shoot 5 times -which is one cycle of a minigun- the borg are adapted. If you shoot 5 times with a shotgun, you wont fire as fast, but harder, and thus the borg are most likely dead before they can adapt.
You can smother a target with constant damage or you can stab it in the face and hope it dies
Technically what you need depend of what you are doing. A tac using ambush will love a slow firing/hard hitting weapon, while a rapid firing one is pretty much useless (200% dmg of 50 is much less than 200% of 200).
If you fight Borg, you avoid any rapid firing weapons. They adapt per shot, not per damage received.
Did you have to mention amongst the worse weapons in this game ? Minigun have a spinning time which is not calculated in the DPS. You basically have about 1/2s doing nothing EVERY SINGLE TIME you fire. As for the secondary fire, if the target die (which is likely), in most case you'll spray the wall for several seconds, doing nothing else, and not hitting anything (tested both in FPS mode and RPG mode). If the spinning time was only once per fight it might make the minigun an average weapon.
Pulsewave is simply put, the best weapons if you can go melee range (except for melee if you have the proper build and doffs). Both DPS and dmg per shot. It's especially deadly against borg and/or used by a tac. And yes, fully buffed/debuffed you can OSK a tac drone with a fleet pulsewave in his back, if you are lucky and crit. And you will OSK a small team of mobs for breakfeast. Quicker than the engi will drop his mines, if you know what to do.
For long range, I don't know, full auto I heard, maybe the Dyson gun (I find it really powerful).
Damage refers to 'Burst' damage, or damage per shot...
So how you choose really depends on your own individual play style... Do you want to do the Knock Out Punch, (in which case, you want to maximize Damage) or do you want to hose down your enemy over time, (in which case, you want to maximize DPS)... And there are other factors to consider. For example Torps have more Burst Damage then Energy weapons, but in reality, most of a Torps damage gets absorbed if the target still has shields up...
Beam on the other hand can give a higher DPS, which are good for sustained damage. It is possible for an all beam build to kill a single enemy faster than a cannon build can.
The determining factor in this is whether or not the enemy's shields recharge between fire cycles. The DHC and Beam Array have almost the same re-fire rate. The difference is that beams will fire four individual shots over a longer duration. Whereas the cannons will fire four rapid shots. If fired at the same time, they will both come off cool down at about the same time. The difference is only less than a second.
Therefore, with the cannons, there is a chance that after it fires, the shields of the enemy ship can start recharging before the cannons come off cool down. Therefore, it can delay the time it takes to kill the enemy.
With the way that the beams fire, they can put out more sustained damage, and keep shields down longer. For this reason, there are some enemies that beams can kill faster.
For space combat, on ships that have a decent turn rate, it is better to mix the two, if you can run both BOFFs skills: Beam Fire at Will, and Cannon Rapid Fire. The reason a good turn rate is needed is because it is better done with Dual Beam Banks, and Dual Heavy Cannons. It offers a combination of sustained damage, and burst damage. Therefore, you can kill things in front of you faster than an all beam build, or cannon/turret build. (This is not talking about PVP, only STFs, PVE, and endgame content).
DPS is good to have in PVEs, or STFs. However, there are times when the highest DPS player is actually doing less to help the team. It is possible to have an all beam build, that does the highest DPS in a mission, but only actually kill about three enemies. So, DPS is not all that it is about.
If it takes you twice as long to kill an enemy, but you have higher DPS, it really doesn't help the team, because you are spending more time on the same enemies, while others might be killing more of the enemies, thereby doing most of the work.
When it comes to ground combat, it is true that miniguns offer sustained damage, and not as good against Borg. There are some enemies that they are good against. However, I personally prefer to run with a sniper rifle, and pulsewave assault (not the blast pulsewave). For closer combat, the pulsewave, and an assault rifle are my preference.
The difference is the sniper rifle does really good burst damage from a distance, and the pulsewave does the best burst damage up close. The assault rifle is good for a little sustained damage, and can put out more damage than the miniguns due to accuracy.
The reason that ground weapons that offer sustained damage can help is because they can do more damage at a distance than ones that give higher burst damage. Therefore, you can start knocking out shields before the enemy gets close enough to get the full effect of the pulsewave.
It is almost like the same with space. Some weapons are good for sustained damage to shields, and the spike damage weapons are better for the faster kill. Combined, they are a more deadly combination than using just one, or the other.
Both go hand in hand, and as a good general rule of thumb, it pays to have high numbers in both.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
There's only 3 things you need to worry about with weapons:
Firing Arc Size
Damage
Whether your chosen ship can support it easily, as normally dictated by BOFF seating. Cannons on a ship with Lt TAC only isn't going to net you much...
Erm ... One extra teeny tiny littel thing you may want to add to this list is ... POWER ...
You are going to do more damage with spit balls than a DHC or Beam Array, if you can't keep weapon power levels up high enough ...
damage is the range of damage per shot fired, DPS means Damage Per Second, it is how much damage that range will do in a single second.
For example:
But..
However..
Basically damage= raw damge per shot, dps= damage dealt over a second of time
This isn't exactly how its calculated in this game, there are other variables, it's just a basic explanation of how DPS works as a rule to give you an idea.
Types of weapon and their firing arcs is a whole new kettle of fish, Dual Cannons will always have higher damage and DPS than Phaser Banks, this is because the cannons have narrow firing arcs (45/90) whereas phaser banks have wider arcs of fire (180/250/360) but lower damage. So you need to compare cannons to cannons and phasers to phasers etc when choosing weapons.