What is DPS?

DPS stands for Damage Per Second. I got that and I know how it works for gems that actually cause damage over time like poison and burn. What about the gems that have DPS but don't cause damage over time? I don't get it. For example...

I have "Freezing Pulse." Its effect is that it freezes enemies and from what I can tell does not cause damage over time. Its DPS is 968. It shoots and hits the enemy once sometimes causing freeze. Where does the damage per second come into play with "Freezing Pulse"?

Thanks

Just an example freezing pulse deals 1000 damage and can be cast once every 2 seconds.

Result: DPS of 500


Other case: Freezing pulse deals 500 damage but can be cast twice per second

Result: DPS of 1000

It takes average damage done, in addition to your attack or casting speed.

So if your damage each cast is 50-100 (average 75) and you cast twice per second, your DPS is 150. Then include crit chance and crit multipler and it gets a bit more complicated.

As far as I know, DPS in this game actually does not have anything to do with DOT abilities like poison arrow or puncture. Those specifically say it does like 70% of physical damage done per second over X seconds.

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Trapperkeeper wrote:

It takes average damage done, in addition to your attack or casting speed.

So if your damage each cast is 50-100 (average 75) and you cast twice per second, your DPS is 150. Then include crit chance and crit multipler and it gets a bit more complicated.

Crit chance and multipler don't get taken into account when it comes to DPS as far as i know.

DPS = Deep Penetration Study

Its basically the acronym nasa uses for alien encounters

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JusticeAndLiberty wrote:

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Trapperkeeper wrote:

It takes average damage done, in addition to your attack or casting speed.

So if your damage each cast is 50-100 (average 75) and you cast twice per second, your DPS is 150. Then include crit chance and crit multipler and it gets a bit more complicated.

Crit chance and multipler don't get taken into account when it comes to DPS as far as i know.

Look at your dps for a skill in game, take off any crit gear or gems you have, then look at the dps again

What randall is trying to say is, Yes, DPS does count crit chance and multiplier. For instance when you pop a Diamond flask your DPS goes up significantly.

So I misunderstood. Damage per second and damage over time are completely different in this game. That makes sense because "Freezing Pulse" can be cast rapidly thus has 900+ DPS then that of "Arctic Breath" which is very slow cast and has only 500 DPS with the same support gems. That also makes sense why when a gem is linked with "Faster Casting" support gem the DPS goes up. Thanks for clarifying I was very confused.

DPS is only given for a single projectile hitting a single target. Freezing Pulse can hit multiple enemies with a single cast so your actual DPS can be much higher than what is stated. Similarly, adding Lesser Multiple Projectiles will significantly increase your DPS against groups of enemies even though the character screen shows that it drops.

As others have stated, the DPS number also does not take into account elemental status ailments which can substantially increase your true DPS as well.

I often wonder why people try to count DPS in an area. Surely that doesn't affect how much damage it does, just... means it's doing it to more things?

Why not just say... average DPS of 100 xY where Y is the amount of mob's days you ruin.

Okay, y'know what, that is more complicated. But there you go, somebody tell me why I'm wrong, and that calculating that is needed. I'm honestly interested.