diablo-3diablo-3-demon-hunter
I've read that for a demon hunter the weapon with the higher min/max dmg is better than the weapon with higher DPS but lower min/max dmg:
This is why most people will see the best increase of pure damage based on the min and max damage of your weapon. Remember the dps stat is just to give you an idea of how good a weapon is, but it is not as important as the min – max damage of the weapon.
– Source
Is this true? Because the DPS number from the character screen proves it wrong.
I take no credit for the following, as I did not do the work. All credit goes to nxmehta#1150.
This is the equation to calculate your total DPS (two handed weapon ONLY):
DPS = (Weapon DPS) * (Attack Speed Bonus) * (Dexterity/100 + 1) * [(1 - Crit Chance/100) + (Crit Chance/100) * (Crit Damage/100 + 1)]
Weapon DPS = This is the number on your weapon. If the weapon already has increased attack speed, it's already calculated into this DPS. For example, my crossbow has 900 DPS.
Attack Speed Bonus = This is the sum of all your attack speed bonuses (again, weapon attack speed is already in your weapon DPS). For example, my ring and amulet both give 15% attack speed, so this number would be 1.30.
Dexterity = Self explanatory- mine is 1300.
Crit Chance = Self explanatory- mine 10%, so that would be 10 here. IF YOU HAVE THE SHARSHOOTER PASSIVE ACTIVATED THIS WILL BE SET TO 100. TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR REAL DPS.
Crit Damage = Self explanatory- mine is 100%, so that would be 100 here.
So for example, my DPS = (900) * (1.10) * (1300/100 + 1) * [(1 - 10/100) + (10/100) * (100/100 + 1)] = 15264.
So how can you compare attack speed and dexterity? The simplest way is to calculate, for a given increase in dex, what is the equivalent increase in attack speed bonus that would yield the same DPS increase. Here's how you do that:
Equivalent attack speed bonus = (New Dex + 100) / (Old Dex + 100)
For example, lets say I increase my dex from 1300 to 1400 using some gloves. The equivalent attack speed bonus would be:
(1400 + 100) / (1300 + 100) = 1.071
Or roughly 7%. This means that with 1300 dex, a 100 dex glove is equivalent to a 7% increased attack speed glove, all other things about the glove being equal.
Now, let's say I had 1500 dex instead of 1300, and I add that 100 dex glove again. The equivalent attack speed bonus would be:
(1600 + 100) / (1500 + 100) = 1.062
Or roughly 6%. So here, adding a 7% increased attack speed glove would be better than adding a 100 dex glove.
This is why it's important to know what your dex is and making this calculation before deciding which gear to get. The higher your dex is, the more diminishing returns you get from adding a fixed amount of dex. The lower your dex is, the more valuable it is to add that same amount of dex.
Here's a quick table that might help you decide if you should go for attack speed or dexterity in items, depending on your base dex and the dex of the item you are adding. (ID = Item Dexterity)
Equivalent Attack Speed as a function of Base and Item Dex
ID 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
----------------------------------------------------
BaseDex
200 6.7% 13.3% 20.0% 26.7% 33.3% 40.0% 46.7% 53.3%
300 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0% 35.0% 40.0%
400 4.0% 8.0% 12.0% 16.0% 20.0% 24.0% 28.0% 32.0%
500 3.3% 6.7% 10.0% 13.3% 16.7% 20.0% 23.3% 26.7%
600 2.9% 5.7% 8.6% 11.4% 14.3% 17.1% 20.0% 22.9%
700 2.5% 5.0% 7.5% 10.0% 12.5% 15.0% 17.5% 20.0%
800 2.2% 4.4% 6.7% 8.9% 11.1% 13.3% 15.6% 17.8%
900 2.0% 4.0% 6.0% 8.0% 10.0% 12.0% 14.0% 16.0%
1000 1.8% 3.6% 5.5% 7.3% 9.1% 10.9% 12.7% 14.5%
1100 1.7% 3.3% 5.0% 6.7% 8.3% 10.0% 11.7% 13.3%
1200 1.5% 3.1% 4.6% 6.2% 7.7% 9.2% 10.8% 12.3%
1300 1.4% 2.9% 4.3% 5.7% 7.1% 8.6% 10.0% 11.4%
1400 1.3% 2.7% 4.0% 5.3% 6.7% 8.0% 9.3% 10.7%
1500 1.2% 2.5% 3.8% 5.0% 6.2% 7.5% 8.7% 10.0%
1600 1.2% 2.4% 3.5% 4.7% 5.9% 7.1% 8.2% 9.4%
1700 1.1% 2.2% 3.3% 4.4% 5.6% 6.7% 7.8% 8.9%
1800 1.1% 2.1% 3.2% 4.2% 5.3% 6.3% 7.4% 8.4%
1900 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% 7.0% 8.0%
2000 1.0% 1.9% 2.9% 3.8% 4.8% 5.7% 6.7% 7.6%
Say you have a base dex of 1300 and comparing something like a 100 dex glove with 10% attack speed vs a 130 dex glove with 8% attack speed? Which is better? Well, we know that 10% is better than 8%. But will 30 points of dex make up for the 2% difference in attack speed? Look at this table to find out.
Base Dex Dex Equal to 1% Attack Speed
-------- ----------------------------
200 3
300 4
400 5
500 6
600 7
700 8
800 9
900 10
1000 11
1100 12
1200 13
1300 14
1400 15
1500 16
1600 17
1700 18
1800 19
1900 20
2000 21
Here we can see that at 1300 base dex, 14 points of dex is equivalent to 1% attack speed. So the 2% difference in attack speed is equal to 2 * 14 = 28 points of dex. So that 2% difference is only worth 28 dex, which isn't as good as the +30 dex gloves. Those are the better ones, even though they are slower.
Notice that this changes if you have a higher dex, say 1500. Here, 16 points of dex are equivalent to 1% attack speed. So 2% attack speed is equal to 32 points of dex. Here, you would want the faster, lower dex gloves.
The below table illustrates how to go from crit chance and damage to an equivalent attack speed bonus. So for instance, an item with 50% crit damage and a 10% crit chance is equivalent to a 5% attack speed bonus.
Equivalent Attack Speed as a function of Crit Chance and Damage
Crit Crit Damage
Chance 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
----------------------------------------------------------------
0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
1% 0.1% 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.5% 0.6% 0.7% 0.8% 0.9% 1.0%
2% 0.2% 0.4% 0.6% 0.8% 1.0% 1.2% 1.4% 1.6% 1.8% 2.0%
3% 0.3% 0.6% 0.9% 1.2% 1.5% 1.8% 2.1% 2.4% 2.7% 3.0%
4% 0.4% 0.8% 1.2% 1.6% 2.0% 2.4% 2.8% 3.2% 3.6% 4.0%
5% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%
6% 0.6% 1.2% 1.8% 2.4% 3.0% 3.6% 4.2% 4.8% 5.4% 6.0%
7% 0.7% 1.4% 2.1% 2.8% 3.5% 4.2% 4.9% 5.6% 6.3% 7.0%
8% 0.8% 1.6% 2.4% 3.2% 4.0% 4.8% 5.6% 6.4% 7.2% 8.0%
9% 0.9% 1.8% 2.7% 3.6% 4.5% 5.4% 6.3% 7.2% 8.1% 9.0%
10% 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% 7.0% 8.0% 9.0% 10.0%
11% 1.1% 2.2% 3.3% 4.4% 5.5% 6.6% 7.7% 8.8% 9.9% 11.0%
12% 1.2% 2.4% 3.6% 4.8% 6.0% 7.2% 8.4% 9.6% 10.8% 12.0%
13% 1.3% 2.6% 3.9% 5.2% 6.5% 7.8% 9.1% 10.4% 11.7% 13.0%
14% 1.4% 2.8% 4.2% 5.6% 7.0% 8.4% 9.8% 11.2% 12.6% 14.0%
15% 1.5% 3.0% 4.5% 6.0% 7.5% 9.0% 10.5% 12.0% 13.5% 15.0%
16% 1.6% 3.2% 4.8% 6.4% 8.0% 9.6% 11.2% 12.8% 14.4% 16.0%
17% 1.7% 3.4% 5.1% 6.8% 8.5% 10.2% 11.9% 13.6% 15.3% 17.0%
18% 1.8% 3.6% 5.4% 7.2% 9.0% 10.8% 12.6% 14.4% 16.2% 18.0%
19% 1.9% 3.8% 5.7% 7.6% 9.5% 11.4% 13.3% 15.2% 17.1% 19.0%
20% 2.0% 4.0% 6.0% 8.0% 10.0% 12.0% 14.0% 16.0% 18.0% 20.0%
21% 2.1% 4.2% 6.3% 8.4% 10.5% 12.6% 14.7% 16.8% 18.9% 21.0%
22% 2.2% 4.4% 6.6% 8.8% 11.0% 13.2% 15.4% 17.6% 19.8% 22.0%
23% 2.3% 4.6% 6.9% 9.2% 11.5% 13.8% 16.1% 18.4% 20.7% 23.0%
24% 2.4% 4.8% 7.2% 9.6% 12.0% 14.4% 16.8% 19.2% 21.6% 24.0%
25% 2.5% 5.0% 7.5% 10.0% 12.5% 15.0% 17.5% 20.0% 22.5% 25.0%
Short answer : "No, your DPS won't change based on the difficulty level of the current game"
Your DPS in directly related to the base damage of your weapon(s). The DPS calculation can indeed be simplified as this :
DPS = Base Damage * Damage Modifier(s)
Damage modifiers are skill and stat dependants, but have the same effect, they will apply a boost coefficient to your base damage. As an exemple, 1 point in your primary stat will give you 1% damage increase.
Thus, increasing the base damage when changing your weapon(s) will result in a huge increase of your DPS.
For example, let's assume you're a Demon Hunter and have 500 dexterity, which gives a +500% base damage increase.
DPS = 100 * (1 + 500/100) = 600
DPSDPS = 200 * (1 + 500/100) = 1200
DPSGiven that some armageddon weapon give you 1000+ dps and you can reach very high scores in your primary stat (not counting other bonuses as attack speed, damage bonus, ...), you'll see that your DPS can get to really high scores.
See this related question for more information on how DPS is calculated.
Best Answer
It depends greatly on what you are wanting to accomplish. The "DPS" that is shown on the weapon is calculated based on the min, max, attacks per second and other damage modifiers on the weapon.
That is strictly a DPS value.
When you are looking at abilities and they say:
That means it will do X% of your weapon damage. Your weapon damage is calculated based on the min, max, primary attribute and a few other modifiers. The key is, Attack speed is not used for this calculation.
When you are trying to figure out how much damage a specific ability will do, the "Damage" that you see on your character sheet is not the correct value you should be using. "Damage" on the character sheet is actually DPS with tons of other variables.
For builds that focus on burst damage, high min-max weapons are good. Because your initial hits are going to hit even harder.
For any thing else, you just need to make a decision based on the skills you are using, your "on hit" abilities, primary resource regeneration... etc. This decision is very build and gear dependent.