DPS vs Damage - a detailed comparison

[JaytB]

from what i found at lvl21 max with my spreadsheet DO NOT charge anything on a boss. timeshift wants you to think it's good, but a charge takes 1s + .5s GCD, because of that you could get in 1 more AA in during that lost 1s and you get like 11 damage dot for ~8ish seconds.

i do the same, but i start with a charged Time to start. I found that the +3s duration on frost make the dot go on each cast, charged or not
the thing that works better when charging is the aoe on impact, causing frost/slow to multiple mobs. after the initial TS charge, i just AA then skill, without charging anything.

Thanks for the info. I adapted my skill rotation accordingly and noticed I could finish some test runs a bit quicker

Jay: First things first, I still like shanks better than bow!! haha

As Drgrimmy mentioned, armor works different in AL than in PL. I can't find the thread, but it was explained by a developer a while ago. Basically armor deducts a percentage of the hit rather than a flat amount. So unlike in PL, two hits of 200 dmg each is the same as one hit of 400 dmg. The percentage deduction depends on your level, your opponents level, and how much armor you have.

But you are correct that neither has much to do with skill damage, and as a mage you are clearly better off with high dmg than high dps. The only exception to this I have noticed is if you are farming mobs and don't want to spend much on mana pots then you can do just fine with high dps weapon (like a clever flamestrike rod) by spamming the attack, non-charged.

A lot of this also depends on your build. If you have 4 offensive skills like you do in your build, then of course you don't need to ever use the regular non-skill attack as you will always have another skill to go to. But for some who may have PvP builds with only 2 offensive skills (maybe they have shield & heal as their other 2 skills), then they are going to have time waiting for those skills to cool down, and they may be better off with the high dps weapon that they can spam attack at those times.

First off LOL at the shanks over bow remark, that was already a while ago haha

About your remark on saving mana pots, IMO if someone wants to run an elite dungeon they should at least be prepared to to use some mana and/or health pots. Too often I see people just standing around while the rest tries and kill the boss, or they start to attack fiercely and then go sit in a corner and wait for their mana to regenerate. But yeah, I get what you're saying.