Calculate your damage per second! (The equation)

[kiitz]

Because you are killing the same boss, the dagger's damage will be reduced...so will your longbow's. Again, cancels out kind of =p

Well, it actually doesn't cancel straight out. There was a lot of discussion about this disparity. For example:

Here is an extreme imaginary example:
1. Dagger with 0.1 swing speed (10x/second) with 60 Damage
2. Longbow with 1 swing speed (1x/second) with 500 Damage

We will assume that each point of armor reduces damage by 1 point. This may not actually be true, but for our purposes, lets just first assume that.

If the boss has 0 armor, then the dagger will have 600dps and the longbow will have 500dps. It seems like the dagger is better damage dealer. However, bosses never have 0 armor and I've seen in past estimations that they are often in the 70-80+ range for the higher level bosses.

Lets assume this boss has 50 armor. The new calculation then follows:

dagger:
10 attacks X (60 damage - 50 armor) = 10 x 10 = 100 effective dps

longbow:
1 attack X (500 damage - 50 armor) = 1 x 450 = 450 effective dps

The higher the armor, the greater the fast swinging weapons lose out. I would imagine that a longbow vs. dagger, the longbow would out damage the dagger even if it was just autoattacking alone, no specials included.

[Noodleleg]

Well, it actually doesn't cancel straight out. There was a lot of discussion about this disparity. For example:

Here is an extreme imaginary example:
1. Dagger with 0.1 swing speed (10x/second) with 60 Damage
2. Longbow with 1 swing speed (1x/second) with 500 Damage

We will assume that each point of armor reduces damage by 1 point. This may not actually be true, but for our purposes, lets just first assume that.

If the boss has 0 armor, then the dagger will have 600dps and the longbow will have 500dps. It seems like the dagger is better damage dealer. However, bosses never have 0 armor and I've seen in past estimations that they are often in the 70-80+ range for the higher level bosses.

Lets assume this boss has 50 armor. The new calculation then follows:

dagger:
10 attacks X (60 damage - 50 armor) = 10 x 10 = 100 effective dps

longbow:
1 attack X (500 damage - 50 armor) = 1 x 450 = 450 effective dps

The higher the armor, the greater the fast swinging weapons lose out. I would imagine that a longbow vs. dagger, the longbow would out damage the dagger even if it was just autoattacking alone, no specials included.

Wow, never realized that. You should make a guide :-D