How to measure your DPS

There’s a great add-on called Combat Metrics that measures your DPS. You can open a report window after a fight by typing "/cmx" + Enter in chat (it will tell you your DPS + lots of interesting info !) or you can directly post your DPS in chat by typing "/cmx dps" + Enter (you can also assign keys for both). You can install add-ons manually but I recommend using Minion ! It’s a small and simple software that will automatically install add-ons in the right directory and, more importantly, will keep them up to date !

A target dummy will also tell you how much DPS you’re doing. There are different target dummies for different purposes.

  • The Skeleton is the most representative one for your single target DPS. There’s one with 3 million health (“regular” one) and one with 6 million health (“robust” one), only difference between the two is the amount of health (same resistance).
  • There’s The Centurion that’s good for group damage.
  • And there’s also a new target dummy called Target Iron Atronach, Trial which gives you the buffs you would get in a trial from your group members.

We have these four in our Guild Hall. Find @Streega in the guild roster, right click and choose “visit primary residence”. Go up the stairs and go to the right, on the platform.

To know your single target DPS, hit the normal skeleton for a little while, let’s say a minute at least (you don’t have to kill it, it may take a while), stop attacking until you’re not “in combat” anymore (you may have to move away) and your DPS will automatically be displayed in zone chat.

We also have a “dummy group” to try your “mob/AoE DPS” (the damage you inflict on a group of enemies).

A few notes

  • Your DPS will vary a lot ! Mine ranges between 15k and 80k depending on the enemy. Enemies have more or less resistance. Your damage against a mob will probably be different from your single target damage (especially true for people using dual wielding). A group (especially with tank + healer) will increase your DPS (up to 10-15k more !). For example, I am a healer and I run Vestment of Olorime which increases Spell Damage and Weapon Damage. BUT in a hard fight, where you have to dodge, move, resurrect etc. you may also do less damage simply because you’re spending less time attacking.
  • As such, combat metrics is good to measure your “real DPS” in “real situations” while you’re in a dungeon or trial. When you’re “fighting” a target dummy, you usually don’t have a tank and healer buffing you and you don’t have to resurrect, dodge etc.
  • That being said, when I ask for your DPS for the events, I prefer knowing your “target dummy DPS” because
    • It’s your DPS only and that’s what I need to know to make balanced groups
    • Since DPS varies greatly depending on the situation, it’s a “base number”
    • Since you hit the target dummy for a while, it’s the DPS you can sustain (vs. a DPS you can only keep up for a few seconds aka “burst damage”)

Which DPS for which content

Note : I am not looking to “shame” people by telling them their DPS is too bad to do X, it’s just so you can have a frame of reference ! I think this is also important to know so that everyone can have fun. If you try to do a veteran dungeon with 8k DPS, it won’t be fun for you nor for your teammates.

  • 1-10k : for questing/solo content ! Some quest bosses may be hard under 5k DPS, especially the ones in Elsweyr. 8-10k is ok for the normal non-DLC dungeons but they might take a while.
  • 10-15k : for the easiest normal trials (Craglorn trials : AA, SO, HRC) and the first normal DLC dungeons (ICP, WGT, CoS, RoM).
  • 15-20k : for nMoL, nAS, nDSA, nMA, nCR+0, the veteran non-DLC dungeons and the latter normal DLC dungeons (Horns of the Reach, Dragon Bones, Wolfhunter, Wrathstone, Harrowstorm, Stonethorn, Flames of Ambition).
  • 20k+ : for nHoF, nKA, nCR+3 and nRG, and the first veteran DLC dungeons.
  • 25k+ : for the easiest veteran trials (Craglorn), vDSA, vMA and mid veteran DLC dungeons (Horns, Dragon, Wolf) *
  • 30k+ : vMoL, vAS, vSS, vCR+0, vHoF * and the latest veteran DLC dungeons (Harrow, Stone, Flames) *
  • 40-50k+ : vKA, vRG, vCR+3, vDSR

*Regarding the veteran DLC trials and vet DLC dungeons, it’s not only DPS that’s important, but also 1) damage mitigation and 2) your ability to react quickly to mechanics.

This is the minimum DPS so that you are comfortable doing these things. You can do veteran Wayrest Sewers I with a group of 10k DPS but it’ll take you time and lots of death. As for the DLC dungeons, they can be very challenging, especially the latest ones, so I would advise to be on the upper range rather than lower.

You have to take into consideration the average DPS of your group as well. Obviously if you have someone who does a hell lot of damage, your own DPS can be lower. You also should take into consideration how much available time you have. A normal dungeon with 8k DPS can take up to an hour, while the same dungeon with 25k DPS will take 10 minutes !

You’ll notice I usually set the min DPS lower than this for the trials (or I don’t set any min DPS at all), that’s because I know some of the people who will come have enough DPS to compensate for lower DPS and since we’re a casual learning guild, we have the time to retry and struggle. I also want as many people as possible to be able to come and experience trials !

When should I start caring about DPS ?

There’s not much point caring about your DPS while your character is still under level 160CP. Reason for that is simple enough : the maximum level for items in the game is 160CP. This means that, before you reach that level, you’ll just keep changing your gear and you won’t be wearing anything “good” since you’ll be discarding it.

You can already take a look at which sets you’d like to wear once you reach 160CP though. You can start buying gear, but you can also get some in dungeons/trials if you’re running with 160CP+ players (who are willing to trade the gear they picked up).

You also need to keep in mind that the more CP you have, the higher your DPS and, in general, you need to be at least 300CP to reach 20k+ DPS.

Long story short : no need to stress over your DPS if you’re <160CP 😉

How can I increase my DPS ?

Now that’s the big question, isn’t it ?

  1. We have many “pro”* players you can ask for advice! They will be more than happy to help. House Tertia is a learning guild and no one will make fun of you or anything, even if you feel like you know absolutely nothing, there are no stupid questions. You can ask in chat or on Discord. You can also mail, whisper or Discord-DM me @yunfangoldhag (game) / @The Chancellor (Yun) (Discord) as I know most of our players and I’ll be able to redirect you. I can also personally help with Templar Magicka DD.
  2. There are many guides online. Our guildies recommend Xynode Gaming as their guides are more “interesting”, but they don’t cover all builds. Alcast is a classic, of course. They cover more builds but they tend to all be the same (for example, all guides for Magicka DD will be +/- the same, regardless of class).

*by “pro” I mean here : has reached high DPS and is playing endgame content. No pro player mindset 😉

Here are some basics to most DD builds

  • Attributes : you’ll want to put most of your attribute points into your main resource (Magicka or Stamina) and up to 10 in health. None into your “non resource” (0 stam if you’re mag, 0 mag if you’re stam).
  • Passives : don’t forget about them ! Passives can be very powerful. Don’t forget to look into Mages Guild, Fighters Guild & Undaunted (& to level them up). The Alchemy passive Medicinal Use is also useful, along with Gourmand & Connoisseur from Provisioning.
  • Food & potions : are very important, don’t just craft the first thing that looks alright. Best food recipe usually come from an event or DLC. For example, I use Witchmother’s Potent Brew for my DD, and the recipe could be obtained during the Witches Festival. Ask a guildie if you don’t know the recipe 🙂
  • CPs : in general, I’m a big fan of “do your own build” but CPs are… complicated. A CP may sound “good” but actually turn out to be mostly useless. This is especially true for The Warrior constellation which is important for damage mitigation. There are some complicated maths going into those (which multipliers apply, which other stats are taken into account, what are the soft and hard caps etc), so my advice is to follow a guide.
  • Gear quality : unless you’re drowning under gold/golden mats, you can keep most of your gear purple. My advice is to only make your weapons and your monster set golden.
  • Practice, practice, practice ! Once you got everything down, your DPS may still be low. You’ll need to do dungeons & trials to get your skill rotation right. This might take a while ! You may feel like you got your rotation down, but it takes weeks, even months, to master it. Here’s my own personal experience : I was stuck at ~20k DPS with my DD after I got her “endgame gear”, and it took a few weeks of training to reach my current DPS (42k). During those weeks, I didn’t necessarily feel like I was improving. Yet I was 😉