DPS: How to Calculate Damage Per Second and Compare Weapons and Builds
Damage per second is hit damage multiplied by attacks per second. An axe that hits for 500 once every two seconds does 250 DPS; a dagger that hits for 100 three times a second does 300 and kills faster despite the smaller number on the tooltip. DPS collapses "how hard" and "how often" into one rate you can compare across weapons, gear and builds in any action RPG, MMO or shooter. This guide covers the formula, the conversion from attack interval to attack rate, and the refinements (crits, multipliers, uptime) that separate tooltip DPS from real output.
Why DPS Rather Than Hit Damage
Hit damage alone is misleading. A two-handed weapon with a huge per-swing number can lose to a fast weapon with modest hits, and the only way to see it is to put both on a per-second basis. Most optimization decisions in a game are DPS comparisons: which drop to equip, which stat to stack, which build ranks higher, whether a new ability is an upgrade.
How to Calculate DPS
DPS = Damage per hit × Attacks per second
If the game shows attack speed as the time between attacks, convert it first: attacks per second = 1 ÷ seconds per attack. A 2.0-second swing is 0.5 attacks per second; a 0.8-second swing is 1.25.
Worked example.
- Axe: 500 damage, one swing every 2 seconds (0.5 attacks/s): 500 × 0.5 = 250 DPS
- Dagger: 100 damage, 3 attacks/s: 100 × 3 = 300 DPS
Adding a multiplier. Builds usually layer percentage bonuses on top of weapon damage. The Character Build DPS Calculator multiplies weapon damage × attack speed × a damage multiplier entered as a percentage, so the dagger with a 150% multiplier is 100 × 3 × 1.5 = 450 DPS.
Adding critical hits. If every hit has a crit chance c and crits deal m times normal damage, the average hit is multiplied by 1 + c × (m − 1). The dagger with a 25% crit chance at 2× damage averages 100 × (1 + 0.25 × 1) = 125 per hit, or 375 DPS. Because crit chance and crit multiplier multiply each other, raising whichever is lower usually gives the bigger gain.
Using DPS to Compare
Weapon drops. Compute DPS for the new item and your current one under the same build. Lower hit damage with higher attack speed is an upgrade more often than players expect.
Stat priority. Damage and attack speed multiply, so the better investment is usually the stat you have less of: doubling a low attack rate adds more than another slice of flat damage on an already fast weapon.
Build ranking. Compute each build's DPS under identical conditions (same target, same buffs) before ranking them.
Group play. In raids, your share of the group's damage is the relevant measure: your damage as a percentage of the total.
Common Mistakes
Burst versus sustained. DPS assumes continuous attacking. For a boss with a short damage window, a weapon that front-loads damage can beat one with higher sustained DPS. Match the metric to the encounter.
Ignoring uptime. Misses, dodges, reloads, resource costs, cast times and repositioning all cut real output below theoretical DPS. Treat the calculated figure as a ceiling.
Skipping the target's defenses. Armor, resistances and damage-type weaknesses change how much of your DPS lands. A high DPS in a resisted damage type can be worse than a lower DPS the enemy is weak to.
Mixing rate conventions. Some games list attacks per second, others seconds per attack, and some list "attack speed" as a percentage bonus. Convert to attacks per second before multiplying.
Related guide: K/D Ratio: How to Calculate and Use Your Kill-to-Death Ratio.