DPS Calculator
Calculate damage per second (DPS) by multiplying single-hit damage by attacks per second — the standard metric for comparing weapons, builds, and characters in any action RPG, MMO, or shooter. Use it to choose between two weapons, optimize gear stat allocations, or rank class builds by sustained damage output.
Last updated: May 2026
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About this calculator
DPS — damage per second — is the single unified damage metric for RPG, ARPG, and MMO builds. A 300-damage 2-handed sword with a 1.0 attacks-per-second swing rate does the same 300 DPS as a 150-damage 1-hand at 2.0 APS. This calculator combines base damage, attack speed, crit chance, and crit multiplier into the true expected DPS number so you can compare weapons and skill setups without getting fooled by base-damage inflation on slow weapons.
The DPS formula
True DPS = base damage × attack speed × (1 + crit chance × (crit multiplier − 1)). The crit expansion term is the one most manual calculations get wrong: 50% crit chance at 200% multiplier doesn't give you 200% total damage, it gives you 150% (0.5 × 1.0 non-crit + 0.5 × 2.0 crit). This calculator does the crit expansion correctly, which changes the ordering of comparable weapons more often than people expect.
DPS calculator for POE2 (Path of Exile 2)
POE2 introduced a spirit budget for aura and reservation costs and rebalanced weapon base damage, but the core DPS math is unchanged from POE1. For POE2 specifically, be aware of the "hit damage" vs "damage over time" split — this calculator handles hit damage (weapon strikes, spells that deal a single damage instance). For DoT builds (poison, bleed, ignite), multiply the base-damage input by the ailment multiplier before entering.
DPS in Diablo IV, Last Epoch, and other ARPGs
The formula is the same across the ARPG family. Diablo IV displays a similar "DPS" value on the character sheet but includes some passive bonuses in its calculation that aren't always active in combat — treat the character-sheet number as an upper bound and the calculator here as the reliable comparison metric between two weapons.
Sustained DPS vs burst DPS
The calculator returns sustained (average) DPS. For burst comparisons (opening 3-second window in a boss fight), factor in cooldowns and resource cost separately — a 10,000-DPS skill on a 20-second cooldown does 500 sustained DPS in a fight where you use it once, not 10,000.
How to use
Example 1 — Comparing two weapons. Sword A deals 850 damage per hit at 1.4 attacks per second. Enter 850 for Damage and 1.4 for Attack Speed. Result: 1,190 DPS. Verify: 850 × 1.4 = 1,190. ✓ Sword B deals 1,200 damage at 0.9 attacks per second: 1,200 × 0.9 = 1,080 DPS. Sword A wins by ~10% on raw white DPS. But Sword B might still be better if it has higher crit chance, higher crit multiplier, or scales better with strength — for definitive comparison, compute effective DPS including those modifiers. Example 2 — Skill rotation DPS estimate. A class has a 3-skill rotation: skill 1 deals 1,500 damage on a 6-second cooldown; skill 2 deals 2,000 damage on a 10-second cooldown; skill 3 deals 600 damage with no cooldown, used as filler. Over 30 seconds: skill 1 fires 5 times (7,500 dmg), skill 2 fires 3 times (6,000 dmg), skill 3 fills the remaining ~15 seconds at 0.5 cast time = 30 casts (18,000 dmg). Total = 31,500 damage / 30 sec = 1,050 DPS. This calculator doesn't handle rotations directly; use it on individual skills to compare relative contribution to the rotation, then assemble manually or use a theorycrafting simulator for accurate full-rotation DPS.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between DPS, eDPS, and burst DPS?
White DPS (plain DPS) is base weapon damage × attack speed, ignoring all modifiers. Effective DPS (eDPS) includes all consistent damage multipliers: crit chance, crit damage, weapon enchantments, percentage damage modifiers (Strength bonuses, weapon-mastery passives), and buff uptime. Burst DPS is the peak damage over a short window (typically 5–15 seconds) when all cooldowns and buffs are active — much higher than sustained DPS but only achievable periodically. For raid boss fights with long-duration patterns, sustained eDPS matters most. For PvP and short fights against high-mobility targets, burst DPS often decides outcomes. For mob clearing in dungeons, area DPS (damage spread across multiple targets via AoE skills) matters more than single-target DPS. Different game genres and class roles emphasize different DPS measurements; always optimize for the metric that matches your actual use case rather than chasing the highest single-number DPS.
How do I include critical hits in DPS calculations?
Use the expected-value formula: effective damage per hit = base damage × (1 + crit% × (crit multiplier − 1)). At 30% crit chance and 2.0× multiplier, the average damage per hit is base × (1 + 0.3 × 1.0) = base × 1.3 — a 30% increase. Then multiply by attacks per second for effective DPS. The variance around this average can be substantial: 30% crit means 30% of hits are doubles, 70% are baseline — over a short fight you may get unlucky and crit only 1 in 10. For longer fights and statistical averages, the expected-value formula is accurate; for short bursts and PvP scenarios, account for variance by considering the 5th-percentile damage (worst-luck case) when planning to survive an encounter. Crit-stacking has diminishing returns near the 100% cap; once you reach 100% crit chance, every additional point goes to "wasted" stat unless the game has a "supercrit" or "overflow" mechanism.
Why doesn't this match the in-game DPS meter?
In-game DPS meters (Skada, Recount, Details for WoW; combat log analyzers for other games) measure actual damage dealt over an actual combat window — including damage spikes, downtime, target switching, missed casts, and resource constraints (mana, energy, rage). A theoretical calculator like this one assumes you can attack continuously at maximum speed forever, which is rarely true in practice. Specific discrepancies: downtime between target deaths, mechanics that force you to stop attacking (move out of fire, dispel a debuff, interrupt a boss cast), resource regeneration limits, debuff uptime gaps, RNG luck or lack thereof with proc-based abilities. For accurate combat-level DPS, use parsing tools that analyze your actual combat logs against benchmarks. The theoretical DPS from this calculator is useful for relative comparisons between weapons or builds, not for predicting in-fight performance.
What are the most common mistakes people make optimizing DPS?
The biggest is optimizing white DPS while ignoring crit chance, crit damage, and damage modifiers that often matter more than base damage. The second is stacking attack speed past the breakpoint where animation locks or global cooldowns cap effective rate. The third is comparing weapons or builds without normalizing for the encounter type — sustained, burst, AoE, and single-target favor different builds. The fourth is using single-target DPS to rank classes for content with heavy add waves; for trash mobs and dungeon clears, AoE DPS often matters 3–5× more than single-target. The fifth is forgetting target mechanics — a "high DPS" build that can't survive boss damage produces zero DPS when dead. The sixth is over-investing in min-maxing for marginal % gains (the last 5% of optimization often requires expensive consumables and gem upgrades that aren't worth the time). Finally, many players optimize for theoretical DPS without practicing the rotation — a 90%-of-theoretical execution by a skilled player beats a 100%-theoretical build piloted poorly.
When should I not use this calculator?
Skip it for class-balance discussions in MMOs and ARPGs — use class-specific theorycrafting tools (SimulationCraft for WoW, Path of Building for Path of Exile, the official sim tools for FFXIV, Aspecd for Last Epoch) that handle gear, skills, talents, buffs, and cooldown management correctly. It is the wrong tool for shooter weapons where time-to-kill (TTK), recoil control, magazine size, and reload speed matter more than raw DPS — use the game's built-in stats page or community-curated TTK charts. Do not use it for support roles (healers, tanks) where damage isn't the primary contribution metric. It also doesn't work for area-of-effect skills (AoE damage scales with target count, not just per-hit damage) or for sustain builds where lifesteal, regen, and shielding contribute "effective" damage by extending fight survivability. For competitive PvP, the simple DPS number tells you almost nothing about real outcomes; positioning, mobility, defensive cooldowns, and burst windows dominate. Use this calculator for weapon-vs-weapon comparisons and quick gear decisions; everything else needs more sophisticated tools.
How do I calculate DPS for a POE2 weapon?
Base damage × attack speed × (1 + crit chance × (crit multi − 1)). For POE2 hit-damage builds (spells, weapon strikes) this is the effective DPS you deal per hit landed. For damage-over-time builds (poison, bleed, ignite), multiply the base-damage input by the ailment multiplier before running the formula.
Does crit chance always increase DPS?
Only if your crit multiplier is above 100% — which it always is in every RPG that has crit chance as a stat, since the default multiplier is 150-200%. What crit doesn't always do is beat pure flat damage: at low crit chance and modest crit multi, an equal-cost stat gain in flat damage often wins.