Guild Wars 2

I get that some are better in burst, some better in single target, aoe, or might stacking, but otherwise are they all about the same?

Nowhere near close.

But overall it’s not even about each class’s DPS, but each class’s contribution to party DPS offensively (via buffs) and defensive (blinds, reflects, blocks so the party can continue to DPS)

That’s why ele (might stacking + huge personal DPS) and warrior (banners, some vuln, possibly might stacking) are indispensible, thief (huge personal DPS, blinds + stealth), and guardian (reflects, blocks, some blind) are highly sought after.

Dave.2536:

Nowhere near close.

But overall it’s not even about each class’s DPS, but each class’s contribution to party DPS offensively (via buffs) and defensive (blinds, reflects, blocks so the party can continue to DPS)

That’s why ele (might stacking + huge personal DPS) and warrior (banners, some vuln, possibly might stacking) are indispensible, thief (huge personal DPS, blinds + stealth), and guardian (reflects, blocks, some blind) are highly sought after.

Warriors are extremely dispensible. Most of my runs actually don’t have warriors.

Elementalist and Thief are on top. Fully buffed they can reach around 14-16k dps.

Warrior, Ranger, Guaridan and Engineer come after with between 10.5-12k dps

Mesmer and Necro are coming last with around 10-10.5k dps.

Those are all fully buffed numbers with the highest dps version of each profession. Thief can only reach that dps against a single target and Mesmer have a hard time maintening that dps as their phantasm can die rather easily.

Mes can sustain 12k dps (14s into the fight) or 11.8k dps (5s into the fight), under ideal conditions. Tar from Arah p1 is a good example. Unfortunately, those ideal conditions are rarely met otherwise.

And since all that is barely ever met, plus the fact that most fights don’t take very long it just happens that elementalists deal up to twice the damage of other professions.

Guess I’ll never understand why all those theoretical numbers are so beloved when they have pretty much no relation to what’s really happening.

Dub.1273:

And since all that is barely ever met, plus the fact that most fights don’t take very long it just happens that elementalists deal up to twice the damage of other professions.

Guess I’ll never understand why all those theoretical numbers are so beloved when they have pretty much no relation to what’s really happening.

If a theoretical work does not reflect what is happening in-game then it is not a good theoretical work

Dub.1273:

And since all that is barely ever met, plus the fact that most fights don’t take very long it just happens that elementalists deal up to twice the damage of other professions.

Guess I’ll never understand why all those theoretical numbers are so beloved when they have pretty much no relation to what’s really happening.

yea its pretty obvious that the math is wrong because it doesnt show that warrior is top dps forever and always

warrior best

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Dub.1273:

And since all that is barely ever met, plus the fact that most fights don’t take very long it just happens that elementalists deal up to twice the damage of other professions.

Guess I’ll never understand why all those theoretical numbers are so beloved when they have pretty much no relation to what’s really happening.

yea its pretty obvious that the math is wrong because it doesnt show that warrior is top dps forever and always

warrior best

4 war 1 mes dps cant be wrong huh

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Dub.1273:

And since all that is barely ever met, plus the fact that most fights don’t take very long it just happens that elementalists deal up to twice the damage of other professions.

Guess I’ll never understand why all those theoretical numbers are so beloved when they have pretty much no relation to what’s really happening.

yea its pretty obvious that the math is wrong because it doesnt show that warrior is top dps forever and always

warrior best

idk

i mean, bear in mind this is with no math behind it at all

but if a fight doesn’t take long and a warrior could do a burst with axe 2+4+5 and gs 2+3+5 and the boss dies soon after, wouldn’t that then be better than taking say, an engi who only gets a quarter of the way through their piano rotation before a boss dies?

i don’t mind accepting theoretical damage calculations but there is an absolute point where I flat out ignore it when it’s completely impractical to execute, like how a staff ele can just solo a boss standing at range unloading all of their damage while like, a thief is having to jump through hoops to even try to do damage.

maha.7902:

but if a fight doesn’t take long and a warrior could do a burst with axe 2+4+5 and gs 2+3+5 and the boss dies soon after, wouldn’t that then be better than taking say, an engi who only gets a quarter of the way through their piano rotation before a boss dies?

If the Engi were smart and front-loaded his strongest skills, he’d actually have even higher than his theoretical DPS in the case of a short fight like that, blowing the Warrior out of the water.

I mean don’t get me wrong, in principle I agree with you. Every dodge is a practical DPS loss, and bouncing around to sustain DPS on the target is costing melee classes, but in certain conditions it isn’t really that bad. Mesmers have a really bad time of it, but I’d say theoretical DPS numbers are pretty good for all of the other classes.

Back when i saw that calculating burst thread on DnT forums ages ago. I did some quick math for necro and found it about equal/slightly higher than engi in a 10 second period. I may have made some slightly incorrect assumptions but the numbers i saw seemed close enough to correct. It was interesting to see how strong necros frontload burst can be. Shame theres just no space for them in groups. Because their burst can actually be done while also channeling an icebow 4.

Yeah the initial burst of necro damage is very visible and neat, though not as bursty as ele and I really love that, cause it allows effortless roaming in open world/living story, even a veteran dies in 4-5 secs ^^

There’s nothing that can come close to a staff elementalist’s initial burst provided they have the opportunity to prestack might.

Purple Miku.7032:

There’s nothing that can come close to a staff elementalist’s initial burst provided they have the opportunity to prestack might.

Sorry but you’re ahead of the current “Nerf this” mindset about eles, let us bad-talk Ice Bow first !Staff will come in its time. è_é

Meteor shower too slow to cast!

Unless you start b4 boss becomes hostile obviously.