Guild Wars 2

Am i allowed to use dps meters? if so which should i use? i want to get into raiding and teir 4 fractals and would use a dps meter as motivation to get gud. (if they r legal). btw i already know there’s a lot more to finishing fights than personal dps.

short answer, yes.

Be careful which one you pick up and which options they have. It’s been accepted as legal that you can use DPS meters for your data only. Anything else risks your account.

Rauderi.8706:

Be careful which one you pick up and which options they have. It’s been accepted as legal that you can use DPS meters for your data only. Anything else risks your account.

Not quite: you can use DPS meters that use memory reading to access combat data available in your client. Two meters use different approaches that display more than just “your personal” DPS, but are compliant with the guidance from ANet:

arcdps estimates DPS, etc, for other players in your party. (Specifically, their power damage is exact, their condition damage is estimated, but generally very close to accurate.)

BGDM uses a server, to which all players send the DPS data they collect in their instance, and from which they receive DPS data for other players in the same party.

In both cases this is acceptable: joining a party with someone is sufficiently “opting in” to having your DPS visible that it’s within the lines anet sketched in for us.

Nightrous.6732:

Am i allowed to use dps meters? if so which should i use? i want to get into raiding and teir 4 fractals and would use a dps meter as motivation to get gud. (if they r legal). btw i already know there’s a lot more to finishing fights than personal dps.

You should use whichever one gives you the appropriate information in a way that you most like. For your own DPS they are all identical, which is to say, they read exact details from the client, and display one hundred percent accurate numbers for both power and condition damage that you do.

There is no technical reason to prefer one over another here.

Short answer; yes
Long answer; Very much so

Can we get a Dev or Mod to confirm or deny this, i would really like to know

Datormenta.5018:

Can we get a Dev or Mod to confirm or deny this, i would really like to know

anet already did this, in the last “ask me anything”, look it up

Sigfodr.9576:

anet already did this, in the last “ask me anything”, look it up

It would be more helpful if you linked it, instead of acting like everyone everywhere should know it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/5svug8/the_head_of_the_snake_devs_here_ask_us_anything/ddi7kta/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/5svug8/the_head_of_the_snake_devs_here_ask_us_anything/ddi8p8y/

Here it is linked for whoever wants official dev confirmation.

This whole issue of dps meters would be so much easier if they were built into the game. Yet none of the 3 MMO’s i have endgamed on have dps meters.

Nightrous.6732:

This whole issue of dps meters would be so much easier if they were built into the game. Yet none of the 3 MMO’s i have endgamed on have dps meters.

And yet they almost always have training dummies, often with a “localized DPS meter” sott of feature. That is odd.

dmg meters is a meta game, its about being ‘top stat’ deep down these players all know it but wont admit it.

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

Nightrous.6732:

This whole issue of dps meters would be so much easier if they were built into the game. Yet none of the 3 MMO’s i have endgamed on have dps meters.

And yet they almost always have training dummies, often with a “localized DPS meter” sott of feature. That is odd.

We can draw inferences about why this might be, though. One consistent position would be that developers across multiple MMOs agree with the statement “using a DPS meter to improve your performance is good”, and also with the statement “DPS meters are generally bad for group content”.

If you take those two, it would make perfect sense to provide things like DPS test dummies — where you can go practice your skill and get feedback on performance — while avoiding providing the facility for group content.

Obviously, other than the occasional interview, it’s hard to get developers to absolutely confirm this, but … I suspect if you go looking at the public statements you will find those are the most likely cause for each game making the same sort of decision.

I can say that in my personal, and so potentially biased, experience … the later is certainly true, because “you get what you measure”, and so you end up with group content where following mechanics is discouraged — because it reduces DPS compared to standing in the fire and carrying on with DPS rotations, and nobody is measuring “damage taken” or anything like that…

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

Nightrous.6732:

This whole issue of dps meters would be so much easier if they were built into the game. Yet none of the 3 MMO’s i have endgamed on have dps meters.

And yet they almost always have training dummies, often with a “localized DPS meter” sott of feature. That is odd.

Training dummies exist because players typically demand a way to test, that is consistent enough to be used as a standard measure. Training dummies provide a standard format that player’s across the entire community can use as a universal measurement.

As for non-training dummy dps meters, many mmos find it easier just to provide combat logging and let the players develop their own parsers, than to bother the actual devs with developing a meter.