Guild Wars 2

I came across a post that tested Guardian DPS by weapon:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/70080-guardian-effective-dps-tests/

Tests were done on a heavy golem in Mists with Berserker’s Amulet and Divinity Runes. Traits are as listed for each weapon. I went with Force sigils for everything. Raw damage numbers are hard to measure so I went with percentages of the health of the golem. That’s what the numbers refer to, percent of the heavy golem’s health inflicted. Skill damage is calculated by subtracting the damage the auto-attack could have done.

1H Sword: 10 Zeal (Fiery Wrath), 30 Radiance (Right-Handed Strength, Powerful Blades), 30 Valor (Retributive Armor)
- Auto-attack chain kills golem in 8 seconds = 12.5/sec
- Zealot’s Defense does not increase damage.
Overall DPS = 12.5/sec

Scepter: 10 Zeal (Fiery Wrath), 30 Radiance (Right-Handed Strength), 30 Valor (Retributive Armor)
- Auto-attack kills golem in 12 seconds = 8.33/sec
- Smite is nearly instant, deals about 30-50% every 6 seconds = 6.67/sec
- Chains of Light does not significantly increase damage.
Overall DPS = 15/sec

Mace: 10 Zeal (Fiery Wrath), 30 Radiance (Right-Handed Strength, Mace of Justice), 30 Valor (Retributive Armor)
- Auto-attack kills golem in 10 seconds = 10/sec
- Symbol of Faith deals 20% more than auto = 2/sec
- Protector’s Strike does not signifcantly increase damage
Overall DPS = 12/sec

Greatsword: 10 Zeal (Fiery Wrath), 30 Valor (Retributive Armor), 30 Honor (Writ of Persistence, Two Handed Mastery)
- Auto-attack kills golem in 10 seconds = 10/sec
- Whirling Wrath deals 10% more than auto = 1.25/sec
- Leap of Faith does not increase damage
- Symbol of Wrath deals 40% more than auto = 2.5/sec
- Binding Blade deals 30% more than auto = 1.25/sec
Overall DPS = 15/sec

Hammer: 10 Zeal (Fiery Wrath), 10 Radiance, 30 Valor (Retributive Armor), 20 Honor (Writ of Persistence)
- Auto-attack kills golem in 10 seconds = 10/sec | Note: Symbol of Protection inflicts damage on a “lag”, that is, the full damage from the symbol is not inflicted until after the second chain has already started. Based on eyeballing the damage from the auto-attack chain, I believe the hammer should be able to inflict enough damage to kill the golem in 8 seconds, which makes DPS 12.5/sec.
- All other skills do not increase damage
Overall DPS = 10/sec or 12.5/sec

Staff: 10 Zeal (Fiery Wrath), 30 Valor (Retributive Armor), 30 Honor (Writ of Persistence, Two-Handed Mastery)
- Auto-attack kills golem in 20s (lol) = 5/sec
- Orb of Light deals 5% more than auto = 2.08/sec max (depends on orb flight time)
- Symbol of Switfness deals 35% more than auto = 2.92/sec
- Other skills do not increase damage
Overall DPS = 10/sec

As a point of reference, warrior axe is about the same as sword (8s kill time on golem, no other skills add damage) and warrior GS is 10s kill time on golem and 60% on HB (9.375/sec) for 19.375/sec.

If you are curious what a Scepter DPS build would look like:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.2.7.17.0.5.5.5.0.54.72.73.75.78.2.2.6.152.0.0.169.172.176.181.186.191.0.0.0.0.0.0.10.30.30.0.0

Interesting how it’s more effective to just AA with some weapons to achieve more dps than it is to use the other skills.

pretty interesting thread! surprised to see hammer’s so low. but if going by a / sec it makes sense since most of hammer skills takes time to charge up or finish a chain.

with scepter however, i will say, smite is EXTREMELY powerful, as long as your enemies stay in it XDD

In very short fights like these, swords and GS often get the job done the quickest. The Hammer takes time to build the damage which is why the first 2 are so popular for zerg groups.

umm… how does mighty blow not increase damage? it’s the hammer’s hardest hitter…

Muircar.1259:

umm… how does mighty blow not increase damage? it’s the hammer’s hardest hitter…

It increases total damage output but not necessarily damage over a set amount of time since you are not auto-attacking while using mighty blow. The main perk on mighty blow is the blast finisher.

With the one-handers you should probably also factor in an offhand weapon such as torch to see if that increases the dps any. I would imagine that the burning from torch would be a pretty decent increase or does burning not work on the test golems?

Muircar.1259:
umm… how does mighty blow not increase damage? it’s the hammer’s hardest hitter…

It increases total damage output but not necessarily damage over a set amount of time since you are not auto-attacking while using mighty blow. The main perk on mighty blow is the blast finisher.

by that rationale how are any of the skills other than autattack considered? MB has a 5-second CD, 4 if traited. you can get 4 off MBs in the amount of time it takes for 1 GS WW CD.

Muircar.1259:

Muircar.1259:
umm… how does mighty blow not increase damage? it’s the hammer’s hardest hitter…

It increases total damage output but not necessarily damage over a set amount of time since you are not auto-attacking while using mighty blow. The main perk on mighty blow is the blast finisher.

by that rationale how are any of the skills other than autattack considered? MB has a 5-second CD, 4 if traited. you can get 4 off MBs in the amount of time it takes for 1 GS WW CD.

You are missing the point. Assuming the OP has done his math correctly, which I admit I haven’t even checked, his rationale is that the opportunity cost of hitting mighty blow is giving up the Hammer’s auto-attack which provides comparable damage in the same amount of time. Therefore it has the same DPS, or higher than Mighty Blow does on its own.

Essentially, if you took the auto-attack damage and stretched it out over 2 minutes, and then did the same thing for Mighty Blow’s damage (without auto-attacking in between), you would see that Mighty Blow does not provide higher damage over those two minutes than the auto-attack chain.

This is largely due to the fact that, in GW2, your auto-attack is not actually continued while you utilize an “on demand strike” ability like it is in some other MMOs. For example, in WoW, you would always gain more DPS from hitting Crusader Strike as a Retribution Paladin because doing so did not stop your auto-attack from hitting as well. In GW2, you have to weigh whether or not your auto-attack will outperform a given ability’s DPS to determine if it is worth using solely for damage output.

I hope that clarifies the situation a bit.

My point was that this analysis ignores hammer’s 2-5 abilities, but it takes them into account for the other weapons. You can’t autoattack and WW at the same time with GS either.

Right but the whirlwind does more DPS than the amount of auto attack chains you could fit into its duration. That may not be the case with the Hammer and Might Blow. Like I said, I haven’t done the math, but that is the rationale.

Right but the whirlwind does more DPS than the amount of auto attack chains you could fit into its duration. That may not be the case with the Hammer and Might Blow. Like I said, I haven’t done the math, but that is the rationale.

in one rotation maybe, but then GS has another three autoattack chains worth of CD to wait through before another WW. with 2H mastery and a dodge thrown in every once in awhile, MB can be done on every autoattack chain. this is more talking about burst damage, not dps, which is by definition over a period of time.

Scepter stuff is interesting but without trait effects and cond dmg it seems to make the results a bit misleading.

I can see people just taking this and saying “scepter(insert random wep) is best dps!” actually i think theres been some in the thread already. i.E someone is already talking about Sword being so low dps…

I don’t think your numbers stand up in practice due to Smite’s stationary (and fairly small radius) condition and AA’s lack of speed (too easy to dodge a barrage).

In PvP this is even more accentuated (except for hanging out on a wall plinking away of course).

@ Muricar

You are looking at it the wrong way. Whirling Wrath lasts for about 3.5 seconds. In those 3.5 seconds you pull off 10% (according to OP) more damage than a chain auto attack would accomplish. With the Hammer, Mighty Blow probably lasts 1.5 seconds from input to the next auto attack (or maybe closer to 1 second, I can’t recall exactly). In that same amount of time, your auto attack chain would provide either more or the same amount of damage, which is why the OP believes that using Mighty Blow will not effectively increase your dps.

Keep in mind that melee weapons have a wide arc when they hit,therefore yes scepter may be a little better against single targets but melee weapons get better once there is more than one target getting hit by you.Not to mention symbols also provide AOE and other boons and benefits through combo field/finishers.

Mighty blow has the utility of a short blink and a huge 300 blasting AOE range.
So yes perhaps mighty blow gives the same dps as autoattacking,but if your target runs away you are not hitting him anyway therefore using mighty blow guarantees a hit and gets you closer to your target.

Has any one gone out and tested this?

Animus.6073:

@ Muricar

You are looking at it the wrong way. Whirling Wrath lasts for about 3.5 seconds.

It completes far quicker than that. More like 1.5 seconds.

Interesting post which is of course to consider as valid for dps vs a single stationary target.
In wvw the scepter remains inefficient in my experience.

Tijo.9857:

Interesting post which is of course to consider as valid for dps vs a single stationary target.
In wvw the scepter remains inefficient in my experience.

Yup, and that’s my biggest issue with scepter.

It’s a ridiculously strong weapon… if your opponents don’t move or fight back at all. I really think they need to change the #1 to a beam attack(something like mesmers GS) and reduce it’s damage by at least 25%(since it can now actually hit things). Smite also needs to be more reliable. It’s much like the #1 in that it CAN do ridiculous damage but never does.

A couple of things you guys should note that I tested since I made that thread:

1) Smite deals damage based on proximity from the center of the AOE circle. Targets dead in the center usually take about 8-10 hits. Targets on the very edge of the circle may be hit as few as 3 times. Total number of hits on all targets in the circle cannot exceed 15.

2) Whirling Wrath inflicts direct melee damage as well as damage from the projectiles. Damage comparison listed is for a melee-range WW against a regular player-sized target. Damage increases significantly against a large target, especially if you can clip so you are actually inside it.

3) Symbol of Wrath should deal substantially more damage with the latest buff.

4) Torches and focuses will deal instant damage with Zealot’s Flame and Shield of Wrath. Cleansing Flames only increases DPS when used with a Scepter mainhand. Shield of Judgment and Ray of Judgment do not increase DPS.

I am currently looking into a way to calculate exact numbers from DPS. Assuming the skill tooltips are correct, I just need to know the TOTAL duration of each skill, that is, startup and recovery. It’s not a huge priority for me right now, though, so you’re stuck with the estimates till I get around to doing it.

Let’s not forget that scepter has a very BORING attack style… While great sword is just a lot more fun spinning arround, leaping with blind, pulling enemies toward you need I go on?

Has any one else further tested this?

I got bored with scepter… so I’m now GS and Sword+focus, gottta love the infinite blinds and blocks

He counted the dps of smite, a skill that never hits people with the smallest brain. The effective dps of the scepter only comes from the first skill which would probably be 6-8 dps.

Also Scepter aoe sucks.

When using Whirling Wrath, did you stand inside or on top of the golem? I find when I let it loose if I run up in a mob’s grill all of the projectiles hit, so it’s hard (impossible) for me to imagine all of that is only 10% more damage.

edit: Ok I just read your last post and see where you mention what I’m saying. Honestly this should effect your official numbers, because smart players will use this to their advantage, or at least these numbers should reflect perfect scenerios.

Sword, Greatsword, and Hammer can hit up to 3 targets with 1 but no more.

GS2 and hammer2 have no target cap.
GS4 and the symbol from hammer1 have no target cap.