Talking to a couple of people in game and getting different answers.
I have 2 weapons.
First one is 12-23 damage 9.2 DPS
Second is 14-26 damage 7.4 DPS.
I’m thinking the DPS number is what counts, am I wrong? Should I be look at the flat damage number when choosing a weapon?
What is the speed on the two weapons?
First one is 1.90
Second is 2.70
For most classes, you want the slower weapon. The primary reason being a slower weapon usually has a higher top-end damage. This matters for instant and charged attacks.
In the case of a Hunter – hypothetically, if you were only auto-shooting, you would want the weapon with the higher DPS. But when you factor in Multi-Shot and Aimed Shot, you want the weapon with the higher top-end damage, which is typically the slower of two ranged weapons. And also in the case of Hunters, slower melee weapons mean harder-hitting Raptor Strikes, but outside of PVP, this is less of a consideration – whichever weapon has better stats is usually more desirable.
Thank you!!!
Average weapon damage is what you want to shoot for, not top end. Top end damage is not a DPS stat. Higher top end damage also means lower low end damage. They balance each other out in the end.
Otherwise, your post is correct.
Not exactly.
Your mainhand weapon determines your damage from strikes and most other special moves, and for that, you want a very slow weapon with a large top-end.
Your offhand weapon should usually be as fast as possible with the highest overall dps.
some abilities base their damage off of your weapon’s maximum damage number
This is false, attacks that use weapon damage roll a random number between the low and the high number for the weapons dmg calcs.
Pvp looks at top end dmg because it wants the biggest burst hits possible to get kills.
But really for melee dmg you want higher avg weapon dmg for instant attacks(sinister strike and whirlwind) and for white dmg you want higher dps.
For hunter you want slow bow that hits harder.
Your melee don’t matter, just stats stick… you won’t be meleeing.
If you only auto attack sure.
Weapon strikes like Sinister strike and Heroic strike and shots Aimed Shot and Multi-shot are based off of weapon damage not average DPS meaning even a lower dps but higher top end weapon is usually better.
Read my post carefully.
I said average weapon DAMAGE. Not average weapon DPS.
A weapon that does 50-50 damage will do the exact same DPS on average as something that does 1-99, all other factors being equal.
Yea, what he means is the average weapon damage, not the average DPS. For instance, even though it doesn’t exist, a weapon with 200 top end damage, but 10 damage low end has the potential for a weaker hits than say a weapon that had 170 top end with 120 low end damage, even on instant attacks. Each swing is kindof like a roll of the dice and you get what you get.
im willing to admit im wrong if you can back that claim up with evidence. ive always been under the assumption that its a fixed amount based on the maximum damage number listed for your weapon. with the final damage amount being randomly rolled after taking the base maximum damage amount in addition during the calculation. the actual calculation progress depends on each ability obviously…
Why don’t you back up that assumption with some evidence.
I mean just look up any damage formula…
from https://vanilla-wow.fandom.com/wiki/Normalization
for instant attacks
“normalized_damage = base_weapon_damage + (X * Attack Power / 14)”
and for white dmg
“base_weapon_damage + weapon_speed * Attack Power / 14”
I mean where this idea that top end damage comes from I have no idea, it makes no sense at all and would be completely stupid way to calc anything.
The idea of top end damage comes from Vanilla which spent the majority of it’s time pre-normalization. It has no real effect in Classic, but there are a lot of holdovers from Vanilla’s ways of thinking… I still run into morons who think Feral isn’t viable lol.
Except I posted the ore-normalized formula too(its just the white dmg formula) which ALSO does not use top end damage.
It has never been a thing, but then I talked to people who didn’t think sunder gave any threat after there were already 5 stacks up from people who supposedly cleared naxx in vanilla, had to go out there and actually prove it to them on some mobs with white dmg from dmg meters and manually calculating threat to prove myself right then.
weapon normalization helps balance fast vs slow weapons but slow weapons still better specially at low levels where u don’t have much attack power.
the only evidence i have is that thats what people generally assume to be the case