Learn How to DPS in Warhammer Online, Please.

Posted on September 22, 2008
Filed Under Games, Rambling, Warhammer Online

The Warhammer Online experience so far has been pretty good to me. The game hasn’t sucked except for the occasional boot to the desktop bug, and the graphics look alright though not as spectacular as Age of Conan. However coming from playing DPS classes in other MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, and Age of Conan I have to say that people really need to learn how to DPS.

What is DPS? Its the amount of damage you do in a given amount of time. 500 dps means that you do about 500 damage a second, and over a period of 1 minute you do 30,000 damage. Its not brain surgery, so there really shouldn’t be a reason that people can’t figure out how to get the most for your actions.

Now on to my complaint. I play one of the healers in Warhammer Online, a dwarven Rune Priest with the name of Minimoses. (Yea big fat dwarf in a santa outfit that carries a giant stick bigger than he is). So there’s no reason that a healer class, that is spec’d for healing should be outdpsing the main damage dealing classes.

I’m just saying, it can’t be that hard to DPS can it? I mean if a bright Wizard that was playing right can achieve 80k damage at the end of a RvR map for Tier 2, does that mean another same level Wizard should only be doing 10k? Hell No, especially if I’m pulling 25k damage while getting the top healing done.

Here’s a quick run down of Rune Priest damage abilities at level 19 that I have that I use. Note: I’m not taking into account global cool downs on spells, or action point limits.

Rune of Striking

25 AP – 2 sec cast – 156 damage – 78 dps – No cooldown

Rune of Immolation

30 AP – Instant – 264 damage over 15 sec – 17. dps – No cooldown

Rune of Fire

35 AP – Instant – 120 damage – 120dps – 5s cooldow

Rune of Cleaving

30 AP – Instant – (AOE) 184 damage over 9 sec – 20.4 – 10s cooldown

Pretty simple right? From the looks of things most people would probably spam Rune of Striking, and Rune of Fire, and not even cast the other two spells. That’s where you’re wrong. You have to take into account, casting setbacks (if you get damaged while casting your casting bar gets moved back some, delaying your spell a little), and in my case having to heal my teammates. Also just because the dps is low on those other spells, it doesn’t take away from the fact that its doing more damage over all.

I only use Rune of Striking when someone is afk, or I’m hitting PVE mobs. When I’m playing RvR, I cast Rune of Fire, Immolation, and Cleave almost non-stop on as many people as I can find. In the time it takes for someone to cast 2x Rune of Strikings on two different people for 306 dmg. I would have casted Rune of Cleave, Rune of Fire, and 2x Rune of Immolations dealing 832 damage, or 1016 damage if I hit both with the Cleave. So in that same 4-5 second span of time I have set up to do almost 3x the dps of the person casting 2 Rune of Strikings.

So, I’m done venting now. If you play Warhammer Online, read the skills that you have well. So that you atleast contribute to the situations efficiently.

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6 Responses to “Learn How to DPS in Warhammer Online, Please.”

Warhammer Online Leveling Guides Reviewed - Do You Really Need Them? : Money News on September 24th, 2008 6:01 am

[...] I’ve only played this game for less than a week, and I’m already a level 20 Rune Priest that can DPS. The rate that you gain experience in this game has been pretty fast so far, and I’m pretty [...]
My Runepriest Loves Rune of Burning : Money News on September 29th, 2008 6:01 am

[...] Up till now I’ve basically been killing mobs with a rotation of spells that were listed in my dps rant. What basically happened though is that when I was killing an equal level or higher level mob it [...]
Spyte on October 17th, 2008 9:27 pm

What you are missing here is that DPS in scenarios depends not just on your casting order but on a wide variety of factors: How much time you spend dead, whether you are defending a point rather than attacking one, the relative level between you and your target etc.

You’re not the first person to get mislead by parses, and you won’t be the last. But just because the numbes are crystal clear, that does not mean they are a fair reflection of individual contributions to scenarios.

Learn to DPS? Learn to understand your data, more like.
Mitch on October 18th, 2008 12:03 am

Yes, but given the same time in battle, same called target. A rune priest should not be outdamaging a bright wizard period. Yet it happens.
Instant on October 27th, 2008 8:18 am

True.

Learn to heal is another annoying thing in WAR.

If my Level 12 Zealot can heal for 75k in a T2 scenario, a level 34 zealot shouldn’t be healing for 60k in a T4 one.
Joany (1 comments.) on November 15th, 2008 3:44 am

Looks interesting i try it out