Bursted vs Sustained DPS

[kyori]

Just want some opinion to which is better... Bursted or Sustained DPS?

Below are my Vectis Prime build... dilemma which to use as main build.

[Varacal]

talk about a literal screen shot am i right? ,':)

[Cyborg-Rox]

This is the Vectis Prime? Sustained DPS is mostly always going to be what you want to go for, but this is one of those extremely rare cases where it can get bigger than the Burst DPS. Not sure exactly how that works, but I'm pretty sure the Burst DPS in the second build doesn't apply, so I would go with the first build.

[jonnin]

it depends on what you are fighting.   Burst is best if you can kill the enemy you face quickly.   Sustained is better if you have to empty 3+ mags into it before it dies. 

All these values are is math.

Burst is how much damage your gun does "on paper" (pre mitigation) to an enemy if you start with a full magazine and empty it into the target.

Sustained is how much damage  you do if you reload.  

So say your gun does 1000 damage per hit, has a 10 round mag, and reloads in 8 seconds with a fire rate of 5/ second.

your burst is 2 seconds: 10 shots, 5 / second -> empty.

10 shots x 1000 is 10000 damage done. 

10000 damage done in 2 seconds is 5000 dps.

then you reload.

you still did the same 10000 damage, but it takes 10 seconds (2 to empty the gun, and 8 to reload).  That means your dps is only 1000 sustained**.

** this may not be the exact computation.  It really varies by when you reload.  Real boss fights involve reloading while ducking from aoe/gimmicks or moving when facing a horde of high level enemy.   And real guns don't reload in 10 seconds for the most part.  I don't know if the tool uses the simple formula that I used or does something else like (reload/fire/reload)/time or some other variation (fire/reload/fire). 

Regardless, all this really tells you is how much "punishment" your build takes for stopping to reload.  You can improve your reload speed... at the cost of damage.  IMHO, this is usually a bad move.

 

usually want vectis to reload every shot to use the first shot damage mod.  Decreasing the reload time on a mod that does 2 things will help your sustained dps.   But this gun was made to be built for max damage per shot above all things.  I would focus on that and play to its strengths.  Its for killing the annoying tough mobs in one hit, not mowing down crowds.  Make every shot count.  Using it scoped, which increases damage ... finding a new target will 'eat' the reload time.

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2016 by jonnin

[Xzorn]

Technically Damage per Shot is the most important stat for a Sniper but this usually translates to better Burst DPS.

The difference between Burst DPS and Sustained DPS entirely depends on the weapon.

For instance I would use Sustained DPS for Akstiletto Prime and Burst DPS for Twin Grakatas.

Both are Automatic Pistols but their handling, mag size and reload speed defines the difference in either DPS calculation.

 

[kyori]

5 hours ago, Cyborg-Rox said:

 but I'm pretty sure the Burst DPS in the second build doesn't apply, so I would go with the first build.

Just curious why did you say the bursted dps in the 2nd build doesn't apply?

 

3 hours ago, Xandarius said:

To clarify what @jonnin was saying, you want burst DPS because snipers are designed to execute high damage in one shot. Since Vectis has the uniqueness of being able to reload while scoped, you can sustain the highest burst damage when zoomed. Also Vectis will have a smaller mag so being able to sustain damage overtime is not very effective in the case is snipers.

Ah thanks for saying it in laymen term. Sometimes I do wonder whether to trust those 'on paper' calculations or not, since the usage is very situational and the damage doesn't changes due to that.