Why Should Diablo 3 Have a DPS Meter - Hellforge

Bashiok has just made an interesting post, making a good case to why DPS is there, and how Diablo 3 is going to cater to both the stats and the non stats crowds.


Having DPS there, as you said, provides a quick comparison if that's all you want, and I'd argue that for many players, that's all they'll probably need or care about. For you and others who want to delve into the the specifics of the damage, how it's being put out, as well as how effective it is, then that information is all still there. In fact we're actually giving the player a lot more information now if they want to crunch numbers.

So to have DPS shown, it's a quick comparison for most people. If you want more information, then that's there too. Having the DPS shown has good reasons, but removing it would just be for the sake of "it wasn't in a previous Diablo game".

I will agree it's not the best metric to gauge damage output in this type of game, but it is the simplest way to show a basic power difference between two items for beginning players.


I personally agree that DPS can sometimes give very false results, especially with AOE and DoT spells, as well as things like Leech not being taken into effect and so on...

However it is great to see that both systems will be present in D3, so for those stats junkies like me, we can have a lot to look at, while for everyone else, the simpler DPS meter will always be there.