I am not sure why I am making this guide because DPS or the damager role is the easiest role in the game. All characters in DCUO are capable of the damager role. Seeing as everyone can play this role everyone will play it differently. The following is what works for me. So do get mad at someone that is playing differently then you.
The damage has only one responsibility in the group, and that is to kill everything. And to kill them as quickly efficiently and as brutally as superhumanly possible. When in boss fight where the boss calls in adds you will need to split you fire between the boss and his ads.
Powers
All power types have a DPS Aspect or load out. I like to have lots of AoE attacks and one or two single hit powers. When using their power Damagers need to be careful not to pull agro off the tank. You are looking for any power that does damage over time or that adds to your DPS stat. They also need some good power management skills you might remember this from the controller 101 guide a while back.
Well now I’m going to go in to more detail about power management.
Those with Bad Power Management then to fall in to one of two categories.
1st the hoarders. These players for some reason seem to refuse to use their power at all. This is Bad because your over all Damage per second is greatly reduced.
2nd the power hungry or those that use power as fast as or faster than the control can give it. Yes your damage per second is really high but so is your aggro, and the group control as to work extra hard to keep not only your power bar but the rest of the groups power bar full.
Good power management is somewhere between these two extremes or using your power and your weapons in somewhat equal measure.
Sorcery, Nature, and Electricity users it’s a good Idea to have an emergency heal power in your DPS load out. This is not to take the place of the group healer just to help lighten the load on the healer. I recommend sorcery users use rejuvenate, nature use blossom, and electricity use Bio-Capacitor.
Basically a quick heal to keep you and another team mate alive when the healer is preoccupied or out of range.
Gadget, Mental, Light user the same goes for you I highly recommend defibrillator for gadgets, mental users should go with psychic empowerment, and lastly recharge for the lanterns out there.
I don’t know of any emergency tank power but I sure they are out there.
Stats you will need
Might and Precision and lots of both
Might ups the damage done by your powers and Precision adds to you weapon’s DPS score. When looking at mods make sure to keep power and vitalization in mind, because let’s face it the more power you have and the faster you power bar fills itself the more often you can use all those wonderful powers to really crank out the damage.
Weapons
Well as far as weapons go everything goes. Pick a weapon that works for you and how you play. Just look at the skill bonus they give you and any time you can add to Critical attack damage or Critical attack chance take it. And string combos together to keep your hit counter and DPS climbing. I recommend you keep two weapons in your inventory one with lots of long range combos and one with lots of short range combos. So you can switch out as needed, because let’s face it there are some bosses you don’t want to get too close to.
We would like to say a big THANK YOU to Iceman2537 and his friends over at The Society “USPC server league” for making this guide. We think this will be extremely helpful for all of the DCUO community members and we hope you will enjoy it.
Dispite what many players believe, you should not be able to pull aggro off a tank just by using powers. If the tank is doing his job and refreshing threat every 10 seconds, you should never pull aggro.
Putting skill points or mods into Vitalization is useless. It’s 100 points of Vit per tier before you will notice any changes to your power bar regen off weapon combos.
And no DPS should put power dumps or heals on their loadout. It’s a waste of power consumption. You using 350 power to hit Rejuvination is 350 power more you need that the healer could have used.
I respect the thought and effort put into this guide, but there’s a lot of misinformation here. I say this as one of the top DPS in my league, we completed the Prime Battleground speed feat a few weeks ago so I speak from experience. Again, props for the effort to help the community. I have an old DPS guide I wrote back in August last year, I’ll be revising it to keep up with the new content so keep an eye out.
Can I see this guide??? Im DPS also and i mostly Mod my gear with Might/Power. What do you mod your gear with mostly?
My main DPS character has 3 Precision and Might mods, 3 Precision and Vitalization mods, and 2 health and power mods. All the mods are type 1. There are 2 reasons for the health power and the precision Vitalization. 1 to match the slot requirements of the armor. 2. Everyone can use more health power and Vitalization
My main has 110 skill point, 85CR and I’ve been here since launch. I know what I’m talking about. I have 1700 might and 650 precision.
blue slots: precision/health or might/health
yellow slots: precision/power or might/power
red slots: precision, might or precision/might
This applies for every DPS and they fit the requirements to recieve socket bonuses. As I said, it takes over 100 vit to have ANY effect on self power regen via weapon combos. It’s a complete waste. Your primary stats are precision and/or might (depending on your powerset). Health and power are secondary and should only be put in when you have no choice to, i.e in yellow or blue sockets.
As I said, I appreciate the effort and intention to help the community, but there is a great amount of misinformation here, and there is no sense an inexperienced player reading this and finding in high end content that he is not maximising his abilites as a dps. If it works for YOU, great. But I hate to tell you, you’re holding yourself back from your full potential by ignoring my advice.
Ronell: This is my old guide. Take note that it is VERY outdated and things have changed since then, I’m in the porcess of revising it almost completely to keep up with current content. http://dcuo.mmorpg-life.com/1487/guides/how-to-gear-up-correctly-in-dcuo-for-a-dps-role/
Clearly you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve left out the most important thing, skill points. Having your innates makes or breaks a DPS. Having your innates increases your DPS dramatically, when speccing your innates you first get all crit chance/crit damage, then might/prec based on your power. When making mods you don’t need vit, especially when you reach the higher tiers, that’s what controller are for. As you said you said a DPS’s main job is to kill, so why hinder that?
Vitalization is good for no one but controllers. You should be using Precision & Power.
Screw power, presicion and might all the way. I’m an elec dps and with 2H weapon. My cr is 66, presicion 370, and I can pull 400k plus on just about all alerts and raids
Actually exception to the unable to pull aggro, I’ve been noticing as a nature wolf you do pull aggro off boss when you use powers, it’s a balancer within wolf mode so it’s not completely OP, as in Wolf mode you do become a tank, without it’s defence bonuses, and attack minuses, and if you start poison spreading in wolf mode, you will pull the aggro away from tank.
Hi I am new to dcuo, and want to learn how to be the best dps I can. My husband plays a lot, okay a ton, but he trolls only. I would like to be able to have the right load out and understanding of my roll. I only every want to dps. I am a mental dps any and all tips from you would greatly be appreciate!
The only piece of good information is probably the point about hoarding power. That’s it. There is much more to dps than just power management and having the right loadout. Rotations, clipping, power interactions are just a few of the more important ones.
I have to say that with good controllers who know what they are doing, the power-hungriest dps can still get a constant stream of power from the controllers. And most of the time when healers have not enough power is when they are overhealing (healing even when nobody is taking damage or damage taken is minimal).
Disasterpiece is absolutely right when he says that emergency power/supercharges are redundant on a dps. Given the penalties (or lack of bonuses) to restoration/vitalization on a dps character when he is in damage role, having emergency heal powers is a big waste of power. Leave the healing and power giving to healers and trollers. With the exception of speed drain most support supercharges are useless for dps.
Assuming someone who is relatively new is going to read this guide as a reference, the skill points that you suggested putting into vit and such are a big fat waste. Someone at that level will have less than 70 skill points, and the points will do far better good going into all the dps innates. Even after that the points should be going into health or resto if said dps is using a HL shield.
Last quick note, defib/PE/recharge are NOT useful for dps. They are more likely to be a waste of power points better put into iconics for better effect.
This is by no means a post to bash your guide, I know you put effort into it and tried to help but at least try pushing people in the right direction next time. Anyone needing help for dps issues can feel free to ask in Watchtower/HoD shout chats and get your questions answered.
I agree the controller makes the dps
Please take this guild down. I appreciate the intention and the effort that this guide represents, but I would hate to see anyone reading this guide and actually thinking this is a good way to play the damage role.
This guide is honestly just terrible.. A DPS should under no circumstances have an “emergency heal” or “emergency defib/recharge/empowerment”.
Wow I wish you guys had Read the FIRST paragraph, where I clearly state that there IS MORE THEN ONE WAY TO PLAY THIS ROLE. And that this guide is based on MY in game experiences and the experiences of my friends.
Second there is NO I in TEAM. Just because controllers and healers are support roles that doesn’t mean the damager CAN’T or SHOULDN’T support them. I have been in many Dou’s Alerts and yes Raids where the emergencies heal KEEPT the TEAM ALIVE. Gadget, Mental, Light users get a 35% bonus to their DAMAGE OUTPUT, and give power to the team.
Like I said , if it worked for you that’s great. But the job can be done much more efficiently. If it worked for you as an individual, what’s to say it works for everyone? If so many people have come to tell you that it’s not the correct or best way to do it, can’t you take the constructive criticism and humbly take the advice? You claim to have had success in duos/alerts and raids, but nowhere do you say where on the charts you were. If you cannot put out at LEAST 80% of the top dps in raids/alerts you are in no place to write a guide and give advice when you have so much to learn. I can guarantee the people who have posted here have been much more polite about your efforts than the Official DCUO forums would have been.
DPS is Damage Per Second. You have a button to take stress off the healers. It’s called block. And you have a way to give trollers a break when you are short on power, it’s called weapon combos. Yes there is more than one way to play this role, but this is not the most efficient way to do it, nor will it lead to having success in end game content. And while Light/Gadgets/Mental have a power dump that gives a damage modifier, that power could be used to deal damage. Trollers give power to tanks to control the fight/stay alive, power to healers to keep everone alive and power to DPS to kill things as fast as humanly possible. If you do your job and trust in your teammates to do theirs, you will do fine. Personally, any good healers or trollers I know would be offended if I had a heal/power dump on my bar.
Again, I understand the effort and thought put into the guide, I really do. But please take on this constructive criticism. I’m on Hero side USPC as Disasterpiece or Crave. And TheEndzeit on PC forums. Drop me a line and I’ll be happy to help you out and talk theorycrafting.
maybe you should worry more about people in your own league and help them instead of bashing on someone who is just trying to help after all the game is play your way isn’t it?
At least give him the credit for making the guide, am sure if yall make urs u willwant that. But for real devastating dps u dont need supercharge heals and recharge and all that. Nice guild thou for powergivingheals dps toons.
I read it. Your guide is still grossly inaccurate. Play the game however you like but don’t direct others down a path that leads them to sub-par damage output.
Hybridization of any role is self-explanutory. It is neither one nor the other. To get the most damage output the dps should focus on 2 things: 1. Power management, and 2: staying alive to put out the damage. If you have a dps putting out an “emergency” heal or recharge that’s power and time wasted on the dps’ part. There may be a million dps in the game, and as many ways to play it, but unless you’re one if the best, which you clearly aren’t, please don’t post nonsense such as this. It will only confuse and degrade the quality of upcoming dps.
im dps nothing but dps adding a heal in my load outs is a waiste of power if ur healer is doing his job then i wouldnt half to heal every one else my job is to destroy not to heal itmay have worked for u cause u had a weak healer and your team wasnt doing its job rite im just saying in this game team work team work is the key and if u dont have it ur going to give up mid way or at the end boss fight
Defib does not even give out power in dps stance lol
You Are Wrong! Defibrillator DOSE give power when in DPS role.
I know this because I have been the DPS in several alerts where the control wasn’t doing their job, and the only place the group was getting power was from me. I also know the power was from me because the flare around the player getting the power was blue when I was the only gadget user on the team.
Removed by admin!
I’m fairly new to DC Universe online and I have to admit that I love the game. I find myself playing for hours at a time. I’ve realized that it’s more complicated than it looks. I won’t dare post all the questions I have here but I would like to know the fastest way to acquire marks (of triumph, legend, distinction, etc….). Disasterpiece, you sound like the man to go to so……….advice please bro.
The best place for marks of triumph would be tire 1 duo’s.
Check out the duo’s guide in the guide section of this web site.
Once you get some tire 1 gear you can head in to the harder alerts where you can pick up marks of distinction. Your CR or combat rating is there to let you know when you are ready to move on to harder mission. Marks of legend can only be found by winning legends PVP matches. You will need PVP gear to win just make sure you switch back to PVE gear when you’re not in a PVP match.
This sounds like the constant argument I have with people I meet, they are power and health HUNGRY, they consume and the stress on trolls and healers are enourmous! Healers are for TRIAGE ONLY, Trolls are for SUPPORT. the players need to be able to regenerate health and power to balance the team, its called Restoration and Vitalization. this doesnt mean they should have all there skill points or powers or exos based for these things, but find a good balance that will help the others for christ sake. this is why so many people want to be a dps not play a role because when the hungry over burdends the support they blame them first. when I did inspect on these hungry hogs I saw nothing for health, or power creation, just a endless black hole that sucks power and health. Your suggestion of people using wepons as a solution is flawed because no one will listen to common sense and play smart to begin with, they sure as hell wont listen when you are already telling them common sense. Those who only identify with power and want to burn the target and be “BEASTS”, are childish and immature, and selfish by nature. the whole damn game is based on BALANCE. remember that word, there isnt a “I” in there.
ps.
I have seen these “BEASTS” go down fighting a Sub Avatar because they have handicapped themselves to always have a healer grouped with them. pityful. Anyone can survive a Sub especially with a group of others nearby. and thats without healer nearby to help out. When a “BEAST” needs a healer to take out Akrillo, then his way and methods of playing the game is seriously in question.
Children and thugs always identify with power first, rather than common sense and smart gameplay or tactics.
Hal, I would like to give you my congratulations for your well succeded explanation about a rational way of playing. Unfortunatelly, despite this game is so well contructed and tactical based, it wasnt suficient to select only cleaver players with smart choices and that all, we must to admit it.
Here we got this colegue of us, Disasterpiece and a few Old School Trolls those support him, saying such atrocities about this guide, just intending the spotlights over their supposal Role Management Phd, when all we heard Iceman2436 to say was “Try to Stay Alive” and “Have a B Plan to emergencial situations”. For God Sake, it is the MINIMAL any thinking player could conceive, in order to have a good character fighting on line aside ohters, NO MATTER WHAT his role.
What Disasterpiece is intending to say is, “A Role must to be hundred percent dedicated to his function” wich is correct, but what he is REALLY SAYING is “A Role must NOT have any emergencial resource or B plan to keep him alive, and must be ALL 100% of time tottaly dependent of healers and controllers”, what is disgusting absurd to hear.
Especially, when we all know that, 4 or 5 slot powers are more than suficient to realize a good job as any role, if the player REALLY KNOW how to use his powers and give buffers… especially when we all know that, the Damage Role doesnt have any responsability with the group, but fight, kill,destroy, sometimes give a buffer and to do this, 5 powers and a good wheapon is more than enough.
I myself have a electrecity based charachter, and always reserve a slot with the “Bioeletric Surge” power, wich is able to heal myself, the most injuried teammate, and give 35% percent Damage Increaser Buffer as bonus, so I have autonomy, I save resources, distress my healer and DO MY JOB aswell, despite what any Dickhead PHD Damager Wannabe could say about what have in my power loadouts or Not…
These must be the same guys that never learnd a role, and even reaching the level 30 and 100 Alerts, never learned how to work in a team, a do something to someone other but themselves, and never will… As you Said Hal, Childish, selfish, and immatures.
Hal, I have more to tell about those “Beasts” you said.
It is really a piece of hell when you start an Alert with a support character and, inspecting other roles you see nothing more than 3 mindless Damagers, and you must to have pursuit them all time, in order to heal them, give them buffers and powers in order to sustain their lust of killing, and they even feel themeselves obliged to fight inside your powers range. Usually they call all enemy they can see, causing futile and disastrous deaths making all of us to lose our time…
At the end of the fight, they feel like really great “Supermans”, the best players in the world, and even know how they were carried on the back all time.
Once time, I was a healer when one of these DUMBS called me the “worst healer” he ever saw, because the idiot used to fight out of range all time and maybe until now cannot understand the roles functions, the fact of a Healer without a Controller has his power is quickly exhausted, and only can heal under certain conditions.
In an another match, I was a controller alone with three Damager Dickheads, and facing their total incopetence to win their fights, they decided to kick someone in the group, and that was ME, the ONLY ONE support teammate… It was because they were needing a Healer, as they told me… Nonsense just like try to drive a car and put out its gasoline tank… Poor healer that succeded me…!
Based in these experiences and hundred similar anothers, I risk to say, this role has a tendecy to atract the lowest inteligence level players among all players in DCUO. No offense, just an statisticall observation.
And, Except in really hard matches, I am really happy when I can see there is no only one damager in my group. Usually, they only learn the meaning of the word “TEAM” in the Kandhaq Raid or worse battles.
Please, no hard feelings because of my opinion, learn well your roles and play good ! Cheers…
“Dickheads, idiots” for what, disagreing with you? No wonder you have to pug alerts.
Sorry, I have no other names to define those players who act like I discribed in this message.I Hope have no one here playing like this
Adriano Cardoso de Oliveira ,
Well said. All my DPS are Lightning and I always have bio elect surge for just the reason you mentioned.
Another thing that most of these selfish hungry players dont get, is the same healing abilities are also Damage. It heals while it damages target.
I had one guy talk crap about using galvanize, this twerp was constantly using his most powerful power and was always out of power.
Meanwhile Galvanize healed nearby allies (not in my group) and did small damage to target, thats while I was in DPS role.
Its good to get DPS gear if you want to be DPS, but have some sort of skill point or exos or something to keep your restoration and health up.
It doesnt matter how much power you have if your health is out, your dead.
Remember folks, Healer is TRIAGE ONLY. Trolls are SUPPORT ONLY.
If you have no endurance then its a stress on the WHOLE TEAM, not just the healers. because you are taking away heals that someone really needs it more than you. Or power for that matter.
Play smarter and the game will remain fun for everyone.
And for those of you wanting to cheat the game and go into fos 3 novice and try to get better gear with only T1 gear, your fooling your self, go in with at least most T2 gear on, full exos, you will last longer and not be so in the habit of blaming the healers when you die quick.
Dont ask the porche to tow your semi trailer.
I was constructive with my criticism, but it’s pretty clear you’d rather troll and call names.
My experience in DC is long lived. Been here since launch, been amongst the first few groups on USPC to achieve all speed feats with my league, 88cr, 113 skillpoints. I know what I’m talking about. I maintained that in end game (T2/T3 alerts and T3/T4 raids) you need to maximise your damage output to be properly efficient as a DPS. By all means, play smart, learn power efficiency. A dead dps is no dps. Block, roll, position yourself out of harm’s way, watch for boss skull attacks etc. But your job is to do damage. An attentive healer will keep you at 50%+ health and if you manage your power well a good troller will do the same for your power bar. I agree that most dps are bad, ignorant or just plain stupid. Hell, half of players by the time they are 30 haven’t even tried to change roles and learn it. So everyone thinks they’re dps. But most of that comes from lack of any real end game tutorials in game, so players have to resort to reading guides such as this one, and when misinformation is posted it spreads.
I won’t waste any more time explaining my responses, as you’ve obviously made up your own minds. But you go ahead and jump into LFG chat channel on USPC and ask if self heals for dps are useful for raids and find out how fast and how many times you’re told no. Again, for solo and lower level content, support powers (heals, crowd controllers, power regen etc.) are all good. But in a team environment, if everyone dedicates to their role, it makes for a much smoother run. Tank pulls aggro, healers heal tank, dps kill stuff, trollers debuff and pop power. No sense for a dps to use 350 power from tehir pool for a tiny self heal when the healer could have used that 350 power to heal teh whole group for significantly more.
In soccer you wouldn’t ask a striker to defend the goals.
I am a DPS, Ice with Bow. I would like to do alot of damage, could you tell me your characters name so you could probably, hopefuly give me good tips? Oh, and I’m a hero.
>>In soccer you wouldn’t ask a striker to defend the goals.
Well, I’d say he would soon be without team if that situation comes up and he doesn’t. SCNR
Somewhat this discussion seems fruitless though since two sides of the same coin (Hello Harvey :)) cannot be on the same side and cannot be looked at at the same time (unless you have two coins of course).
Side a:
Not defining your own role to the max is certainly not good, but remember, for most (3 out of 4) of the players damage is merely the secondary role.
Side b:
Not knowing or understanding about the odds and ends of the other roles is equally not good since those players at least depend on you as much as you depend on them.
It’s a give and take, players who only want to take will ultimately fail.
Weak guide which sparked a good reply chain. I’m a gadget troller, 65cr, and since level 10 I have only dps’d duos. As someone mentioned, I would beb irritated with dps giving power or health. IMO, dps comes last in my power output priorities most of te time. I’ve seen electricity and fire dps (power hogs) burn out all their power just to get stunned after landing 2 or 3 hits. I’ve seen the same setup lead to a mob being decimated in seconds. To get to the point, most trollers have some kind of instant power ability which fuels 3 teammates with the lowest power which means that a single dps will be getting 33% of my power output when I use defib with healer/tank in mind. Give a return on the power trollers give you. Dont cry to me for power when you’re always dry and are behind me in damage output.
Ps on hybrid roles/emergency heals:
“A jack of all trades is a master of none”
I dont stop giving power over time to help with damage when dps is slow to burn. Not my f*%&#n’ job.
I am NOT SUGESTING you try to hybride the roles!!!!
“It is a good Idea to have an EMERGENCY power.” Maybe defining emergency will help you get what I am saying.
Emergency = A sudden crisis requiring action or an unexpected and sudden event that must be dealt with urgently
Let’s say you’re in Kahndaq and you have Black Adam down to a quarter health when he one shots the all your healers. Now the only thing standing between you and a group wipe is some EMERGENCY healing and trolling from the DPS’s.
Plus emergency powers are great of speed feating Duo’s. This way both players can be in DPS role to crank out the damage and still keep the two of you alive and full of power. Instead of waiting around for your health and power to refill themselves, or for a cola to cool down.
Also EVERY DPS I have worked with that is worth having in a raid or alert either has an emergency power or understands the need for one.
I tried being constructive about it, I really did. I understood perfectly what you said when you meant emergency. And I said in duos and normal/t1 alerts sure, wont do harm. The only use and necessity there is for having a heal/power dump is when players are still learning their roles. If you’re in Kahndaq and healers die, it could have been avoided. If EVERYONE in the TEAM does their job, you will have a successful run. If tanks hold agrro and block, trollers give power and healers keep health up, dps kill stuff then you will be fine. You seem to feel an emergency power is useful, making up for others not being good enough.
You mention Kahndaq as a benchmark for experience and you mention “EVERY DPS I have worked with that is worth having in a raid or alert either has an emergency power or understands the need for one.”Hate to break it to you, but they aren’t good dps if they are, and you aren’t experienced enough to be handing out advice.
The hardest PvE content that exists in DCUO right now is Prime BattleGround, the T4 raid. I have finished that with my league in under 11 minutes with me at the top of the scoreboard. Speed feat is 15 minutes, and even then every player needs to be on the ball. Guess what? No dps used “emergency powers”.
If you are too proud to take what was initially constructive criticism, don’t post guides to an open forum. I was trying to help you understand how to be better at you role. Ignoring good advice does you no good.
One more point: If that many people have come in here to tell you that you’re wrong, isn’t there a slight chance they may be right in correcting you?
Duos never have a complete team… so “Hybridize” Roles is unavoidable, Unless You are playing in a Controller/Healer Duo. When I wrote my reply, imediatelly I remembered the zillions of duos where I had to get that flexybility in order to complete the tasks.
The point is, as Hal already said, BALANCE. Somoene must be always sustain the weaker points of another, dinamically all time, damager, healers, trollers and tanks.
To say things like “never” or “ever” is not recomendable because the life in Tier 3/4 Isnt the same we met in lower levels, weaker teams and Duos and the sames way of playing and thinking are not the same.
If you were really trying to be constructive, you should approach under this point of view, not simply debunk the guide and suppose is a big favor be pollite.
I trust No One is tottally DPS dedicated in DCUO, and soon or later, can learn a role to help ownself and his own team, lear how to manage the loadouts with competence to generate resource and achieve objectives under several situations. And a Big Raid T4 is not the only one situation we find in DCUO.
Of course, defend a goal is not a striker’s task, but of course, he MUST do it every time he can if it is possible, live already happens in Soccer all time.
100% a Role = A Perfect Role, a mediocre player
I have to say I have shied away from creating a DPS toon and stuck with ‘troller and healz. There is a lot of pressure for good DPS. I will say there are more mediocre DPS than healz or ‘troller, although I have dealt with some bad players in those roles.
I realize this guide is DPS for Dummies, sort of DPS 101. Maybe work on an individual guide for a power set?
Kids talking about alerts and one raid. Obv doesn’t have the experience to write this
ok not sure how dead this is but here is what i see
i’ve had the game since last december [US PS3], but my first 2 actual good characters weren’t until march [electric dps] and may [sorcery healer]. there is NO need for support abilities for dps, just use soders or block if worse happens. no shame in going down a few times [though it does suck]
point is this: my dps USED to use bioelectric surge until tier 2. reason why is because by t2, i got better stats in might, health, precision, and power [more on might due to electric powers mostly [if not 100%] being based on might]. i speak from experience when i say electric powers use a good amount of power [electrocute, voltaic bolt, tesla ball, electrostatic bomb], which is why its important to work out your loadout AND your weapon [since attacks restore some power and enemies defeated by you give you 110 power or something close]. here is my loadout for my dps:
electrostatic bomb
voltaic bolt
wired
electrocute
tesla ball or shockwave [back and forth]
mega volt [100% supercharge]
weapon: bow [113.1 dps], brainiac prime axes [125.9 dps dual wield], and spark mk II rifle [113.1 dps] from central city
dual wield is mainly for enemies that are best to fight up-close [ranged attackers mostly] but i either use bow or rifle due to better safety from nasty bosses and adds [brainiac, avatars before brainiac, brainiac swarmers, etc.].
in regards to dps users, another issue needs taken under serious consideration
‘having two dps players with SAME POWER and SAME MOVES’
that can cause issues if they don’t cooperate. Any good dps [who has learned his power and drawbacks with those with same moves] knows they need to work together to alternate the uses of those same moves
example: 2 electric dps each with electrocute and wired has chance to cancel each other, so one could use wired while other uses electrocute. support heals and power gives aren’t needed in the higher-up missions [t2 alerts on up and t2 raids on up], a good dps player commits to what the role dictates: destroy all enemies and that’s really it. disaster is right, support heals and power gives are ok in t1 alerts and t1/t2 duos,but even then, i treat duos like raids, i stick to death and destruction of all enemies. if i need power, i just let my weapon get it for me or consume a soder to regain health and power if it gets bad. my dps is cr 81 ONLY because i dedicated myself to just destroying enemies and with how the game has changed since i started, it’s imperative that i [and any other dps player] stick to that philosophy. same for healers [which i have a cr 78 sorcery], tanks, and trollers. stick to what the role dictates and you should be fine
The Bioeletric surge provides a DPS Buffer like any other power, therefore can be used to enhance the team attack doing indirect damage. The fact of other powers can be 15% more effective will not be relevant if, and only if, the player be smart and use it in the emergencial cases, like proposed in this guide, not all time. There are 6 slot powers, and theres no so many powers wich achieve more than 45% of DPS enhancement to the team.
I cannot see the problem in use just only one emergencial support power slot anyway. Especially when we are playing a EUPS3 Enviroment, full of Noobs who cannot comunicate each other for a lack of comun language.
Awful DPS guide – an emergency heal? Come on! Your job is to do damage, as much as possible – if you have a healing power on your bar, you are doing it wrong! Leave the healing to the healers.
“But a dead DPS does no DPS” – then play with better healers and learn to evade attacks!
Your Job, is to do Damage, and for that so, you cannot never heal yourself if you are really about to die,… Great idea… my I do never use sodas too…
A power with a double doesnt worth a loadout, and never should be used… Great ! Poor Electricals… Poor Soreceries… Yeah, man, the this guide is really awlful, and the writer is tring to mess with our games =/ ¬¬
I got 3 characters at 30 all ranging from CR 50 to CR 80 and I have to admit that all if you spoke words of wisdom. I’ve had the game since launch but being that I’m in my 30s and have a family life I haven’t been on it a lot (enough to call me an avid player). Disaster and Ice are both right. I think people are interpreting an emergency heal as a self heal business type of thing. It’s nice to have it on a DPS but refrain from using it unless your healers or trollerz are dropping. With 6 slots for DPS powers having 1 set to help you out in an emergency isn’t bad its smart especially if not playing with league mates or your regular buds. Too many throw together groups suffer in the teamwork department. While concentration on role based powers and stats is ideal its based on having the ideal team. Which as we know doesn’t always happen. I agree with Ice but only when playing with noobs or a group you are unfamiliar with as well as alerts and duo and solos. But when playing with pros or your squad Disaster is dead on. Trust in your team and maximize DPS potential. However if you are running a DPS type who doesn’t need all 6 slots then by all means through in a support type ability. Health is always good Ni matter the role but as DPS concentrate on might power and precision. Then possibly health and restoration since it’ll help heals. Hybrids are a waste of potential but not a waste of space. Anyone can be used as fodder Lol. I also think that those people insulting Ices guide are very low both in the maturity level and the open mindedness of gaming. It would have been better if they stated their views without insults. Then we could truly have had a better debate/discussion on the topic. Even Disaster who was the main opposition to Ices strategy came out respectful the rest minus a few are just too far up their own rears to approach properly. Anyhow laters to you all and keep the tea bag alive. Ok I’m a go log in now.
If u all read this guide well u will find some great advice, but not is right. No one can make a fantastic guide only if u ask lots of people wat they think anf thr ideas in to a guide
I think the problem is what you come into reading this guide for. I can totally get Ice’s point, Hal’s and Disasters. If you want to be the number 1 DPS in stats, its clear this guide is not going to help you in the slightest.
If you want to be a nice team player, help people out and get a reasonable score on DPS, probably a little higher than the tank. Then this guide IS for you.
Its a strange fact that DPS stats are inversely proportional to thinking about the team and directly proportional to generally being a dick. But… Being a dick and selfish does get speed feats, and awesome stats. Also, after finishing a raid, the very same dicks go back to being pretty cool people (60% of the time).
This guide seems based for DPS up to about FOS 1,3 and possibly gates level. Get into Prime and wanting to do speed feating FOS2, then you will welcome having a selfish DPS. As annoyingly, truth be told, you want DPS to burn everything down as the longer it lasts ultimately it increases the stress on both troller and healer and the odds of failure. So, yeah, I hate it that I have to keep the DPS alive, often without thanks as when they are burning stuff down they just think they are being awesome and somehow invincible to their awesomeness rather than the healer, even though I just popped 2 transcendences to save their asses. But, that’s part and parcel of high level raids. DPS DPS, Healers heal, Trollers Troll and Tanks Tank. Being nice and thinking of others by helping them with their roles just messes things up. The good players just expect you know your role and to do it. So it doesn’t always make for a nice raid, but it is often a successful one, and after the raid people are normally back to normal and pretty appreciative. helping out will more likely confuse everyone and its highly unlikely that the 300k power or health you dropped the team will even be noticed by anyone but yourself. As I said, I have literally saved peoples assess more times then not with healing of a million in stats and did anyone notice? Nope…as it was EXPECTED. But that goes both ways, no one cares if my DPS is -300. Would I get high fives if my DPS was higher than a tank? Would they thank me for my DPS contribution? Nope, they would more likely assume my healing must have suffered from that and I was probably not on the ball. As thats what I would assume if I saw a healer doing too well in DPS.
At high levels, Having a DPS waste time and power doing a rejuv isn’t doing me any favours. Especially when my Crits are ticking away at 3k a pop and i’m timing my heals. Just Kill the ads already, then we can go home. At lower levels, sure, help me out so I can have fun doing a bit of DPS, and go grab a coffee, but really, any high level healer will have your back and just wonder why you are healing yourself. So this guide seems better for those running with lower level healers and trollers and DPS learning the ropes. In those situations, this is a great guide to have fun, get through a raid (more times than not) and just forget the stats. So as long as you know what you want, everyones views are valid here. And thanks for the effort from all.
I’m a lightning DPS, some T4 gear, 77 CR, 85 SP. I agree with a little of what everyone is saying. The easier level raids or solo missions, it can’t hurt to have some type of heal spec but the harder raides, Gates, Prime, you need a DPS to just burn as fast as possible and healer and trolls able to support it. That is the purpose of those raids.
I do have one question hoping to better myself. For lighting or any DPS loadout. Is there a certain order of using your powers to gain stronger DPS? Meaning does it benefit to use one power and follow it with another as opposed to just button smacking powers randomly.
LMAO this wa an interesting discussion.. but did any of you guys actually read the guide… At the very end of the first paragraph the kid says ” The following is what works for me. So do get mad at someone that is playing differently then you.”
So why are some of you getting on his case lol. This guide is how he plays and he wants to share his opinion with others. keyword is opinion.Of course a hybrid isnt going to dish out the most dps and if your in t2 alerts and can figure that out then your an idiot.however this is a GAME…. thats all so if he wants to drop emergency heals to his team then so be it.no need to shoot down his guide. and to the T3/T4 50 Cr + characters come on…… do you really think anyone who makes it past T2 will be a hybrid????? exactly so once anybody actually gets far in the game they will learn how to maximize their role.
Instead of telling him to take down his guide why not send a link of your guide so that we can see your opinion on how to play….. and for those who brags about speed feats and clearing raid just remember how it was when you first started playing…..not know how to approach bosses… all the wipes… then fine tuning and thats what made you the player that you are now. All im saying is give the kid a chance it seems as if he hasnt played the hard stuff yet.
About self-heals, as a DPS i will NEVER get rid of anesthetics. The numbers of times it saved me for certain death well…it happens a few times every day. Yeah its great when you have a great healer behind you, but unless you’re in a league and always playing with the same reliable healers, you WILL have to deal with less than stellar ones. Having that self heal also adds a bit self reliance. I don’t ALWAYS need to stick too close to the healer. If i waited to always be with a great healer before i did anything, well, i wouldn’t be doing much. This uses supercharge anyway so it’s not a waste of power.
The truth of the matter is, as a gadget DPS all you’ll ever REALLY need is GG. I am Staff/Gadgets and have so far, at cr 66, NEVER been outdpsed by anyone who didn’t have at least 10 points of cr on me (and have also outdpsed many who had that many CR points over me, i know because i pretty much always inspect the DPS in any instance i do). I use sticky bomb too once in a while, used to use intimidate a lot but realised i was doing more damage just using the power for GG. With staff i spam 5 hits aoe combo (i actually a long time ago got rid of all other combos or the long range charge attack, waste of SP) and GG, so basically ALL my attacks are AOE. At equal cr, i SEEM to be near untouchable… I’m not boasting, it’s just been my observation… I didn’t even develop this “strategy”…it’s just what i’ve done since i started playing (never changed weapon or power or had any alts) i was actually shocked at first to see how good i was doing, I thought surely it took more than one power and one combo to be a great dps, apparently not. So yeah, if you want to know the most brainelss simplest way of being a kickass DPS, Gauss Grenade and Staff. Would i do better with another power? I don’t know, don’t see any reason to try to find out.
DPS… PLAIN AND SIMPLE FOCUS ON MIGHT AND PRECISION…. IF YOU HAVE A GOOD TEAM YOUR HEALER WILL KEEP YOU HEALED YOUR CONTROLLER WILL CONSTANTLY FEED POWER AND YOUR TANK SHOULD BE THE 1 TAKING THE DAMAGE FOR THE TEAM… THAT’S THE PROBLEM EVERY1 WANTS TO PLAY ALL ROLES… JUST PLAY YOURS
I have been playing since beta as dps and it is very rare for me to come in anything but first place in dps… I personally completely disagree with what is this guide and think that it should be removed… But that’s just me…. If u have any questions on how a good dps should spec or play feel free to add me Kenzo Kenpachi and send me a tell…
What is said in this guide lol…. Give me break it’s late
would love your advice on DPS, in game my forum tag is my name(RockSteadyMan), I’m always trying to get better at my role, what do you disagree with here?
This is really interesting to me, was looking for helpful tips and stumbled on this thread…maybe I’m just an ignorant thugged out novice gamer but it seems like all this takes the FUN out of the game…like y’all really arguing about whether someone should have a healing power in a loadout, I dunno seems a little extra to me…I’ve never played a game like dcuo before I and really enjoy it, I’m a fire DPS and I really enjoy the teamwork aspect (which can be frustrating when people don’t stick together) so I understand people venting annoyances…I read this one post where people were going back and forth about what weapon went best with what power and they were number crunching and all that and someone posted…pick whatever weapon you will have the most FUN using and I think that’s important to not forget. I mean that is the whole purpose of all this, to have fun, right? Oh no wait I forgot people have more fun by putting others down and feeling intellectually superior than actually playing the damn game lol…peace y’all…good hunting…
A precision and Might focused gear, the biggest precision and might buffers powers loadouts with the most possible of area effects that could be given, is this the basic to those who at least know how to read and understand the game rules and stats.
After, a real teammate behavior, killing first the dangerous menances and neutralize them before they can disturb your support colegues, never fighting away from their power range, or leave them behind, using ranged attack on bosses and never calling too much numerous groups to fight, leave this task to the tank. You are a Soldier, not a Kamikaze.
This is all a Good DPS should do, to have unworried fun.
Anyway, to those that dont even know what a buffer does mean, I suggest read again his own power tree, and think how it could be work in a team situation. After this, discuss about “hybridal powers”, “unnecessary emergencial support powers” and things like this.
Thanks for all for the contribution from each point of view.
you guys are a bunch of pricks hes just trying to make a guide whats your problem
The problem is, this Guide was written to be a DUMMIES tutorial, and some people was reading like Speed Feat Guide or something…
I Really prefer to have responsable and cooperative players on my team, rather than achieve speed feats, and all I need from a DPS to this, is a consciencious behavior in camp and give the team the appropriate buffers, damagers by area and over time… I woud never wanna play in a league where I should to work dozen times more for a fresh-head DPS have dozen times less responsabilities.
With a good Controller in the team, theres no no power wasting, but even with a good healer, a DPS can be about to die, bye a few points.
The Iceman’s School, is teaching the new DPS Dummies to heave this conscience play witha self and a team oriented responsability.
The Disasterpiece Style, is postulating play fogeting all possibilites of your powers but those who can deal direct damage, forgeting or just ignoring the natural using of many powers and supercharges in the most of power trees.
I personally think, is nothing good to new players mentality think so soon in “Speed Feats” and things like this, even before learn their natural roles and work to a team, so the Disasterpiece post wasnt so “constructive” as he could imagine.
terrible wot help has a newb got 4rm this ARGUEMENT
NONE GREAT HELP AND THNX 2 THE TROLLERS U KEEP US ALL ALIVE
I have to throw my two cents in about this. Also I want everyone to know that dps is not the easiest role and it is not for everyone. Thanks for guide, but i have to say and agree that hybrid builds are inefficient. As a dps, there is no need to have a heal on your bar. Heals are not important, that is the healer’s job. The heals on the bar can be replace by a skill that will actually do damage. I know some people say “well hey what about the 35% buff I get for using my heal.” This buff can be gained by using a dps skill, and the dps skill can be use for power interaction on higher buffed skills. For example with my loadout I will use tesla blast or wired for the 35% -45% buff and then use the power interaction with electrocute or voltaic bolt. Also there is also a need to know whether your powerset is more might or precision based. Though people say that you should stack both, I am a believer that stacking one can cause players to do more damage. I stack might as electric dps and do more ticking damage as a result.
electric,fire and nature are the best 4 dps
No. Ice dps is the best
I am curious for why the controllers are so important! Do they control others to keep them to helping? Do they tazer pull the healers to keep them from healing others? Do people ever communicate with each other and work together? Anything? Or did I just answer my own question?
What am I even saying?
‘ lol ‘ that’s a hug conversation for a gentle trade ? Realllllllllly ! and I catch myself posting as well.. , but I admire the post and this for the advise after all that why he was made.. I’m a healer and I agrée some DPS are hard to play with because they just run/fly all around the map , for finally get mad when they die.
After all just have fun with your class and play as a team. xx
I’m a fairly fresh level 30 Nature power . Wanting to try something different, I’ve been trying the Dps rout rather than the usual healing role. That being said, I’ve been having problems finding a decent load out for this role. Any ideas or tips would be very helpful.
im seeing alot of hate over this *emergency* heal and honestly i cant see the big deal. i am only 13 and am focusing on damage skills but i eventualy had extra points and simply added 1 point to a heal ability. it made a huge difrence for me. as i dont play in a team and often solo. granted i am looking for a *actual* guide one with abilitys and weapons and skills explained. so this guide didnt help me to much sadly =p but i did like what he had to say for the most part it just wasnt what i was looking for.
Long thread of responses to one person’s guide to healing himself…LoL. Unspoken DPS rule is to do whatever it takes to be at the top of the scoreboard. Rather it be enhanced sodas, cut corners and lose support’s range of sight, or healing oneself. Just be at the top…hopefully the group is efficient enough to run/burn through the instance. You’ll have players asking you for load outs and getting the “I added you” message along with the “good run fellas” signature. Second rule is “keep all the weird strategies to yourself”, if it works for you and you’re on top…no point in giving up alternative recipes. Imagine…Barbecue veggie burgers…lol.