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A bad DPS is going to make the job harder on everybody else in the group, because the worse the DPS, the longer the fight is going to take. Let’s take a look at ten tips for understanding how to play a DPS in DCUO:

10 PRECISION/MIGHT

The two stats that are going to be most important as a DPS are going to be Precision and Might. Precision is a measure of how much damage your weapon is going to do; this isn’t going to be quite as important to most DPS as Might will be, but for those that are going to rely on their weapon more often than they will their power, Precision is what you’re going to want to stack. Might is a measure of the damage that your powers are going to do. In most cases, stacking Might is going to net you the best result as a DPS.

9 DAMAGE OVER TIME

Most power sets have a couple of powers available to them that do Damage Over Time, known at DOT. Generally, these powers create some pretty good complimentary damage to a damage rotation involving other powers, adding some consistency to it. However, there are whole power sets, like Nature, that revolve almost entirely around DOT mechanics. Nature allows you to stack multiple DOTs at the same time, and refresh the damage easily, allowing you to focus most of your time on dealing damage with your weapons or a couple of other powers while two or three stacks of DOT are doing constant work.

8 AREA OF EFFECT

Just about every power set has access to quite a few different powers that create damage in an Area Of Effect, or AOE. These powers are generally very good for clearing a bunch of adds, or groups of enemies that aren’t very powerful.

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Sometimes, AOE powers also have a DOT effect too, generating a ton of damage on a few different enemies over the next few seconds.

7 FINISHER

A few of the power sets have access to powers that are finishers. If you target an enemy that’s at 35% health or lower, the finisher is going to do a considerable amount of extra damage, putting the enemy on their last legs if it doesn’t outright kill them. This can be a nice power to have for certain lower-power enemies, but it really comes into its own on bosses. Because bosses have so much health, you’ll have the opportunity to use the finisher a few different times.

6 CHAINING POWERS

Some powers, like Light or Celestial, allow you to chain different powers together, usually to a different effect than they would have had otherwise, such as having an extra effect or damage, or costing less power to cast, etc. Hard light, for example, can theoretically infinitely combo their powers together in a chain, so long as they have a controller around to give them a small amount of power occasionally.

5 PRECISION/MIGHT BUFFS

A few different powers give you a buff to your precision and/or might, or, in some cases, give that buff to a few teammates, as well. If your power set has access to it, it’s a nice power to start your damage rotation with, and they usually stay active until the cooldown resets, allowing the buff to be essentially permanent provided you have the power to cast it.

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Some of these buffs also increase your critical attack chance and/or critical damage, as well.

4 POWER INTERACTIONS

There are some powers that rely heavily on power interactions. Gadgets, for example, has a lot of different powers that aren’t going to do much on their own, but in the right order, they can have a devastating effect. Some of these powers are going to do extra damage if the target is already electrified, for example, or if the target is already frostbitten, the power will freeze them entirely. This really rewards planning out your attacks and creating a nice damage rotation, but definitely punishes a more freeform approach to DPS.

3 WEAPON MASTERY

Every weapon has access to weapon mastery combos. These combos play off of the combos already present in the weapons, allowing you, for example, to chain a brawling combo into a devastating two-handed attack. For the DPS out there that would prefer putting more reliance on their weapons as opposed to their powers, weapon mastery is going to be a very important part of their playstyle.

2 RANGED DPS

Most DPS out there are going to prefer to deal their damage at range. This keeps them out of harms way, putting a bit less strain on their healers and allowing the DPS to focus more on their damage rotation as opposed to avoiding danger. This does come with some caveats, though; at range, there are certain powers that aren’t going to be useful to you, some of which are going to be some pretty useful powers. However, being at range does give you the chance to use some powers that can’t be interrupted by enemy attacks without much worry.

1 MELEE DPS

Melee DPS generally have the potential for a higher damage output than ranged DPS, though they definitely need to keep their head on a swivel and rely on their Tank to do their job very effectively. Melee DPS are going to be right in the thick of the action, so powers that cast quickly or instantly are going to be preferable, but they don’t require powers to really do much at range.

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