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  1. #1

    Is burst, burst? or is burst, dps?

    Hey.

    So this friend of mine keeps telling me that if a fight is less than 30-sec anything you see on the meter is just "Burst" and if i try to tell him that DPS stands for "Damage per second" He flips out and just keeps saying but it's "Burst" NOT "DPS"

    So, I just wanna ask you guys.. Is DPS not called dps if it's in a short fight? Does everyone else call it Burst as well?

    Because to me dps is "Damage per second" no matter how many seconds the fight was.

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  2. #2
    It's either burst dps or sustained dps, but it's still dps. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  3. #3
    Tell him it's burst DPS. Burst means nothing on its own

  4. #4
    Deleted
    Any damage over a period of time is DPS

  5. #5

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Nalam the Venom View Post
    Hey.

    So this friend of mine keeps telling me that if a fight is less than 30-sec anything you see on the meter is just "Burst" and if i try to tell him that DPS stands for "Damage per second" He flips out and just keeps saying but it's "Burst" NOT "DPS"

    So, I just wanna ask you guys.. Is DPS not called dps if it's in a short fight? Does everyone else call it Burst as well?

    Because to me dps is "Damage per second" no matter how many seconds the fight was.
    DPS is just a measurement like MPH. It's not like your dps over a minute long patchwerk is going to be the same as a 4 minute hectic cleave...

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Skyforge1 View Post
    It's burst dps
    and what if he keeps insisting on calling it "Burst" even if you try to reason with him.. telling him that it should be called "Burst dps" ?

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  8. #8
    Elemental Lord clevin's Avatar
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    Is he really hung up on the term or is he trying to say that your burst DPS isn't necessarily representative of your DPS? After all, if you burst for, say, 40k over 30 seconds, that just means you have a spec that can do that while someone else might need ramp up and have less good burst.

  9. #9
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    DPS stands for damage per second (and it's also an acronym for damage dealers, who damage per second). Doesn't matter if it is 10 seconds or 2 seconds or 360 seconds, it's still measured per second. DPS is the proper term. You can say "burst dps" if it's a huge amount of damage in a short time relative to other classes at the same competency and gear level, but just "burst" on its own means nothing.

  10. #10
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Nalam the Venom View Post
    and what if he keeps insisting on calling it "Burst" even if you try to reason with him.. telling him that it should be called "Burst dps" ?
    Just unfriend at this point.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by clevin View Post
    Is he really hung up on the term or is he trying to say that your burst DPS isn't necessarily representative of your DPS? After all, if you burst for, say, 40k over 30 seconds, that just means you have a spec that can do that while someone else might need ramp up and have less good burst.
    I told him

    "Any damage over a period of time is DPS.

    Even if it's "Burst dps" it's still dps."

    His reply was

    "Doesn't change the fact that it's still burst.
    And it's only burst and just burst, so get this through your thick skull that this is just burst and not dps."

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  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Nalam the Venom View Post
    I told him

    "Any damage over a period of time is DPS.

    Even if it's "Burst dps" it's still dps."

    His reply was

    "Doesn't change the fact that it's still burst.
    And it's only burst and just burst, so get this through your thick skull that this is just burst and not dps."
    This tells me and anyone with a brain that your friend has an IQ of a peanut.

  13. #13
    Deleted
    Damage you do in 10-20s with all cooldowns is not realistic DPS.

    My 288 elemental shaman bursted 25k on ZUL opener, that's not his dps though...

    So yeah, burst isn't true dps, it's just a snapshot and it tells you nothing.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by mmocb2f6da33d2 View Post
    Damage you do in 10-20s with all cooldowns is not realistic DPS.

    My 288 elemental shaman bursted 25k on ZUL opener, that's not his dps though...

    So yeah, burst isn't true dps, it's just a snapshot and it tells you nothing.


    Still part of your overall dps in a given fight. Cooldowns are a HUGE portion of most classes numbers, so this is an ignorant statement. Also DPS stands for Damage Per Second which encompasses EVERYTHING you do... not just some.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Nalam the Venom View Post
    I told him

    "Any damage over a period of time is DPS.

    Even if it's "Burst dps" it's still dps."

    His reply was

    "Doesn't change the fact that it's still burst.
    And it's only burst and just burst, so get this through your thick skull that this is just burst and not dps."
    to which the only proper response is "you're an idiot" and you move on.

  16. #16
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Nalam the Venom View Post
    I told him

    "Any damage over a period of time is DPS.

    Even if it's "Burst dps" it's still dps."

    His reply was

    "Doesn't change the fact that it's still burst.
    And it's only burst and just burst, so get this through your thick skull that this is just burst and not dps."
    What he means is : Burst DPS can't compare with sustained DPS, so if you scored a high dps on a 30sec fight, thst means nothing compared to his sustained dps on a 5min fight

  17. #17
    What it sounds like he means is that your burst dps isn't representative of your sustained dps, which he clearly thinks of as your "real" dps.

    You're absolutely right that they're both still dps, but that's not the point he's trying to make, which is that comparing dps isn't fair if it's over a 30 second period, because some specs just do much more of their damage in that short window, but will even out over a longer period of time.

  18. #18
    I am Murloc! Oneirophobia's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nalam the Venom View Post
    and what if he keeps insisting on calling it "Burst" even if you try to reason with him.. telling him that it should be called "Burst dps" ?
    Does he call the damage during a 5 minute long fight burst?

    Are you sure he's not just .. bad?

  19. #19
    Damage of any kind is DPS by definition.

  20. #20
    Elemental Lord clevin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AwkwardSquirtle View Post
    What it sounds like he means is that your burst dps isn't representative of your sustained dps, which he clearly thinks of as your "real" dps.

    You're absolutely right that they're both still dps, but that's not the point he's trying to make, which is that comparing dps isn't fair if it's over a 30 second period, because some specs just do much more of their damage in that short window, but will even out over a longer period of time.
    This is what I'd mean. If OP is reporting his words correctly, he's phrasing it poorly. It's ALL dps because all dps means is damage per second. It's a special CLASS of dps though. It's like talking about AOE DPS vs ST DPS vs Cleave DPS. All different kinds of DPS and not really comparable to one another. In Legion my Balance druid sucked at ST DPS because the spec wasn't good at it. Give me a large collection of adds like on High Command, though, and I was #1 or 2.

    Similarly, some classes have ramp up and so they can't burst in the initial opener. Others don't have an on-demand burst toolset even if they're ramped up... yet others DO have on demand burst either at any time during the fight or as an execute (or on CD).

    It doesn't feel to me like we're getting the whole context of the conversation here, so I can't really say who's 'right' aside from the pedantic note that "DPS means Damage Per Second."

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