This seems to be the actual sentiment of most who complain about DPR, but they are just wrong.
If you wanna say DPR isn’t everything then I 1000% agree but there’s a big difference between that and useless.
I'v seen people who calculate DPR with included Action Point and Encounter or Daily Power (4e).. I think those people played too much video games and did not played proper game, just wanna create some character.. Video games used to have "power cooldown" that is showed in seconds ("coresponding" with DPS).. While on the other side in TTRPG DPR cannot include Encounter or Daily Power, because once used, it is "gone" and cannot be used in the next round.. Those people just wanna "reach" high number to show of to others..
The argument here makes 0 sense. You seem fine with video games including cooldown abilities in damage metrics, but the moment a d&d player does the same thing it’s wrong?
If one is only going to list a single damage number for comparison then including those things is better than not.
And if some insist on DPR I would personally (my opinion) do it only with At-Will Powers.. I would not even include Critical hits.. Instead I would add "slash % crit"..
When a large portion of your damage comes from non-at-will options it makes no sense to ignore that. You’ve got to account for it somehow or your damage numbers really are worthless.
Randomness? That is why I do not like critical hits on my build.. For example if you have 19-20 crit, 10%.. How often actually happened that palyers do critical hits on minions (it is like WASTED DAMAGE?), and one shot "little" monsters, while they cannot place a single critical hit when they face a "boss-monster" and really needs one..
Which is a bit ironic because encounter or daily powers are not random but player controlled and you still don’t want to include them.
For the most part crits change very little about DPR. I can get behind them being viewed as adding false precision, but I also think it’s important to consider them when the game itself grants features that improve crits and interact with the crit mechanics more than others. But whether you include it or not, not very much is going to actually change. Virtually all High DPR builds will still be a high DPR build with or without crits included in the DPR calculation.
Once again, if people just wanna do DPR.. I would do it this way.. DPR = Attack "number" ("effects" that sometimes can increase Attack") / At-Will power Damage (calculated standard damage)(+ "effects" that sometimes can increase Damage") / Crit Range (like 20 or 19-20) / and just at the end write + Encounter/Daily Powers (with words)
As noted above, that’s a very misleading way to compare damage. Daily and Encounter powers substantially affect how much damage is being done. Leaving those as just words does nothing to account for their impact.
I see poeple trying calculating impossible (they should play, not calculate damage!).. That is like in casino, one machine gave 10% of inserted money back to the people.. So, 1 guy put 9 dollars, you put 1 dollar to make it 10% and you won nothing. 2nd guy put 80 dollars , and after him you put 10 more dollars to make 10% and you won nothing.. Then comes the "noob" who never ever plays, put 1 dollar for fun, and withdraw 100 dollars
Leaves and never ever comes to play again..
Do you understand what expected value is in probability theory? Do you understand why that concept is important?
People are too much trying to calculate.. For example, few people on forum says that "my build" have too low damage ouput (they didnt see it in a play, and cannot "visualize" it).. Also they say I put too much on Defense.. They advice me more Critical Hits. I just show why I do not like Criticals, and I do 2x Attack per turn, what is actually quite good in 4e.. They were like "those 2nd attack cannot compare with critical!).. And it lands way more "easily" becasuse no need high rolls (19-20) to land that Criticals (that offen just hits minions?) I actually find class build on this site, and I do not know who did it, but every build has far lower AC than my build.. I see their point.. They consider themselves as a hitters! Melee Strikers! And whit those AC, they will often need Leaders to heal them.. And trust me, all Leaders like more to Attack and land a hit, than they do like healing others! That is why my Leader "loves me".. Even if I do lower "DPR", I can often "dodge" the monster Attack, so the Leader can Attack and increase our Damage! While with those extreme high "DPR"-s player, the Leader need to heal them.. And in the end, group Damage is very similar at the end.. Their only concern is.. Will the Leader will be able to Heal so many hits, the Striker received? That is the point of nonsense DPR.. It is just Damage stat, and we have so many other stats in the game..
My experience with 4e DPR charts were that many listed DPR values weren’t for actual playable characters. In that context, sure. But that doesn’t mean DPR is useless or that the general method for calculating DPR is wrong. It just means there’s other considerations as well.
Though most people are bad at estimating the impact of other metrics. Like higher ac vs DPR, or control or etc. Generally if you kill enemies faster you take less damage by denying enemies turns. Rarely do DPR haters factor higher DPR into party defenses.
