What is "Sustained DPS"?

[Ghishlain]

How would you define "Sustained DPS"? No context, just define it as you would see fit based on your knowledge of the game and other MMOs / games you have played in the past.

Thank you.

For context, there's a discussion going on in the healer forum about what "sustained DPS" actually means as there are two potential definitions (based on the discussion) of it based on MMO history. I'm curious to see which side of the fence XIV falls onto. You can poke at the healer forum if you're curious to see it.

[Yawnie]

I'd say its the amount of damage you do consistently throughout the duration of the fight?

[Rongway]

Sustained DPS
[suh-steynd dee-pee-es]
noun
1. the delivery of damage throughout an encounter with little variance from the mean damage over time
2. the delivery of a high amount of damage over a prolonged period of time
see also: burst DPS


burst DPS
[burst dee-pee-es]
noun
1. the delivery of damage during a short portion of an encounter where damage output is much higher than mean damage over time
2. the delivery of a high amount of damage in a short amount of time
3. delivery of damage during an encounter that alternates periods of higher than mean damage over time and lower than mean damage over time
see also: sustained DPS

After referencing the aforementioned Healer thread, I guess it's relevant to note that my definitions make no consideration for "sustainability" based on resource availability. I only considered how the damage at a given time interval t differs from the mean.

[StouterTaru]

Pretty much that, burst dps is over a 20-30 second span with CDs used, sustained dps is the dps over the duration of a fight. Or I guess you could call it the dps outside the burst phase, is that what the discussion is about?

[HPDelron]

The answers so far are the most correct I think. If we need something solid and "testable" in an objective sense, I would say it is the value your average DPS would converge on as the duration of the fight approaches infinity.

[Shurrikhan]

I consider it the average or the minimum/lull dps that you put out, depending on the terms its being compared to or the kind of fights its being consider for.

In (over-simplified) comparison, "burst" dps, for instance might end before your cooldowns have half cooled (always greater than "average") or until their durations end, while in "sustained" dps the cooldowns have half or more cooled (potentially average) since use, proportioning or devaluing their effect.

However, ramp-ups and other factors not allowing successive attacks, full use of debuffs, etc. would also come into consideration. While neither aspect is necessarily "burst" or "sustained", "sustained" would tend to lend more to the idea of "even if things don't go ideally".

[Llynd]

To me, it is Just the dps inflicted by the dots ? That is the dps you're doing whenever you're not directly dpsing.
But i might be wrong ^^

[randysquirrel]

Since most of CDs in the game are multiplicative, they will mostly be used together, over a short time, which is your burst dps. Such CDs are RS, pots, B4B, IR, Litany, Hawks Eye, etc. It includes other things such as swiftcast, which you'll be using to push out as much damage while your buffs are active. Typically, everyone will burst at the very beginning of a fight, as all of your CDs are available to line up, this is your opener.

When they drop, you are down to your "normal" rotation, without buffs, and this is your sustained dps, that is, the dps you can sustain without being inflated by buffs. Note some damage-increasing buffs can still be considered here, such as heavy thrust, enoch, straight shot, hotshot etc, although being damage-increasing buffs, these should be up 24/7 anyway, so are not relegated to only being burst. You generally re-use your CDs as they come back up, so your sustained dps can be considered as "the rest of the fight" outside of your opener, unless the fight has a particular point where you need to do a lot of damage very quickly later on, you may hold some CDs back for that point, so you can burst again.

That is my interpretation of it anyway

[Perilos]

I give you a example from WoW:

Sustain DPS:
Mutilate or Combat Rogue. High and constant DPS. No real peaks down or up. Even with CDs or the CDs are just normal part of the sustain.

Burst DPS:
Fury Warrior, low and peaking constant DPS with high peak DPS with CDs.

[Morzy]

Sustained DPS is the DPS over a longer period, compared to burst DPS over a shorter period. It is the accumulative DPS without many interruptions, sometimes.

For example;

"This DRG had crazy DPS! But the MNK would probably sustain more if we lasted longer that run."


MNK is a fine example of sustained. We don't do burst DPS, we don't rely on many cooldowns even if we TRIED to burst more. Both DRG and NIN can bust more than MNK easily, and I often find this to be true in my own experience.


Most DPS; DRG, NIN, MCH, BRD, BLM, + WAR(even though it's a tank.)

The only real sustained DPS classes have are SMN and MNK and SMN is iffy cause yes they can burst and the only reason I count them is because they use DoT's