Weapon Damage ∝ Skill Damage ∝ DPS?

[Nèmein]

First of all hello and thanks for this forum.

I'm not sure I have a question but I am certain that I am confused about the relevance of the 'DPS' metric. I see the number getting larger and I'm smiling about it (DH in Act 1 NM) but I still feel that I have less than no idea about what the numbers are quantifying. Certainly my attacks (e.g. HA) aren't showing the same damage output number as my DPS number and I don't think they should. But then I can't seem to intuit the weapon damage calculation to get me there either.

I'm willing to bet someone credible has done this and if so please direct me to them so I can educate myself. My present hypothesis is the 'DPS' describes damage done with the basic attack if you simply stood still and fired, taking into account obviously your primary stat (Dex in my case) your average damage (min/max on weapon + min/max on rings). I assume that whatever that number is (x) would be the amount of damage a same lvl mob would take from your basic attack and that your attack speed would determine how many times they incurred that amount of damage in one second and that would give you a 'DPS' number.

If it isn't obvious by now I am very confused. And I literally cannot (or will not I suppose) go on until I find some information or am made aware of the possiblity that at the moment everyone else is equally as confused.

Thanks and sorry for such a long first post.

[Mage Slayer]

The "damage" listed in the stat screen is your basic DPS i.e. the average damage that would be done by your basic attack per second i.e average damage*attack rate. It takes into consideration base weapon damage, + damage, elemental mods, attackspeed mods, dual wielding attack speed bonus, main stat damage bonus, etc.

Most attacks (spammable ones) take account of damage and speed separately, so a 150% skill will do 150% the damage of your basic attack at the same rate as your basic attack, thus doing 150% of your listed DPS over time.

Some skills with cooldowns or huge resource costs do their damage based on your DPS rather than damage since they can't be used repeatedly quickly and thus would otherwise not benefit from increased attack speed.

Hope that makes some sense.