Using damage meter to determine what weapon is betterFollow

Couldn't you just do a tool tip dps comparison?

Ah, possibly, I would say just use the tool tips to compare them. Usually stats will decide which one you keep, though your crit theory could be quite possible as well.

Plz link the guns and I will be glad to tell you what I think is better.

Ironstar Repeater without a doubt. Higher dps, better stats. Even if you did get more crits through the Hurricane, they would be lower than the fewer crits you get from Ironstar Repeater.

And although a possible approach, it would require you to get both weapons first. Not always an option. A ranged weapon drops in an instance, and you will have to figure out if it is an upgrade or not. This is done through the tooltip, and a knowledge of what your class/specc needs.

In any case, those stats completely destroy any procc.

It can never be truly accurate. There are always random variables when doing a grindrun, and the only way you can get any true accuracy out of it would be to find a mob that stays ranged and just keep pounding the mob for an hour or three. There is in fact one mob that is useful for training weapon skill that way, but he is in Netherstorm.

When doing it your way, the variables include pure luck for crits, the same for your pet, your shot rotation depending on the mob, the class of mob spawning (some are casters, some are melee, some have high armor, some don't) and other variables.

Once you hit 70, I'd say the best way would be to go pick on Dr. Boom. He stays ranged, and you don't have to introduce the pet to the equation. Use the exact same shot rotation once you switch weapons.

But why would you waste so much time on it? Just read the tooltip, check the DPS/Stats between the weapons, and choose whichever gains you the most DPS. It should be fairly easy to see when an upgrade drops.

Not to mention spend alot of time doing it. Nothing says failed statistics as a too low sample size. It would take hours to eliminate the luck factor of Crits/proccs. It would also require enormous amounts of time spent for every single combination.

And it quite simply isn't worth it when the stats are so close that you'd need this kind of testing. Then you just go for the weapon/item you feel is better, or looks the best. The difference in DPS is so little that it wouldn't matter anyway.

Depends on what you are doing.

If you are rapid leveling, powerleveling beats equipment any day. You are relying on your uber buddies to drag you through everything so gear means about diddly.

If you 'want to do it yourself' then gear can have either a time saving or a time consuming effect. How much time does it take to get the gear? If you choose certain quests because the rewards gear is good, you still get XP and good gear. If you do fast quests, the rewards tend to be crap and you may have to do more of them for the same XP of a good quest, but they feel faster. So it's really a personal choice there.

If you are twinking, well, then it's all about the gear, getting to a x9 level and never going beyond. Twinks are pretty much why I gave up BG's, they aren't worth the effort to kill them for the honor points.

So, if you are doing the first, doesn't matter. The second, theorycraft will answer you question well enough that you don't need meters or even tooltips. Look up the AEP for each weapon and go by the numbers. If it's the third option, well, there are twinking guides out there that will tell you how to get all the twinky gear.

I agree that there are all kinds of variables but over a certain period of time they balance out. It's probably easy to determine which weapon is better but in the case of gear this method could work out. Waste of time, probably. But let me just tell you how this all started. I let one of my 2 pets get behind in leveling. So I found a bunch of mobs that I could kill in an area that were generally the same level trying to catch my cat up with my boar. While being extremely bored I decided to try this method out. For my example of the 2 weapons it jumps back and forth. On a couple runs the Hurricane wins and on a couple others the Ironstar wins. But its always within 1% of each other.

So back to being a waste of time, sure it is. But if it helps in choosing between using a green upgrade from a quest or something I'm already using it might not be a bad way in determining which is better. Going back to my Hurricane vs. Ironstar. By the tool tip it would seem that the Ironstar is the clear winner but the damager meter test puts it very, very close to each other.

Also, I would like to add that I'm not trying to be an ***. I understand all the points given. Was just something I thought about while endlessly grinding and thought it should be discussed. Thanks everyone for you input!

I'd say the repeater without a doubt. If you break down the amount of shots per minute between that and the hurricane, you get about 10 extra hits. Depending on your crit rating, that might be only an average 1 extra crit per minute. Also, since the repeater has +6 agility, that's extra crit chance right there. Also, with a +7 scope on the Repeater will boost your DPS to the point that it's an easy decision.

And if that doesn't convince you... you can get Splintermark for free at level 62 (well, you'll have to do the hellfire PvP a bit, but I earned enough marks for it in one night), and the splintermark is a hands-down better bow than Hurricane.

For the original question at hand... I don't see why the DPS meter wouldn't work. The only thing you'd have to make sure about is that you have your weapon skills completely maxed out before you do it. For every skill you get, it adds to your crit rating, so you'll get inaccurate results if you have your bow skills maxed, but not your crossbow skills maxed.

Edit: didn't see that you already had the hurricane. I thought you were going to buy it.

Edited, Oct 27th 2007 2:19am by ProjectMidnight