The Path to Endgame: Configuring & Using ArcDPS

I know what you’re thinking: DPS meters are for toxic elitists who do terrible things like kick you without explanation, flame you in chat, and strictly adhere to kill-proof requirements. Or, maybe you don’t think that at all and you just want to know how to set up a DPS meter for Guild Wars 2. Either way, this guide is for you!

As to the question of whether DPS meters are either inherently toxic or promote toxicity, they are only a tool. While it might give people perceived justification to rant or look down on you, it’s more likely these people are just assholes in the first place. DPS meters can give players a lot of valuable information and help squad leaders determine the causes of wipes or potential improvements. This guide covers the basics of ArcDPS, a metrics tool that can provide you with plenty of information about boss encounters, of which your personal DPS is just one small piece.

What is ArcDPS?

ArcDPS is a third-party add-on developed by deltaconnected. It tracks the combat statistics of you and your party or squadmates including outgoing DPS, damage taken, boon uptime, mechanics performed and missed, positioning, and a slew of other metrics.

Although ArenaNet does not officially endorse the use of third-party tools, as per their policy, the creator of ArcDPS worked closely with a former developer, Chris Cleary, to ensure it did not violate the terms of service. This Reddit thread lays out their authorization of DPS meters and the specifics of what may and may not be included in such a program (albeit in a programming legalese that may not be accessible to everyone).

In short, it is extremely unlikely you will be banned for using ArcDPS unless its functionality changes or ArenaNet’s policies regarding the approval of DPS meters changes, in which case they would notify the player base.

Setting Up ArcDPS

To install ArcDPS: 

• Download the most recent d3d11.dll patch. 
• While the game is not running, place it in your Guild Wars 2 installation bin64 folder, \Guild Wars 2\bin64.
• Start Guild Wars 2 and use the default keybind, Alt+Shift+T to open the Options menu.
• Select Area Stats to open the main damage meter.

New patches might cause previous installations of ArcDPS to stop working. The most typical symptom is an error message found in the in-game overlay. A less common occurrence is for your Guild Wars 2 launcher to start and then close prematurely without launching the game. New versions of ArcDPS are usually released within a day, but if you’re having issues running the client, you should delete the d3d9.dll file until the newest update is live.

Configuration

To enable logging, click the Logging tab and, under the heading ‘Boss logging’, check the box that says ‘save (after boss encounter)’.

You can find saved logs in Documents\Guild Wars 2\addons\arcdps\arcdps.cbtlogs. By default, folders are generated using the name of the first boss you fight in an encounter, e.g. the Prison Camp encounter in Wing 2 will be saved under the name Berg. Training sessions in the Special Forces Training Area will be saved under the size of the golem you spawn. The Average golem will be saved as Standard Kitty Golem. You can change this by checking ‘use player name in save path’ or ‘use guild in save path’ under ‘Logging folder’.

Target Versus Cleave

If you right-click the DPS meter interface, you’ll see additional options to configure it. Mouse over the Display option and you’ll see a line that says ‘stats format’. By default, it will say ‘@1 (@2 @3)’. Mousing over it, you can see that this means the meter displays your total cleave damage, and then your cleave DPS and cleave percentage of the squad’s total.

Target DPS is the damage done solely to the main boss. Cleave or all DPS is the damage done to the boss and all additional enemies in an encounter. Let’s talk about the implications of this:

• All DPS will naturally be higher than target DPS. For builds with a lot of cleave or AoE potential, it may be significantly higher.
• Some builds must save one or more skills to use in burst phases against the main boss, meaning their cleave potential is lower.
• Target DPS is generally more important, especially in fights with many weak adds.
• Cleave DPS is still important, especially as a measure of utility, but mostly in fights in which you must kill adds in order to continue fighting the boss. Some examples of this include Vale Guardian in Wing 1 or Cardinal Adina in Wing 7.

As far as total damage versus DPS versus percentages, DPS is by far the most important statistic since it shows your consistency over the course of the fight. Percentages are fun to display, while total damage is not very useful. Therefore, I recommend changing your stats format to show target DPS (@5) most prominently but also display cleave DPS (@2), and target or cleave percent, if desired.

Parsing and Reading Logs

The best website to parse logs (read and display graphs and statistics) is dps.report. Simply click anywhere in the ‘Drop files here to upload’ area, navigate to your logs folder, and choose the log you want to upload. When it’s done, you’ll be able to click the log and see a bunch of information. To keep things short and simple, I’ll only talk about the key information here. 

Please never use this information to bash or flame your fellow players, especially if you don’t understand the many reasons numbers will be lower than you think they should be.

Damage

The default tabs open are General Stats > Damage Stats. This shows the target and all (cleave) DPS, which is basically the same information you can see in the ArcDPS UI in-game. These are followed by two columns showing the damage type, or how much of that DPS was power, and how much was condi. This can be useful to:

• Figure out which build someone was playing in a PuG, although this is usually predictable given the fight.
• Find builds that are specialized in power or condi DPS, but may have an unnatural capability to output DPS of the other type.

Buffs

The next tab over, Buffs > Boons, will show your boon uptime. This is especially important for support players, but DPS players should still look at the table to see if their personal uptimes were unusually low compared to their subgroup. If this is the case, they may have been standing too far away from the squad.

Modifiers

Another good section for beginners to look at is Damage Modifiers > Gear Based Damage Modifiers. This tells you the percentage and how many of your hits were done under a certain modifier, whether or not you were using it. You can mouse over a percentage to see the actual number of hits out of your total and the corresponding percentages.

This is useful to see your uptime (hits while flanking) on power builds. If it’s low, you might’ve been positioned wrong (or screwed by random mechanics).

In the same Damage Modifiers tab, you can also select Class Based Damage Modifiers. This is a little more advanced and requires you to have knowledge of your traits. Most of the modifiers involve your personal boons or the conditions on the boss, only some of which are (completely) under your control. Others are a little different, like a Warrior's or Guardian's . These can tell you how well you placed skills, if you used them in the correct order, and if you took advantage of the buff windows.

Rotation

The final thing I recommend you look at is your own rotation, particularly if you’re a DPS player. Select the box in the grid with your player’s name, and then click the Player Summary > Simple Rotation tabs. This is useful to:

• Check if you used your skills in the correct order.
• See if you used the right number of auto-attack chains in rotations that count them/use a set amount.
• See if you interrupted skills, particularly those with high damage or long cast times. 
• You can also see if you completed the full aftercast of a skill, some of which you might be able to cancel by using the next skill in your rotation or stowing your weapon. This is a more advanced tactic and I recommend you work on skill order before considering this.

While these are the main aspects of a log to look at, feel free to tab around and see what else you can discover about the fight, especially if you’re an aspiring commander! But in the words of deltaconnected, remember, don’t be a dick.

This guide is part of my Path to Endgame series to help Guild Wars 2 beginners take the next steps toward raids and strike missions. I recommend you read General Mechanics & Preparation next.