Things like Ammo and RAP add DPS based on the base weapon speed, before any bonus. So, without any speed bonus, 4.5 ammo would add 4.5 DPS regardless of weapon speed. RAP acts just like Ammo. The bonus you get from things like ammo and RAP are not helped or hurt by weapon speed.
Our final weapon speed is affected by the quiver/ammo pouch by 10%, which means the slower the weapon, the bigger the gain.
(I think there is an 11% ammo pouch, but the extra 1% isn’t enough to change anything we are comparing.)
However, flat damage bonuses, like scopes, are not affected by weapon speed; they simply add a flat amount to every shot.
(You can calculate the DPS bonus by dividing the amount by the final weapon speed.)
This is the opposite of speed bonuses; that is - the faster the weapon, the bigger the gain from flat bonuses.
When you combine all of these together, you get two weapons that have almost identical DPS:
Click to view final image
(the image was too long and kept getting clipped)
"Ah... But slower weapons are better for our abilities - right? (I think I heard that once...somewhere...)"
Well… Some abilities in wow do use the weapon speed or the top end damage of a weapon to calculate the ability's yellow damage.
For example:
- If you have a sword that does 1-10 damage with a speed of 1.0 and a dagger that does 1-5 damage with a speed of 2.0 both have 5 DPS.
- If your primary attack uses the top end damage or weapon speed to calculate damage, the sword is going to be better for you.
This is entirely dependent on abilities that use weapon speed or top end damage when calculating that ability's damage.
How many hunter abilities at level 19 do this? Zero. So the yellow damage would be identical for the two.
"But I would rather have a hard hitting slow weapon than a fast weapon..."
That is fine. If you can only get one shot off, you will do more damage with that one shot from the slow weapon than the fast.
But if you can only get one shot off... that shot probably isn't doing much anyway.
During the first 10 seconds of autoshots - which gun is doing more damage goes back and forth 8 times.
If a fight lasts 4.5 seconds the Boomstick does more damage, but if it lasts 5.5 seconds, Peashooter is better.
6.5 seconds? Boomstick. 7.5 seconds? Peashooter. 20 seconds? The Peashooter is, on average, 1 point of damage higher.
Is the Peashooter better? In damage, Yes. By how much? On an well geared twink it is .01 damage per second better, so in a fight that lasts 100 seconds, they will do 1 point of damage more.
Now... I'll let you check out the AH prices for each and decide for yourself if the price diffrence is worth the extra 1 point ever 100 seconds of combat.
(Fun fact: Despite what you may have been told... Venomstrike and the PVP bow beat both of these. How much better? That's a post for another day.)
