The formula
DPS = damage × (1 + crit chance × (multiplier − 1)) × hits per second
Where it comes from
The commonest mistake in working out DPS is treating critical strike as if it multiplied your damage. It does not: it multiplies the share of hits that crit. A twenty-five per cent chance with a two times multiplier does not double your damage, it raises it by twenty-five per cent, because only one hit in four benefits. Armour works similarly: almost no game subtracts it, they apply it as a saturating fraction, and that gives it diminishing returns that the number on the item does not show.
How to work it out by hand
- Work out the crit factor: 1 + chance × (multiplier − 1)
- Multiply base damage by that factor and by any bonuses
- Multiply by hits per second
- Apply mitigation: armour ÷ (armour + constant)
What is worth knowing
Comparing what one point of crit adds against one point of damage is what actually decides which stat to raise, and the answer changes with what you already have: with little crit, crit wins; past a certain point, base damage does. On armour, the constant varies enormously between games — a hundred is typical, but some titles use several thousand — and without it the armour number means nothing on its own.