[help] How to make own build do more DPS?

Hi, I am a new player and I am focusing first learning the campaign and core mechanics, so I don't know anything about maps, mine and other extras yet.

My main general question is "How to make own build do more DPS?"

The goal is learning in the process. I am not interested on taking a ready build, but rather try with error and start a new character when needed.

I am playing a Saboteur lvl 67 (act 9). Main skill is Pyroclast Mine with a few mine support gems. This part I understand, but with my passives the DPS is around 3k only. The passive skills focus a lot on +increased/more damage for Mines, +increased Spell damage and +increased Elemental damage.

I understand the difference of increased and more, but it seems that with this pattern I won't get to a million DPS as it seems to be standard on builds.

What is the general guidance to to get from thousands to millions DPS? It seems just passives that have increased damage don't do the job and I can't find passives with more damage. Is it gear then that makes difference?

If anyone could give a general short explanation on how to make good DPS I'd appreciate, thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZvFSP4cA2E

Might help, enjoy ;)

you should swich your profile settings private-->public

easier to tell if people see your gear etc

I always prefer creating my own builds over using presets, though looking at presets is often helpful in knowing viable directions. I don't play Pyroclast Mine and can't give you any feedback of suggestions specific to it.

In general, you need to understand how everything affects everything else. All sources of increased stack additively. You will get the exact same benefit from 10% increased mine damage as 10% increased fire damage. You also want layers (increase, crit, double, more, speed, etc) to your dps stats as each value is relative to what your character already has. Each mod makes every other mod more effective but it's own less effective (barring more/less). PoB can help with the math for you.

Are you getting that 3k dps from pob or in-game? If you are playing mines, you are unlikely to come anywhere close to a million dps shown (it takes a really tuned build with strong endgame items to achieve this number) because you need to add up all of your mines for your true dps (if you are in Act 9, I doubt you have 3k total dps from all your mines put together).

The other thing to note is that there is a trifecta for damage generally:

1) Flat added damage

2) Increased/More damage modifiers

3) Critical strike multiplier (you need to build high crit chance for this one to matter)

The idea is to try to balance all 3. You don't want to go all in on just 1 or 2 of those because your damage will suffer compared to a balanced approach for a given budget.

The tooltip is basically only useful for seeing if a change you make in-game is good or not (e.g. if you equip this weapon, your dps goes from 3k to 3.2k), and is especially bad for Traps because they only show the damage for 1 trap. For all other purposes, including accurate DPS calculations, use Path of Building.

End-game builds have access to influenced gear, cluster jewels, more passive points, and higher tiers of rolls. They also have access to more Ascandancy points. It takes time and currency to make a build with massive amounts of damage.

Sadly the tooltip isn't even good for whether something is an upgrade all the time. For example, the tooltip doesn't reflect elemental penetration (among other things) at all.

You need to understand and use / balance / ignore

Increased damage to fire, mines, spell, aoe damage,
All your support gem choices
Mine throwing speed
Additional projectiles
Crit chance
Crit multiplier
Elemental penetration
+Gem level to Aoe, Mine, Spell, Fire, Aura types
Mines can detonate twice
Added flat spell damage
Reduced enemy resists


Pyroclast dps also depends on timing your throws vs detonate well to get long strings of impacts to maximize projectiles in the chain. This explains the timing issue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLEbdkPQbdw

I'm going to add that usually if you want to increase dps you need to know all the stats that modify your spell/skill then get some of whatever you have the least of.

A common mistake new players make for example is having no penetration or resistance reduction for enemies, this makes dps absolutely torturous on bosses, res buffed rares or anything with endurance charges.

Trixxar has a nice list above of the types of things that modify mines if you have zero for any of those its probably what you are looking to gain for easy dps. If you don't go crit you need to get elemental overload too.

I made my profile public, thx for the tip.

Thank you for the information, this has been helpful to understanding where the total dps comes from. I was on the right path then, this thread confirms it.

Yes, I was at act 9 with 3k single hit of Pyroclast Mine. Gem support includes throw 5 mines at once with passive skill that grants additional damage for previous mines, and increases crit change for mines, among others like increased spell and fire damage.

I got to the atlas, that’s insane for a new player. Looks like a lot of nonsense. I did a few maps so far, I can one shot most of the things but can die at bosses if not care. Tier 2 maps I did. My lvl is 71 and my dps with everything on can get up to 6k shown.