Playing a Damage Per Second (DPS) class in Warhammer Online: Return of Reckoning (RoR) is all about maximizing your offensive output, assisting your tank, and eliminating enemy threats efficiently. While tanks soak damage and healers keep everyone alive, DPS are the sharp end of the spear, responsible for taking down the enemy.

Just like with tanks, the specific skill names and mechanics will vary slightly between DPS careers (e.g., White Lion, Slayer, Witch Hunter, Shadow Warrior for Order; Choppa, Marauder, Sorcerer, Squig Herder for Destruction), but the core principles of effective DPS remain consistent.

The Core Philosophy of a RoR DPS

A successful RoR DPS focuses on:

1. Target Prioritization: Knowing who to hit and when to hit them.
2. Damage Maximization: Utilizing your rotations, procs, and cooldowns effectively to output the highest possible damage.
3. Situational Awareness: Avoiding unnecessary damage, positioning for optimal attacks, and reacting to battlefield changes.
4. Assisting Allies: Peeling for healers, interrupting key enemy abilities, and adding utility where needed.

Essential DPS Skills and Their Usage

1. Core Damage Abilities (Spam/Rotation Skills)

• What they do: These are your bread-and-butter attacks, forming the core of your damage rotation. They generate resources (if applicable) or simply deal consistent damage.
• When they’re used:
  • On Cooldown (or as part of your rotation): Most DPS careers have a specific sequence of abilities that maximize their damage output. Learn this rotation and execute it consistently.
  • Resource Management: If your class uses a resource (e.g., Meticulous Strike for Witch Hunters generating ‘Accuracy’), ensure you’re using your skills in a way that keeps your resource high enough to use your more powerful abilities.
• Example: As a Choppa, your core rotation might involve alternating between “Furious Choppa” (damage + rage generation) and “Rampage” (damage + rage consumption), trying to keep your “Reckless Abandon” buff up as much as possible. You’re constantly hitting these abilities as soon as they’re available, focusing on your primary target.

2. Burst / Cooldown Abilities

• What they do: These are your most powerful damage-dealing abilities, often with long cooldowns. They are designed to deliver a massive spike of damage in a short window.
• When they’re used:
  • Opening Engagements: Often used at the very start of a fight, especially in coordinated assaults, to quickly eliminate a priority target.
  • Execute Phase: When an enemy’s health drops low, burst abilities can quickly finish them off before they can be healed or escape.
  • Responding to Healing: If an enemy is being heavily healed, a coordinated burst from multiple DPS can overwhelm the healing.
  • Focus Fire: Used in conjunction with other DPS to quickly eliminate a pre-called target.
• Example: As a Sorcerer, you might open with “Daemonic Breath” or “Gaze of the Dark Gods” to apply a powerful debuff or initial burst, followed by your core rotation. When your group calls for a focus fire on an enemy healer, you pop your “Gifts of Chaos” to significantly amplify your damage for a short duration and unleash your most powerful spells.

3. Interrupts (Punt, Stagger, Silence)

• What they do: These abilities stop an enemy’s current cast, preventing them from using a spell or channeled ability.
• When they’re used:
  • Critical Casts: Identify and interrupt high-impact enemy abilities. This includes:
    • Heals: Stopping enemy healers from saving their allies.
    • CC: Preventing enemy mages from polymorphing your tank or putting your healer to sleep.
    • Big DPS Spells: Interrupting powerful AoE nukes or single-target burst spells.
  • Denying Resources: Some abilities are crucial for resource generation. Interrupting them can starve an enemy.
  • Setting up Kills: Interrupting an enemy’s escape ability can ensure they stay in range for your group to finish them.
• Example: You see an enemy Archmage beginning to cast “Healing Resonance,” a powerful AoE heal. You immediately use your “Rift Blade” (Shadow Warrior) or “Gut Ripper” (Witch Hunter) to interrupt the cast, denying their group a significant amount of healing.

4. Crowd Control (CC) – Roots, Snares, Stuns, Disarms, Blinds

• What they do: These abilities impair enemy movement, actions, or vision, making them vulnerable or preventing them from attacking.
• When they’re used:
  • Peeling for Allies: If an enemy melee DPS is on your healer, a root or snare can create distance, allowing your healer to escape or for your tank to re-engage.
  • Target Isolation: Rooting a specific enemy can prevent them from fleeing or reaching their allies for healing.
  • Setting Up Kills: Stuns can hold an enemy in place for your group to burst them down without retaliation. Disarms prevent melee attackers from using their weapons.
  • Kiting: Applying snares to keep dangerous melee enemies at a distance while you deal damage.
• Example: An enemy Witch Elf has bypassed your tank and is now tearing into your Bright Wizard. You quickly apply a “Winged Death” (Witch Hunter) to root the Witch Elf, allowing your Bright Wizard to create distance and for your tank to pick them up.

5. Debuffs (Offensive Utility)

• What they do: DPS classes often have abilities that reduce enemy armor, resistances, outgoing damage, or healing received.
• When they’re used:
  • Focus Fire Enhancement: Apply armor or resistance debuffs to the enemy target your group is focusing. This significantly increases the damage all your allies deal to that target.
  • Threat Reduction: Debuffs that reduce enemy damage output can ease the burden on your healers, especially from dangerous melee DPS.
  • Anti-Heal: Apply anti-healing debuffs to enemy healers or high-priority targets to reduce the effectiveness of incoming healing.
• Example: Your warband is focusing an enemy Ironbreaker. As a Squig Herder, you consistently apply “Barbed Arrow” to him, reducing his armor and making him much easier for your entire group to burn down.

General DPS Principles

• Target Priority:
  • Healers First (often): Eliminating enemy healers is usually the quickest way to win a fight.
  • Squishy DPS: Mages, archers, and some melee DPS are often easier to kill than tanks and can deal significant damage if left unchecked.
  • Debuffers/CCers: Sometimes, taking out an enemy who is consistently applying powerful debuffs or CC to your team is a higher priority.
  • Tanks Last: Tanks are designed to be hard to kill. Only focus them if all higher priority targets are dead or they are isolated and vulnerable.
• Positioning:
  • Melee DPS: Stay on the enemy’s flanks or back to avoid cleaves and maximize your damage (some classes get bonuses for this). Stick to your tank’s target or peel for your healers.
  • Ranged DPS: Maintain maximum range from the enemy frontline while still having line of sight to your target. Stay near your healers for potential peels or heals. Avoid being isolated.
• Situational Awareness:
  • Watch for Enemy CC: Be ready to break free from roots, snares, or stuns, or to anticipate them and use a defensive ability.
  • Avoid AoE: Don’t stand in enemy AoE spells. Even as a DPS, taking unnecessary damage taxes your healers.
  • Protect Yourself: Don’t rely solely on your healers. Use your personal defensive abilities (e.g., “Dodge” for Witch Hunters, “Thousand Cuts” for Slayers) when you’re taking heavy damage.
• Communication: Call out your targets, especially if you’re initiating on a healer. Let your group know if you’re getting focused or if you’re out of position.
• Renown Skills: Prioritize offensive renown skills like Weapon Skill/Ballistic Skill, Initiative, and Strength/Intelligence. Defensive renown can be useful too, but your primary role is damage.
• Potions: Keep damage potions and speed potions on hand to enhance your burst or escape sticky situations.

By mastering these elements, a DPS player in RoR becomes a crucial force, turning the tide of battle through decisive damage and intelligent utility.