More DPS is better?

Most hardcore MMORPG types focus on maximizing damabe per second (DPS). Of themselves, and of their group. They will calculate DPS for different weapon configurations, and buffs, and mana efficiency for dots, direct damage and area effect spells. I don't really have a problem with that. I like players who try to understand the game and play it well.

But this focus on DPS leads folks to focus on groups where the strategy is to maximize DPS. The question is whether this in fact leads to maximum experience gain. We leave aside entirely the question of whether this leads to maximum fun.

More DPS means you kill mobs faster, so they have less time to hurt you. Killing mobs faster also means that you gather the experience from killing them that much faster too. Of course, you have to factor in recovery time between fights into the equation.

Of course, everyone wants a healer in their group, and healers generally don't have good DPS. But they keep you alive, which means no debt, and no downtime recovering from dying. So maybe absolutely maximizing DPS isn't the path to success.

I'm an enchanter. I live for those moments when you just got trained, or there was a bad pull, or a spawn on top of you. One moment it looks like you're going to wipe, and 30 seconds later, the situation is completely under control. Fahfrd, my shaman has been in groups with a chanter and something like this happened. We got trained, I looked up and saw the enchanter losing HP fast. I tossed him a ward and then healed him once. When I looked again, the mobs on him were staring into space, and were killed easily in turn. I was sure glad to have an enchanter then.

Downtime costs a lot, in missed opportunity. You could take things a bit slower, but give yourself a much more robust way of dealing with bad stuff that could happen. Most of the dungeons in EQ2 are set up to make bad stuff happen from time to time.