What is ArcDPS?

ArcDPS is an add-on developed by deltaconnected.

It shows, for example, the following information:

Combat statistics of you and anyone in your party or squad
Outgoing damage
Incoming damage
Outgoing boons
Incoming boons

ArcDPS’s real-time charts (and the logs produced from those charts) give you the go-to basic tools for raiding. They help you improve, once you understand how they work!

ArcDPS is currently the only allowed combat analyzer for Guild Wars 2 (Archive.org link to a 2017 Reddit thread with an official ArenaNet post), but this is obviously subject to change.

As stated on the developer’s website, “don't be a dick” while using this software.

Installing ArcDPS

Go to the official ArcDPS website. At the bottom of the page, click on x64: current.
Download d3d11.dll. Your anti-virus might say that the file’s dangerous. This is a false positive and can be safely ignored.
If Guild Wars 2 is open, close it. Make sure that the client and the login screen are closed.
Open the installation folder for Guild Wars 2. The default location for Windows 7+ operating systems is most commonly "C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2".
Add d3d11.dll to the main "Guild Wars 2" folder. It should look something like in the picture below.
Start Guild Wars 2 and log in to a character.
If ArcDPS doesn’t show after toggling its menu (Alt+Shift+T), or if Guild Wars 2 crashes, check ArcDPS website for solutions.

If the ArcDPS menu isn't showing, these two hotkeys are the most common fixes for that problem:

To hide/unhide all ArcDPS, use Alt+Shift+H.
To hide/unhide ArcDPS’s menu, use Alt+Shift+T.

Setting Up ArcDPS

Before setting up ArcDPS, log in to a character and unhide ArcDPS’s menu.

For basic damage statistics in combat, enable Area Stats.
To save logs from encounters, under Logging, enable save after boss encounters and lock target to encounter NPC.
To increase the usability of Area Stats, right-click on the Area Stats window, and then under Display, set stats format to "@5, @6 (@2, @3)". This shows “single-target DPS, percentage of all single-target DPS (cleave DPS, percentage of all cleave DPS)”.
You can change the stats format to what you’d like, but always include "@5", as single-target DPS is in a lot of cases the number you want to be seeing.
For additional information, in the main ArcDPS menu, enable Metrics.

F = FPS, P = Ping, and R = Server Tick Rate. Your ideal Server Connection is a constant ~25. If it’s a lot higher or lower, you’re probably missing packets, which might be server-side rather than client-side.

Finding ArcDPS Logs and Reading Them

By default, logs are saved in "Documents\Guild Wars 2\addons\arcdps\".

More information on reading logs can be found on the Reading Logs page.

Removing ArcDPS

After Guild Wars 2 updates, ArcDPS may start crashing the game. Remove ArcDPS until a new ArcDPS update is released.

Open the installation folder for Guild Wars 2. It’s usually something like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2”.
Open the “bin64” folder.
Delete d3d11.dll. Alternatively, disable ArcDPS by renaming it to “d3d11.dll.bak”. Undo the name change to enable it again.

ArcDPS Addons

ArcDPS has a few add-ons that make it even better. To install, drop their DLLs into the same folder as ArcDPS.

Boon Table: Shows boons in an easily readable format. The default boon table in ArcDPS is hard to read. To hide/unhide Boon Table, use Alt+Shift+B.
Mechanics Log: Tracks raid mechanics and shows them in an easily readable chart. But remember, don’t be a dick with this add-on. To hide/unhide Mechanics Log, use Alt+shift+L.
Healing Stats Addon: Shows you stats about healing output based on the local stats (combat log in game). Also outputs this information into the log generated by ArcDPS.
Clears Addon: Shows you what you have cleared during the week in a simple and sleek window.
Unofficial Extras Addon: Adds certain functions to the base ArcDPS, doesn't have a function on its own.