Diablo III: Weapon DPS Not To Be Trusted

Its important to note that the DPS shown while hovering a weapon does not take into account magical properties on other equipment. Everyone will see the same DPS for the same weapon. However, a faster, lower DPS weapon might actually give you more DPS in your character sheet than a slower weapon with higher DPS if you have other equipment with + damage stats.

While playing the open beta, I found that +damage rings (2-4 dmg) made a big difference with my crossbows. This will probably be the first thing I buy from the town npcs when the game comes out.

Dual wielding makes you alternate between weapons and gives you an attack speed bonus. This causes the +damage stats from other equipment to make an even greater difference.

Also be careful, if one weapon is too weak compared to the other; dual-wielding actually lowers your damage. If one of the weapons has a lower DPS it's better if its the faster weapon, because dual-wielding will give the other weapon the attack speed bonus and the faster weapons takes less time in the cycle. This article explains it and contains a video demonstration: http://www.osirisguide.com/diablo-3-dual-wield-guide/.

Even if they don't dual-wield, I think Wizards and Witch Doctors will be greatly affected by this because it looks like endgame off-hand items might provide a considerable portion of the raw damage while the weapon will set the attack speed. I had not realized all this while playing the open beta so I did not verify it yet.

Also its good to note that, for some characters, faster weapons will regenerate resources faster and that, for the same DPS, faster weapons waste less damage between kills.

Anyways, sometimes there's really no way tell which weapon is better other than trying them on the battlefield. Or just take the cooler one.