Originally by: Ka Jolo

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S/M/L X Turret - increases damage, direct DPS boost
S/M/L X Specialization - increases damage, direct DPS boost
Surgical Strike - increases damage, direct DPS boost
Gunnery - increases rate of fire, direct DPS boost
Rapid Firing - increases rate of fire, direct DPS boost
Motion Prediction - improves tracking, indirect DPS boost
Sharpshooter - extends optimal range, indirect DPS boost
Trajectory Analysis - extends falloff range, indirect DPS boost

The rest of the gunnery skills affect grid, CPU, and cap, potentially allowing you to fit bigger guns and more mods that affect your DPS (e.g. damage mods, tracking mods, etc.).

Certain ships have bonuses to DPS based on skill in that ship class. Ships can also be modified using certain rigs to directly and indirectly boost that ship's DPS; you'll want Jury Rigging plus X Weapon Rigging to be able to use those rigs.

Other skills, such as Long Range Targeting (which extends targeting range), Signature Analysis (which reduces locking time), Spaceship Command and Evasive Maneuvering (which help you keep in optimal range by improving your agility), Cybernetics (which allows you to wear implants that directly increase your DPS in several ways), and Thermodynamics (which enables you to overheat your weapons for more DPS) can all enhance your DPS.

When you think about it, though, all combat skills work together. If your tanking skills are low, whatever DPS you have is limited to less time--so skilling up your tank means you apply your damage over more time. Other ways to buy time (remember, DPS stands for "damage per second," meaning both damage and time are factors) are to use EWAR (more skills), cloaking devices (more skills), close to your optimal range faster and stay there (more navigation skills)...you can see why the so-called "support skills" really do matter.

Then, of course, nothing beats real-life experience and skill at using a particular ship and setup using particular tactics....

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