Turning D&D into WoW?

[Jack99]

Ok... that statement alone marks you as a Troll. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

I have literally been on more than a 100 Onyxia raids and the only similarities I see is that both games take place in a high fantasy world. If you want to compare it to something go for the first real dragon raid: Lord Nagafent. That is what the Onyxia fight is based off of.

Does 4e pull things from MMORPGs? Yep. Did 3e? Yep. Do MMORPGs pull from OAD&D-3.5? Yep. And that is the way I like it.

I am not entirely sure that Lord Nagafen was the first real raid dragon, I think UO had one as well? Or maybe not /shrug.

 

[WizarDru]

I seriously have no idea what any of this means. Would the version for the WoW-impaired be "it's really hard"?

Roughly translated from MMO (not just WoW) speak, what they're saying is this:

The group fighting needs to hold 'aggro': that is to say hold the aggression of incoming monsters and keep them focused on the 'tanks'. 'Tanks' are your front-line fighters: high hit points, your meat-shields who keep the monsters occupied by hurting them and absorbing their damaging attacks, so that the other characters (such as rogues, spellcasters, etc.) can do their thing without getting killed. DPS is slang for "Damage, Pure and Simple".

In other words: the fighters need to hold the line and swap in and out of rotation to hold the monster's attention and keep it occupied, being healed by the clerics while the other team members do their part to whittle the boss down. If the fighters linger too long on the front-line or don't hold the monster's attention or if the clerics fail to heal them fast enough or if the other spellcasters fail to do their part...the entire effort is doomed to failure.

 

[Doug McCrae]

DPS is slang for "Damage, Pure and Simple".

Damage Per Second. Or was that a joke?

 

[The Merciful]

WoW is all about aggro control, healing the tank nonstop, dealing controlled dps and coordinating 10/25/40 people ( until TBC come out ).
The day I see a fight in D&D where the tank draws and keeps aggro, the healers spend 90% of their time in combat casting healing spells on the aforementioned tank and wizards and sorcerers only blast their opponent, maybe I'll see some similarities with WoW

QFT!

This thread is all about trivial, superficial similarities, while ignoring the deeper, fundamental differences between the games. There won't be point in comparing WoW and PnP D&D until fighter's chief ability in the latter is taunt.

ps. Welcome to the boards, Njall.

 

[Shadeydm]

QFT!

This thread is all about trivial, superficial similarities, while ignoring the deeper, fundamental differences between the games. There won't be point in comparing WoW and PnP D&D until fighter's chief ability in the latter is taunt.

Like the Knight for instance?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Like the Knight for instance?

Except, of course, because of the wording of the Knight's abilities, he's not a real tank. He's an off-tank, since anyone who engages his target nullifies the challenge.

Brad

 

[Doug McCrae]

And the Goad feat from Complete Adventurer.

Incidentally I always felt 'taunt' was a strange ability for a warrior to have. Feels more a rogue-y, kender-y type of power. Warriors don't annoy people, they kill them. With damage.

 

[Someone]

Of course D&D is becoming like WoW:

• Using jargon unintelligible to beginners when speaking about the game: check
  
• Endless discussion and whining about if X, Y or Z class, magic item or spell is broken or should be "nerfed": check
  
• Mathematical demonstrations that build X can beat build Y, and bragging about that: check
  
• Constant and tight watching on forums needed so discussions about a game don't become flamefests: check.

Up to this day, however, we don't have groups of chinese players playing 18 hours/day so they can sell leveled characters and gold piecs on e-bay.

 

[WizarDru]

Damage Per Second. Or was that a joke?

Nope, that's just how I heard it used (and had seen it in wikipedia). I'm not a WoW player, so I didn't realize there was another acronym for DPS.

 

[Shadeydm]

Fwiw Damage Per Second is the only usage I am familiar with. It is an important concept for raiding in WoW basically one of the main measuring sticks to determine what kind of content your guild is ready for, although it is also used to measure damage output of different weapon and character class combinations.