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DD or DPS?

  • DD

    Votes: 48 8.7%
  • DPS

    Votes: 503 91.3%

  • Total voters
    551

hobblygobbly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,573
NORDFRIESLAND, DEUTSCHLAND
Inspired from the EXP/XP thread...

This is something I always noticed that English-speakers primarily in MMOs often use DPS more, where in Europe at least on European servers, DD (Damage dealer) is more common. We all know damage dealer is correct because DPS is just a measurement lol, always hated DPS, but I think its become more common in Europe over the years too, but I still often see DD/DDer
 

ChrisJSY

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,054
Depends on the game and what the most used or understood terminology is.
But, DD was my first understanding of it in 2001 with Anarchy Online.
 

Martylepiaf

Member
Oct 25, 2017
424
France
French player, playing FFXIV on European server and I've never seen DD before. When i played a bit of WoW like 15 years ago DPS was the common acronym too.
 

Helix

Mayor of Clown Town
Member
Jun 8, 2019
23,793
I'm firmly on DPS, I think it's quite an ubiquitous term compared to DD these days
 

Giga Man

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,227
I've never seen these acronyms. Do they stand for damage dealer and damage per second respectfully? Those sound like two different definitions.
 

Oswen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
806
DD is the original and more correct term, it fell out of fashion, however, and there is no stopping DPS now.
 

Chocobo Blade

The Wise Ones
Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,855
European and I've never seen it refered to as DD. Even a decade or more ago it was always DPS.

But I agree it's a dumb term and it hurts me it became an official in-game role name in FFXIV.
 

MrConbon210

Member
Oct 31, 2017
7,649
I've never seen these acronyms. Do they stand for damage dealer and damage per second respectfully? Those sound like two different definitions.
It typically refers to a certain role/class in an MMO. There's typically 3 types of charecters you can be. A tank, a healer, or a DPS. Think of it like a knight, mage, and rogue.
 

Icarian

Member
May 9, 2018
5,391
I never quite understood how DD transitioned to DPS since DPS as a role name makes absolutely no sense, I guess it was a WoW-effect thing like many others, but you don't call a healer a HPS so *shrug*.

Anyway, It was DD for me until 2007, it's been DPS since then because it's when I played WoW for the first time and everyone was calling them that.
 

Khasim

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,260
I always used DD but then people started asking me what I mean by DD, so I just gave up and started using DPS like everyone else.

I think the reason behind this is that the tanks' role is to tank, healers' role is to heal, and damage dealers' is to deal as much damage per second as possible, because they don't have any respect for survivability or being useful and just want to see big numbers on their damage meters, so they started referring to themselves as DPS, because this is the only thing they think about.

Yes, I play mostly tanks or healers, how did you know?
 

happydeer

Enlightened
Member
Aug 4, 2021
969
I always use the term damage dealer, learned it that way in WoW. Also makes a whole lot more sense than DPS. It's a class that is dealing damage. Calling it a 'damage per second class' seems weird.
 
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Phinor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,241
I like both damage per second and direct drive but in this context dps all the way.
 

happydeer

Enlightened
Member
Aug 4, 2021
969
In Germany it's still Damage Dealer in WoW, even when I last played the game at Classic launch.
 

EYEL1NER

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,785
DPS. If I hear DD my mind will immediately go to "Designated Driver," but "damage per second" is the default for DPS in my mind, even though I've never played games where DPS is used or important to know.
 

tatwo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,741
Finland
In the Burning Crusade when I started playing WoW DD was what my server mostly used. Then at some point everyone started using DPS.
 

KeRaSh

I left my heart on Atropos
Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,257
It was always damage dealer in FFXI, never heard DPS used until later
This. It was DD for me until I started playing FFXIV...
DPS is the more common one these days, even though it doesn't make much sense when talking about jobs specifically.

"What is your job archetype?"
"Damage per second!"
 

Big Boy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,902
WoW English language European servers you get both used interchangeably and in fairly equal measure and no one bats an eylid.
 
OP
OP
hobblygobbly

hobblygobbly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,573
NORDFRIESLAND, DEUTSCHLAND
WoW English language European servers you get both used interchangeably and in fairly equal measure and no one bats an eylid.
Yeah I would say that WoW made DPS more popular but for sure I still see DD used

I think a lot of people that never played other MMOs like Star Wars Galaxies, DAoC, but primarily only WoW are only used to DPS. DD was used a lot. Doesn't New World even call them Damage-dealers?

But I clearly remember in TBC days of WoW people on my server used DD almost exclusively. Pretty sure this changed with the dungeon finder when Blizzard called it "DPS". You would always see calls for Tank/Heal/DD or "DDer"

When you login to even ESO on German servers today for example most people use DD
 
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dom

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,453
So, does Breast Size increase your DPS? I guess that's why all those horny MMOs have large breasted women then.
 

Big Boy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,902
Yeah I would say that WoW made DPS more popular but for sure I still see DD used

I think a lot of people that never played other MMOs like Star Wars Galaxies, DAoC, but primarily only WoW are only used to DPS. DD was used a lot. Doesn't New World even call them Damage-dealers?

But I clearly remember in TBC days of WoW people on my server used DD almost exclusively. Pretty sure this changed with the dungeon finder when Blizzard called it "DPS". You would always see calls for Tank/Heal/DD or "DDer"

When you login to even ESO on German servers today for example most people use DD

Yeah I think you are spot on with the dungeon finder
 

Rizific

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,951
Mainly played wow for years while dabbling in other mmos, but literally never heard the term DD used in that context.
 

Deleted member 9241

Oct 26, 2017
10,416
DPS. I have never even seen DD as used by the OP.

I associate DD with "Direct Dmg", which is used to describe a type of attack. DoT would be "Dmg Over Time" as an example of another type of attack.
 

Shemhazai

Member
Aug 13, 2020
6,490
All classes deal damage, and in most games should be spending their time between heals or threat building to output some extra damage. Calling DPS classes "Damage Dealers" puts the wrong focus on how tanks and healers should be playing.

However, only DPS classes are focused on maxing out their damage, which is usually measured per second. Hence they are Damage Per Second classes.
 

Grips

Member
Oct 5, 2020
4,969
Mainframe
DD was more prominent in NA before WoW.
I believe EU region servers still use it but even then DPS is way more common now.
 

DanteMenethil

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,058
In EQ and FFXI it was DD. Never seen someome use the term since WoW though. For what its worth DD makes way more sense than dps.
 

Xwing

Unshakable Resolve - One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 11, 2017
9,879
All classes deal damage, and in most games should be spending their time between heals or threat building to output some extra damage. Calling DPS classes "Damage Dealers" puts the wrong focus on how tanks and healers should be playing.

However, only DPS classes are focused on maxing out their damage, which is usually measured per second. Hence they are Damage Per Second classes.

This is exactly why the label changed. Every role deals damage, DPS maximizes damage.

In addition, from a purely aesthetic sense, DPS sounds more appealing than DD.