The term DD and DPS

[Velshin]

Hey everyone, I still have this question in my head:

Why the term DD is less popular and less used than the term DPS? even though in my personal opinion I think DD is more accurate because it means damage dealer where DPS it means damage per second. I have been playing WoW since vanilla and still playing in WoD. I still see some folks say DD instead of DPS but it's kinda very rare compare to the term DPS. :P


So yeah what do you think is the main reason behind this? discuss please and thanks for reading.

[Darsithis]

Because DD sounds like a disease.

[Fawkess]

My guess is it just stuck, once everyone started saying it, it became the term to describe Damage dealers

[Amerissis]

A healer heals, a tank tanks and a dps does dps. Seems legit.

[Deleted]

gotta agree. DPS is wrong. DD means you got a damagedealing spec. DPS means, well ... you deal damage... which is true for any good tank as well.


I prefer DD.

[Planeshaper]

In my experience DD usually means "Direct Damage" as a counterpart to AoE.

[SirPiken]

Not sure about the true origins but back in EQ

DD = Direct Damage
DoT = Damage over Time
AoE = Area of Effect

[Socialhealer]

it's dps because that's the popular term everyone uses.

it's like car or automobile, it means the same thing, but the popular word most people will use is car.

[Irwynn]

I want to say because dps is a lot more readily understood than damage dealt. Because with different fight lengths, your overall damage dealt can change drastically, whereas generally your dps will still be reasonably close to the same (ignoring how the fight lines up with cooldowns). As far as labelling players, it's easier to just maintain a single acronym than to have two. When we evaluate damage per second, then it makes sense to just label those people "dps".
Maybe my instinctive response doesn't answer the question convincingly, but that's my reasoning for it. We don't really care about overall damage dealt except in specific cases, whereas dps is a valuable metric in most cases.

[Socialhealer]

gotta agree. DPS is wrong. DD means you got a damagedealing spec. DPS means, well ... you deal damage... which is true for any good tank as well.


I prefer DD.

no tank is beating a dps outside of like a 20 second aoe fight, which isn't even a fight.

vengeance is dead, tanks are not dps anymore.

[Velshin]

Not sure about the true origins but back in EQ

DD = Direct Damage
DoT = Damage over Time
AoE = Area of Effect

Yup as a player who played EQ I agree but when it comes to WoW it's slightly different. :P

[blackblade]

"Deeps" is one syllable. "Dee-Dee" is two.

[Forgettable]

Because DD is a pair of large breasts. Who wants to be called that?

[Sketchy]

It's way out of left field but I always wondered if it was related to recount/skada, starting back in wrath"ish" times.
Damage Dealt and Damage Per Second are two categories, DD shows your actual "dps" aka damage for the fight.
Damage Per Second is more often than not a much higher number than Damage Dealt and is usually a go-to for those
chart spammers in pugs and now LFR but's it not an actual gauge of how much damage you've done.

So I kinda think DPS just stuck as a term because of that... Left Field, I know.

[Planeshaper]

Because DD is a pair of large breasts. Who wants to be called that?

Are you suggesting that DPSers in WoW aren't just a massive collection of boobs?

[thedeacon]

Because people in the "DPS" role are there because of the quantity of damage they can dish out. Tanks do reasonable damage, and even some healers too... but that's not what their primary responsibility is.

Also, as people have said: DD is useful to describe single target immediate damage (direct damage) as opposed to DoT or AoE types.

[vulena]

Probably to emphasize that the amount of damage you do in a given period of time is what is important. Tanks/healers aren't supposed to match the amount of damage done per second as a DPS class.

Everyone has the ability to do damage, so DD is not a very useful description.

[meroko]

Are you suggesting that DPSers in WoW aren't just a massive collection of boobs?

not just any boobs, a pair of DD's

[Lochton]

DD is a very ancient term in my experience. When I started with World of Warcraft, it was already called a DPS. I used the term DD during P&P RP or a few RPG's

[JemiS]

It's way out of left field but I always wondered if it was related to recount/skada, starting back in wrath"ish" times.
Damage Dealt and Damage Per Second are two categories, DD shows your actual "dps" aka damage for the fight.
Damage Per Second is more often than not a much higher number than Damage Dealt and is usually a go-to for those
chart spammers in pugs and now LFR but's it not an actual gauge of how much damage you've done.

So I kinda think DPS just stuck as a term because of that... Left Field, I know.

It's definitely not that, since it's been in use since before WoW (was common in EQ1 back in 2001-2002).