.The MMO holy trinity is a gaming trope where combat revolves around three different roles: the tank (who intercepts the enemy's attacks and survives the ensuing damage), the healer (who keeps their allies alive by healing damage) and the DPS (short for "damage per second", whose job is dealing damage to defeat enemies). This division of labor allows for characters to specialize in a specific role, making each character more unique and interesting. This system is most often used in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game genre (thus the "MMO" part of the name), where it allows players (controlling one character each) to all add something unique and useful to a group, but it can turn up in virtually any situation where multiple specialized characters fight cooperatively against their foes.
One key mechanic in the MMO holy trinity is the idea of "aggro" or "threat", a value that determines which target computer-controlled enemies attack. Properly controlling aggro vital to success in games using the MMO holy trinity. Generally speaking, the tank wants to Draw Aggro and ensure that enemies are attacking them, while healers and DPS want to avoid drawing aggro.
Tank
The tank's job is twofold. First, they must make sure that enemies are attacking them rather than their allies. Second, they must be able to survive the damage those enemies are capable of putting out. This means that actually harming the enemy is a secondary concern for tanks, though they usually deal some damage as part of "holding aggro" (ie, making sure that enemies target them). As a result, tanks often Stone Wall-type characters, with high defense stats and/or Hit Points but low attack power, and many of their abilities are focused on boosting the amount of aggro they generate or increasing their defensive abilities even further. However, exceptions exist, such as "dodge tanks" or "speed tanks" who are Fragile Speedster types that mitigate damage by avoiding incoming attacks entirely rather than reducing the damage they deal. "Tank" is also used as a verb (as in "tanking damage" or "tanking enemies") in reference to this role.Healer
The healer's job is to keep their allies alive by healing any damage they receive. Usually a healer will focus on the tank (who is, ideally, the one receiving most of the damage), but it's still their job to heal themselves or DPS if they get hurt as well. Healers are most often Squishy Wizard characters, with little in the way of offensive or defensive potential, leaving them reliant on tanks for defense and DPS for offense. Healing abilities often generates aggro for every enemy currenting engaging the party (as opposed to damage-dealing abilities, which typically only generates aggro on their targets), meaning that enemies that aren't currently being engaged by the tank or DPS will usually make a beeline for the healer — and if the healer dies, the tank is usually next, and the DPS won't be far behind. Healing is often considered the most demanding role, as an excellent healer can save a bad party from itself, but a bad healer can doom even otherwise-competent parties.DPS
DPS's job is to defeat enemies. Normally Glass Cannons, they can deal large quantities of damage, but are vulnerable to attack themselves. If they find themselves the focus of enemy attacks, they typically lack the defenses to survive for long even with the healer doing their best to keep them alive, meaning that DPS relies on the tank to keep enemies occupied during fights. DPS is usually the simplest role to play, and often the most numerous — a typical MMO party consists of one tank, one healer, and two or three DPS. As such, DPS usually has the most variations of the different roles; it may be divided into melee and ranged, single-target vs Area of Effect attacks, rapid-fire attacks vs slow, hugely damaging blows, or any number of other types.Other Roles
Some variations of the MMO holy trinity have additional roles beyond the main three, though usually these are secondary roles filled by characters who are still primarily a tank, healer, or DPS. Such roles including buffing (increasing allies' stats), debuffing (decreasing enemy's stats), crowd control (temporarily stunning or otherwise removing enemies from a fight in order to make the battle more manageable), and Utility Party Member (has useful out-of-combat abilities) among others. Also worth noting are "hybrid" characters, who fulfill two or more roles at a time, gaining improved versatility in exchange for being less potent in any given role.Often used with a Character Class System, where different classes fill different roles. As such, see also Common Character Classes.
Examples:
- One Example
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- Red Example
- Blue Example
