cforce
07-15-2009, 01:16 PM
WAWG = "Wins Already-Won Games"
This is an acronym a friend of mine and I came up with 'back in the day', originally to talk about cards in Magic: the Gathering. We used it to classify a certain type of card when building decks: a card that allowed you to win games in which you already had the advantage in a more spectacular manner, but was weaker when you were not in a position of advantage. While its original use was in this context, we've found that it's an incredibly useful distinction in almost any gaming context where build, strategy, and tactics are elements of gameplay.
WAWGs can be deceptively attractive: flashy 'slam-dunk' style gaming moments are the ones that leave a memorable impression on you, after all! But, while making your victories more *memorable*, they might not actually be giving you *more victories*! WAWGs, in short, are things you should steer clear of.
WAWGs also have a converse, the Anti-WAWG. An Anti-WAWG is something that is useless when you have the advantage, but becomes more powerful when you are coming from behind. Anti-WAWGs can be deceptively un-attractive, because 90% of the time, they may be useless! But, the 10% of the time that they shine end up being the places where you really need help. Anti-WAWGs are good.
Now, a little context is important, here. We only really care about something's WAWG-ness or Anti-WAWG-ness when a decision or tradeoff must be made. For example: Wounding of Puncturing weapons (currently) enable you clear out trash mobs quickly, but are useless against red-names. However, they aren't truly a WAWG because using them is not an exclusive decision; you can bring them for the trash mobs, and a different weapon for the red-names. If you were forced to only pick a single weapon to bring into a quest, *then* bring WoP would become a bad idea.
What elements of DDO *should* be examined for WAWG/Anti-WAWG-ness? Any build decisions certainly fall into this category, as do spell selections (what to slot) and spell castings (what to use SP on).
Here are some of the obvious, and not-so-obvious, WAWGs in DDO:
- Power Word <anything>: For the most part, if you can get the mob down to the right hp threshold, he's about to be dead, anyway. Fortunately, most people figured this one out quickly!
- Feats/Enhancements for to-hit bonuses. In the game right now, most characters that care to melee will be hitting on a 2 by the end-game; piling on additional to-hit bonuses is overkill.
- PK/FoD on a mob that's at 25% health. Just let the melees kill it!
- A more controversial one: GH spamming. As stated above, many melee builds just don't need the help with the to-hit side. Is giving everyone +4 on saves, often in an environment where they're going to make 1 or 2 saving throw rolls throughout a quest, and where a lot of characters *already* have pretty solid saving throws, really worth 6x or 12x 45 SP? This depends on the quest context, but it's often using spell points for improving saving throws where they're not helping much, that might be better used damage-spamming the boss.
On the other side, many anti-WAWGs have really flown under the radar. In many quests, what is the hardest battle? The boss. Why, oh why, then, do so few people plan for things which are effective against bosses, in favor of things which are great for cleaning out trash mobs?
- Ray of Enfeeblement/Exhaustion, Waves of Exhaustion, Waves of Fatigue: often useless against trash mobs, who are dead before the debuff would make a difference. Grrrrrrrreat on bosses, but not used nearly enough.
- My new personal favorite: Sleet Storm. Overlooked because it's a huge PitA most of the time, but nevertheless a great red-name debuff. It doesn't blind party members, and even if you're not running FoM, it's often good to cast after the boss has been boxed in. But since it's such a poor choice for the trash mobs, it gets no publicity!
These are just a few examples of WAWGs and Anti-WAWGs in DDO. What other ones can people think of?
This is an acronym a friend of mine and I came up with 'back in the day', originally to talk about cards in Magic: the Gathering. We used it to classify a certain type of card when building decks: a card that allowed you to win games in which you already had the advantage in a more spectacular manner, but was weaker when you were not in a position of advantage. While its original use was in this context, we've found that it's an incredibly useful distinction in almost any gaming context where build, strategy, and tactics are elements of gameplay.
WAWGs can be deceptively attractive: flashy 'slam-dunk' style gaming moments are the ones that leave a memorable impression on you, after all! But, while making your victories more *memorable*, they might not actually be giving you *more victories*! WAWGs, in short, are things you should steer clear of.
WAWGs also have a converse, the Anti-WAWG. An Anti-WAWG is something that is useless when you have the advantage, but becomes more powerful when you are coming from behind. Anti-WAWGs can be deceptively un-attractive, because 90% of the time, they may be useless! But, the 10% of the time that they shine end up being the places where you really need help. Anti-WAWGs are good.
Now, a little context is important, here. We only really care about something's WAWG-ness or Anti-WAWG-ness when a decision or tradeoff must be made. For example: Wounding of Puncturing weapons (currently) enable you clear out trash mobs quickly, but are useless against red-names. However, they aren't truly a WAWG because using them is not an exclusive decision; you can bring them for the trash mobs, and a different weapon for the red-names. If you were forced to only pick a single weapon to bring into a quest, *then* bring WoP would become a bad idea.
What elements of DDO *should* be examined for WAWG/Anti-WAWG-ness? Any build decisions certainly fall into this category, as do spell selections (what to slot) and spell castings (what to use SP on).
Here are some of the obvious, and not-so-obvious, WAWGs in DDO:
- Power Word <anything>: For the most part, if you can get the mob down to the right hp threshold, he's about to be dead, anyway. Fortunately, most people figured this one out quickly!
- Feats/Enhancements for to-hit bonuses. In the game right now, most characters that care to melee will be hitting on a 2 by the end-game; piling on additional to-hit bonuses is overkill.
- PK/FoD on a mob that's at 25% health. Just let the melees kill it!
- A more controversial one: GH spamming. As stated above, many melee builds just don't need the help with the to-hit side. Is giving everyone +4 on saves, often in an environment where they're going to make 1 or 2 saving throw rolls throughout a quest, and where a lot of characters *already* have pretty solid saving throws, really worth 6x or 12x 45 SP? This depends on the quest context, but it's often using spell points for improving saving throws where they're not helping much, that might be better used damage-spamming the boss.
On the other side, many anti-WAWGs have really flown under the radar. In many quests, what is the hardest battle? The boss. Why, oh why, then, do so few people plan for things which are effective against bosses, in favor of things which are great for cleaning out trash mobs?
- Ray of Enfeeblement/Exhaustion, Waves of Exhaustion, Waves of Fatigue: often useless against trash mobs, who are dead before the debuff would make a difference. Grrrrrrrreat on bosses, but not used nearly enough.
- My new personal favorite: Sleet Storm. Overlooked because it's a huge PitA most of the time, but nevertheless a great red-name debuff. It doesn't blind party members, and even if you're not running FoM, it's often good to cast after the boss has been boxed in. But since it's such a poor choice for the trash mobs, it gets no publicity!
These are just a few examples of WAWGs and Anti-WAWGs in DDO. What other ones can people think of?