The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermDigital term

The holy trinity

The three-role party structure of group content: a tank to absorb enemy attention, a healer to keep everyone alive and damage dealers (DPS, damage per second) to kill things. It formalized the fighter-cleric-wizard balance of the tabletop The party for real-time online play.

The three-role party structure of group content: a tank to absorb enemy attention, a healer to keep everyone alive and damage dealers (DPS, damage per second) to kill things. It formalized the fighter-cleric-wizard balance of the tabletop The party for real-time online play.

Origin

Commonly traced to EverQuest (1999) and cemented by World of Warcraft (2004).

Quick answers

What does "The holy trinity" mean?
The three-role party structure of group content: a tank to absorb enemy attention, a healer to keep everyone alive and damage dealers (DPS, damage per second) to kill things. It formalized the fighter-cleric-wizard balance of the tabletop The party for real-time online play.
Where does the term "The holy trinity" come from?
Commonly traced to EverQuest (1999) and cemented by World of Warcraft (2004).

Nearby in the archive

Aggro

Digital term

Short for aggravation or aggression: an enemy's hostile attention. Online RPGs track which player each monster most wants to attack, and managing aggro, keeping it on the tank and off the healer, is central to group play. Pulling too much aggro is the classic way to start a wipe.

Raid

Digital term

A large-group challenge in an online game, typically a series of powerful bosses that require many players, careful planning and repeated attempts. Raiding guilds built schedules, voice chat and loot rules such as Dragon kill points around it.

The party

General term

The group of player characters who adventure together, pooling complementary skills. Its fantasy prototype is the Fellowship of the Ring; its gaming form is the fighter, cleric, wizard and thief of early D&D, carried into computer RPGs and the holy trinity of MMOs.

Character class

Tabletop term1974

A package of abilities that defines what a character does, such as fighter, wizard, cleric or thief. Classes make roles distinct and parties interdependent, and they became a backbone of computer and online RPGs, from Wizardry to World of Warcraft.

Painting: a huge raid of adventurers assembling at dawn at the edge of a vast continent, spell-lights and torches.

EverQuest

MMORPG1999

Sony's 3D world of Norrath turned the text MUD into a nightly obsession: camped spawns, corpse runs, forty-player raids, and a player base so hooked it nicknamed the game EverCrack.

Painting: two great fantasy armies, one of tusked orcish warriors and one of armored humans, facing each other across a sunlit valley.

World of Warcraft

MMORPG2004

Blizzard took the grind out of EverQuest, poured in quests, cartoon color and Warcraft lore, and built the online world that twelve million people paid to live in and that is still expanding two decades later.

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