Gradual Grinder: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Diablo]] II'' had a couple of these. A Paladin with a high-enough Defense aura could play Last Man Standing with large packs of monsters. The other option was a Necromancer equipped with the spell Poison Dagger. Typically the higher the poison damage, the longer it would take to kill something. On the downside, since the Necromancer was something of a [[Squishy Wizard]], it was entirely possible to get killed by a monster that didn't know it was dead yet. On the upside, it was also possible to run away just far enough that a poisoned monster would fall over just before it got the chance to hit you, in keeping with the [[Rule of Cool]].

** The Necromancer has a wide variety of options for keeping enemies crippled while gradually wearing them down, with no appreciable attrition. A summoning Druid could also let his minions do the heavy lifting while slowly poisoning all opponents.

* Quite a few [[Pokémon]] use this kind of strategy ("Annoyer" in metagame parlance). Poison types are almost nothing but this - they all have moves to inflict various status effects, stat debuffs, anti-escape moves, accuracy decreasing moves, evasion increasing moves, and so on. Ghost types use abilities like Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, Perish Song, and Destiny Bond to inflict slower but painful KOs.

** Stall in the metagame is pretty much this. The point is to use defensive Mons with every possible residual damage such as weather, Toxic (gradually increasing residual damage), and the combination of entry hazards (Spikes, Stealth Rock) + moves that force the opponent to switch out (Roar, Whirlwind, Dragon Tail, Circle Throw).

** Hoppip/Skiploom/Jumpluff is capable of applying [[Standard Status Effects|poison]], [[Energy Absorption|Leech Seed, Mega Drain]], and [[Heal Thyself|self-healing]]—without using a single TM. In the generation it was introduced in, the Mega Drain was one of only two direct attacks it would learn on its own, which basically meant this trope was its entire natural offensive capacity.

** Shuckle is also similar, since it's attack is worthless. Though it's got a nice hard shell to hide behind.

** Gradual Grinding was actually used by some players as their team's gimmick at one point, by applying generous helpings of damaging weather conditions, entry hazards, status ailments, and moves like Fire Spin and Whirlpool, or forced swapping moves like Whirlwind.

** In the ''Pokémon TCG'' you've got a lot of the same poison effects and stall tactics as the games, though at least their version of Toxic was way less cheap.

** Poison does ''nearly a quater of the enemy's max health every tick'', if the boss is vulnerable to it, or even some of the crazy hard endgame enemies, it makes things significantly easier.

* The dancer in [[Final Fantasy Tactics]] can inflict random status effects over the whole board. Over one turn it's not much, but it adds up.

*** This works best with the Ninja Reaction Skill "Sunken State"- it turns you invisible when you get attacked. Invisible units can't be targeted, but the status goes away if you so much as enter the "act" menu. Which you never have to do after a dancer (or a bard, which is the simmetrical opposite of the dancer) start her schtick.

* The ''[[Harry Potter (video game)|Harry Potter]]'' [[Game Boy]] Colour games have a spell called Mucus Ad Naseum. This spell inflicts...poison. It is a very powerful spell and even works on the final boss.

** The card Stasis prevents both players from reusing their renewable resources each turn, but gradually depletes the resources of the player who owns it. Chronatog allows a player to skip his own turn (normally a bad thing). Kismet prevents an opponent from using most cards in the turn that they're played. The three together allow a player to sit back and watch his opponent draw every card in his deck, one turn at a time, without being able to play any of them.

* [[Truth in Television]], at least in a strategic sense. [[Zerg Rush|Human Wave Attacks]] can be used to wear down an enemy that you cannot overcome in a one-to-one engagement, but heavily outnumber. This is also the linchpin of Asymmetric Warfare, an attempt to nullify an enemy's strengths while wearing away at their resolve and ability to wage war. And in Russia's case, General Winter does his part to defeat [[Those Wacky Nazis|any foe stupid enough]] to be campaigning during the cold months of the year.

*** Body punching and leg kicking in boxing/kickboxing/MMA is an underrated part of a fighter's strategy to wither his opponent down to a point he can be taken out. Leg kicks severly reduces a guy's mobility, while body punches sap stamina and flat out just hurt more over the long run than a blow the head. The old saying applies here: "Kill the body, and the head will follow."

* '''Gradual Grinder''' is a very useful tactic in ''[[Sid Meier's Pirates!]]'', which surprisingly is used with the strongest ships in the game (a Frigate or a Ship-of-the-Line). You start by sailing downwind, which makes your frigate faster than pretty much any other ship type. Then you start weaving left and right, lobbing Chain-Shot shells at the enemy, and accelerating away quickly to avoid being shot back. This gradually reduces the enemy's speed so they can't catch up, allowing more time to fire Chain-Shot at them, making them slower etcetera. Eventually, the masts on the enemy ship will break and it will surrender automatically. It can take a long time (several minutes at worst), but avoids any damage to your ship or having to risk your men in melee combat.

** Ridiculously, the same exact tactic is also useful in the much-more realistic ''Empire: [[Total War]]'', using a lone 5th-Rate Frigate. This ship is fast enough when going with the wind, and maneuverable enough to swing left and right while chain-shooting the enemy's sails off, and unlike smaller ships it also packs enough firepower for the job. Just shoot until their masts break, at which point most ships will surrender without a fight. [[It Gets Worse]] when the enemy ship refuses to surrender after being rendered immobile, in which case you switch to Grape-Shot and park yourself right in front or behind the enemy to slowly whittle down their crew. The whole process can take anywhere up to 10 minutes to force a large enemy ship to surrender (at normal game speed). Naturally, this only works against AI opponents, who are too stupid to stop chasing you. A lone frigate can [[Game Breaker|beat extremely unfavourable odds]] this way.

* Ultimecia from [[Dissidia Final Fantasy]] has a playstyle that lends itself well to drawing out battles until the opponoent to loses patience. Her brave attacks take a while to start up, but hit many, many times for non-lethal damage. As well, her HP attacks all have a painful amount of start-up time and awkward properties, making it hard to spam them for quick victories.

** [[It Makes Sense in Context]], because she is the #1 Time Mage of [[Final Fantasy]].

* The [[Kill It with Fire|Pyro]] from ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' is a clear example of this, setting his enemies on fire and either keep burning them or leaving them for dead. The Scout is probably ''designed'' this way, ideally hitting enemies when they aren't looking, then dodging while bleeding them to death with the pistol or a second close attack shortly afterwards when they've forgotten about him.<ref>However, on a full server, ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' is full of classes able to deal big chunks of damage immediately and able to stop or slow attackers. Neither class gets away with Gradual Grinding in the typical encounter. In small-numbers scrim the tatic tends to be more useful.</ref>

* In ''[[Blood Bowl]]'', this is how chaos, dwarven and orcish drives (i.e. when they receive the ball) work. They will take the ball and move it slowly towards a touchdown, aiming to score as late as possible in each half (so as to keep the other player from evening out the score) and put as many opposing players as possible in the KO or injuries box. This makes them vulnerable to speedier teams getting in a 2-touchdown lead, however.

* Signum from the ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'' series uses a variant; being the most powerful [[Stone Wall]] in the series, she simply turtles and soaks up the enemy's attacks while they tire themselves out, then goes on the offensive with extremely heavy attacks when the enemy's energy is exhausted. {{spoiler|She's had to change tactics when faced with enemies who can pierce her defenses.}}

* A common strategy in [[Magic: The Gathering]] decks, especially with discard and/or deck burner strategies. Your opponent can't fight if he can't keep a card in his hand long enough to play it, and once a deck burner mechanic kicks in, your opponent can lose even with 20 (or higher) life and a field full of powerful creatures.

[[Category:Video Game Characters]]

[[Category:Competitive Balance]]