History Main / GradualGrinder

->''"Opponents can't lay a hand on me, as poison brings their steady doom. Despair as you feel the creeping horror of Poison-type Pokémon!"''
-->-- '''Koga''', ''[[VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!]]''

The GlassCannon uses powerful attacks to quickly blow his enemies to smithereens, but the Gradual Grinder sneers at such a lack of patience. Instead, the Gradual Grinder prefers to use abilities that deal DamageOverTime, [[DeathByAThousandCuts steadily wearing his enemies down]], leaving them too crippled to be much of a threat to him -- which is good, because often he [[SquishyWizard isn't much tougher]] than the GlassCannon, though StoneWall Grinders who rely on a strong defense to withstand their foes' attacks while they slowly plink away at them are not unheard of.

Most commonly, Gradual Grinders are spellcasters who specialize in curses, hexes, or other StatusEffects. Some "Roguish" characters also fight like this, poisoning or literally bleeding their foes to death while they [[FragileSpeedster nimbly dodge their increasingly feeble counter-attacks]]. More rarely, some heavily-armored fighters prefer to defeat their foes through blood loss, or debilitating spells if they are {{Magic Knight}}s. Often, a magic-oriented Gradual Grinder (especially in online games) will be a variant of TheBeastmaster, able to summon minions or animals to soak up the blows while their spells eat away at the enemy.

Gradual Grinders are rarely good guys, probably because [[CruelAndUnusualDeath a slow, agonizing death]] due to poison, blood loss, or [[LiquidAssets drained]] {{life energy}} is viewed [[ColdBloodedTorture less]] [[BadPowersBadPeople favorably]] than a quick and comparatively clean kill. Likewise, in games it tends to be less fun for the player to painstakingly apply this trope rather than go for something quick and dramatic. Apply this mentality to the battlefield and you likely have a case of WeHaveReserves.

See also the Mezzer entry in AnAdventurerIsYou and DeathOfAThousandCuts. Has nothing to do with LevelGrinding (or taking [[AntiGrinding an absurdly long time]] to level grind). In a TradingCardGame, such a strategy would be known as a Burn Deck (getting the opponent to discard his hands/cards or chewing through their HitPoints through effect cards rather than combat). See also VictoryByEndurance.
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!!Examples:
* In most fighting games, this style of play is known as "turtling". Pick a character that has high priority or range on their normals and specials (both if possible), and use them to keep the opponent at arm's length.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', the elemental weapons/special attacks aside from the explosive one allow you to do this. While they usually do less damage than a normal gun, they can usually slowly electrocute, corrode, or burn an enemy away, and can sometimes be more effective when dealing with a lot of enemies, particularly armored ones. However, enemies using elemental weapons can also do the same thing to you, and specialized elemental enemies such as chemical troopers are immune to their elemental type. Not that it'll help them once you switch to your regular gun...
* In ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'', the guardian of Rainy Circle, Shrooom!, rarely bothers with direct attacks. Instead, its primary strategy is to scatter spores, inflicting either poison or a status called Mushroomization that can mess with the targeting of your moves. Its weakness to fire supports this strategy by baiting you into using PSI Fire, a multi-target attack; since Shrooom! fights alone, this property doesn't help you, but it can potentially get you killed if Mushroomization causes PSI Fire to target your party instead. Shrooom! can also heal itself and temporarily block a party member's ability to use PSI moves, stalling your offense and making it more likely that you'll succumb to poison and self-inflicted damage before you can finish off the boss.
* ''VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame'': Several Effects deal small amounts of damage that pile up as the round goes on.
** Northern Realms' Reinforced Trebuchet harms a random enemy unit on the ranged row for 1 damage every turn.
** Yennefer: The Conjurer deals 1 damage to the strongest enemy unit every other turn. If the highest strength on the opponent's board is shared by multiple units, Yennefer hurts all of those units. While the one damage is negligible at first, [[DeathOfAThousandCuts given enough time Yennefer will prove to be a very oppressive presence on the board]].
** Weather effects chip off strength each time the opponent starts their turn.
** The bleeding status deals damage each turn.
* Warlocks in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' are one of the best-known examples. While they are capable of [[GlassCannon nuking]] alongside the best of Mages with specializations like Destruction, the class's Affliction specialization relies almost exclusively on Damage Over Time effects ("[[MemeticMutation More DoTs!]]"). Some playstyles of other classes, such as the poison-based Assassination Rogue, and the Shadow Priest also qualify.
* Spiritmasters in ''VideoGame/{{Aion}}'' get more Damage Over Time than any other class, compared to their counterpart class, the nuking Sorcerers. This is specifically to keep them from building up too much aggro too quickly, allowing their spirit pet to hold the monsters' attention.
* ''VideoGame/RunesOfMagic'' has several characters that use Damage Over Time. The Warrior's Slash skill, the Rogue's Shadowstab skill, and the Scout's Vampire Arrows skill all cause Bleed effects, and are usually chained with other skills for serious DPS. The Priest's Bone Chill skill also does Damage Over Time, and is often favored by those who prefer PlayerVersusEnvironment gameplay. The newly released elven Warden also has Damage Over Time in the form of Thorny Vines, which in combination with their pet handling skills make them quite the powerful class.
* Mesmers in ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' have quite a bit of skills of degeneration, and Rangers have preparations that leave the target burning or poisoned, inflicting plenty of damage over time. One little known {{P|layerVersusEnvironment}}vE build would inflict as much as 10 arrows of degeneration and keep the degeneration spikes going.
** Curse Necromancers have this as their hat, able to cripple opponents with multiple health-sapping hexes even over an area of effect.
** In [[VideoGame/GuildWars2 the sequel]], many classes are capable of being a Gradual Grinder. Notably, the Mesmer, Necro, and especially the Ranger are once again considered top choices for this style of play.
* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' has the Fire/Poison archmage class. Its most signature skill is ''Poison Mist'', which lets them generate a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin poison mist]] to such an extent that they can flood a room. That, combined with their other poison skills, a skill that paralyzes and sets enemies on fire, ''another'' skill that sets enemies on fire, and a skill that sets ''[[ManOnFire the mage themself]]'' on fire (so they burn nearby enemies), they are masters of wearing enemies down through attrition.[[note]]That said, in their final job advancement, they get a skill that lets them detonate their poison mist, bringing them a step closer to {{glass cannon}}s.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' had a couple of these.
** A Paladin with a high-enough Defense aura could play Last Man Standing with large packs of monsters. A well-made Paladin has no business grinding away. Blessed Hammer, Smite, and Zeal are some of the highest DPS skills in the game, and none of their other active skills are at all grindy.
** The Necromancer has a wide variety of options for keeping enemies crippled while gradually wearing them down, with no appreciable attrition. 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 SquishyWizard, 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 RuleOfCool.
*** Of course, some monsters' death animations would still make them collapse to the ground in the middle of a pillar of fire. After dying of poisoning. This can somewhat detract from the cool.
** A summoning Druid could also let his minions do the heavy lifting while slowly poisoning all opponents.
* Several classes in ''VideoGame/WarhammerOnline'', such as the [[PlayingWithFire Bright Wizard]] or [[EvilSorcerer Chaos Magus]], have [=DoT=]-specialized talent lines, and fit with the "hexer mage" archetype. A variant Gradual Grinder would be the Witch Hunter, a fairly standard rogue-ish class that can also be tooled up to do this especially well. They have a counter that fills up for every weak direct attack they do which allows their big [=DoT=] attacks to do significantly more damage. So you stealth in, whack the enemy with a few quick stuns, hit them with a big [=DoT=] and then stealth off again until the [=DoT=] wears off. Rinse and repeat to your pleasure.
* Quite a few Franchise/{{Pokemon}} 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=]. The move Taunt is these guys' worst nightmare, since it completely shuts down status moves and wrecks their entire strategies. They can also have a lot of trouble against opponents with the ability Magic Guard, as it protects against all indirect damage, which is often a critical component of this strategy.
** As a general example, the Stall strategy 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 [[StatusEffects poison]], [[EnergyAbsorption Leech Seed, Mega Drain]], and [[HealThyself 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 its Attack is worthless, but it's got a nice hard shell to hide behind. Shuckle's "optimal" moveset involves Toxic (causes poison that grows worse each round), Sandstorm (damaging weather effect which Shuckle itself won't be hurt by), Wrap (prevents the opponent from switching and deals continual damage to it which is not dependent on Shuckle's Attack), and Protect (outright blocks opponent's moves). Doesn't work on everything, as neither Toxic nor Sandstorm will harm a Steel-type, but against most other things that can't break through its defenses quickly, it's annoying as hell. Fortunately, the move Infestation is used in place of Toxic to prevent this. While initial damage will be minimal, it will then hurt for 1/8 of the opponents HP. Wrap + Infestation means the opponent will lose 1/4 of their HP each turn, and can't switch out to escape. And since Wrap lasts 4-5 turns, all Shuckle has to do is [[VictoryByEndurance outlast the opponents attacks]] (Protect spam anyone?) for the KO.
** Toxapex from Generation VII is also built as one. It has abysmal attacking stats, low speed and not exactly impressive HP, but the latest is offset by [[StoneWall godly defense stats]]. It is also Water-[[StatusEffects Poison]] type with only three weaknesses and ''eight'' resistances, meaning it can take a hit and tell tales about it. It can learn Hail (and the damage from it can be offset by Black Sludge), Infestation, and has a ton of ways to poison its foes that include Toxic Spikes, Toxic and its SecretArt Baneful Bunker, that also acts as protect move. Anything it can't poison it can burn with Scald. It can also set Spikes up to gradually chip away at opponents as they switch out. What really pushes it over the edge is its ability to heal constantly through using Recover and just by switching out if it has the [[HealingFactor Regenerator]] ability, which it will do in any even slightly competitive game. There is a reason this thing is classed OU in Smogon ranking.
*** In ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'', Toxapex also gained Haze as an Egg Move, which functions as a StatusBuffDispel. Now Toxapex can neutralize the standard anti-stall strategy of spamming buffs to one- or two-shot the wall.
** 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.
*** Several bosses in the TCG video game can go down to this, since their AI doesn't consider the effects of playing "draw two cards" when they have less than ten cards left.
** The ability Prankster makes this moveset even more variable, as it increases the ActionInitiative of status moves, allowing their users to work their strategy against even the fastest sweeper.
*** Perhaps the best Prankster user is Whimsicott. It can completely shut down an opponent if played correctly, and slowly wear them down with Leech Seed. Nothing can outspeed it bar faster priority attacks thanks to Prankster.
*** Prankster got hit with the nerfhammer in Gen VII primarily because of this: If a 'Mon with Prankster uses a status move on a Dark-Type Pokemon, (with a few exceptions: Weather moves, Entry Hazards and Trick Room) the move instantly fails.
* The Dancer in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' can inflict random status effects over the whole board. Over one turn it's not much, but it adds up.
** Also good for grinding levels and skills, since she gains XP every time it goes off.
** 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 symmetrical opposite of the Dancer) start her schtick.
* The ''VideoGame/HarryPotter'' UsefulNotes/GameBoy Color games have a spell called Mucus Ad Nauseam, which is handled differently by each game. This spell inflicts... poison. It is a very powerful spell and even works on the final boss. Successive uses in ''[[VideoGame/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Philosopher's Stone]]'' even stack to deal up to 90 damage per turn. That said, this strategy tends to be AwesomeButImpractical as damage starts at 20 and increases by 10 per cast and the spell costs 80 MP. In ''[[VideoGame/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'', it has three levels at a cost of 10 per level. The third level starts at the same damage at the first, but stacks where the other two don't. This is also impractical due to MP healing items restoring less and some opponents being able to remove poison.
* A strategy in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' is to use spells or artifacts, such as the trusty [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129643 Millstone]], to defeat your opponent not by direct damage or summoning monsters, but by forcing him or her to discard cards each turn, slowly but surely depleting their deck - if a player has to draw a card but their deck is empty, they lose.
** This is also one reason [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194979 Trinisphere]] is restricted in Vintage; turn 1 [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202578 Mishra's Workshop]], Trinisphere is practically a turn 1 kill, but it may take over a dozen turns to actually die.
** A specific deck known as Spellbomb Control, which can endlessly recycle its inexpensive little artifacts, may sometimes be forced to grind their opponent down slowly through numerous attacks by 2-power creatures and 2-damage [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370512 Pyrite Spellbombs]], if the player is somehow unable to use the deck's inbuilt tricks to retrieve the big finishing creatures; games have been witnessed where the Spellbomb Control player just manages to kill an opponent using a Millstone-type deck at the last possible moment, during the last upkeep phase before they had to draw from an empty library.
** Another specific deck which draws a lot of ire from casual players when it is dusted off for action is the Blue/Red [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=292752 Isochron Scepter]] deck, which can imprint and use its suite of counterspells and the split card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=292753&part=Fire Fire/Ice]] endlessly from its signature artifact. It is one of the definitive "[[FanSpeak Draw-Go]]" decks that rely upon the miniscule 2-damage-per-casting from Fire/Ice to kill an opponent in ten hits, often spread out over more than ten turns as the Scepter player has to establish a stranglehold over their opponent's ability to cast spells before they can start the slow burning.
** The card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202472 Stasis]] prevents both players from reusing their renewable resources each turn, but gradually depletes the resources of the player who owns it. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3635 Chronatog]] allows a player to skip his own turn (normally a bad thing). [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202434 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.
** The Orzhov guild gained this ability in the ''Return to Ravnica'' block. Cards with their new signature ability, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366347 extort]], simply drain the opponent for a single point of damage every time you cast ''any'' spell, bleeding them to death from a million tiny wounds.
* Gradual Grinder is a very useful tactic in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersPirates'', 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.
** Some ships, captained by your arch-rivals, cannot surrender nor be sunk. This puts Gradual Grinder into high gear, as you can fire crew-killing Grape-Shot shells into the enemy ship until its crew reaches 1. Now, board the enemy ship, and the ensuing sword-fight with the arch-rival will end as soon as it begins. Again, great patience is required as this can take a while.
** Ridiculously, the same exact tactic is also useful in the much-more realistic ''VideoGame/EmpireTotalWar'', 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. If the enemy ship refuses to surrender after being rendered immobile, 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 [[GameBreaker beat extremely unfavourable odds]] this way.
* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Ultimecia]] from ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' has a playstyle that lends itself well to drawing out battles until the opponent to lose 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.
** However, for Ultimecia's part, her main selling point is her absurdly humongous range. Out of all the characters in the game, Ultimecia is the only one that can reach the other side of an absurdly large map with certainty. Also, her vertical HP Attack's range is infinite, so if your game is in the air, Ultimecia WILL kill you. Really, the entire point of her battle is that you can't touch her so no matter how much damage she deals, as long as she can consistently hit you, you won't win.
** ItMakesSenseInContext, because she is the #1 Time Mage of ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''.
* The [[KillItWithFire Pyro]] from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' 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. [[note]]However, on a full server, ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' 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 tactic tends to be more useful.[[/note]]
* In ''VideoGame/SailorMoonAnotherStory'', each senshi's chapter ends with a boss fight against their EvilTwin. In most cases this is a fairly standard fight. The first such chapter, though, is [[ThatOneLevel Sailor Mercury's]] ... the boss has no real attacks but Poison and you have no real attacks period. Optimum equipment and a LOT of LevelGrinding are required, and even then it [[ThatOneBoss takes forever]].
* This is the way that Controllers defeat enemies in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes''. Unlike their Dominator counterparts, Controllers have no actual attacks but do have access to a large number of debuffing powers that can be combined with status effects that cause damage over time. A Gravity Controller crushes you to death, an Ice Controller freezes you to death, etc...
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Jericho Swain]], who, before his rework, had two damage over time abilities, an ultimate that is also sort of damage over time, and a root. Now, his only damage-over-time skill is his ultimate, which can release a powerful [=AoE=] blast after draining a certain amount of health from his surrounding enemies.
** Singed and his poison trail, especially if you [[SchmuckBait chase him]] because he's faster than you and you'll just choke on poison until he turns around and gibs you.
** Teemo's explosive mushroom traps are this on a strategic level. Against a good Teemo, you can't go anywhere without constantly stepping on mushrooms and taking poison damage plus a rage inducing slow. By the time you are where you want to be, you're at half health. On top of that, he has poison attacks and is much faster than you so he can shoot 1 dart at you and run away, and although his damage is low, he has a blind spell so you lose a fight that looked like an easy win because your champion did 0 damage during half of it.
** Cassiopeia, although against an immobile target the "gradual" part goes out the window, dealing about 1500 damage per second with Twin Fang spam.
** Vladimir the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent hemomancer]], with only two offensive spells that don't do much damage but a mountain of health for a mage, life steal and the ability to melt into an invulnerable pool of blood. The latter factors contribute to drawing out a fight for an eternity while his moderate but constant spell spam slowly chips you down. Especially in lane where his entire strategy consists of buying boots first so he's ''slightly'' faster than you, then just casting transfusion on you and running away. Between his lack of a mana resource and transfusion's life steal, he will merrily do this over and over so you gradually take damage and he remains at full health. Once you're at 1/4 health or so he towerdives you for the kill.
** Malzahar's main method of attack is his purple SwirlyEnergyThingy, dealing damage over time and jumping to a new target if the previous one dies while it's on them. He also has a zone-skillshot that will deal a percentage of the target's maximum health as magic damage each second, and an ultimate that roots a target in place while dealing heavy damage over a few seconds. Each of them are fairly powerful on their own, but combine the three and the 'gradual' part of Gradual Grinder goes right out the window.
** On a more general level, the Ignite summoner spell. You thought you got away from a gank with 200 hp remaining? Too bad! 150... 100... 50... 0. Doubly so if the enemy then types "owned" in all chat.
* Venomancer in ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncientsAllStars'' specializes in Damage Over Time effects. All but one of his skills deals [=DoT=] damage, and the one skill that doesn't are wards that deal low damage but can be deployed in great numbers and from great ranges, and even they can gain the ability to deal [=DoT=] damage. Venomancer is also considered one of the strongest laners in the game, due to how great his skills are for harassing and ganking, and a very flexible hero than can effectively play support or semi-carry.
** Phoenix from the same game. Again, 4 damage-over-time spells (meaning all of them), with the catch that they are all CastFromHitPoints. One of them greatly slows enemy attack speed, and his ultimate Supernova puts him in a giant egg that Phoenix soon bursts out of with full HP, unless the enemy can hit it a certain number of times (in which case Phoenix dies). They won't be doing that if their attacks are slowed... or if they die from all the damage-over-time.
** Jakiro the Twin-Headed Dragon is another example. He can even deal damage-over-time to towers, making him a great pusher.
* In ''VideoGame/HellgateLondon'', Elemental Summoners and Bot Engineers can summon swarms that gradually tear up opponents. Both are ranged attackers without much more strike damage than their minions.
* In ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'', The Hivers work this way on a strategic level. They have no FTL, so it will take them a long, long time to reach your empire. Once they reach your outer planets, they will fall upon them, [[PortalNetwork gate them]], [[ZergRush and send a horde of ships in endlessly from their Homeworld, grinding down your defenders until it's theirs]]. And then they'll move on, coming steadily towards you, taking a long, long time to reach the next planets after that, and repeat the process. It takes Hivers a long time to conquer something, but they're nigh impossible to dislodge from any place they've already taken.
* In ''TabletopGame/BloodBowl'', 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.
* Any ship in ''VideoGame/StarControl'' or ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' that has only low-damage attacks, such as the Spathi Discriminator or the Arilou Skiff, has no choice but to be this.
* Riki of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' has less-than-stellar attack power, but he's also a nigh-unkillable ball of hit points and has a monopoly on aggravated damage techniques, able to poison, burn, freeze, and bleed enemies at the same time. Enemies soon find their HP dropping like a brick while Riki dances around all their attacks.
* In the freeware game ''VideoGame/{{Nestalgia}}'', the Conjuror is a class that specializes in Damage over Time and Heal over Time effects. Relatively frail, and not able to 'Alpha Strike' as well as a standard Wizard can, also pretty slow. If they survive three turns into a fight, though, it just got much harder (or easier, depending on which side of the fight you are on).
* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' players can do this by using a sling (or ranged weapon with infinite ammo) or a Staff of Air (or other staff providing infinite Air Runes) on a melee-only enemy from the other side of an InsurmountableWaistHeightFence, rendering them unable to strike back. This is referred to as "safing".
* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' intended this with Pichu, a faster but ''much'' weaker Pikachu who damages himself with his own lightning and gets sent flying if someone so much as sneezes at him. His trophy recommends running from the opponent to stay alive and slowly using items to whittle them down rather than direct confrontation. [[TrollingCreator Because THAT is fun to fight in multiplayer]]. Fans however tend to avoid using him like the plague as he is considered to effectively be outclassed by every other character in the game.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'', VideoGame/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}} uses a combination of this and ConfusionFu: His attacks are weak, and only two of his moves have good knockback (important to have when you can only inflict a KO through ringout). However, everything about Sonic is blindingly quick, and the proper way to use him effectively is to [[DeathOfAThousandCuts hit the opponent numerous times without them being able to land many hits on Sonic]], then go in for the KO when weakened enough and the opportunity presents itself. This doesn't lend itself well to Time matches, however, as this approach requires more time than most other characters per KO. In ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', Sonic gets an increase in KO power, however, he still relies on this strategy to score [=KOs=]; he just doesn't have to drag out the match as much.
** Pit uses a similar strategy to Sonic. However, instead of using blinding speed to avoid his opponent, he keeps them back with a [[DeathOfAThousandCuts myriad of arrows]]. He's also equipped with two reflectors, and can fly underneath the stage where most opponents can't reach. Also like Sonic, this approach is slow compared to others, which makes time-outs a common strategy.
* ''VideoGame/{{Meteos}}'':
** Planet Forte in ''Meteos Wars'' (but not the original game) can clear its entire field of blocks practically at will, but the number of garbage blocks sent to the opponent is pathetic compared to other planets. The strategy to winning with Forte, then, is either to keep chugging on until the opponent makes a mistake, or play until the timer run out and let the screen-clear point bonuses win the round for you.
** Planet {{W|orldTree}}uud has a similar strategy but is Forte's opposite: It is incapable of clearing the screen but can shrug off opponent's garbage block attacks like it was nothing. Just as a tree starts out as a weak sapling but grows into something tough and mighty over time, Wuud can use an infinite combo to make every move worth more and more points via the game's combo multiplier until it catches up to faster opponents, then overtakes them. This falls into DifficultButAwesome though, as a single mistake can reset the combo multiplier, all but guaranteeing Wuud will lose to points (if not lose via [[EarthShatteringKaboom annihilation]]).
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', while physical/weapons-oriented stealth characters are {{Glass Cannon}}s, those who use magic to dispatch their foes are more likely to take a long time doing so. Using magic is often hazardous to an assassin's continued "hidden" status (Even with Quiet Casting, a lot of spells will by necessity at least slightly alert hostiles) and there are no damage multipliers for spells like there are for weapons, so killing things is much less straightforward. A spell-using assassin will use the Destruction school by strategically laying rune traps and tricking their enemies into walking into them until their health is finally depleted, they'll use Conjuration by summoning atronachs while hidden (and ''staying'' hidden) and letting the atronachs kill the enemies (resummoning atronachs as necessary), and they'll use Illusion to induce frenzy in a group of enemies, letting them kill each other off until only one remains to be handled by the player as they see fit. Significantly longer ([[VideoGameCrueltyPotential and nastier]]) than using backstabs, but just as effective in producing dead enemies and a Dovahkiin that is completely untouched.
* Kebek from ''Silent Line: VideoGame/ArmoredCore'' is a lesser known Arena opponent, but all of its parts are geared towards whittling down your AP bit-by-bit. Insidiously, Kebek uses handguns (which deals Armored Core's version of status ailment via heat mechanics) that overheats your AC and slowly depletes your AP. His fighting skill is such that the description notes that his opponents (that might include the player) often fails to realize anything is wrong until it is too late. Kebek's AC's name? Chisel.
* In the ''TabletopGame/LegendSystem'' paladins with the Smiting track approach this from the opposite direction, with most of their abilities granting offensive bonuses over time (they also have more traditional tactics in the form of stunning, defence debuffs and [[WoundThatWillNotHeal Wounds That Will Not Heal]]). As the Charisma stat determines both a paladin's defences and the size of these bonuses, Smiting paladins tend towards StoneWall as a matter of course.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': One of the [[QuirkyBard quirks that Bards have]] is that they have multiple damage over time skills, but each of these ticks have a chance to turn them Straight Shot Ready, which lets them use Straight Shot or Refulgent Arrow to increase their DPS. More [=DoTs=] means more damage. Summoners used to be a primarily [=DoT=] damage-dealing job, but after their rework in ''Endwalker'', they lost all their damage over time effects.
* The submissions fighters from ''[[VideoGame/DefJamSeries Def Jam: Fight For NY]]''. While other classes tend to have much flashier and direct techniques that aim to knock their opponent out quickly and brutally, (kickboxers get nasty kicks and grapples, wrestlers toss their opponents all over the stage like rag dolls, street fighters have slow but extremely powerful roundhouse punches and martial artists are {{Fragile Speedster}}s who will do anything, including bounce off the walls to find a new way to hurt you) submissions fighters will simply ignore whatever you're hitting them with while they pick out a body part like an arm or a leg and go to work until it's been weakened enough that the opponent has to give up. This tends to be a much slower route to victory because the other classes have various means including weapons to speed up getting a knockout, while the only means of getting a submission is wearing that limb down bit by bit.
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'':
** This is essentially the strategy of any unit that employs light autocannons or short-range missile launchers in bulk. Neither weapon type is going to do a lot of damage on its own, but both weapons are relatively friendly to the heat gauge and are either long ranged (in the case of light autocannons) or lightweight (in the case of SRM launchers). However, what they ''do'' have is the simple rule of hit charts on their side. There are no ranged weapons that enjoy any particular hit location bonus unavailable to other weapons, which means that any shot can, theoretically, [[SnipingTheCockpit hit an enemy unit in its cockpit or crew compartment]]. Mechwarrior pilots can only take five such hits to the head, no matter the scale of the damage, just because a head hit throws them around so violently. This means that it's possible to grind down a super-sized Assault Battlemech with steady waves of small, weak hits because probability suggests that at least a few of those hits will eventually nail it in the head, and pilots tend to pass out from injury and exhaustion long before they are killed. If [[ArmorPiercingAttack through-armor]] {{Critical Hit}}s are in play this becomes even more pronounced, because any individual hit could possibly find a weak point in armor and deal damage straight to a vital internal component. Incidentally, each short-range missile that strikes home is counted as an 'individual hit.' By the end, it can either turn into DeathByAThousandCuts or a flat out MacrossMissileMassacre.
** The inclusion of specialty ammunition is where the Gradual Grinding strategy truly shines. It's possible to cripple enemy units through various {{Outside The Box Tactic}}s as a result of the sheer diversity of atypical munitions. Inferno missiles cripple the enemy's ability to control their heat gauge and destroys unshielded infantry or vehicles. Acid missiles destroy powerful armor types at a faster rate than normal. Electronic jammer missiles mess with enemy sensors and make it harder for them to score shots in return. Smoke missiles blind enemies and makes it harder for them to fire accurately. Bola missiles tangle up enemy limbs to trip up Mechs. Armor-piercing missiles ignore armor protection and damage the vital interior portions of targets. Minelayer missiles deny terrain to enemies and can damage Mech legs and vehicle propulsion systems. Submunition missiles cripple the protective value of formations by dispersing explosives over a wide area. None of these will kill a Mech or tank individually, but anyone forced to fight against units employing these specialty weapons will have a long, painful battle ahead of them.
* Troll-heavy teams, especially the all-troll Terminator Trolz, in ''Mutant League Football''. Trolls are tough and [[MightyGlacier strong but move slowly]], so their defenses are hard to crack without high-flying passing, resilient receivers, and/or an elusive running back. Games against them tend to get harder and harder as they go on because they often injure or kill key opposing players. However, the Trolz don't advance the ball very quickly or efficiently; their running backs are tough but not the fastest, and the passing game is inconsistent.
* Some of the lesser offenses in ''VideoGame/MutantFootballLeague'', (namely the Cracksumskull Jugulars, Orcs of Hazzard, and Cardinal Sins) are largely limited to short-to-medium gains via quick fire passing or hard-fought runs, not counting dirty tricks of course. The Jugulars have a subpar QB, middling receivers, and a power running back who doesn't net big gains. The Sins have similar QB issues, a (mostly) weak receiving corps, and inconsistent run blocking that hampers their star RB. The Orcs mostly run Option plays and short passes to or from their megastar RB; the QB can't throw very far and the receivers can't run routes or catch so good. This is also true of the Motor City Maniacs despite a good QB and solid starting receivers, due to a porous offensive line not buying them any time to air it out.
* In ''[[Videogame/MechWarrior MechWarrior Living Legends]]'', [[HumongousMecha battlemechs]] fielding [[BeamSpam X-Pulse lasers]] rely on extreme accuracy and rate of fire to make up for the weapons poor damage. The Bushwacker Delta - popularly known as the [[FanNickname Disco Bushy]] - embodies the gradual grinder, with a large X-pulse, twin medium X-pulses, and a pair of [[MacrossMissileMassacre Streak Short Range Missile-6 packs]]. It'll take a while for that Bushy to kill you, but it will happen as it [[SubsystemDamage saws off your arms]] with its lasers and peppers everything else with missiles, while tanking damage with its heavy armor.
* This is one of the play options in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. As long as an enemy is vulnerable to poison, the player can wear down their HP with such attacks, usually the poison arrows or poison spell.
* Kallistar Firechild, a fire elemental in ''TabletopGame/BattleCON'', has a human form that has many movement effects, added defenses and a minor healing factor.
* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronoPhantasma'', Celica has fewer offensive options and lower health than the others to compensate for her healing abilities, so dragging matches to a timeout and healing at the last second is a standard tactic for her.
* Often times bosses in ''VideoGame/ChildOfLight'' will buff up their minions to whittle you down. Once the minions are taken care of, the boss itself goes down quickly.
* The zombies in ''VideoGame/DayZ''. They do very little damage with their clumsy attempts to claw at the player. However, they are very good at getting the player to start bleeding with every strike they make. Their lethality does not come from hitting the player hard, but from causing them to slowly bleed out over time. If the player has bandages or rags they can bind themselves to stop the bleeding, but that requires being safely out of combat (by which time they may have lost a lot of blood already) and having enough bandages on hand (which is not always the case, especially early.) Even if the player does stop the bleeding, blood is slow to regenerate and requires them to stay satiated with food and water, which they may not have access to. Death by zombie often comes at the end of a long test of endurance rather than a sudden attack.
* ''VideoGame/UnderNightInBirth'' features Orie, who's damage capability is somewhat low, so she has to hit lots of times to pull off a victory.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** Nurgle's daemons tend to use this tactic. They're not able to overpower their foes like Khorne's daemons or outmaneuver them like Slaanesh's, but Nurgle's creatures are tough enough to outlast just about any combatant. And even if they can't land a hit on their foe, simply being close to a Plaguebearer and the like is eventually fatal.
** As a doctrinal matter, the Iron Warriors are more likely to dig in and construct [[StoneWall fortifications that the enemy might waste themselves against]] while reducing their power through [[DeathFromAbove sustained barrages of artillery]].
* In ''VideoGame/Wizard101,'' The Fire school specializes in spells that deal DamageOverTime.
* The fire mage of ''VideoGame/WorldOfDungeons'' builds mixes this a little into their style (fire spells deal damage over time), though they do a lot of damage on their own.
* This is the strategy of any high-explosive-heavy loadout in ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks''. Save for a handful of extremely powerful high-explosive carrying tanks, straight high explosive damage is unlikely to kill a full-health opponent in a single shot. What it ''will'' do, however, is knock out modules, injure crew, and generally wear down the target with disabled parts and diminished abilities that can have an affect on the victim that lasts long after the barrage of high-explosive shells ends.
* You can meet the planes as much as two (or even three) tiers above you in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarplanes'', to whom your puny guns will deal maybe [[CherryTapping two or three points of damage]] on every hit — while Tier VII ground attack planes are somewhere in 900 HP range, so shooting your opponent down might take quite a time, even if you can easily keep him in you sight.
* While Korgan is without a doubt the most powerful party member in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'''s close combat, his fighting style is admittedly limited to "walk up to the target and hit it 'till it dies." Not particularly problematic with most enemies, but it can be a bit of a problem when confronted with a ''Stoneskin'' or ''Protection from Magical Weapons'' spell.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarships''' Torpedoes, destroyers' primary weapons (and some cruisers' secondaries), often inflict the Flooding debuff, which causes damage-over-time. An even more common variant, though not unique to any one ship type, is using high-explosive shells to set fire to enemy ships. This is in fact one of the best ways for especially ships with weaker guns to deal damage to battleships; their armour-piercing shells may not be able to penetrate the thick belt armour of these lumbering behemoths, but shooting HE into the superstructure can and will set ''a lot'' of fires, which keep burning merrily, eating away at the battleship's ''massive'' hitpoint pool.
* One strategy employed in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' when facing a much superior foe is to employ this on overwelming attacking forces. The AI will never land troops until your planets defenses are down, which require his fleet to bombard a planet first. By setting the planet it's trying to invade as a waypoint, and setting nearby planets to build a near constant stream of the most basic corvette, it will force the AI to break the planet attack and try to stop the tiny ship. Meanwhile your main fleet and troops can take a few planets without much opposition, at which point the AI will return back to try and oust your invasion force. At best, you can sue for white peace... at worst, you can completely conquer the enemy without the two largest fleets firing a shot at each other.
* In ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerII'', the Tomb Kings are generally speaking pretty weak on the offence compared to the other armies. However they give even the Dwarfs a run for their money on defence, as not only do they possess archers and artillery (which sets them apart from the game's other undead army, the Vampire Counts) but they also have a lot of support magic and tools for keeping their hordes of skeleton warriors standing strong in the fight. While the Vampire Counts are really a heavy rushdown army meant to overwhelm and overrun the enemy with a great mass of fast, fear-causing units, the Tomb Kings are more about staying in a strong position and letting the enemy break themselves against them or slowly advancing on the enemy and enduring their attacks, pushing them back until they have no more ground to stand on.
* In ''VideoGame/ThePowerOfTheSpiral'', the Spiral Master's Challenge requires you to avoid using any of the more blatant options like PsychicPowers or a GovernmentConspiracy. Instead, you need to wipe out humanity by slowly growing your power until humanity's gone.
* One playstyle for the Thief from ''VideoGame/DiceyDungeons'' involves using weak, but reusable items. In this game, items are powered by dice, and many of the Thief's items have a limit to how big a dice they can accept, meaning that rolling smaller numbers is often favorable to bigger ones (for example, his starting weapon, the dagger, can be used infinite times during a turn and deals damage equal to the number on the die used on it, but it only takes dice worth 3 or less). To help this, the Thief's LimitBreak instantly grants him four extra dice, all with the value of one, and some of his other items can turn big dice into smaller ones (such as the lockpick, which splits a die's value into two separate dice).
* This is the playstyle of most [[DishingOutDirt Inaros]] players in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}''. Inaros' abilities don't do an especially high amount of damage by themselves, but what he does have is amazing crowd control abilities, much of which involves either [[AHandfulForAnEye throwing sand in people's faces to stun them]] or [[ScarabPower covering an enemy in flesh eating beetles]] to [[LifeDrain steal their health]]. This turns him into one of the most resilient tanks in the game. It's rare that he'll kill anyone quickly, but he'll effortlesly wear down everyone around him while handily absorbing and then healing off any damge they can inflict, making him one of the rare StoneWall grinders.
* In ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'', this is [[{{Dracolich}} Fediel]]'s primary gimmick, whether you're fighting her solo or as part of a raid. For the entirety of the fight, there is a field effect in play that gradually lowers the HP of everyone in the battle (including her). Once you've taken off a certain amount of her HP, the effect changes to also ''prevent you from healing entirely''. If you thought to circumvent this with the rare Death's Grace status effect to turn the gradual damage into healing, well, [[DevelopersForesight Cygames thought of that too]], as Fediel has a special attack that she only uses on parties with Death's Grace -- in the solo version of the fight, she hits you with an extremely powerful FixedDamageAttack that permanently seals your summons, and as a raid boss the attack does less damage but makes up for it by healing Fediel and shortening any buffs you have active.

!!Non-Video Game Examples:
* Wrestling/TsuyoshiKohsaka often resorted to grinding punches and leg kicks to open opportunities for takedowns.
* Zombieman from ''Anime/OnePunchMan'' is considered this in-universe. While the other S-Class Heroes possess incredible destructive strength, Zombieman possesses incredible regenerative capacities, allowing him to keep going at his opponents until they're too exhausted or wounded to keep fighting.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': during Yugi's first battle against Osiris, Marik set up a theoretically invincible combo where the dragon is protected by a weak monster that regenerates every turn, while Osiris' dragon grows stronger every time Marik draws cards (which is every turn and every time one of his monsters dies). Yugi breaks the cycle by resurrecting the slime on his own side, which causes Osiris to autokill it, making Marik draw more cards... until he realizes he's burning through his deck much faster than Yugi can and without damaging Yugi's life, running out of cards being a NonstandardGameOver.
* Lord Bloodraven of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' was a master spy and often employed tactics of war of attrition, but his fame was one of a sorcerer; this is due to the fact that he seemed to know when and where trouble might brew and acted faster than lightning to quench all fire. In the throes of rebellion, this caused all disloyal parties to gradually erode into insignificance by planting mistrust and diminishing confidence. In time, all Blackfyre rebellions tended to shrink smaller and smaller due to his efforts.
** Brienne of Tarth is a classic tactical turtle in fights, making full use of her shield, armour, excellent footwork and lower centre of gravity to make most of the men she faces off against highly frustrated with her stonewalling (and thus vulnerable to overreach or angrily whiffing even before they tire). Then... finishing. The very few times it doesn't work are against 1) guys who are at the very peak of their profession and taking her seriously or 2) total nutjobs.
* Sonny the Honchkrow from ''Roleplay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'' main strategy tends to be to use Toxic on something and then use Roost to heal any damage they inflict until they faint or keel over.
* Between Sweet Scent, Poison Powder, and Leech Seed, this is one of Venusaur's best offensive tactics in ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle''. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, it's not nearly enough to overcome either Blastoise's defenses or Charizard's blistering offensives.]]
* Basically Spider Man's modus operandi against those more powerful than him, especially when encountering a MightyGlacier.
* ''Series/CobraKai:'' Aisha's modus operandi, also known as "turtling," almost mirrors the Spider-Man example. Once her opponent loses steam or falters, she goes for the quick knockout.

* Arcanists and their job upgrade Summoners in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' are the game's predominant DamageOverTime class. The game doesn't shy away from pointing out that they use Bio to eat away at opponents and Miasma to suffocate them by filling their lungs with poison, [[GoodIsNotSoft but they're all exceedingly kind people and unambiguously a force for good]].

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1602222275036833800 under discussion]] in the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1602222275036833800 Trope Repair Shop]].]]]]]]

Most commonly, Gradual Grinders are spellcasters who specialize in curses, hexes, or other StandardStatusEffects. Some "Roguish" characters also fight like this, poisoning or literally bleeding their foes to death while they [[FragileSpeedster nimbly dodge their increasingly feeble counter-attacks]]. More rarely, some heavily-armored fighters prefer to defeat their foes through blood loss, or debilitating spells if they are {{Magic Knight}}s. Often, a magic-oriented Gradual Grinder (especially in online games) will be a variant of TheBeastmaster, able to summon minions or animals to soak up the blows while their spells eat away at the enemy.

** Hoppip/Skiploom/Jumpluff is capable of applying [[StandardStatusEffects poison]], [[EnergyAbsorption Leech Seed, Mega Drain]], and [[HealThyself 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.

** Toxapex from Generation VII is also built as one. It has abysmal attacking stats, low speed and not exactly impressive HP, but the latest is offset by [[StoneWall godly defense stats]]. It is also Water-[[StandardStatusEffects Poison]] type with only three weaknesses and ''eight'' resistances, meaning it can take a hit and tell tales about it. It can learn Hail (and the damage from it can be offset by Black Sludge), Infestation, and has a ton of ways to poison its foes that include Toxic Spikes, Toxic and its SecretArt Baneful Bunker, that also acts as protect move. Anything it can't poison it can burn with Scald. It can also set Spikes up to gradually chip away at opponents as they switch out. What really pushes it over the edge is its ability to heal constantly through using Recover and just by switching out if it has the [[HealingFactor Regenerator]] ability, which it will do in any even slightly competitive game. There is a reason this thing is classed OU in Smogon ranking.

* In the ''TabletopGame/LegendSystem'' paladins with the Smiting track approach GradualGrinder from the opposite direction, with most of their abilities granting offensive bonuses over time (they also have more traditional tactics in the form of stunning, defence debuffs and [[WoundThatWillNotHeal Wounds That Will Not Heal]]). As the Charisma stat determines both a paladin's defences and the size of these bonuses, Smiting paladins tend towards StoneWall as a matter of course.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'', VideoGame/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}} uses a combination of this and ConfusionFu: His attacks are weak, and only two of his moves have good knockback (important to have when you can only inflict a KO through ringout). However, everything about Sonic is blindingly quick, and the proper way to use him effectively is to [[DeathOfAThousandCuts hit the opponent numerous times without them being able to land many hits on Sonic]], then go in for the KO when weakened enough and the opportunity presents itself. This doesn't lend itself well to Time matches, however, as this approach requires more time than most other characters per KO. In ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', Sonic gets an increase in KO power, however, he still relies on a GradualGrinder strategy to score [=KOs=]; he just doesn't have to drag out the match as much.

* Riki of ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' has less-than-stellar attack power, but he's also a nigh-unkillable ball of hit points and has a monopoly on aggravated damage techniques, able to poison, burn, freeze, and bleed enemies at the same time. Enemies soon find their HP dropping like a brick while Riki dances around all their attacks.

* The ''VideoGame/HarryPotter'' UsefulNotes/GameBoy Color games have a spell called Mucus Ad Nauseam, which is handled differently by each game. This spell inflicts... poison. It is a very powerful spell and even works on the final boss. Successive uses in ''Philosopher's Stone'' even stack to deal up to 90 damage per turn. That said, this strategy tends to be AwesomeButImpractical as damage starts at 20 and increases by 10 per cast and the spell costs 80 MP. In ''Chamber of Secrets'', it has three levels at a cost of 10 per level. The third level starts at the same damage at the first, but stacks where the other two don't. This is also impractical due to MP healing items restoring less and some opponents being able to remove poison.

** Toxapex from Generation VII is also built as one. It has abysmal attacking stats, low speed and not exactly impressive HP, but the latest is offset by [[StoneWall godly defense stats]]. It is also Water-[[StandardStatusEffects Poison]] type with only three weaknesses and ''eight'' resistances, meaning it can take a hit and tell tales about it. It can learn Hail (and the damage from it can be offset by Black Sludge), Infestation, and has a ton of ways to poison its foes that include Toxic Spikes, Toxic and its SecretArt Baneful Bunker, that also acts as protect move. There is a reason this thing is classed OU in Smogon ranking.

* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Jericho Swain]], who, before his rework, had two damage over time abilities, an ultimate that is also sort of damage over time, and a root. Now, his only damage-over-time skill is his ultimate, which can release a powerful AoE blast after draining a certain amount of health from his surrounding enemies.

* Venomancer in ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncientsAllStars'' specializes in Damage Over Time effects. All but one of his skills deals DoT damage, and the one skill that doesn't are wards that deal low damage but can be deployed in great numbers and from great ranges, and even they can gain the ability to deal DoT damage. Venomancer is also considered one of the strongest laners in the game, due to how great his skills are for harassing and ganking, and a very flexible hero than can effectively play support or semi-carry.

* In ''VideoGame/Wizard101,'' The Fire school specialize in spells that deal DamageOverTime, where a good deal of damage is dealt in the first time and the effects are still felt by the enemy over the course of the battle.

* The Fire school, whose accuracy and starting health is only one step above Storm, mainly uses attacks that damage over time in ''VideoGame/Wizard101''.

* The submissions fighters from ''[[VideoGame/DefJamSeries Def Jam: Fight For NY]]''. While other classes tend to have much flashier and direct techniques that aim to knock their opponent out quickly and brutally, (kickboxers get nasty kicks and grapples, wrestlers toss their opponents all over the stage like rag dolls, street fighters have slow but extremely powerful roundhouse punches and martial artists are CrazyAwesome {{Fragile Speedster}}s who will do anything, including bounce off the walls to find a new way to hurt you) submissions fighters will simply ignore whatever you're hitting them with while they pick out a body part like an arm or a leg and go to work until it's been weakened enough that the opponent has to give up. This tends to be a much slower route to victory because the other classes have various means including weapons to speed up getting a knockout, while the only means of getting a submission is wearing that limb down bit by bit.

* Troll-heavy teams, especially the all-troll Terminator Trolz, in ''Mutant League Football''. Trolls are tough and [[MightyGlacier strong but move slowly]], so their defenses are hard to crack without reliable long-bomb passing, resilient receivers, and/or an elusive running back. Games against them tend to get harder and harder as they go on because they often injure or kill key opposing players. However, the Trolz don't advance the ball very quickly or efficiently; their running backs are tough but not the fastest, and the passing game is inconsistent.

* Troll-heavy teams, especially the all-troll Terminator Trolz, in ''Mutant League Football''. Trolls are tough and [[MightyGlacier strong but move slowly]], so their defenses are hard to crack without reliable long-bomb passing, resilient receivers, and/or an elusive running back. Games against them tend to get harder and harder as they go on because they often injure or kill key opposing players. However, the Trolz aren't much of a scoring threat, as their passing is sub-par and their running back can't outpace quick defenses.

* Some of the lesser offenses in ''VideoGame/MutantFootballLeague'', (namely the Cracksumskull Jugulars, Orcs of Hazzard, and Cardinal Sins) are largely limited to short-to-medium gains via quick fire passing or hard-fought runs, not counting dirty tricks of course. The Jugulars have a subpar QB, middling receivers, and a power running back who doesn't net big gains. The Sins have similar QB issues, a (mostly) weak receiving corps, and inconsistent run blocking that hampers their star RB. The Orcs mostly run Option plays and short passes to or from their megastar RB; the QB can't throw very far and the receivers can't run routes so good. This is also true of the Motor City Maniacs despite a good QB and solid starting receivers, due to a porous offensive line not buying them any time to air it out.

* Troll-heavy teams, especially the all-troll Terminator Trolz, in ''Mutant League Football''. Trolls are tough and [[MightyGlacier strong but move slowly]], so their defenses are hard to crack without resilient, speedy receivers and reliable long-bomb passing. Games against them tend to get harder and harder as they go on because they often injure or kill key opposing players. However, the Trolz aren't much of a scoring threat, as their passing is sub-par and their running back can't outpace quick defenses.

* Some of the lesser offenses in ''VideoGame/MutantFootballLeague'', (namely the Cracksumskull Jugulars, Orcs of Hazzard, and Cardinal Sins) are largely limited to short-to-medium gains via quick fire passing or hard-fought runs, not counting dirty tricks of course. The Jugulars have a subpar QB, middling receivers, and a power running back who doesn't net big gains. The Sins have similar QB issues, a (mostly) weak receiving corps, and inconsistent run blocking that hampers their star RB. The Orcs mostly run Option plays and short passes to or from their megastar RB; the QB can't throw very far and the receivers can't run routes so good.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'', the guardian of Rainy Circle, Shrooom!, rarely bothers with direct attacks. Instead, its primary strategy is to scatter spores, inflicting either poison or a status called Mushroomization that can mess with the targeting of your moves. Its weakness to fire supports this strategy by baiting you into using PSI Fire, a multi-target attack; since Shrooom! fights alone, this property doesn't help you, but it can potentially get you killed if Mushroomization causes PSI Fire to target your party instead. Shrooom! can also heal itself and temporarily block a party member's ability to use PSI abilities, stalling your offense and making it more likely that you'll succumb to poison and self-inflicted damage before you can finish off the boss.

* In ''VideoGame/Earthbound'', the guardian of Rainy Circle, Shrooom!, rarely bothers with direct attacks. Instead, its primary strategy is to scatter spores, inflicting either poison or a status called Mushroomization that can mess with the targeting of your moves. Its weakness to fire supports this strategy by baiting you into using PSI Fire, a multi-target attack; since Shrooom! fights alone, this property doesn't help you, but it can potentially get you killed if Mushroomization causes PSI Fire to target your party instead. Shrooom! can also heal itself and temporarily block a party member's ability to use PSI abilities, stalling your offense and making it more likely that you'll succumb to poison and self-inflicted damage before you can finish off the boss.