Typically, in an MMO, any group will have the “holy trinity” - a tank class, a damage dealing class, and a healer class. The tank absorbs damage i.e. “tanks”, the healer heals damage and the other guy does most of the damage, which is usually displayed on weapon stats as “dps”.
So it gets used as a noun AND a verb.
No worse than all the texting shortcut garbage.
A slight film error- as it was his birthday on the day he encountered Gandalf in Fangorn, he should have just turned 88 a day or so before meeting Eowyn. 
Those guys are whelps compared to Treebeard. He’s so old he can spend one whole week just breathing the fresh air. While Treebeard may be the oldest sentient living thing born in Arda, some creatures are older since they were into being before Ainulindalie (ex: balrogs.)
Well you could argue that Cirdan is the oldest as he a was around for the great march the elves took on their way to Valinor.
dps (v)- to inflict damage as one’s primary role in a battle.
Ex: Kahbueme (my mage) will dps the balrog, while (other character) tanks it (draws the balrog's attention and absorbs damage it causes), and (third character) heals everyone.
dps (n)- the amount of damage inflicted per second, usually measured in hit points, or health points.
Ex: Kahbueme does about 50,000 dps when involved in a planned battle against a major target, such as a balrog.
(Kahbueme is not yet equipped with the best available equipment for dps. When he is, he may be able to do 100,000+ dps)Tom Bombadil is the oldest living being in Middle-earth, isn’t he?
Depending on how you define “living” yeah. Older than any elf, at any rate…maybe not more than embodied spirits like Gandalf or Sauron, though.
Bombadil is undefined. Even JRRT didn’t know what he represented in the mythos.
Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, Sauron, the Balrog, & the two Blue Wizards all predated the creation of not only Arda but time itself, so would be the eldest in ME, having helped create the world and all.
At times, it seemed JRRT numbered Cirdan as one of the elves who awoke at Cuivienen, so it would not be unfair to consider him the oldest of the Children of Iluvatar in ME.
It’s not clear when the Ents awoke, but a case can be made that it was before the elves did.
Mentioned in the chapter “Aule and Yavanna.” Certainly before both elves and dwarves.
So ainur (including maybe Tom Bombadill) predate the earth. But there is further talk of other beings. When Gandalf appeared as Gandalf the White, he recounted what he saw in the depths of Moria when he and the balrog fell. “…some of them are even older than Sauron…”
…what he saw in the depths of Moria…
…some of them are even older than Sauron…
Now that’s even more interesting, anyone care to elaborate on that?
BTW I cannot accept that Aragorn was 80+, are middle earth octogenarians tri-athletes?
Aragorn lived past 200. The movies touch on it a bit but Aragorn’s ancestry endows him with a longer more vigorous life than other humans. He’s almost 90 in the books and he gives up his life once he’s past 200.
From said chapter:
So we see that the appearance of the Ents was contingent on the awakening of the Children. Might have happened just before, or just after
I never could make sense of that in the light of JRRT’s Silmarillion mythos. Time began with the creation of Arda, and Sauron existed before time began…
Perhaps it referred to the fact that Sauron in origin was called Mairon (The Admirable), and had a host of other names before calling himself Sauron.
Or perhaps it’s a hold over from when the necromancer wasn’t fully fleshed out as being Sauron. I’ll poke at my HOME set when I get home.
The Dunedain weren’t normal people, they were supermen. Most of them lived for centuries, he was just one of the last that was left.
The average dunadan lived longer than other men, but the ones who lived for centuries were the descendants of Elros who had the blood of Luthien and Idril in them. That is, kings of Numenor, Lords of Andunië, and subsequent descendants of Elendil. Like Aragorn.
I think that Fangorn (the ent, not the forest he herded) is listed as being “the oldest creature under the Sun”, which I interpret as being the first of the creatures to awaken after the appearance of the Sun. Which is a far cry from being the oldest creature in the world, since a great many (including Galadriel and Cirdan) predate the Sun.
Bombadil is certainly a mystery, but my guess (and I won’t try to defend it as anything other than a guess) is that he’s as old as the World, but no older. Which would mean that any of the Ainur (the Wizards, Sauron, the Balrog, etc.) would still have an edge on him.
And of course, to the extent that it’s meaningful to compare ages even beyond the bounds of Time, the absolute eldest would be Illuvatar. But it’s sort of cheating to compare Him to any creature.
“under the sun” is a present qualifier, not a basis for dating. I would interpret it as the oldest known being in middle earth.
I thought the elves were the ones who woke the Ents up in the first place, so there should be a few elves older than him, assuming they didn’t die in the meantime.
How old is the world in Tolkien’s cosmology?
In JRRT’s chronology, the “years of the sun” have a precise meaning so I’d not discard that interpretation out of hand.
I suspect Cirdan might be about as old as Treebeard in any event.
One could argue the dwarves were older than the Ents and the Elves, as Aulë did create them, and Eru gave them sentience before the awakening of the elves. Granted, Eru put the dwarves to sleep quickly thereafter, so as to not usurp the appearance of the “children of his choice.” It’s often tough to be the adopted kid…