Class roles and the importance of doing your job.

[Esperflame]

Since joining ROR in August, I've be stricken with feelings of nostalgia and really been enjoying the times I spend playing with my friends on both destro and order sides. Now, as I level more and more characters through the lower tiers and run around with my friends in the higher tier, I've begun to see some basic problems amongst both communities. So, I decided to put up this general suggestion and plea to all of you, the players.

Now, I am in no way telling anyone how to build or play their characters, but I think there's an important lesson many people have forgotten. When your picking a class to play, it's very vital for you to at least attempt to fulfill the role in combat you're supposed to. I think it's time we have an open discussion on the various arch types in WAR, and the role they serve in combat. Keep in mind I'm not gonna tell you your build is wrong. We all have different play styles and like to tailor our characters to best fit our style. Today, I'm going to discuss the 4 arch types of WAR; Tank, Healer, Melee DPS and Ranged DPS and why playing your arch type very important.

Lets start first with the tank. Tanks serve several functions in WAR. Not only does it pay to be a sturdy front line for your friends, but also tanks are given a wide variety of Crowd Control to help deter, defend and peel for many of his squishier but important allies. Tanks get some of the greatest advantages for staying alive from their naturally higher armor, to the fact that with a shield, you get more than one chance to completely negate all damage from each source that targets you. The absolute most important job of a tank is to "Guard" a Melee DPS who will fight beside you in your effort to defeat your foes. Some of the best tanks even learn how to float their guard when a squishy ally is in distress giving them time to recover and escape a bad situation before returning their guard to their primary guard target. Guard is the most important key ability as a tank which is why its given so early at level 10. Even without healers in a Scenario, you should be guarding someone. It's that vital! If you don't like guarding anyone, you should really reconsider playing a tank. If tanks don't guard the melee DPS, your front line gains obvious weak points and can crumble and while tanks are capable of doing a fair amount of damage, never forget the melee dps you didn't guard is even more capable of killing things faster than you ever will be. There's nothing wrong with a 2 Hander tank, but if you refuse to guard your allies because you don't have a shield, then maybe you need to reconsider your spec or playing a Melee DPS. Failing to guard allies causes problems not only for those you fail to guard, but also your back line.

Next I want to talk about healers. Healers serve a very vital role in a fight. They not only buff and heal allies, but also are capable of debuffing, dotting and cleansing allies. Healers in WAR are not just you average robe wearing heal bot they often get relegated to in many other MMOs, but in fact are also fairly capable of dishing out some serious damage if built for it. However this is becoming a problem among the community as many DPS healers forget they are still in fact healers. Even if you don't spec as a healer, it's very important to toss out heals on your allies. Tanks cannot do their job without a healer and the same goes the other way around. Tanks who don't get heals will be discouraged to guard anyone at all if the healers won't heal people. It also causes the front line to be anxious when they're about to engage and can cause a line to break as half of it flees battle unsure if they're even going to receive that help they need. Even if you spec for damage, people expect you to still heal and rightly so. Otherwise, why play a healer when you can do so much more damage as a ranged DPS.

Lastly, I want to discuss Melee and Ranged DPS. Even though these play styles can be very different, they overall have the same common goal to put out damage and defeat foes. Ranged DPS have the luxury of being able to hang out in the back line and from a safer position attack their foes, while Melee DPS put themselves in danger beside their tank to smash and cut their foes down. Most people prefer to leave the shot calling and group target organization to the DPS classes. I don't have to much to say on this topic as most DPS players tend to really stick with doing what they're supposed to do. My only real thought is if you are playing a melee DPS, you need to be mindful of who is guarding you as much as they should be mindful of you. Tanks don't have a charge ability to stick on your butt and only have flee. Be mindful that your guard may be targeted by snares and punts and don't charge into a group of enemies without your guard or you will find out very quickly that a melee DPS without a guard is the most miserable existence one can endure in WAR.

Anyway, these are just some of my thoughts and I wanted to share them with everyone.

[Luuca]

Since joining ROR in August,

valid points. and mostly #agree, but may I suggest you stop pugging and join an organized group. All your dreams will come true.

[Esperflame]

A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Why not seek to make it stronger?

[Daknallbomb]

A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Why not seek to make it stronger?

That is so true!!!

[Aurandilaz]

I think a vast majority of our playerbase are veterans from live and know exactly how their classes function and how to get the most out of them.
Most of us just don't care to "push it to the limit".

[Marsares]

A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Why not seek to make it stronger?

Because most people are casual PUGs who don't play as a chain, but instead log in solo for a few hours here and there.

I agree with what the OP said, but there really is no need to teach people how to suck eggs. I would argue that the majority of players know the role of their class, but just choose to ignore it as they are more casual and instead try to maximise their solo play, rather than group play.

People who play in organised guilds will endeavour by and large to fulfil their class role - it is one of the key reasons that organised parties roflstomp larger numbers of PUGs.

Best is to join a good guild.

[Rozackroo]

While it is possible to heal for quite a bit as dps DoK it isn't really possible as a dps zealot atm. The few dps heal skills/tactic are just too weak and trying to heal reguarly with divine fury and dps tactics isn't a good idea.
+I sometimes switch to heal before the sc when I see we lack heals. Honestly dds however often act like "why you no heal" and then I look at them trying to kill a defftank or running in compleatly solo and just think by myself your not worth getting healed.
Example: I healed a low sorc against 3 other dds with my shaman (about 80k heal pumped into him) and thought by myself why don't they die they don't have a healer. I open sc stats and he did like 4k dmg in 2 minutes or so....

[Telen]

A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Why not seek to make it stronger?

Because some of us are libertarians not communists

[Daknallbomb]

Iove to play As my bo in scs. Hold the dps up As good As i can let the big orc outside smash healers to the ground assist If i have The time and protect protect protect

[Lancez]

I think there is good information here about class synergy and dynamics, but it also sort of comes off as a "do as I say" sort of post. For instance nothing about RoR is "my job", it's a hobby and I can play however I want, my class does not dictate that nor does your opinion.

Otherwise I think there is some valuable information here about archetypes and interactions and how to maximize them.