MMOs with a buff/debuff role

Smith6079

Hello folks.  As a refugee from the recently defunct City of Heroes, I'm very interested in finding another game (a) that has a player class that focuses (partly or primarily) on providing group buffs and/or enemy debuffs, and (b) where such a class is either needed or at least considered desirable for basic group content and beyond. 

It seems that most games that allow buffer/debuffer roles in their group makeup ultimately render these roles irrelevent and undesirable because the other roles manage to get by fine without the extra support, and an extra DPS or healer ultimately provides more utility than the guy who buffs or debuffs.  I'm not complaining about these games, mind you.  I'm simply asking if there are games out there that do manage to maintain a need for buffs/debuffs even in the context of ubergeared tanks, healers and DPSers.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.  Thanks in advance.

StonesDK

Sounds like you have to get back to some old school games like DAoC, EQ or Vanguard. Buff classes has gone the way of the Dodo just like crowd control classes sadly

madazz

I honestly cant think of a modern MMO that has a debuff or buff role. Last game I played that had that option was DAOC, as far as I can remember at least....

st4t1ck

hmm. closest thing i can think of to a buff/debuff role would be a Chanter in Aion.   they have a few debuff's like attack speed down. and a lot of buffs / off heals.  mixed with some dps... other then that, back towards ffxi with a few classes there (bard,rdm so on)

Xiaoki

Rift has Support souls and thats probably as close you will get in the modern age.

But dont expect groups to beat down your door clamoring for you. Theres a reason most other MMOs have ditched the "Buff/Debuff" class role.

Vorthanion

The Enchanter, Cleric, Druid, Bard and Shaman classes in EverQuest.  The Chanter class in Aion.  The Druid, Cleric, Friar, Bard, Minstrel and Skald in Dark Age of Camelot.  The Bard, Cleric, Druid, Blood Mage, and Shaman in Vanguard.  Can't really think of any modern games that focus on buffing / debuffing classes.

Drakynn

The Burglar in LotRO is a buff/debuff class when specced and palyed properly.Or ti was last tiem I palyed before it went F2P

Izik

Closest thing I can think of is Lotro.

Burglar is a Debuff/Group utility + Dps class. Captain is a Buff/Off-tank class.

Sevenstar61

EQ2. Bards - Troubadours or Dirges. Hands down.

 

Troubadours:

Debuffs

• Stun + restun if low con: Cheap Shot (4)
• Debuff mental resist + snare(5% break): Depressing Chant (7)
• Debuff defense + loses health+power when losing power + reduces casting speed + does minor damage: Vexing Verses (8)
• Snare(breakable) and debuff magic resist, chance of root: Trick of the Hunter (20)
• Charm (short): Bria's Entrancing Sonnet (20)
• Mesmerize: Lullaby (50)
• Lower damage of next spell/combat art, remove AE Auto-attack of target for duration: Countersong (80)

Encounter Debuffs

• Debuff STR and AGI (maintain cost): Disheartening Descant (19)
• spell resistances (maintain cost): Zander's Choral Rebuff (35)
• Interrupt + blur vision of encounter around target, chance of knockdown of target (free, instant cast): Breathtaking Bellow (40)
• Debuff Debuff AGI + STR + INT + WIS, spell+physical offensive skills, focus + aggression (maintain cost): Demoralizing Processional (55)

Constant Group Offense Buffs

• +Attack Speed: Allegretto (14)
• Mental damage chance on hitting with a hostile spell proc: Aria of Magic (22)

Short Group Offense Buff

• +Int and mental damage on hitting with a hostile spell proc: Perfection of the Maestro (58)

Short Single Target General Buff

• increased ability reuse speed: Jester's Cap (65)

Constant Group General Buffs

• +INT +WIS +AGI: Raxxyl's Rousing Tune (2)
• +Casting Skills +Focus +Aggression: Song of Magic (3)
• +Movement Speed out of combat (scout's): Pathfinding (4)
• +Power regeneration: Bria's Inspiring Ballad (13)
• +Movement Speed out of combat (bard's superior, obsoletes Pathfinding): Selo's Accelerando (13)

Constant Group Defense Buffs

• +Defense Skill: Graceful Avoidance (18)
• Threat Reduction For Non-Fighters: Alin's Serene Serenade (24)
• +Health regeneration +Max HP: Rejuvenating Celebration (30)
• Short hostile spell absorb/reflect buff on being hit by non-physical hostile spell proc: Requiem of Reflection (52)

Constant Raid Defense Buffs

• +Arcane Resistance: Arcane Symphony (20)
• +Elemental Resistance: Elemental Concerto (44)

Hate Control

• Lower Hate: Evade (6)

Constant Self General Buffs

• Stealth: Shroud (1)
• Prevent AOE Melee/Ranged Attack: Singular Focus (1)
• +AGI + Elemental, Arcane, Noxious mitigation, + base avoidance and mental damage on taking melee/spell damage proc: Daelis' Dance of Blades (13)

Constant Self Epic Buff

• +Aria of Magic and Perfection of the Maestro: Ayonic Inspiration (80)

Misc

• Track: Tracking (1)
• HO Starter: Lucky Break (5)
• Group Evac: Escape (25)

 

Dirge

Debuffs

• Disease Resist + Snare: Verlien's Keen of Despair (7)
• Defense + Damage + Interrupt: Tarven's Crippling Crescendo (8)
• Encounter STR + AGI: Disheartening Descant (19)
• Snare + Root Proc: Trick of the Hunter (20)
• Encounter Physical Resistances: Clara's Chaotic Cacophony (24)
• Encounter Movement + Attack Speed: Daro's Sorrowful Dirge (30)
• Encounter Spell Resistances: Zander's Choral Rebuff (35)

Daze

• Daze + ending damage: Lanet's Excruciating Scream (20)

Stun

• Single Target Stun: Cheap Shot (4)

Fear

• Single Target Fear: Garsin's Funeral March (26)

Interrupt

• AoE Interrupt + Vision Blur + chance knockdown: Hymn of Horror (40)

Hate Control

• Lower Hate: Evade (6)

Self Buffs

• Prevent AOE Melee/Ranged Attack: Singular Focus (1)
• AGI + INT / Disease Damage-Shield Proc: Death's Door (13)

Single Target Buffs

• Hate Gain + Aggression Skill: Hyran's Seething Sonata (32)

Group Buffs

• STR + AGI: Harl's Rousing Tune (2)
• Melee Skills: Songster's Luck (3)
• Movement Speed: Pathfinding (4)
• Movement Speed (Faster Alternative): Selo's Accelerando (13)
• In-Combat Power-Regen: Bria's Inspiring Ballad (13)
• DPS: Riana's Relentless Tune (14)
• Parry Skill: Jael's Mysterious Mettle (18)
• Noxious Resistance: Noxious Symphony (20)
• Disease Damage Proc For Melee: Dead Calm (22)
• Physical DMG Absorption Reactive Proc: Percussion of Stone (52)

Short Duration Single Target Buffs

• Health Transfer Over Time: Oration of Sacrifice (65)
• Enhance Heals / Wards / Rezzes: Gravitas (80)

Short Duration Group Buffs

• Attack Speed + Extra Melee Disease DMG + Interrupt: Cacophony of Blades (58)

Resurrection

• Single Target Battle Rez: Elegy at Death's Door (44)
• Group Battle Resurrect: Elegy of Awakening (58)

Misc

• Stealth: Shroud (1)
• Track: Tracking (1)
• HO Starter: Lucky Break (5)
• Evac: Escape (25)

 

 

Zarriya

Originally posted by Sevenstar61
EQ2. Bards - Troubadours or Dirges. Hands down.

also enchanters!

 

Sevenstar61

Originally posted by Zarriya

Originally posted by Sevenstar61
EQ2. Bards - Troubadours or Dirges. Hands down.

also enchanters!

 

Of course. Most of classes have buffs/debuffs too but not in that numbers.

 

Coercer

 

Crowd Control

• Single Target Mesmerize: Mesmerize (1)
• Single Target Root(5% break) + Daze(breakable): Forced Hesitation (5)
• Encounter Stun: Stupefy (16)
• Encounter Mesmerize: Pure Awe (25)
• AoE Fear: Reek of Terror (40)
• Stun/Hate Wipe: Amnesia (55)

Pet

• Control of Target: Charm (2)
• Call Pet: Call Servant (10)
• Shink Pet: Shrink Servant (10)
• Copy of Target: Possess Essence (65)

Power

• Self Convert Health into PoT: Shift Mana (13)
• Group In-Combat PoT: Breeze (18)
• Group Temp In-Combat PoT: Mind's Eye (48)
• Group Power on Dmg: Mana Cloak (35)
• Group Power Equalize: Channel (58)

Hate Control

• Reduce Hate vs Encounter/Teleport Encounter: Blink (15)

Dispel

• Arcane Dispel/Power Drain+Gain: Absorb Magic (9)

Group Buffs

• Group Power/Mitigation vs Arcane: Power of Mind (7)
• Group INT/AGI: Signet of Intellect (12)
• Group Ultravision/See Invis: Unveil (23)

Single Target Buffs

• Prevent AOE Melee/Ranged Attack: Singular Focus (1)
• Self Health/Focus/Defense/Resists: Magi's Shielding (4)
• See Invisibility: See Invisibility (9)
• Invisibility: Veil of the Unseen (15)
• Increase DPS Mod: Velocity (20)
• Hate Gain/Transfer: Enraging Demeanor (24)
• Reduce Hate: Peaceful Link (35)

 

Illusionist

 

Mesmerize

• Single Target Mez (long): Entrance (1)
• Single Target Mez (short): Regalia (40)
• AoE Mez: Phantasmal Awe (23)
• AoE Mez/Very Short/Instant Cast: Barrier of Intellect (40)

Stun/Stifle/Root

• Stun/Mental Dmg: Paranoia (2)
• AoE Stun: Bewilderment (16)
• Stifle/Mental Dmg: Speechless (16)
• Root (5% break)/Stifle (breakable): Lockdown (5)

Threat Management

• Hate Reduction/Teleport: Blink (15)
• Hate Wipe/Limited Pets: Illusory Allies (55)
• Minor Hate Wipe/Target Teleport: Phase (65)

Power Management

• In-Combat Power Regen: Epiphany (18)
• Damage Proc: Mana Cloak (35)
• Encounter->Group Power Tap: Manatap (34)
• Power Cost Reduction: Savante (52)
• Self Health->Power: Extract Mana (13)

Persistant Buffs

• Group INT/WIS: Rune of Thought (12)
• Group Power/Resists: Aspect of Genius (7)
• Melee Attack Speed: Rapidity (20)¥
• Prevent AOE Melee/Ranged Attack: Singular Focus (1)

Temporary Buffs

• Group INT/Casting Technique: Flash of Brilliance (25)
• Spell Reflection: Spellshield (58)
• Limited pet, absorbs damage taken by ally (80) Doppelganger

Melee Skill Debuff

• Dismay (20)

Specialty

• Cure Arcane (6)
• Dispel Magic (9)

Invisibility

• Single Invis: Veil of the Unseen (15)
• Group Invis: Illusory Mask (24)

Vision

• See Invis: See Invisibility (9)
• Group See Invis/Infravision: Shift Vision (23)
• View from Groupmate: Bind Sight (5)

 

dave6660

Originally posted by Xiaoki

Rift has Support souls and thats probably as close you will get in the modern age.

But dont expect groups to beat down your door clamoring for you. Theres a reason most other MMOs have ditched the "Buff/Debuff" class role.

And what is that reason exactly?

Debuffer role has always been my favorite.

MMOdad72

Originally posted by dave6660

Originally posted by Xiaoki

Rift has Support souls and thats probably as close you will get in the modern age.

But dont expect groups to beat down your door clamoring for you. Theres a reason most other MMOs have ditched the "Buff/Debuff" class role.

And what is that reason exactly?

Debuffer role has always been my favorite.

 

Agreed , I liked class roles of the sort. Enjoyed being both a support and mez/cc type character many times over the years.

ice-vortex

Originally posted by dave6660

Originally posted by Xiaoki

Rift has Support souls and thats probably as close you will get in the modern age.

But dont expect groups to beat down your door clamoring for you. Theres a reason most other MMOs have ditched the "Buff/Debuff" class role.

And what is that reason exactly?

Debuffer role has always been my favorite.

The primary reason would be that they dumbed down their game. It is a lot harder for them to create encounters with classes that excel at crowd control and debuffing.

Smith6079

Thanks very much for the replies so far, folks!

Nevulus

my hands-down favorite buff/debuff classes have been eq2 troub/dirge 

Mardukk

Every game I play now I look for the buff/debuff/cc role. Unfortunately I'm running into a bunch games lately with 3 second fears and 4 second cc max...GD PvP balance. What I would give for a modern mmo that didn't hamstring itself in the name of PvP balance. Age of wushu claims to haves debuff and cc type classes...we will see.

dave6660

Originally posted by Mardukk
Every game I play now I look for the buff/debuff/cc role. Unfortunately I'm running into a bunch games lately with 3 second fears and 4 second cc max...GD PvP balance. What I would give for a modern mmo that didn't hamstring itself in the name of PvP balance. Age of wushu claims to haves debuff and cc type classes...we will see.

Actually Age of Wushu claims to have "No classes or levels".

KenFisher

Originally posted by Xiaoki

Rift has Support souls and thats probably as close you will get in the modern age.

But dont expect groups to beat down your door clamoring for you. Theres a reason most other MMOs have ditched the "Buff/Debuff" class role.

 

When looking at classes in Aion, a player written document described the same thing about their Enchanter class.  Support classes are often seen as non-essential in tank-n-spank combat.

 

Storman1977

DDO has the bard as a buff/debuff class.  Also, there are wizards and sorcerors that specialize in buffing/debuffing and crowd control in DDO.

Akulas

Traubator / dirge, chants etc which has already been posted. EQ2, Vg, EQ1 pretty much is the only options out there. AoE freeeze, mez or w/e other form of cc has been replaced by tanks / heals these days.

Rydeson

     I agree with many of the early posters.. If you are looking for roles that are NOT part of the exclusive holy trinity, you'll have to go back to older games such as EQ, Vanguard, DaOC, ect ect..  Devs have dumbed down classes to a homoganized 3.. Roles such as crowd control, buff, debuff, pulling etc are not calculated in today's "LFD" or "LFR" mechanics..  Tis a shame because I enjoyed those roles as much as any of the holy trinity  we have today, plus you have numberous hybrid options.. As much as sheep today feel games have so many options in classes and roles, they really don't..  SWTOR and Rift are perfect examples of limited class roles, but use multiple graphics and name changes to fool you..  When was the last time we saw a game that allowed "kiting" or "fear" kiting?  When was the last time we saw a game that allowed invisibility and group invis? or levitation?  porting? evacing? ..   Last time I played a game that had such a VAST spectrum of skills and spells was EQ..   Today's classes are child's play..  Advanced Dungeon's and Dragons would of never gotten off the ground if they were hamstringed like today's classes.. 

Cernan

I feel you OP.  My favorite classes in CoH were the Storm and Kinetic  Defenders.  I've played most modern mmos, and while some while have classes with debuffs they are never really specialized.  Those classes are mostly better off just dealing straight up dps.

 

The Minstrel (buffer/healer) and Burlgar (debuffer/DPS) are both very fun classes to play in LOTRO.  The minstrel is probably one of the most fun healers I have ever played in any mmo.  There is also the Loremaster who has some CC, but he tends to focus a little more on dps.

 

Rift has a couple buff classes, Archon and Bard.  The Archon is a mage who leeches power/speed/str/health from enemies in order to buff allies. The Bard is mostly a healer with a few buffs that has to be constantly reapplied.   However, both classes are mostly only used in Raids and even then you don't need multiples.  The Archon is the closest thing to what you are looking for.

 

Otherwise I think you are going to have to go back to older games like EQ, EQ2, DAoC.

 

 

Banaghran

The "support" area is the most depressive and dark place to talk about regarding mmorpgs.

Every single problem the genre battled and battles with is aplicable in its destruction, class balance, hybrids vs pures, solo vs group, pvp vs pve, accessibility vs specialisation, ranged vs meelee...

As far a the playstyle in a modern game, the last time i had a fun time is as a bard in rift, but ofcourse, in the spirit of accessibility, the buffs and healing that made it interesting while leveling became nearly meaningless later on...

Dunno if anything has changed since i left.

Flame on!

Quirhid

GW1 made great use of varying buff roles both offensive and defensive, but debuff roles were often part-time roles or only found in PvP team builds.

gordiflu

Originally posted by Cernan

 

The Minstrel (buffer/healer) and Burlgar (debuffer/DPS) are both very fun classes to play in LOTRO.  The minstrel is probably one of the most fun healers I have ever played in any mmo.  There is also the Loremaster who has some CC, but he tends to focus a little more on dps.

 

 

 

 

The buffer/healer role would belong to Captain in this game, with Minstrel beeing a pure healer with some buffing capabilities.

A good Loremaster is king of crowd control and debuffing. Why so many have gone now DPS wannabe says a lot about the dumbification of the game.