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My Altaholcism Needs Help - What Are The Profession Roles?!
geldonyetich
Member Posts: 1,340
in Guild Wars 2
Apparently "roles" are something that has yet to be discussed on this forum, ever, because when I put "roles" in and searched the forum I got no results. Go figure. So, offhand, here's what you'd be thinking, and (spoiler) you'd be wrong:
- Guardian - Heavy Armor - Tank
- Warrior - Heavy Armor - Physical DPS, some tankiness.
- Engineer - Medium Armor - Utility. (My primary is actually a level 15ish Engineer right now.)
- Thief - Medium Armor - DPS poker.
- Ranger - Medium Armor - Ranged physical DPS w/ pets.
- Elementalist - Light Armor - Nuker.
- Mesmer - Light Armor - Controller.
- Necromancer - Light Armor - Nuker w/ Pets.
Then I play Guild Wars 2 a bit, and I learned that the roles actually go something like this:
- Guardian - Heavy Armor - Tank, DPS, Healer.
- Warrior - Heavy Armor - Tank, DPS, Healer.
- Engineer - Medium Armor - Tank, DPS, Healer.
- Thief - Medium Armor - Tank, DPS, Healer.
- Ranger - Medium Armor - Tank, DPS, Healer.
- Elementalist - Light Armor - Tank, DPS, Healer.
- Mesmer - Light Armor - Tank, DPS, Healer.
- Necromancer - Light Armor - Tank, DPS, Healer.
What?! What?! Now how am I supposed to get rightly immersed in full on inability to decide what to play if I can't figure out what roles the different professions actually have?
Anyone have any insights on this, or am I doomed to accept that professions in Guild Wars 2 are mostly a cosmetic concern?
Comments
Think fighting or driving game where different characters or vehicles handle differently. I will use a driving game as an example, every car can get you to the finish line but some have more acceleration where others have better handling, some are great for drifting. Or fighting games some characters hit harder but are slower some are super fast but do less damage per hit, some are better at adistance and some are better up close. It's a style thing but not cosmetically speaking. You really shouldn't think tank,dps,healer here and pick classes more like you would characters in a fighting game or cars in a driving game.
I know, I know analogies...... ;(
They took out the rpg part so it is mostly action based.
Everyone can do ranged, melee, tank, heal, dps and pull. Well not quite. Heal other is limited and there is no aggro management. You can spec good heal self, good damage or high hp but the team oriented tools are limited.
Anyway, find professions that you think look cool and go with it
I like this idea. I'll have to "research" all the different class styles of play. Consider my altaholicism empowered!
That's not true at all. You can buff your allies and use various damage prevention / crowd control skills to protect them. Tanking and healing as separate roles were taken out, but then again, the grandpa of all RPGs called D&D doesn't have tanks or healers, either.
Originally posted by Arskaaa
"when players learned tacticks in dungeon/raids, its bread".
Roles have been blended together so much that you can't apply the traditional trinity combination to any class. In addition, you can select skills or use a different weapon and you end up filling a different role.
Here is my best description of potential roles of the classes. Note that you may not be able to fill all of these roles at once.
Guardian - Defensive buffs, healing, melee DPS.
Warrior - Melee DPS, burst DPS, high HP damage sponge.
Engineer - Ranged DPS, utility, buffs.
Ranger - Melee or ranged DPS, pet, area denial.
Thief - Stealth, melee DPS, burst DPS, short ranged DPS.
Elementalist - Ranged DPS, buffs, control.
Mesmer - Control, skill denial, ranged DPS.
Necromancer - Pets, lifesteal, ranged DPS, buffs.
I may have missed some roles, but that should give you a better idea of what roles you can fill with a particular class. Notice there is no tank. The game was designed so that you can't simply stand there and take a beating while your friends heal you. Every class has a few healing skills, but none are designed to keep someone alive indefinitely in the face of a boss. Their goal was to create an action fighting game in a MMO, and I think this was successful.
IMO the best way to figure out what you would like to do with a class.
I can use myself as an example, I like support roles a lot because I feel it's rewarding to empower your allies. So I chose Guardian, Warrior and Engineer as the first three classes I am going to roll.
Guardian is going Shout/Signet build for a supportive element but my weapon sets will have strong control elements to allow allies a bit more flexibility.
Warrior going for the same type of playstyle using banners and weapon sets that focus on control but has some damage with it.
Engineer with a nade/elixir build for damage and support.
I think most people who are struggling with this new trinity system need to understand that the flexibility comes from their ability to see beyond the older trinity setup and it's restrictions, but that's just IMO.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/359874/Aerowyns-Video-Compilation-of-ALL-things-Guild-Wars-2.html
I could tell you, but I don't want to be an enabler.
In the original set you have
Cleric - heal/support/anti undead
fighting man - not quite a tank but is melee fighter and often takes the hits and are healed by the cleric
Magic user - ranged dps/support
I'll give you that there is noting called a "tank", but the fighting man is pretty close. There is definitively a healer and they all have different roles, hence role playing game.
In gw2 everyone has heal, damage, cc (although I've seen people running around without cc for some reason) and tank. There are no specific roles.
I think this is also the reason most de's turn into spam fests.
I could use some more input on what that means to the individual professions, though. From what I gather so far, style of play goes something like this:
C'mon man, quit holding out on me, I need my fix of excruciating cognitive dissonance to get through the day.