Support roles. MMOs have really $#£¥ the bed in recent times when it comes to support roles. The days of bards, and shaman, and enchanters shined brilliantly during the days of EQ, DAoC and even the vanilla days of Rift. Now it's all about DPS whether you want to or not. Looking at you FFXIV. Someday a developer will help those that live to help others. Until then I've kind of given up on MMOs.
God I miss CoH/V, the support roles in that game were great! Have to say mine really is DPS though and I think you will find that the majority vote will most likely be DPS as there is just too much responsibility for the other roles that most people aren't willing to do nor do some have the competence to play that role.
Challenging 2-10 man PvE is where I have the most fun but so few games do PvE well, healer is by far the most fun for me there. If it's done well you have to use many of the spells and abilities in your toolbox to perform well. If it's not challenging, healer isn't fun at all, then I prefer playing DPS because I can just try to do as much damage as possible and challenge myself that way.
I don't do much PvE raiding because you're usually stuck doing only what your character does best, so the variety of abilities used is much lower than in smaller scale PvE. The best single target healers/DPSers are stuck on single target duty most of the time and AoE healers/DPSers on AoE duty for example, spamming a limited number of abilities quickly becomes boring to me. A lot of the time it feels like you spend hours just waiting for that one attempt where no one messes up, not that fun to me. If it's challenging then healer is slightly more fun than DPS and if it's not challenging DPS is much more fun.
In both small and large scale PvP I think healer is slightly more fun than DPS but it mostly depends on class design.
Dps..Healer etc is too shallow,i like to roleplay the entire class and everything it offers,i don't like to narrow it down to just dps or healer. That is where the fun begins when you can do lots of stuff with your character.This really should be obvious since years now many gamer's have claimed it is too boring to just sit there and heal,players seem to want MORE roles within that character class.
Even the last few posters can't narrow it down,they like to move from role to role or at least have varied options. Perfect example,how about a Paladin,he can heal and tank and deliver some damage.A Black Mage can nuke for dps or Sleep groups of mobs,Red Mage can heal,dps and Kite ,Blue Mage can do it all,that is what i call GOOD solid class designs that can give players lots to do on their character. That is why i laughed at Arena.net telling us how they were fixing the problems,WHAT problems? FFXI was already delivering a great mix of classes so that players were not stagnant to ONE ROLE or had to play ALTS to experience any other roles.
So yeah,why settle for one,if you truly love rpg's you seriously should not enjoy just ONE role,versatility is where the fun and real enjoyment comes from.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
In (Vanilla / BC) WoW I loved Mage (mostly Arcane spec) as it was a great combination of simple but smart DPS, CC, and light support (at least in 5/10 mans)... however in FFXIV I generally prefer to play a Tank or Healer, as they can always do some light DPS when not dealing with Tank / Healer stuff, whereas the DPS classes (mostly; depends on the fight) don't really have anything to do but DPS (which is fine if you want to be lazy, but tends to get terribly repetitive; i.e. boring).
So yeah, I guess it's whichever class / role offers a good amount of moment-to-moment variety (with a leaning towards magical classes).
Played DPS when I was in WoW for years. Main was a hunter that I always stayed near the main healer and utilized a tank pet so that if the healer drew aggro I would make the pet take it from them till the tank got it back. Also kept a freeze trap under them for any adds that would aggro so that I had time to get the pet on them.
Tank and healer are the hardest to play IMO....tried healer once and never went back as I was blamed for a guy in white gear getting 2 shotted in Shadowfang Keep. Why he was not even in just greens was beyond me. Hell, I could tank better and I was healer specced as a druid and in all cloth.
I like tanks most. Luckily among my friends I play with they almost all like to DPS and one only plays healers. So I end up being tank most of the time. I like to be the one running around pulling and initiating the action. If not tanking it is supporting in general I like.
In CO the Master class was great to me. A Monk like class that was very tanky. I loved my Bruiser in EQ2. Other favorite tanks were Dark Templar in AoC or Black Ork in Warhammer. I could ramble on awhile.
Hybrid damage/support ala Paladin is my favorite role. It's not a standard Trinity role, but being able to effectively switch between dealing damage and support on the fly is my favorite type of gameplay.
Unfortunately, it's also an incredibly rough archetype to balance, as are most hybrids. On the plus side, there's been no shortage of unique takes on hybrid archetypes in MMORPGs, something that's less true for the "pure breed" roles.
I like variety but Healer was generally too difficult for me, all the more reason I love having a good on on the team and appreciate their value in general. When I'm playing Overwatch and scratching my head wondering why we're not getting anywhere, I've often finally noticed that healing powerline coming going back around a corner or catch a glimpse of the Mercy moving briefly and unpredictably from one cover to another where she's needed.
This article brings back glowing memories of my many characters in City of Heroes (and a few in CoV). I don't think I've found a game with such fun-to-play characters (in co-op PvE) as some of the controllers -- fire, gravity, earth, mind... and especially with the balanced effects -- so many games these days have such over-the-top flashes, explosions, and other razzle-dazzle it just gets blinding.
I also enjoyed playing a couple blasters, not so much for the general DPS as the Snipe power. Wonderful way to start a fight. Brace yourself, powerup, POW! Maybe one-shot, or knockdown at least.
Scrappers were great if you watched out for scrapper lock or just forgetting you weren't a tank, but with the right build or a good healer you could scrapper-tank.
And how could you not enjoy being a tank now and then, taking on whole mobs at once and beating them down one at a time until your teammates pick the rest off of you.
When I think of having fun playing DPS these days, it's those occasions when I have a team with a shield in the center and good flankers guarding the flanks, and I can get into a Bastion and sit in the back blazing away and racking up the kills.
My favorite support role is Torbjorn. He doesn't get much love because people don't like turrets in an FPS game (but it's NOT an FPS game, it's a MOBA) -- but I don't just set up a turret and whack at it from behind a corner (although I will if that works, e.g. good team, not getting flanked) but I gather scrap and throw out all the armor I can, and I've often gotten quite a few kills with my handgun -- even got a Widow once.
dps always.. tanking for me requires you to be a leader and that i'm not. and healing and support just feels meh to me.
I've seen groups like this, but I've almost always felt that groups where the healer was leading the group seemed to work better. Healers are generally away from the action and have a better field of view to call out any potential changes from adds coming in or something going wrong.
When I tank (and I enjoy it on some games), I don't want to lead, I want to concentrate on managing aggro and keeping myself alive. I'll agree that tanks generally set the pace for pulling, but when its raids and stuff, I'm not issuing orders, I'm getting beat up.
In WoW I loved healing, but ONLY because of clickheal with a mod (what was that mods name ? Healbot ?). In eq, my favorite mmo till this day, I just plain hate healing because it is simply too tedious (clickheal-unitframes) would reverse this completely). I also like warrior tanking in WoW untill everything became aoe frenzy game and less about single target tanking
Neverwinter had/has? some fun healing mechanics too, with mouse targeting though at times it can be a bit frustrating not being able to heal when blocked by mobs. I also liked my control wizard in Neverwinter which is a CC + dps role, very fun to play and playing well makes a huge difference (challenge, player skill).
Otherwise I like CC, debuff, and combo/situational roles.. Just versatile class/builds in general. Again I have to refer to eq because no other mmos have presented such versatility and reward for player skill. Had much fun as Enchanter doing CC and also some charming, love Beastlord which can be used in a variety of ways, Bard although I suck it at (but I know some people can play a Bard so well) with many roles such as support puller buffer debuffer dps. Shaman for its extreme situational versatility that covers almost any role, cept maybe tanking
Can't really think of any modern mmos to mention, not that I haven't dabbled with it but many are role less or extremely simplistic. I kindda liked some of the roles in Overwatch though I only played it through beta, especially Soldier seventi sixty eighty humpedibump something ?
It would be awesome to see Warframe one day will evolve to some more role based mechanics. Maybe an arpg with roles could be very interesting concept.
Normally I prefer healer/support, that said, the role I most prefer rarely shows up in games in any significant way anymore, the Captain from Lotro and the Chanter in Aion were the best classes I've ever played and I look forward to some game doing something similar to those someday
Hybrid damage / healer in games that let you play that way: WAR's Warrior Priest and Archmage, Rift's Chloro, any magicka build in ESO...
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The main reason why I'm an altaholic is that I'm able to love every role depending on the game. Healing in FFXIV because you can heal, buff AND dps at the same time. Tanking in MMOs where you have active blocking/guarding mechanincs. DPS where you have interesting mechanics like the Mesmer in GW/GW2 and of course support if it's done well like Bards/Illus/Coercers in EQ1/2 or the Loremaster in LotRO. Variety is everything to me and it helps a lot in unterstanding your teammates and enemies and imo makes you a better player ;-)
Tend to play healer and sometimes tank. Not that I haven't played my share of DPS characters, it's just that playing support in MMORPG's tends to be a little more challenging.
I always get asked to play tank or if that role does not exist, to pull mobs. But I only do that for small groups. Only reason I usually agree is because I like to tell people to pay attention and set the pace.
i don't know what i am i just know i put swords in each hand if i can and always run in head first if i die i die i don't like staying in the side if i can't duel sword i got to have a big two handed sword ff7 rulz lol
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I don't do much PvE raiding because you're usually stuck doing only what your character does best, so the variety of abilities used is much lower than in smaller scale PvE. The best single target healers/DPSers are stuck on single target duty most of the time and AoE healers/DPSers on AoE duty for example, spamming a limited number of abilities quickly becomes boring to me. A lot of the time it feels like you spend hours just waiting for that one attempt where no one messes up, not that fun to me. If it's challenging then healer is slightly more fun than DPS and if it's not challenging DPS is much more fun.
In both small and large scale PvP I think healer is slightly more fun than DPS but it mostly depends on class design.
That is where the fun begins when you can do lots of stuff with your character.This really should be obvious since years now many gamer's have claimed it is too boring to just sit there and heal,players seem to want MORE roles within that character class.
Even the last few posters can't narrow it down,they like to move from role to role or at least have varied options.
Perfect example,how about a Paladin,he can heal and tank and deliver some damage.A Black Mage can nuke for dps or Sleep groups of mobs,Red Mage can heal,dps and Kite ,Blue Mage can do it all,that is what i call GOOD solid class designs that can give players lots to do on their character.
That is why i laughed at Arena.net telling us how they were fixing the problems,WHAT problems?
FFXI was already delivering a great mix of classes so that players were not stagnant to ONE ROLE or had to play ALTS to experience any other roles.
So yeah,why settle for one,if you truly love rpg's you seriously should not enjoy just ONE role,versatility is where the fun and real enjoyment comes from.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
So yeah, I guess it's whichever class / role offers a good amount of moment-to-moment variety (with a leaning towards magical classes).
Tank and healer are the hardest to play IMO....tried healer once and never went back as I was blamed for a guy in white gear getting 2 shotted in Shadowfang Keep. Why he was not even in just greens was beyond me. Hell, I could tank better and I was healer specced as a druid and in all cloth.
In CO the Master class was great to me. A Monk like class that was very tanky. I loved my Bruiser in EQ2. Other favorite tanks were Dark Templar in AoC or Black Ork in Warhammer. I could ramble on awhile.
But 1. Tank 2. Support 3. Healer 4. DPS
Unfortunately, it's also an incredibly rough archetype to balance, as are most hybrids. On the plus side, there's been no shortage of unique takes on hybrid archetypes in MMORPGs, something that's less true for the "pure breed" roles.
This article brings back glowing memories of my many characters in City of Heroes (and a few in CoV). I don't think I've found a game with such fun-to-play characters (in co-op PvE) as some of the controllers -- fire, gravity, earth, mind... and especially with the balanced effects -- so many games these days have such over-the-top flashes, explosions, and other razzle-dazzle it just gets blinding.
I also enjoyed playing a couple blasters, not so much for the general DPS as the Snipe power. Wonderful way to start a fight. Brace yourself, powerup, POW! Maybe one-shot, or knockdown at least.
Scrappers were great if you watched out for scrapper lock or just forgetting you weren't a tank, but with the right build or a good healer you could scrapper-tank.
And how could you not enjoy being a tank now and then, taking on whole mobs at once and beating them down one at a time until your teammates pick the rest off of you.
When I think of having fun playing DPS these days, it's those occasions when I have a team with a shield in the center and good flankers guarding the flanks, and I can get into a Bastion and sit in the back blazing away and racking up the kills.
My favorite support role is Torbjorn. He doesn't get much love because people don't like turrets in an FPS game (but it's NOT an FPS game, it's a MOBA) -- but I don't just set up a turret and whack at it from behind a corner (although I will if that works, e.g. good team, not getting flanked) but I gather scrap and throw out all the armor I can, and I've often gotten quite a few kills with my handgun -- even got a Widow once.
I've seen groups like this, but I've almost always felt that groups where the healer was leading the group seemed to work better. Healers are generally away from the action and have a better field of view to call out any potential changes from adds coming in or something going wrong.
When I tank (and I enjoy it on some games), I don't want to lead, I want to concentrate on managing aggro and keeping myself alive. I'll agree that tanks generally set the pace for pulling, but when its raids and stuff, I'm not issuing orders, I'm getting beat up.
Neverwinter had/has? some fun healing mechanics too, with mouse targeting though at times it can be a bit frustrating not being able to heal when blocked by mobs. I also liked my control wizard in Neverwinter which is a CC + dps role, very fun to play and playing well makes a huge difference (challenge, player skill).
Otherwise I like CC, debuff, and combo/situational roles.. Just versatile class/builds in general. Again I have to refer to eq because no other mmos have presented such versatility and reward for player skill. Had much fun as Enchanter doing CC and also some charming, love Beastlord which can be used in a variety of ways, Bard although I suck it at (but I know some people can play a Bard so well) with many roles such as support puller buffer debuffer dps. Shaman for its extreme situational versatility that covers almost any role, cept maybe tanking
Can't really think of any modern mmos to mention, not that I haven't dabbled with it but many are role less or extremely simplistic. I kindda liked some of the roles in Overwatch though I only played it through beta, especially Soldier seventi sixty eighty humpedibump something ?
It would be awesome to see Warframe one day will evolve to some more role based mechanics. Maybe an arpg with roles could be very interesting concept.
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“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
ESO is really good at allowing me to do that.