The triumvirate of roles in a party: Tank, Healer, and Support

  

While listening to the Epic Guides podcast on World of Warcraft the other day, I found myself thinking that some of the concepts he discussed were applicable to most MMORPG games which has a party of some sort. In games such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar where PvE is popular, you will find three subgroups within a successful party. Most players who have experienced playing in this atmosphere know that the three subgroups are the Tank, Healer, and the Support(DPS in WoW).

As most will attest, if you lose one of the three or one player doesn’t play his role well, more often than not your party will wipe. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it will teach you guys some of the basics of how to coordinate your attacks. Granted that it may seem rather rough, but you can definitely see where you guys went wrong.

For any strategy to work, the roles of each member must be delineated and each one must stick to the game plan. That said, we’ll cover the first of the triumvirate first: the tanks.

Tanks:

Tanks, or meat-shields as they are lovingly called, are the front-liners of your group. They are there to soak up the damage while the others do their own thing. Of course, they will be whacking away in true warrior fashion, but their most important job is to keep the baddies from going after his smaller friends. Now, what should a tank have to do his job properly?

Trust. As with all the people in any party, trust is a very important foundation when it comes to tanking. You have to be ready to put your body on the line confident in the knowledge that your healer will be healing you and the support people will be blasting away at the highest damaging mob in the group. If you can’t trust your healer and suddenly bolt from the battle, more often than not, the party is already dead.

The full article (with healers and support)after the jump…

While listening to the Epic Guides’ podcast on World of Warcraft the other day, I found myself thinking that some of the concepts discussed were applicable to most MMORPG games that have “party” concepts. In games such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar where PvE is popular, you will find three subgroups within a successful party. Most players who have experienced playing in this atmosphere know that the three subgroups are the Tank, Healer, and the Support (DPS in WoW).

As most will attest, if you lose one of the three, or if one player doesn’t play his role well, more often than not your party will be p’wned. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it teaches us the basics of how to coordinate our groups’ attacks. Granted it may seem rather rough, but it’s a good field to find out what we did wrong.

For any strategy to work, the roles of each member must be delineated and each one must stick to the game plan. That said, we’ll cover the first of the triumvirate first: the Tanks.

Tanks:

 

Tanks, or meat-shields as they are lovingly called, are the front-liners of your group. They are there to soak up the damage while the others do their own thing. Of course, they will be whacking away in true warrior fashion, but their most important job is to keep the baddies from going after their smaller friends. Now, what should a tank have to do his job properly?

Trust. As with all the people in any party, trust is a very important foundation when it comes to tanking. You have to be ready to put your body on the line confident in the knowledge that your healer will be backing you up and that the support people will be blasting away the highest damaging mob in the group. If you can’t trust your healer and suddenly bolt from the battle, your party’s dead.

Character Build and Equipment. By health, we mean a large stock of hit-points for your character. This should be obvious to most people but there are still players who insist they can tank when in truth they aren’t properly built for the role. The extra health is also good as it gives your healer a little room for error since he doesn’t have to heal you after every three of four hits.

Equipment plays an important part of this equation as well. Given the fact that you will undoubtedly be the target of most enemies, you should be properly equipped to deal with the damage heading your way. Shields and heavy armor are the way to go for this role.

Pots/Potions. As any experienced Tank knows, things can and will go wrong when partying up with others. Be it the lag or a player who accidentally miscasts a heal spell on another character, unforeseen circumstances will be popping up. Because of this be sure to have your own stock of potions just in case. If you die, your healer may not have enough time to resurrect you before the forces of darkness (or light) close in on him, so better be prepared.

That said, there are other more complicated tasks a tank should know such as proper positioning and timing but these have to be learned by the player according to the constraints of the party. That said, the tank should always remember that all the enemies should be attacking him at all times and he should be making an effort to chase down the stray mobs which go after his softer, squishier friends.

Healer:

 

The healer is said to be the life-blood of every adventuring party worth its weight in gold. This is the guy who backs up your tank on the frontline, revives the dead people, and is usually the measure of whether or not the party should rest or go on. That said, what does a healer have to do to keep the party running smoothly?

Know your allies and your skills. This may not seem like an obvious first choice, but any good healer knows how much damage each player in his party can take. Having this information allows the healer to cast his heals more effectively, thus maximizing his mana and keeping the tanks out in the field longer. The healer must also know how much he heals with a single cast.

Know your role. I have been in a few raids and PvE encounters where the healer wants to be a DPS. Sure, you’ve got some skills that can bring some pain on foes, but that isn’t your role. Casting spells that damage enemies eats up mana which should have been allocated for healing your party. In addition, you’re drawing more attention to yourself than necessary. If the enemies start chasing you down, you’re making it doubly hard for your Tank. Not only must he contend with the fact that you’re not healing as often but he must also pry those mobs from you.

Be consistent. This means that day-in and day-out, you will be doing your thing. If you want to play a more varied role, then you shouldn’t be a Healer. Being a Healer means you will be casting those heals consistently everytime your tank reaches a certain threshold. You should also be regularly updating him/her on your mana store and when the next heal will be available. This consistency will help build trust in your Tank and may dictate how long he’s willing to stay in the front lines with you backing him up.

The Healer job demands consistency and skill. Being a Healer requires lightning fast reflexes and good anticipation. In addition, the healer will probably be the one who dictates whether the party survives or not. It’s not a very easy job but it can be very rewarding. (If you play any other roles, be sure to give your healer a pat on the back every now and then for their good work)

Support:

 

Finally, we have the Support role or DPS. These guys have one job and one job only, to wreak havoc on your enemies. These are the guys who launch giant fireballs or deal massive damage by striking the enemy’s weakest point.

Unlike the previous two roles, this is split into two: the primaries and the secondaries.

Primary:

In general, the Primary is the one who dictates which enemy everyone will focus on. Nobody will make a move until the Primary has decided on what target everyone should focus on. The Primary is also responsible for directing where the rest of the support people will position themselves and the order of the spells that will be cast for maximum damage. What must the Primary have?

Know the enemies. This is a no-brainer and one that every Primary must have. You must be able to prioritize the enemies and decide which ones pose the biggest threat to your team. a general rule of the thumb to make this easier is: healers, support, tanks. However, there are some exceptions depending on the foes you are facing and the resistances of your tank. If (for the sake of argument) your tank cannot be damaged by critical hits and the enemies DPS is primarily rogues, then feel free to take out the healers and tanks first.

First Attack. This cannot be stressed enough, you will be given the role of doing the first attack to mark the enemy to be taken down. That said, you should trust that your tank will have enough aggro (a term used to designate how much attention a character has from a mob) to keep him there. In addition, if you fail to make a quick decision when the enemies are attacking the tank, your healer may run into mana trouble in the later part of the battle since you took so long deciding.

Know the terrain. In general, put your casters and long ranged specialists in the back while the melee characters in front. This not only gives you protection against the enemies just blitzing through the tank and straight to the enemy but allows a few free shots in case one of the bad guys decides to go after the ranged caster.

Secondaries:

You won’t have much to keep in mind really, basically just wait for the primary to tag a foe, then unload with everything you’ve got. Of course there are exceptions, such as when your tank hasn’t gotten much aggro yet where you may want to hold back a bit. Otherwise, do your thing and just blow the bejeezus out of any thing the primary attacks. Be sure to keep coordinating with the rest of the party to see if there’s anything that needs to be changed.

Conclusion:

 

All three roles have their own place in the party, and each one is equally important. It should be noted that all too often, just one or two players who deviate from the master plan cause the downfall of the entire group. Try these tips out with a few of your friends when going out on your next adventure, it may take some time getting used to it but it’ll be worth it in the end.

Before we go, we have to stress the most important rule in partying: have fun. Some people may make mistakes that will cause your party to wipe, but just laugh it off. Everyone will be better for it. Now that I think about it, the best times I had playing online games is not when we are operating like a perfectly oiled machine but when someone slips up and everyone panics. If we survive, there’s the nervous laughter that we all indulge in. When we wipe, we all start laughing because it’s just really funny when everyone just dies. Be sure to keep checking back here for more tips and tricks.