Roles in group PvE: how is the demand for tanks, healers, DPS?

jyotai

Hello;

I'm a returning newbie (I got to level 5 around launch, but left for assorted reasons), so I've very little idea how things are in the current game. Re-installed on a whim last night and found this game felt a lot more refreshing / engaging than the things I've been trying of late... so took advantage of the zen store discount today to 'hook in' to things.

In prior MMOs I usually always play tanks and healers. Though in games like City of Heroes, I often played control roles.

I looked at the wiki and noticed that at max level the dungeons do look for parties of 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 DPS. I've seen this in many an MMO and I've seen all my DPS friends complain about very long queues as a result. Before I start pushing up a control or even striker based character: are the wait times to get into content for DPS roles 'impacted' here a lot, like in other games?

Will I be asking for a world of AFKing in town if I make a controller? Or is it about balanced between various roles, or at least not as bad as it can be in many MMOs? I get that this is not a huge MMO with millions of players so everything will be a little bit less busy - but how mush worse is it for the controller and striker classes than for the tanks and the one healer class (Am I correct that cleric is the only healer)?

solbergx

Since alliances are available I find it easier to make parties and queue dungeons

urabask

Even in a big alliance like Relentless I've found that we're frequently waiting on a tank or DC (which is why I geared a GF and DC as soon as I could).

namelesshero347

I play mostly my DC now, it is my least favorite toon but queue's pop pretty fast for a healer. Next best is a tank.

Unknown

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adinosii

I never bother with the 3-man dungeons, but as far as the 5-man ones go, yes...if you play with a random group, it is easiest to get in as a GF or DC.

A couple of things to note...

I prefer guild/alliance groups to random groups....less chance of people leaving and fewer communication problems...slso more fun if you have voice chat.

For a DC, note that at the high end (say IL 3500+) they are primarily a buffer/debuffer not a healer.

wildfirede

I am running a pala tank, yes people prefer a gf but i still have near zero waittime on queues.

silverkelt

Tank (especially a gf) is the highest demand in game, they buff/CC (by aggroing groups together) , add combat advantage and in the case like orcus, allows melee to fight him.

You dont need a tank for some things, but its always faster with one.

DC is the next top in demand and unless that DC is terrible, again will always increase your speed/easiness of play with one.

Rest doesnt matter, you can be any of dps classes and with enough bondings/gear/setup carry anything in game. Its just a matter of degrees at a certain point.

lantern22

There is a demand for Tanks.

When I queue with my GF it often pops within seconds, love it when its straight to the end boss in CN and Im running short on time Hardly ever have a problem getting an invite to a group in PE either.

When I queue with my CW it takes ages, if at all.

I'm not sure about healers, as my DC atm is just a leadership alt.

sockmunkey

While the game labels certian classes as controllers. The queue does not. You can be a full oppressor spec'd control wizard, able to mass freeze at will. And the queue will still see you as DPS.

The other issue is controllers arnt very useful in the late game. They can be useful for soloing and pvp. But for late game group content. Everything is either so resistant, that controll effects are minimal. Or they are completely immune to control. Most experts feel that dead is better then controlled and would prefer DPS over controll.

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sockmunkey

He also asked if he would be AFKing in town if he made a controller. So yea, he had questions about how controller fits into the group situatuon.

anolia123

Always remember, this requirement ist just for random groups. If you run with premade groups (guild, alliance, friends, lfg) you can switch to private and there are no longer requirements for group composition.

Our class-only runs are famous, like 5HR doing T2 or 5 DC doing CN.
It is a lot of fun, and you can assemble your group any way you like.

sockmunkey

You wont have much to worry about. Queue times for any class are very reasonable. Everyone has a need to do dungeons and skirmishes, so there is always someone in the queue. Even with the addition of private queues and alliances, pug groups are still really common.

As far as difficulty. Depending on who you ask, it can be a sore subject. The elites feel the game is too easy. Others feel its a little hard. The isnt really with difficulty, its with gear.

The T1 dungons have a gear requirement of 1600, and they are pretty forgiving. If you enter with a pug group with everyone just above the requirement you can still win. You might have a few deaths, but if everyone pulls their weight, you should be fine. This pretty much applies to all skirmishes as well.

The T2 dungons are a bit more challenging. Dont expect much success if you go in as a pug at minimal gear. The good news is the current hardest content has a 2500 gear score. Players, however, can gear up past 4000 gear score. So it gets pretty easy to drastically over gear the content and stomp it flat. So, odds are even if you pug, you will rarely have a group filled with minimal geard folks. In most cases you will have a mix of people across all gear levels, and that alone tends to make things go easier.

As far as classes not being wanted because they arnt seen as useful. It can be a concern. You will see a bit of it with premades. DPS is king and anything not DPS is seen as slowing things down. The good news is support classes are wanted, even if a tank or healer isnt needed, the offensive and defensive buffs provided to the group, more then makes up for any loss in DPS. A good support class can double a good partys output.

jyotai

sockmunkey said:

The other issue is controllers arnt very useful in the late game. They can be useful for soloing and pvp. But for late game group content. Everything is either so resistant, that controll effects are minimal. Or they are completely immune to control. Most experts feel that dead is better then controlled and would prefer DPS over controll.

That's very useful to know. In City of Heroes Controllers were so potent people would sometimes stack groups with just them... I remember many runs where our combined buff/debuff cc/cc-removal made it feel like we just walked into a hall of people frozen in time and tipped them over like sleeping cows...

I like controllers, but it was too much there, and not enough in other games... (a certain big MMO used to be very big on crowd control, and now you can skip it in all the content I've tried thus far there, and a certain other 'no trinity' MMO, you just stand in a stack and DPS, and control, tank, and heal are all meaningless outside of the raid).

Good to know ahead of time that 'controller' is not a notable role here, so I just set my fun up for another angle, or play it those classes for whatever other fun I find in them.

As a result of anniversary sale... I bought enough character slots to make one character of each class... so I'm "invested" now, and since I like tanks, I'll learn how to play that here first.

jyotai

sockmunkey said:

He also asked if he would be AFKing in town if he made a controller. So yea, he had questions about how controller fits into the group situatuon.

Yeah I was kind of wondering if a controller would have a better fate in finding groups than a striker, and if it was bad for either.

I've yet to see any MMO solve this if it had roles... but in a smaller than this MMO I like, the population is small enough that the DPS can basically sit in a queue from character creation until halfway through raid gearing and never see it pop...
- You do premades, tank, heal, or pray for a winning lottery ticket...

jyotai

anolia123 said:

Always remember, this requirement ist just for random groups. If you run with premade groups (guild, alliance, friends, lfg) you can switch to private and there are no longer requirements for group composition.

And I assume that since you do that, its perfectly viable. Now to be silly but... is it viable for normally skilled players, or just people so skilled and geared they can outmatch the content?

In other words I found a pack of 'regular folks' and tried doing content with them, assuming we were "OK" players - not great and not bad... could we pretty much do the premades we wanted, or would we have to get some of us to go for tank/healer (my favorite roles, but I've had this problem in other MMOs before where I had a premade ready except I couldn't convince one of them to go for the other support role...)

I remember that in City Of Heroes, there were times when my tankers stopped being welcome in groups because premades could run so well without support... they didn't want the DPS loss of tanks being around...