Support Role Availability

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Shellheart76, Nov 9, 2020.

  1. Shellheart76 Active Player

    So this has been a problem that's been stewing for a while, but in the last two episodes it's becoming clear that the game needs a proper venue to learn support roles.

    Here's how it currently goes: You start a new toon, you decide to try a new support role, and you get railroaded through the low level content up to roughly the last 3 episodes. By the time you get there, the natural expectation is of course that you know your role, but before that you simply never get the chance, as you get straight carried. And now that you're in the current content, people get mad at you for even trying to learn, because of course you shouldn't be learning at the endpoint, and you get blocked, cussed out, kicked, harassed by pm, etc. This, and to a certain degree this community's toxicity, has certainly deterred me from learning new support roles, and I'm not the only one.

    Now, this used to be fine. There were enough support roles to go around, let them handle it. Not so much now. I waited an hour on USPC for a troll for FGSr, and judging by the LFG chats for the current episode content, the same problem is persisting. There is an obvious drought of support roles, especially tanks and trolls, and an untapped supply of people who would be willing to learn.

    Bottom line: We need a way for people to get familiarized with support roles before endgame content.
  2. PolarisSylar Committed Player

    Oh,
    Every time I read the word " support" it reminds me when I am running as a ( tank , healer, controller ) that I am paiding child support dues to the DPS'ers.

    Making it as DCDPSUniverseOnline.
  3. SekretVillain Loyal Player

    Might I suggest something odd and alien? Slow your progress. Meaning all that juicy loot you get salvage it to put it in your bottom augments. To extend your time in lower content. It's a 2 way street, yes ppl at end game are at times idiots but it also falls on YOU to slow down and choose to want to properly learn your role and not be sling shotted into end game.
    • Like x 1
  4. SekretVillain Loyal Player

    Also as long as I've played dcuo troll and tanks have always been the least played roles simply because tanks get yelled at 1st then its trolls by tanks(in my experience)

    That and people more and more are sticking to leagues not using LFG.
    • Like x 3
  5. BitGam4r Well-Known Player

    I think you're confused on the hierarchy of blame. First its the healers fault, if anything killed the healer its the tanks fault but mostly the healer because he couldn't heal the 1 shot. That opens it up for the healer to blame the troll because they didn't have enough power, then the troll blames the healer because the troll died. Then the healer blames the tank because it was a add that killed the troll, then the tank blames the troll because he didn't have enough power to pull the add, and the troll blames the healer for the lack of giving power because the healer didn't heal the troll giving power. So as you can all see by this logic, it's all the healers fault when you boil it down to the root of the problem. And since I mainly like to heal elites, I make sure I heal those 1 shots so then if anyone dies to anything, its the tanks fault.

    I hope this was very helpful :D
    • Like x 6
  6. BitGam4r Well-Known Player


    I don't disagree with the level up toxicity when it comes to this community, its been exacerbated by many things over the years. I do agree we need some kind of training sim to learn your role. The devs could even re-purpose the LPvE Training Room. The best we can do now is have people that try to be patient and not be a...well you know while some people learn the finer points of your role. What I do have a expectation of, is people DO NOT step foot into an elite raid without knowing your role, and I don't think that's a unrealistic expectation. I have been very impatient with those people in the past and even now. I will say this, you should know the BASICS of your role by the time you get to end game. Maybe not have the perfect loadout, but at least some resemblance of a concerted effort to piece together a loadout. Their are literally hundreds of videos out their giving you various loadouts, lots of them are pretty good ones. Their is help all over this game, people just have to ask for it.
  7. SekretVillain Loyal Player

    I blame who is at fault, as a healer of going on 10 years in dcuo alone if a tank isnt pulling adds you bet imma call the tank out, if DPS arent burning a certain add over useless adds imma call their ***es out. I expect the same treatment but if it's called for and if I'm actually not doing something I should.
  8. BitGam4r Well-Known Player

    It seems you missed the point of the post, it was a attempt at levity and sarcasm. It was a joke, and I knew what you were saying, it was obvious in your original post.
  9. SekretVillain Loyal Player

    Naw I get it was meant as sarcasm because nobody can heal 1shots. I dont care what your SP or CR is lol
  10. TheNewGuyonDCUO New Player

    this. thank you! I've been trying to get league members to understand the importance to get to know their powerset's abilities by taking their time in lower content. aside from salvaging gear to feed those hungry augments, they can work on getting their artifacts up to at least level 80. but most of the time it seems like there's a race against time to get to the highest cr possible ‍♂️
  11. Brit Loyal Player

    I highly, highly recommend learning in Alerts.

    Pick an Alert that you are a little bit too high for. Something right at the bottom of CR relevence, or maybe even just barely into non-relevence. Run that. Instead of being carried, you will be the carrier. Your better gear and stats can slightly offset your lack of experience.

    Since it's lower level, it isn't giving you upgrades and you get to pause your progression. Keep running it daily until you get really comfortable with it. Then move up to the next one. Keep this up, running daily Alerts. Once you are running Alerts appropriate to your level, STOP. Double back to where you were before, right at the edge of relevancy, and start running the raids. This will be slightly different, but many of the skills you learned in the Alerts will carry forward. Run them until you feel comfortable and are doing well, then move up to the next one.
    • Like x 3
  12. Miss Adora Loyal Player

    I was running HQ on an alt and one player was running as a troll because it was their alt, and one player kept complaining we don't need a troll. That is apart of the problem right there. People complain when they have to team up with a troller, healer or tank in duos. They have to learn somewhere.
    • Like x 3
  13. Magg Redd Well-Known Player

    I recommend stop throwing all of these noobs in the mix and teaching them "Battle (insert role)" before they learn how to actually play the support side of their power. I hate to sound like a broken record, but now a days its all about the Damage score on the leader board. I have been in runs as a DPS and swapped out powers to put my recharge on and have out trolled a troll (in DPS form) because he was Battle Trolling....came to find out, he had been trolling for a YEAR, taught by his league and only trolled for league runs in the past and didn't know any better. More power to those who can Battle Whatever, but a player needs to understand their support role and the basics of it first BEFORE worrying about Battle ----. When I troll, I could really care less if I don't break a thousand in damage as long as I keep the power bars full, crowds are controlled, and bosses are debuffed.
    • Like x 2
  14. Thunderstrikke Well-Known Player

    For those of you who need to “learn your role”, I mean, there’s like a million guides for every power set on here or YouTube. Take some time, study; that’s what always did, and that would get me 80% of the way there. Play a few alerts to work up to 90%, and continue to refine from there moving from the cookie cutter to what works best for you. Jump into a raid when you feel ready. There have certainly been times where I had to drop a “my bad, new power” message. In those instances most people are cool and understanding. I feel like sometimes the forums really exaggerate the “toxic player base”.
    • Like x 1
  15. WhiteW0lf Devoted Player



    I've been playing this game since 3 months after its launch. I've played every role on both sides, and the role I have received BY FAR the most hatred and blame in, is when I play as a DPS.
  16. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    A lot of the issues are self fulfilling. Pug an alert, if the healer can't heal 3 dps then they're considered a failure. While plenty of us can do it, some need a troll and tank. But they're afraid to ask. And the people that qued up those roles probably can't really do them. Buffs help but not all players are capable. Day 1 of new alert, we were doing tank and 3 dps runs. So clearly healers are barely needed thanks to buffs anyway. But pug groups have just gotten so terrible. You have 1 chance to beat a boss before someone or multiple people quit. Long gone are the days of trying to beat something for hours.
    So a lot of us don't pug. It's just too painful. Case in point: ran COUr, last boss, the other night because a league mate was in a terrible group. Some players had over 30 deaths. We wiped last boss after me, was healing, and the tank were left alone. So a bunch of people quit, somewhere around the 100min mark. Brought in a few more league mates and boom, done 4mims later.
    Went in last night with our usuals. 10min 40secs, 1 death and he was just fooling around too much and we didn't care. 10 min vs 100min. Like why would anyone want to pug? Everything has been like this lately. We need a way to not let people que for roles they can't do more than anything. We need players to have accountability and be smart enough to know when to stick to event or just ask for help.
    That's the reason shouts go unanswered or ques don't pop. The players know who to run with. Then the skilled players try to help and get grief for being "elitists" "try hards" "money pigs" instead of a thank you for the help. Any level of player can be toxic. I was recently accosted because I topped the scoreboard by a very large margin. Still had pickups and was doing mechanics but I'm the bad guy for doing my role well. Then when healing 3 dps in alert: "you guys need to throw tables". You do it, all you're doing is healing. Good luck to y'all
    • Like x 1
  17. SekretVillain Loyal Player

    Is why I just play how I wanna and if ppl dont like it screw them.
  18. BitGam4r Well-Known Player

    When that happens, you die and blame it on the healer. Logic circle complete. :D
    • Like x 1
  19. Illumin411 Loyal Player

    I still have the video I used to learn trolling in my DCUO bookmarks tab. For the longest time I was just too lazy to delete it. Now I just leave it in cause it’s funny, lol.
  20. BumblingB I got better.

    Not a bad idea, unfortunately when you open a gear box, your CR goes up. So if he opened, then salvaged, he'd be making it difficult for progression as he would be bumped up but not have the gear to handle his relevancy window.