The reason people don't know their role is contained in this thread.

Through observation and gameplay, the reason, as many have speculated on why people don't know their role, isn't because no one teaches them. It's a mix of 3 core issues within the game itself.

1. "Play your way" While your way may be fine in solo content, It is not fine when it comes to group activities if you can't perform your basic duties as that role.
2. No one reads ANYTHING the devs have put in place to make the roles easy to understand and that includes role powers in the power sets' trees
3. The addition to adding role buffs to alerts and duos to make up for any lack of role was nice at first for when those roles were not available and when roles for content was relevant and plenty of them. Now, it has eliminated any reason for players to want to be anything other than a DPS. The game does it all for them (as seen in the picture below) If there is no troller, you get an automatic PoT. If there is no healer, you get an automatic HoT. if there is no tank, You get an automatic defensive buff. Resulting in no one learning their opposing roles to get GROUP activities done.

This system was implemented a while back ago when Marks of anything was relevant still and used to help people get what they needed faster. Back when roles were still used to complete content. By not enforcing this idea that you need the other roles to help you we have a wide spread of DPS users trying to fill in roles they have no idea how to use just so that they can get into groups because as of right now, the standard is 3 DPS per group.

The idea of TEAMWORK is not instilled in anyone anymore once they reach level 30. because the system in place now doesn't require it where as for some reason, raids still do.

My suggestion is this, now that everything costs Marks of Triumph and everything is easily available to everyone now, that we get rid of this terrible system and make roles relevant again to complete the content. If you don't have healers healing, you will die. Just as you would in a raid. If you don't have controllers giving power and PoT you won't have enough power to use your roles abilities. If you don't have tanks for the bosses, how are you ever going to pass it while the tank takes 85% - 90% of the damage.

What we all as a playerbase will see in the community.

• More tanks knowing how to tank
• More healers knowing how to heal
• more trollers knowing how to troll
• More people learning and teaching the roles to these players

And the number 1 thing we all will benefit from.

1. More support roles to balance out all the dps overpopulation.

Which will result in people getting things done a lot faster including, grouping, queues and content and most importantly, KNOWING THEIR ROLE.


Take the baby your way through everything, make roles obsolete system out.
I remember they took this system out of raids because people were 8 DPS manning Prime and Gates and made every role in the game obsolete. (The tanks had the biggest issue with this)

It does not encourage team play and does not encourage people to play specific roles when you can just DPS everything and let the game heal you and give you power and defend you.

No one learns that way and if I had gotten on this game during the time of it's implementation to the game, I would not know what to do and would actually want to know why in raids, the game wasn't doing the job of other roles for me as it does for everything else that requires a group to achieve a goal.

Bring back the old system.
No healer? You will die and never finish content without a massive supply of sodas and becoming a turtle.
No troller? You will never have enough power as a DPS to burn through things efficiently or heal others or pull aggro when needed.
No tank? Lol good luck getting jumped by hoards of mobs and adds while they beat down your turtling self.

lol at picture, I have the same problem with PVP....

Yeah I wish it would revert to the way it used to be to two of every role... it's 8 to a raid for a reason 2x2x2x2=duh. I feel bad for tanks now seeing how hardly no one runs with them and the ones who do take only 1 in raids I can imagine it must be frustrating when it comes to earning sp from feats and styles nowadays for tanks. I hope the new stuff is so hard it's next to impossible w/o two tanks.

You had me there for a moment.

I still wonder why they did teams of 4/8 instead of going with the 5/10 setup. And it's not even the holy-trinity of MMO here, since we got a additional class to deal with (Controller).

I think one reason why group buff was introduced was because of the shrinking population. Before, it was so easy to form a group. Now, it takes 30 mins to an hour just looking for a troll or a tank.

I do like the setup before when group buffs were non existent, but taking them out now, I don't think DCUO can survive.

I'm still really new to the game. So I have no idea how things used to be. I have been debating on whether to go DPS or just heals, but from what I've seen here, more healers are needed. However, since I haven't perfected my abilities, I'm going to wait a while before even thinking of getting into groups runs. It ruins the experience for everyone when you're not doing your job properly.

I think it would be fine and we would start seeing an increase in support roles and better players. And it's painfully obvious that support roles are needed in the higher end content but no one makes them because, why? The game will supply me power and health and all I need to do is mash the square button as fast as I can.

It is not meeting the needs as a community as a whole by them having the game hold them by the hand and tell them it's going to be ok. When in fact, it isn't ok. They need to learn early on, as others did, that using teamwork is what gets things done in the game when it comes to group content. Because with the current system, it has given rise to an outrageous number of DPS players and no support roles because the game says that's ok to do. "i'll heal you and give you free power."

It comes down to the old saying, if you catch a fish for a person and feed it to them they will starve to death. If you teach that person how to fish, he will have food for life.

This game is handing the players a "fish" and not teaching them how to go fish.

The devs must be absolutely crazy if they think the few of us that know what we're doing, is going to teach the entire community what to do. Even through a chain effect, it will not happen that way and not enough people actually come to the forums for help or guides or anything and they stay clueless because a lot of us have our own stuff to do and just want to get it done. Because "Ain't nobody got time for that."

The best practice you'll get before running raids is by healing duos and alerts. Also, practice keeping yourself alive as that's the most vital part of your role. You're no good to anyone in a raid if you're dead. Becoming self sufficient as a healer both on your life and your power is critical. Especially for situations where the tank dies or the troller(s() dies. If a tank drops, the healers pull the aggro first and then the dps followed by the trollers. that's usually how it goes down. Not always, but most of the time.

"2+2+2+2=8"
*Fixed

Ah, that's kind of where my problem lies when I heal. I tend to forget all about myself when I get so focused on keeping everyone else alive.

mana replacement class is fairly common in other mmos

As someone who is fairly new to the game I can shed some light.

First, leveling content is totally about DPS, try an run as a role and it takes twice as long, then when you hit 30 you start running duos and solo stuff and again it's just easier to run as DPS. I tried running solos as a tank and while it wasn't hard to complete, it just took me way longer. And the grind is boring enough as it is without the added fun of making it just that much longer. Also there are a lot abilities in Roles that just aren't useful in duo's, besides unless your partner is a sport they want to blaze thought the instance as fast as possible and they don't give a wit that you are trying to learn your role. And none of the content makes getting experiance or later marks incumbent on your role until you have been DPSing though 30 levels.

So now I have a tier 2.5 DPS set and to go back and get a tank set means I have to do the same boring content all over again, it's just not fun, I'm so board of the CC dailies, the solos and duos I could spit. So I have a choice, I could grind out a 2.5 tank set, or just go for a tier 3 tank set, but I wouldn't be taking ... I'll be DPSing because that's the gear I have to get the marks ... but while I'm doing that I'll never learn how to tank (not to mention how hard it is to try and duel spec, with the limitation on power tree selection it's like you almost have to respect when bouncing between DPS and a role to make up for your low level gear.)

Second finding groups is a pain in the ***. Not just a minor inconvenience, but a grueling slog to find players who are at the right lvl, the right role, and not a 4 year old and who can tolerate a wipe or two without giving up. I'm what you might call hard core casual, I mean if the higher level content in the game is not accessible to someone who puts in between 5 and 10 hours a week then the ranks of good players will be very small and limited to basically kids and people with a lot of free time. I hate trying to get a group together, I don't know everything, I'm not familiar with all the fights, I get taken by surprise with some of the things that more experienced players take for granted, in short, it's just not fun. It's a chore to be avoided, not embraced. Some of these alerts take all night to finish when you include the time it takes to get a group together. Even if your in an active league it's a bit of a challenge, and leagues can be just as clicky and elitist as anything.

Third, there is no content that teaches the roles. How hard would it be to make content that taught the roles? Keep batman alive though three attack waves, sustain aggro for 20 seconds, Keep Hal Jordan powered up though three waves. I mean they have skill challenges for all the moment styles why not for roles?

Frankly, the grind for gear past level 2 is obnoxious, if you happen to get in with a good group and you can level and progress more or less together it's reasonable, but most of the people out there have to fly more or less solo because we don't have two hours every night to grind. Until it's as quick to level as a role as it is to level as DPS the roles will be the exclusive domain of hard core players and the DPS will be mindless button smashers.

It's very difficult to create an experience that caters to hard core players and casuals as well, DCUO seems to be more of a hard core game, and when it's fun it's a gas and I love it, but the reliance on 4 different roles where each needs to be at least an intermediate level player with appropriate gear is asking a lot .

Some of these alerts and raids are confusing, the maps are not very detailed and it's not often clear what exactly your supposed to do
and frankly I don't have a ton of fee time ... I'm not going to spend hours searching the web to find detailed walk-thoughs, that's not what I pay for. I want to play the game just like the elites, so if your not willing to make an effort to support me in learning the ropes then don't expect me to make an effort either.

Finally, most of the guides I have read assume your lvl 30, are pretty well geared up, and have a zillion SPs. There is almost zero content one leveling up as a role, I mean what power do I chose when i'm lvl 15 and trying to learn a role? How does my choice of weapon affect my ability to level in that role? See what i mean? I would love to have a group to run with, I'm on many nights but I just can't find that group, and until I do I'll be that guy in your PUG dying a lot. Sorry in advance.

I kinda agree but then again many of those DPS are terrible and I wouldn't trust them it heal me or take agro or CC and debuff etc.

Those added role buffs, only kick in if the group is close together. If your seperate (like area51 for example) or if you split from the group for whatever reason, those buffs go away. So no one can really rely on those buffs. I've never been in a situation where the added role buff given because of a lack of the role being used, actually saved my life with heals, or made it so I had a ton of power. It's no substitute for the actual role, it's kind of a joke to be honest. Unless you move in a pack, mybe then.

Here is an example of why I find it hard to learn a role .... I would love to tank, but to do that role you not only have have the gear, the loadout, and know what to do with it, but you also have to know the fight, the map, the peculiarities of each boss. To get all of that information you would have to:

1. Spend hours on-line watching YouTube
2. PUG and die and get kicked a lot
3. Get someone to show you the ropes beyond "watch and Learn pal!"

None of these are very good options.
They need more shorter alerts to balance the mega epics like the three boss Arkum. More people would be up to doing them and more people could experiment with roles without blowing an hours worth of game time only to fail at the final boss fight. God I just loth the idea of slogging through some of the grinding slug fests.

"without blowing an hours worth of game time only to fail at the final boss fight"
This is the story of my DCU life ever since I got all my t2 gear. Once, I've completed a raid with a PUG. The only time I ever finish is with my league mates, and that's only when they actually have the time to do it, and it's worth it for them considering they didn't run it already.

There really is no need for two tanks at the same time for PVE in this game (unless you plan on separate groups in the intersection in FOS2). The way everything works, the tank can perfectly aggro everything on the screen and survive (as long as everyone does their role), two tanks would be non-productive. Having a tank, though, is always a must and even if you can go without one, you shouldn't.

Right but without the ability to run that content in a timely manner, getting the marks to get the better gear is a soul crushing, mid bending exercise in boring. Not to mention trying to go for any of the base amenities that are worth having like brokers, mail, bank.

Exactly. Taking the time to run the T1 alerts and solo's aren't worth the time spent/marks earned ratio. Yet with all t2 gear, as a troll I still can't do the t2 solo's without dying constantly, and between the time it takes getting together a group for raids/failing at the final boss, it is frustrating. I feel like I waste away half the time I'm alotted to play

why would you fix alert then? i like having 4 dps in group. because then i know i will get healing and power... and others can be crap dps and i wont mind as long as they stand near me. i dont like to have a healer next to me and get 0 healing from him and cant get healing from groupmembers (if we are 3 together and 1 is crap healer= 0 heal) or if there is troller in group and i cant explain him how to do pot and i know what is the power to pot lol, if i cant tell him then at least go dps role for **** sake... better to have no player then crap troller or healer... im ice tank but im almost never tanking alerts... because its stupid to tank when you have supply and other trinkets

you know how long we will wait for alerts again? if you Q for hive alert? you gonna wait 2 hours to get the right roles. the update was the best thing that could happen, so you can get pop fast and do it, i dont know if you like to wait, but i surely dont. and if players want to know what to do then go with crap group and wipe 100 times like i did in the old days...

so please if you dont know what it was like before please dont talk... if you wanna learn role then go watch million youtube videos... i didnt see them because i learned with group/raid wipes... if you wanna learn you have to fail first. or someone needs to tell you what to do.

and one last thing: there will always be bad players and probably in lot of numbers, thats why you make friends and go into league... so you dont go with pugs, but with friends and league mates... for me personaly its fun to carry other 3 players in group , and in raids if i want to make a group i will not take bad players with me simple