SigmaAtom's Guide to Roles and Formation In ORS, I teach a couple of classes. One of them is my class on Roles and Formation. Most enjoy knowing they are on the same page as the rest of the league. And if they are new the information becomes invaluable to them, as many MMOs do not have a controller class in the same way we do in DCUO. Some of this is re-worked from the old guide that sorely needed updating and some proper formatting; as while friendly as it was, it was also a little sloppy and needed tightening up. 08.Dec.2017. ------------- Hi Thank you for agreeing to take my class, I hope you find it enlightening. Today we are going to learn about Roles and Formation. In the 'Charge' [Formation] we have [Assault] Tank, DPS and [Support] Healer, Controller. [Assault] Tank First into the fight. highest defence. the tank leads the charge of the formation and should know maps well, a basic grip of the storyline helps too. the whole group follows the tank as a pinnacle of formation. can grant control immunity. They are a human shield through drawing aggro & fire. Many are Speedsters, but not all. DPS general fighter and/or heavy weight. does quest and story items. protects the controller and healer, does crowd control (killing mobs) good all rounder. dps's move around a bit but should try to stay in the centre behind the tank, as the healer and controller should line up with the tank. An easy way to remember a DPS's job is: Damage. Protection. Story. Create damage, protect [Support] and do the story, in that order. DPS doesn't mean that; it means Damage Per Second but this is an easy way to remember it. [Support] Healer keeps everyone alive. essential. group shields. buffs. stays second last in the charge and has the controller as bodyguard. should not be made to fight, if any dps's let hostiles stray a combination of the healer and controller is used to take down the hostile. Controller Last in the Charge. Restores energy: keeps the energy fires burning. The Tank and Controller are the 'bookends' of the Formation stays last to protect the Healer, if you see me waiting for you and your a dps.. kindly move!. ill want to protect the healer first. the controller restores their energy by Power over Time and buildups of weapon discharge, then shares it with the group; the healer gets to heal the dps get to fight and the tank can grant defence to themselves or others. Many are flyers but not all. If the troller can't see the healer they can't power heal them, some tanks will say that the Healer should go at the back, last, but this breaks the ability to power heal + BG (bodyguard). not all trollers fly, but I found many many do.. with good reason, you can see the whole fight from the sky easily. Mindset: If you are [Assault] .. don't worry about your bars too much, your health bar should be pretty much near max all the time, and you should be PoT'd at all times, if one DPS is being a power hog, then that's not the Controller fault. The power the Controller has is not for you but for the Healer to keep the group alive but so long as the Controller has PoT'd (Power over Time) the group; they have done their job. Have confidence that both health and power are coming. Support are working on it. If you are [Support].. don't worry, you don't have to know the story, or know the map, just follow the group and let them get on with their jobs. IF you are Controller and have a late group member, let the whole group know what's going on and why you have to wait. Basic Strategy: [Tank] The Tank's job is to keep the whole group alive, if your group wiped quickly, and the healer & troller were empty, the tank did not draw enough aggro. The Tank's primary concern is the whole group's health. Healer buffs can also help the survivability of the group. human shield distracting mobs/enemies by drawing the aggression toward them (aggro). The Tank is the *only* one who should open doors or trigger 'open door events', He/she should wait for the whole group. No DPS's should trigger the event.. why? because the group will die. It also grows the Tank's confidence, that they can do their job without a DPS taking it off them. [DPS] If someone is knocked out, it is primarily the controllers job to save knockouts, DPS and Healers *do* help however take a quick glance around and ask yourself ' Am I going to be dragging aggro around the map endangering everyone if I go to save a knockout?' if the answer is yes; then let the troller handle the pickup, if they are worth their salt, they have worked on zero aggro and can slip in and save the knockout with a very low chance of being harmed. PLEASE don't open doors.. I can't say this enough times; please, let the Tank BE a Tank. Simply put, the DPS's primary concern is dealing damage to mobs. Protecting support yes. but killing firstly. Story yes... but. you get me. [Support] Support in general are not there to draw aggro, in fact it's a very undesirable situation. Support should work on not drawing any aggro from mobs and bosses, this keeps them safe so the DPS can continue their job of damage and not have to run over to save them from mobs etc. [Healer] The Healer's job is similar but with emphasis on keeping the tank alive. Buff's to keep the DPS happy and hitting hard. Tank comes first and the healer should always reserve a little power for the tank. [Controller] The Controller's primary job is to keep the Healer alive. Debuffs are secondary, PoT's/Recharge thirdly. (second and third can be interchangeable depending on the situation, but never the first) always keeping enough power for the healer to keep everyone alive (meaning also and primarily the tank). DPS's *should* be PoT'd and HoT'd at all times. The Controller can use debuffs on enemies to control the group's power eating by lowering defence, controlling the healer power out with weapon smashing and increasing the group survivability. The Healer can add buffs raising the protection and abilities of the group, increasing survivability and help alleviate power eating. At times I've seen more and more healers wondering off and ranging.. this is an upsetting trend, and I feel bad every time they die because of this, if they had stayed close I could have protected them and revived them from knockout. Symbiosis The Tank and Controller have a symbiotic relationship in regards to keeping the integrity of the formation. The Healer and the Tank have a symbiotic relationship in regards to the group's health and survivability. The Controller and the Healer have a symbiotic relationship in regards to the Healers survivability and power needs. [Tank-Controller] The Tank should wait until all group members are in the trigger spot/door until proceeding, the controller should wait on the last group member to keep them with the group. When the tank checks his map, he/she should see no blue blips off map, if he does, it means 1 or more of the group have fell behind and the controller is probably there waiting on the lagging group member, so then he/she (the tank) should tell the group to wait. I have seen LOADS of DPS's triggering a door event, only to die, becuase I was the ONLY Troller in the raid. They needed me but I was busy collecting an errant DPS, so why would another DPS trigger the door event? the healer is almost certainly going to die without the controller present, then the tank then the DPS. you need to wait for the group to be whole. [Healer-Tank] The healer should keep a keen eye on the Tanks health, because as soon as the Tank dies, the job of healing is going to get a LOT harder; if not impossible. [Controller-Healer] The Controller is the Healers bodyguard, not just that the Controller is responsible to ensure that the healer has enough power to heal the group. [Healer-DPS] If the Controller is KO'd then the Healer becomes the one to save knockouts as they should have the least aggro.. this is FAR from an ideal situation, because if the healer dies the group dies. The DPS should note when the Controller goes down and one should stay by the healer, but not too close, causing less burn (damage) than the others to save the Healer from knockouts. In short.. Tank and DPS are [Assault] and Healer and Controller are [Support].. think of them like.. a band. The Tank is the Singer, the DPS are the Guitarists, the Healers are the Bassists and the Controllers are the Drummers. We work together so we 'ROCK!' We at ORS hope you have found this class informative. If you would like to leave a donation the tip jar is on the desk as you leave the ORS Office. have a great and bizarre day! Sigma. ------------ P. S if anyone has any improvements, please PM me Original Guide; March/2012.
Though this is five years old, it is still relevant today. This is a lost art on raiding. Especially with the mentality of a lot of DPS's you see currently in game.
