What happened to the support roles in DCUO?

Question: Has the method of using the Support role been lost to the new Generation of players?

Yes, because there is no scoreboard value for them...its all DPS all the time because for some reason when you go DPS you must ignore, pickups, ignore room mechanics, ignore anything and everything that has to do with stopping your AM combos

Most of the players I run with play both roles.

Ditto. I play all four, which is why I have three clones of my main character.

I only play support roles is 8 man and most 4 man instances...I find DPS'ing extremely boring with the exception of duo and of course solo

There are more than double the amount of dps players vs support players. When cross play happened that number increased drastically. So now its a bigger gap than before.

The irony being that, hands down, the most effective DPS players I know all play support roles competently as well.

Then there's all these 'beast DPS' guys who think high output comes from running ahead and ignoring group member necessities - 'O BAD HEALS why I keep dying BR0?' - because you're in front of the tank, the healer is behind another corner, and you just drew aggro from five adds. Because you're a 'beast' DPS, you also have no shield, no dampening fields, no aggro dump ability, and no idea how to block or counter.

You wanna hit harder? Mod your character and start working on them Skill Points.

I play troll or dps whenever needed.

My healers rank in at #3 and 4 on my list. If I didn't purposefully stunt their progress they could easily overtake my two main characters in terms of content run simply because theres suddenly such a demand for healers again. almost as soon as i log on with them i get a few tells. That hasn't happened since the days of fos2 and 3.

frankly i'm okay with it. i love healing and controlling as much as i enjoy dps'ing. as long as the majority feels running those roles are somehow beneath them i'll be getting ahead by playing both roles.

That's the other thing. I might be able to output like a mofo on my main (mental) and ice alt, but I've also got 151 Controller gear and a 148 Tank setup. People are *always* hiring a Controller in Raids, and if there's another one there - well, I'm a mental DPS set up for close range combat with 175 SP. I get in where I fit in, but you don't always have to be a damage-role player to be on the bus.

I actually enjoy heals I don't know why but the thought of controlling everyone's life is very satisfying. I still need to try trolling and tank but dps was never very fun maybe most dps like the big numbers. Also most people might be put off thinking its a big responsibility and are afraid to try it at least new players maybe.

* Advance Mechanics & Weapon Mastery

* Increased NPC Health after Amazon Fury 1 DLC and further DLC's due to the massive Damage WM's & AM's brought.

* Roleless Buffs for Alerts, because of the massive influx of DPS being 80% of the community effecting Balance Ques.

* Easy Raid Mechanics since Tier Five. Leading too.....

* Easy getting away with 5 DPS stacked in raids going on 2-3 Years that it became a Norm for the community.

* Developers spending near 3 Years focusing on Damage Balance, Revamps, & Hot-fixes; still continuing to do this very day.

From AM's, WM's, Range Differentials, & other nonsense while not giving Support Roles like Controlling anytype of creative revamp.



Community being 80% of players who mainly play DPS. While Developers enforce this criteria as they're still Revamping Damage & making easy Mechanic Content with High Health NPC's leading to favor of Damage.



.........Is what happen to support Roles.


Lucky i'm not a Dev, You'll hate me. I'd put a 3 DPS Cap for Raids & 1 for Alerts in Ques and Disable Armories. Damage is literally out of control in this game more then any other MMO i've played. An I've been playing MMO's since the days of Runescape.

In order of relative difficulty by role, it's generally like this for me :

DPS (simple) - > Controller (simple) - > Healer (simple) / Tank (simple) - > Controller (active) / DPS (experienced/active) - > Healer (active) - > Tank (Raid)

Anyone can deal damage - Basic DPS is something my cat can do.

Almost anyone can cycle POT, use a Supercharge at the right time, and burst regen, so simple Controller isn't hard either. You have to be able to count to five and makes sure the blue bars don't run out.

Day One healing (healing with Nature or Sorcery, for the most part) - little more complicated, you have to pay attention to life, your own and everyone else's - Controller messes up, a Soder will fix that, Soders will not bring you back from the dead though, and a healer can prevent that from happening. Simple Tanking is just a matter of maintaining aggro (use an ability once every eight seconds - it's simple), knowing when to block and using pulls for grouping.

Active controlling (adding stuns, debuff, and running pickups and mechanics) requires a lot of time micromanagement. Likewise, Active Damage role (damage output, pickups, mechanics, survival) requires a lot more attention to be paid to what's happening around you. Any idiot can deal damage but it takes a sharp eye to make sure it's effective and to keep everyone else alive while doing it.

Active Healing (Celestial or Electric, or anything in a top-end Raid, solo) - now you've got a crapload of moving parts. From the standpoint of a controller, a solo healer is tied with tank for the highest power draw and for the most essential spot in a Raid group; basically, unlike an alert or duo, the second you screw up someone is going to die.

Raid Tanking is the most 'involved' of all of these activities, because simple tank mechanics can't take quite as much punishment as complicated ones, which requires more footwork, and complicated tank mechanics have to be monitored constantly while you're tanking. Both require an excellent eye for what's taking place around you and the ability to keep yourself in the proverbial eye of the storm. The second you screw up, unless you have a badass survival DPS next to you or a Healer / Controller with a group shield SC, EVERYONE is going to die.

Granted, with time and experience, all of these become easier to do.

*sigh* don't even get me started on how many times I run into players with matchmaking that rush into danger without waiting. I've only been playing for about 2 months and building my battle healer up. Even if there's an extremely high level player taking point, there's always that one low level who just wants to rush ahead. Whether cause they don't know the spawn areas, aren't wary of enemies spawning behind them in certain groups, or just want to play the hero. I enjoy matchmaking when the team is willing to wait for the others and be considerate when others have to pause and sort through items. Kind of why I'll tend to mostly pass items when I use group loot. Less cluter and getting back into the action quicker.

But that's beside the point, I understand not everyone likes waiting or forcing themselves to take a backseat and play support, or having another player get more of the action. If you want to get through an area, without spending your whole in-game wallet on repairing/buying items anyway, you have to understand that being able to dps properly doesn't always mean rushing and playing point whenever you can. Unless they don't understand what "tanks", "aggro", "retreating" and proper damage crit set-ups are. Then I can't be too harsh on those players. Still annoys me though.

As I've seen some allude to here in the forums, it would help tremendously if there was some sort of tutorial during the leveling up phase to level 30 for NEW players.

Maybe this tutorial could give a good explanation of each role, and then break it down further to that player's SPECIFIC role.

I did not learn about my own role as a Controller until I was around CR 70, in an Outer T2 raid, and another Troller came into raid after several wipes to help explain my "Other" role to me.

Up until CR 70, I Dps'd mainly. When I pressed the "T" button on my keyboard all I know is that it turned my symbol into a Slinky. I had no idea what it meant.

I believe that many new players, as they progressed to Level 30, would come to have more appreciation for their "Other" role (besides DPS) if they became aware of it during the leveling process up to level 30. Assign some feats to it IF/WHEN they switch to their "Other" role. Give a brief rundown of the mechanics of that role.

Assign some Role-Specific lower-level missions to them before they get to Level 30. Make this CRUCIAL to them even getting to Level 30.

I'm sure that some players - if they had to go through this - would probably quit at that point. But there must be some way to make players AWARE of their OTHER role (whether Healer, Tank or Controller) during the LEVELING process.

Give them an explanation of how that ROLE is essential to their group or raid party - during the Leveling Process to 30.

There is no such thing as a "Beast" DPS anymore...its just "Beast" power type...if you are halfway literate and actually read the AMs then that's it...

"Beast" is something an idiot calls themselves : I prefer to let my work speak for me.

i play all roles. You can't force people to play

Aren't you the guy who was on the 'you HAVE to use white mods or I won't group with you' train, like literally last week?

How about you recant that position first before going with the statement 'you can't force people to do X' - it's not magically more noble because it's role selection versus character modding.

z


never forced anyone to put on mods, As i pointed out i ask, People need to learn how to Read i Said it in the Name of the Thread Dps and support roles Please have your mods on.

now i don't really care about this dps vs support roles thing we have had this in game for quite a while now and all honesty you can't force someone to be support you can ask or you can pug that's it.

i stand with what i said with the white mods i still say it now i believe it does better and People should use them, that's what i believe but it's always an option everyone that came into that thread made it into a fighting thread about who and wont after i saw that i stayed out of it the entire time, except to tell people that had problem with me not quiting that i am here to stay.

That entire thread was to show people what mods did i never Once force anyone to wear mods and i still don't till this day, but i will always say mods are better because i have seen the proof.

played decide how they want to play all i can do is ask i am not as mean as everyone points me out to be.