MMO Gamers

Tobold talked about the problem of groups in Age of Conan and the search for the often elusive tank or healer.  I personally haven’t seen a lot of calls for healers on Wiccana, though tanks seem to be harder to come by.  I can see why.  I tried a Guardian myself on Tortage and it was the least enjoyable class in my opinion.  I’d imagine on a FFA PvP server these classes would be even scarcer.  Why be a priest or tank when you can be a barbarian and kick seven kinds of crap out of people.

The author hypothesizes a system where all classes do the same DPS and everyone can heal themselves using potions and between-combat regeneration methods.  Game developers, if you are reading this, take note.  DON’T DO THIS!

My first MMO gaming experience was with Dark Age of Camelot.  The first class I ever made was an Armsman, a tank, which I rerolled at about level 22.  I then played a scout to level 41 before trying a few other DPS classes and hybrid tank classes like the Reaver.  Eventually I found myself playing support classes like the Minstrel before finally making the move to Healer.

I like playing a healer.  I’m happy to sacrifice my solo combat effectiveness because I know that I can more easily get into a group more often, at which point I can hopefully make up for any XP deficit.  Plus I prefer groups and group content over single player.  And I enjoy the tank, dps, healer combination that it takes to go through a dungeon.  Tabula Rasa has classes which all solo well.  They still have a tank, healer, dps variety but you don’t need any particular class in a group.  I don’t think I ever saw a “looking for healer” or “looking for tank” cry in the chat channels.  I saw the occasional LFM, but most people just soloed that game.

I think the people that play tanks and healers do so because they much prefer group content.  Or, where tanks are concerned, they just have to have plate armour.  This leads me to my proposition.  Make tanks and healers more attractive by giving them more fluff.  Give them unique mounts for instance, or allow them to get mounts earlier than other classes.  Let the tank be the only class that can get an armoured mount; a mighty steed in glimmering armour.  Give them cool stuff so players go “Aww, how awesome, I want one of those”.

There’s plenty of solo content in the modern MMO.  Those players that post on forums “which is the best solo class” aren’t particularly interested in grouping nor will they roll a tank.  But there needs to be some class interdependency in order for the whole group dynamic to work.  Without it we will see fewer groups.  People will just wait a few more levels before going back and soloing the content anyway.  I’ve seen this exact thing happen in Tabula Rasa.