Support Class or specs

Community General Discussion
1

I would like some classes have specific Support Specs. I personally enjoy supporting groups. The thought of giving short but frequent buffs to dps, or defense, or healing at any time allows you to feel like you are orchestrating the fight.

Adding a class that is ONLY support would be great in my opinion.

The class could have something that works like totems. Lets call them Magical Notes. These Magical Notes would be placed at a location with a fairly big aoe range that would buff Attack Power or if specced into it buff Attack Power and Crit or Attack Power and Haste. You could toss a Magical Note to where the healers are standing where it could duplicate all their healing spells for a short period of time. You could toss a Magical Note near the tank and it would skyrocket his parry chance for a short time or increase his magic resist greatly for a short time.

Another spec could be more focused on debuffing the enemy while still buffing your group but at a smaller effect. You could debuff the bosses haste, attack power, armor, magic resist, or have a powerful DoT. You could have a debuff on the boss that would make it so all melee who hit the boss have a higher chance at critting the boss.

Who else would like playing a support class?

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2

They’d have to revamp this entire game to get away from the holy trinity.

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3

They would only need to remake the group finder to support another check box. (and some code to go along with it)

4

The problem with the concept of support classes are they are either overpowered or useless. There isn’t a middle ground to them. You either NEED them or it is always better to drop them for a pure.

I can’t see a wave of them being good for the game.

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5

Well that’s the beauty of it. They could balance it to where people would have a small advantage to having a support but not unbeatable without one. Would this make it so most raid groups will run with a support? Yes but would it be 100% necessary? No and I think that would be the best balance for support. Because if they make it so their buffs and debuffs don’t stack then there wouldn’t be a point in stacking support but most groups would want at least 1 giving them a spot in the game.

6

I like support classes, but WoW went for the 5 man group, that 6th spot in previous games would go to the support class. They opted not to have supports, they are hard to balance and usually op.
I’d love a bard class in WoW. But it won’t happen.

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7

Red Mage from FFXI (ye old days, not this garbage out now) says hello :slight_smile: best support class in any mmo ever imo!!

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8

Support roles exist in Rift. In almost every situation, it’s preferable to have either a full on healer, or full on dps. It just works best for the Holy Trinity for everyone to maximize their ability to fill a role; a bit of this and a bit of that amounts to a whole lot of nuthin’.

That said, Guild Wars 2 lets you feel quite “supporty” in large groups. That game does not use the Holy Trinity (not officially anyway, players still more or less try to invoke it, but only very mildly. A heavily armored guy with a shield will try to take the most aggro, for example, but usually doesn’t have the tools to keep it). It works, mostly. Since the lack of dedicated tanks and healers leaves every player to fend for himself, any help you can spread to others is usually welcome.

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So a bard.
I’d be down to play a bars.

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10

In theory we already have them in hybrids. Let’s look at a 2v2 arena. You are fury and your partner is a Ret or Enhance. They still dps just like you, same dps, but can also heal you.

11

An Enchanter type class would be sick and I would play one immediately.

Sadly WoW is not fit for such fun.

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12

Yea but they aren’t dedicated support specs or dedicated support classes.

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And how would that class level up, or do WQ’s, or any other solo content?
Most of gameplay is solo, questing and leveling.

It’s only at max level that many players spend more time in groups or raids.

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14

Thats like asking how would a healing class level up.

The class would still have basic attacks just like healers do. I would even say more so than healers as support should have a higher dps than a healer. But besides attacks alone their self buffs and enemy debuffs would make fighting monsters as easy as a normal dps.

So with moderate damage + self buffs + enemy debuffs = mobs dying as easy as if you were a dps.

Good question

15

Support classes didnt work when they had them during WotLK. Don’t see why they will suddenly work now.

16

Can you refresh my memory?

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You had classes like shaman. They were required for raiding. But you couldnt stack them. Because their personal dps was so bad and their support abilities didn’t stack.

Combined with how the support abilities were balanced around a raid, so they didnt give enough of a benefit in a group setting. So shaman were regularly not wanted for group content.

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18

Oh ok I see what your saying now… I agree they did screw that up. I feel like they tried to add more support but because they didn’t make the buffs stronger or more interesting it was a fail. I am confident if they made a whole new class based solely on support and struck that balance to where it was OP enough but couldn’t be abused that it would be perfect. By abused I mean raid groups would only want 1 or 2 supports and no more but also make it so they aren’t needed.