Let's just SAY Blizzard introduces 'Support specs'...

[Sigxy]

Just a little bored and wanted to be semi-creative. I know that this game is designed for the Trio specs of Tank, Healer and DpS. But if they were to add in some support specs, I'd actually like to see them being tossed in for the classes that currently only got DpS. Just to change one of their current dps specs into them. Keep in mind some of these things would be a bit broken in PvP but, going for a PvE point of view for now. They will still have damage dealing abilities, but they will obviously be less than the DpS specs.


Warlocks: Using Affliction to CC and curse. Fear is used as a CC tool, with less diminishing returns and can fear up to 3 targets. They use curses to debuff their enemies: Weakness to reduce their damage dealt, tongues to slow their spells down, fatigue to reduce their auto-attack and movement speed.


Mages: Using Arcane to CC and buff. Like the warlock, they can Polymorph, just for longer and more of them - and reduce the amount of health/mana they regain. They use their arcane arts to buff other players' spells and attacks to deal extra Arcane damage with a short temporary buff, and they can use time-related spells to speed their attacks and movement.


Rogues: Using Subtlety to CC and 'cripple'. Unlike other rogues who can only stealth outside combat, apart from Vanish, these rogues can do it while in combat - but their stealth has a longer cooldown for it. All their support is used via stealth abilities: They can still only sap out of combat, but since they can enter stealth repeatingly in a fight, their Cheap Shot is a stun that lasts a bit longer than normally. They also use things such as Expose Armour to allow others to deal more damage on the foe, or do a bleed effect that reduces their movement and auto-attack speed as they take damage over time. And if the enemy has a wepaon, they can disarm them for a while.

Another thing they can do is provide a better AoE-stealth effect for allies, and if talented, whenever they enter stealth they can bring one other person into stealth for a short while, which can reset their aggro and their next attack deals bonus damage.


Hunters: Using Beast Mastery to CC and pet-support. They use their traps to snare, stun or slow down in an AoE. They can also do short-duration taunts in order to trick them into the traps. Their pets will be able to support in a lot of different ways, depending on which pet it is. A more 'tanky pet' which is a bit more reliable, or one that roars to frighten enemies, or 'bind' themselves to a random player to increase their damage, or shred an enemy's armour off for overall extra damage. A mix of the other support roles, and all depending on their pet.


And minor thing for PvP, though more of a tank thing kind of support: Allow tanks to taunt players. It just forces them to target the warrior for like two seconds, but might be able to save a life - unless the player is capable of using AoE, thus putting that stuff into more use.


It's not the best list, but felt like sharing the ideas at least since I think there's some potential in it. I'm pretty curious, though, what the rest of you would like to have from support roles if they would become a thing (even if they probably won't)!

[Apanonar]

We already had that. In vanilla, everyone except prot warriors, rogues, mages and (later) warlocks were supports and healers.

[johnnyd2]

i always liked this idea
Maybe have Discipline Priests as a support spec too

[Deleted]

Not sure. This is something RIFT makers pulled off nicely so I'd expect Bliz to fuck it up royally.
Would also be a bitch to maintain unless damage meters attributed e.g. your damage buff as your own damage dealt etc.

[supertigerlamp]

Not sure. This is something RIFT makers pulled off nicely so I'd expect Bliz to fuck it up royally.
Would also be a bitch to maintain unless damage meters attributed e.g. your damage buff as your own damage dealt etc.

Which doesn't seem completely out of their reach since Blessing of Might confers its damage benefits back to the paladin who cast it, at least it does so on Skada and Warcraft Logs.

Having it spread across multiple mobs instead of being something on the player itself might be trickier, but still doesn't seem out of reach if they wanted to do it.

But it WOULD have to be conferred in a readily identifiable manner to justify the design choice to most players. Big numbers are what most people look at when gauging contribution. Having to explain that Curse of Elements is technically improving YOUR contribution by 8% more than the in-game damage meter is reading will be too much for a lot of people to grasp/have time to have explained to them.

[aGit]

we already have support specs, they're called healers.

[Darkeon]

"What you mean I have to go [whatever specc] to be competitive??"

[Nayami]

Would be very interesting to see, that's for sure. I don't know how it could work out though. I assume that one would take a Support over a DPS role in dungeons/raids since they can neither heal or tank, so you will have to balance Support to be as strong as a DPS role. I just can't see the devs doing that tbh, they already have trouble balancing different DPS specs, attempting to balance Support Vs. DPS would be asking for trouble.

[Deleted]

would be cool to see more specs added in that changes the class like melee mage. used to see them in stratholme dungeon SM side

[Traveler Voltin]

Blizzard will never do it. They hate it

[Sansnom]

It's not the best list, but felt like sharing the ideas at least since I think there's some potential in it. I'm pretty curious, though, what the rest of you would like to have from support roles if they would become a thing (even if they probably won't)!

GW had support classes and roles. Some class can buff other others, reduce the damage from enemies, increase the damage taken for enemies. Lock down certain enemies.

It worked. But I am not sure if it would work in WoW, especially in instances against a single enemy like the bosses.

[cFortyfive]

They will still have damage dealing abilities, but they will obviously be less than the DpS specs.!

I can already see the "but why can't I do the same dps as spec x" threads.

[Deleted]

GW had support classes and roles. Some class can buff other others, reduce the damage from enemies, increase the damage taken for enemies. Lock down certain enemies.

It worked. But I am not sure if it would work in WoW, especially in instances against a single enemy like the bosses.

RIFT has supports too. I loved playing a bard. GW2 has a lot of support capabilities for all classes and it seems to work. Trick is, WoW has had pure Triad for 12 years and for majority of that time dps/hps meters were kings. In WoW, especially on ST fights, support could focus on buffing the team instead of debuffing the enemy, though stacking and sustain could help with that too.

[Deleted]

Won't work in a game that has become purely about "My p*nis is the longest because I do the most dmg (or heal)".

It would start as "I don't show up in the meters because I'm a supporter" and end in supporters doing as much dps/heal as other classes plus having nerfed-to-nothingness buffs/debuffs from their original role...

[Extremities]

Unfortunately the game has changed so much that we will probably never see any sort of "support" style class that I think a lot of us would like. Even though Healers are considered support, there's other forms of support; haste buffs, casting speed buffs, dmg buffs, crit buffs, reduce the mobs attack speed debuffs(WoW has fucked up on these having absolutely zero effect. EQ did it right), magic resistance debuffs, etc, etc,. Theres tons of ways they could do it but they wont and not now with how inflated numbers are in the game. Gameplay is extremely too quick for any support classes to CC mobs in WoW these days. Since everything is rush rush rush, the slower CC mentality is behind us...unfortunately. I miss the days of you getting 1 additional add and you were dead... Oh wait that was EQ, not WoW.

A different generation now, everything's easier else people bitch. So, again I highly doubt we'll ever see any sort of support style specs or classes in WoW. WoW's gameplay isn't made to be slower, methodical with any forms of CC or support style classes. Its high paced, high number pumping combat and it wont change. They'd have to completely change the style of combat for that to even remotely work.

[Aurabolt]

Won't work in a game that has become purely about "My p*nis is the longest because I do the most dmg (or heal)".

It would start as "I don't show up in the meters because I'm a supporter" and end in supporters doing as much dps/heal as other classes plus having nerfed-to-nothingness buffs/debuffs from their original role...

...This.

We're in an age where all people give a damn about is results. Folks could care less about the process itself. This is why Blizzard stripped support skills from all the specs between Cata and Legion.

I think it's time they not only be brought back but pure support classes be introduced. The Role Triangle needs to become a square.

[Deleted]

The aversion of blizzard to crowd controllers as a role was already very present back in vanilla (even if neccessary i promise you, it was never even close to EQ levels). They tend to force design to have them heavily in mind since they can bypass mechanics, and seeing how most encounters nowadays work, and how they had turned dungeons into aoe fiestas, well i don't see them going back to the drawboard anytime soon, because that would take too much time which they would rather use into something else to hook you up.

Debuffers, well they kinda removed it, so we know their stance on it aswell.

[Narbootz]

A friend was telling me about another mmo that had a 'support' type spec that exclusively buffed others. In WoW I suppose there is a lot they could buff for different roles: leech, movement speed, aoe avoidance buff, cast speed, attack speed, secondary stats, the list goes on. This could be extended to include the debuffing you explain: decrease mob health by %, cc, decrease attack speed or damage of enemies. Maybe the results of them arent obvious on a meter but they are definitely helping.

It sounds really fun to me but probably not the majority of people. I also dont think it will ever happen - as someone else said further up they have enough trouble balancing classes with just the three roles.

[LongJohn]

let's not and call it a day.

[pmkaboo]

id like to see buffs which are accounted for in the balance, i.e. you need them to comfortably do the content.