What are the must-have classes for a new MMO?

[Clash the DK]

There are many MMOs on the market with new ones arriving every year. Some MMOs have more classes, while others tend to consolidate. But, which class archetypes can't be left out of any MMO? Please try to be more specific than Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Cleric. For example, is a Holy Warrior (Paladin,Templar) archetype mandatory these days? Do all mages need to cast Fire spells in your opinion? Should there always be a pet class? I'm just trying to get some insight on player expectations. What should be available and what do you want to play?

[Deleted]

A rising question these days is whether the holy trinity is still required, Tank, Healer, DPS. But almost every MMO has them and any MMO which wants to be financially successful copies what's gone before. So you need a Plate Wearing warrior tank, cloth wearing healer and a leather wearing ranged/melee damage dealer. In recent times we have seen the rise of the 'support' role, one that WoW almost had in paladins/shaman, but chose to shy away from it. Rift has the Bard and Tera has the Mystic.

I am hearing that GW2 doesn't have the trinity, but I've been mostly avoiding reports of the game (and beta access) so that I could enjoy finding out for myself when it comes out. It is very hard to have organised PvE without the trinity.

[Skelington]

MMOs need more Ritualist and Mesmer like classes from Guild Wars.

[Repefe]

I think the basic split starts at magic/non magic. You want 2 front line bruiser/avoidance melee classes one that relies to an extent on magic, one that doesn't. Two ranged dps again one with magic one without. And then you want at least one magic support class. More than that is good, but then it gets more specific.

[Deleted]

Melee physical
Melee magic
Ranged physical
Ranged magic
They all need to be able to tank and heal their own asses too.

[Dezerte]

Non-combat classes like Blacksmith & Diplomat, and obviously the game needs to be designed around this if it is to work.

[Kuniku]

druids, all games should have druids!

[The Kao]

Melee physical
Melee magic
Ranged physical
Ranged magic
They all need to be able to tank and heal their own asses too.

This. Breaking down the essentials without calling specific class names or confusing classes with roles.

Have one or two of these and your game will be fine; the details should be up to creativity. I mean, come on, everyone can imagine where warriors, paladins or mages would fit in here, the trick is to come up with something interesting, something out of the box once in a while.

[Achaman]

MMOs need more Ritualist and Mesmer like classes from Guild Wars.

the more common a class is like the mesmer the less interesting it would be lets keep it unique shall we -.-

i personally prefer mage or a bow user like ranger/archer shame the GW2 mage (i forget the exact name of it) is a bit disappointing

---------- Post added 2012-07-02 at 09:25 AM ----------

Melee physical
Melee magic
Ranged physical
Ranged magic
They all need to be able to tank and heal their own asses too.

should like guild wars 2 then since they can all self heal and most can tank if i remember right (been awile since ive checked up on the game)

[Chronos80]

I only want a pure two-handed weapons using, plate wearing dps class. No 1handers. No tanking role. Just pure 2hand dps. If game has that in, I'm interested.

[Deleted]

some kind of cc and support classes are nice.

classes that do can do different things like a healer with short time buffs, then maybe a healer with stong nuke spells, a melee healer and so on. (same for tanks, dds, supporter, crowd controler,...)

special classes like the psychicer, lady luck class and gun mage in final fantasy x-2 or the mesmer in gw 2

also real hybrid classes like the Captain in Lotro

[Deleted]

I liked the way they broke it down in City of Heroes:

Tank
Ranged dps
Melee dps
Crowd Control
Damage Control/healing.

Mmm... I need to get back to Paragon City again sometime to stave off 'end of expansion' blues.

[Achaman]

dcuo has an interesting class/spec where their sole purpose is to keep the groups power (aka mana) up

its a pretty dull spec to play but it gets you into groups faster than the typical dps

[Thrage]

I don't think you even need classes to have a good MMO. I'd like to see a good one without them (And before anyone mentions it, Darkfall is terrible and doesn't count.) Or at the very least, starting without a class and choosing it along your journey is a lot of fun (Ragnarok Online, early SWG, early EQ2).

[Anjerith]

Warrior, Priest, Rogue.

[Gsara]

Im with Thrage, Id like to see a game that starts as just a common character. As you go you are given choices and become what you want. Maybe something like a duel class system as well, but done very well.

[Shinzai]

Slow, heavily armored guy. Fast/Sneaky light armored guy. Guy in robe with magics. Mid geared guy who does a bit of everything. Honey Badger Berserker.

Call each whatever you want, but with the above you can forge pretty much any kind of MMO.

[hythos]

I don't think you even need classes to have a good MMO. I'd like to see a good one without them (And before anyone mentions it, Darkfall is terrible and doesn't count.) Or at the very least, starting without a class and choosing it along your journey is a lot of fun (Ragnarok Online, early SWG, early EQ2).

I agree about having a 'sandbox' approach of games without strict templates or locked 'classes'; StarWarsGalaxies provided such a great mechanism. Project V13 (FallOutOnLine) would have provided a similar custom skill-building ability, in which one could choose how they want their character to be, and not be restricted to a class/role.
Additionally, allowing only a single character slot per server does irritate those whom like to play alts - but when done correctly, IF done correctly, skills would be variable, dependent upon use, increase by use, or by point-selection... (still kinda undecided here: skill-up=grind, high potential; point-system=waiting for level-up, skill-caps)



My only request for any game, would be......

NO MORE EFFING ELVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

[Edge-]

Honestly, I'd much prefer a game that allowed you to build your own class. You get access to all the tools, but can only pick a limited toolkit. You get to customize your character completely to your playstyle.

TSW is damn close to this (and GW2 does a decent job by giving each profession a ton of variety in what roles they can perform and how the perform them), but I haven't seen a game fully embrace it. I can understand why, it's potentially confusing as fuck and limits your potential audience to only people with a brain, but that doesn't mean I don't want to see it :P

[Tobywongg]

A fast, stealthy, class (think Rogue). A strong,heavy armor, tanker. (Not the holy trinity tank, but he just eats attacks, think warrior, paladin.) Holy healer ( Think priest).
And of course, the cloth, magic caster. (Mage).