Introducing the support role to wow

[Deleted]

Introducing the support role
I was talking to some friends today about the Support role and why WoW does not have it and we were discussing on how it could solve problems like healing and tank shortages on most servers and give classes that feel neglected something new. The Support role is a healing-tank-dps hybrid, that does rougly 60% the dps of a normal dps, 40% of the healing of a normal healer and is able to tank 1 or two adds at once, ofcourse not all at once.

Why is a support role needed?
Well there are some problems at the moment that could need some solving in my opinion this are, the long DPS queue's because there are too many, the tank/healer shortage and there should be some bridge for those that want to change specs and the support role could fill this. Another thing that makes adding the Support Role a good idea is that it adds another layer of depth to pve and pvp content.

Which classes would get the support role?
Classes which currently have 3 dps specs would be able to get the support role plus some melee roles. This would be Sublety (rogue), Demonology (Warlock), Survival (Hunter), Arcane (mage), Fury (warrior) and Death Knight (Unholy).

What would the Support role bring?
The support role will bring support to their team. With them giving 4 of 8 combat buffs, crowd controll, aoe-heals, burst-damage and the chance to off-tank. There is one downside of this class, doing either damage, tanking or healing generates a stacking debuff reducing the other two's power by 10% but increasing your current by 5% till a max of 5 stacks, once you use another of these tree the debuff will be removed.

How would they be introduced into pve content?
They would replace some dps and healers in the pve enviroment. In 5 man content they will get one of the three dps roles, but a support won't always be included in the group, so 3 dps is possible aswell. In 10 man content they will take up one of the ranged dps spots and a healer spot. In 25 man content the setup will be 4 healers, 3 tanks, 6 support, 12 dps. This would also make 25 man groups allot easier to manage and make. Next to this the support role will only be avaible for content that is 90 and higher.

What would do this for pvp content?
It will give allot of new changes with this healing-dps hybrid for arena teams and battlegrounds and new tactics could be made around this new class.

When would this feature be introduced?
Next expansion and would only be avaible for the pvp/pve content of that expansion as old stuff will not be balanced around having the support role. Before level 90 support specs will only have their dps skills avaiable the tank and healing skills will be gained after level 90.

[Deleted]

I love the idea of support roles, I also enjoy playing support classes in other MMO games. But in my opinion support classes don't fit into WoW's stream-lined design anymore. There used to be classes like the Paladin who was a supporter back in the day. But Blizzard changed that; so I don't think we're going to see such "niche classes" again in WoW.

[Deleted]

There were support roles in WoW and they removed them Wotlk. I'm all for bringing them back as hybrids are fucked when it comes to DPS as it is now....but Blizz doesn't like it and will never bring them back.

[Deleted]

be nice if there was a class that used its abilities to help others do a task they normally couldn't optimally do, like a melee dps tanking or spell dps healing.

haven't a clue how this would work but meh.

[Mongoose19]

We had it in TBC that's why it was so fun to play any class those days.

[Tethrys]

Think like a bard is in most games. They provide buffs that might increase another person's damage, or their threat generated, or how much healing they could do. They might also have a HoT or get a bubble or some sort to off-tank a mob for a bit.

For example:
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Arcane_Warrior
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Templar_(Origins)
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Bard

Just because they were the first to come to mind.

[Deleted]

Think like a bard is in most games. They provide buffs that might increase another person's damage, or their threat generated, or how much healing they could do. They might also have a HoT or get a bubble or some sort to off-tank a mob for a bit.

For example:
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Arcane_Warrior
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Templar_(Origins)
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Bard

Just because they were the first to come to mind.

In this case they don't necissarly have to buff others with that (but will get abilities that do that) but could buff themselves too so they won't be standing doing nothing for half a fight, which wouldn't be fun. This also gives a great reason to revamp some classes, like rogue, because they lost one of their dps specs they could get some new shinies back for it aswell while keeping the old cool abilities but giving them to the other two specs instead.

[Deleted]

So thats a sub par dps who can heal right ?

[mkultra55]

I agree OP. I've posted about the same subject on the WOW forums since Ghostcrawler told us that no one thought support was fun so they removed to role.

I rolled a Shaman when Ally got them in TBC just to be support. I loved that my Enhance Shaman made the melee group I was in better and I loved pushing my DPS to be competitive. So I was always annoyed by GC's blanket statement. In the end I think they got rid of the idea of Buff/Debuff/Support specs because the devs couldn't figure out how to make encounters that worked around the concept. Much easier to have 3 variables than 5 or 6 and Blizzard has gone the easier route since the Argent Tourney was released.

Rift does a nice job with the support role but in that game it's limited to DPS/Heals support like Bards. There's less need for Off Tank/DPS hybrids but it's still fun.

[Nyaldee]

Healers are filling this support niche atm and with ability to switch between specs there's no shortage of tanks/healers for raid enviroment. Also to pull support role off you need to make buffs matter more and wore of much faster. Generally it should be a game of hybrids like GW2 where any class can fit almost every role or be succesfull inbetween them - as it is now in WoW every spec is highly specialized, gear is highly specialized and everything that is average in multiple rolls isn't needed, whille everything that exells in multiple rolls will be overpowered compared to the rest.

[Deleted]

Theres loads of support role stuff in MoP look at things like http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108288. Also the spirit using classes.

[Deleted]

there used to be support classes until cata

[Northem]

Support classes would be a good idea in general. They would help a more balanced pvp and pve while bring a fresh touch to current classes and also give the possibility to add new classes in the future.

[Deleted]

Support classes would be a good idea in general. They would help a more balanced pvp and pve while bring a fresh touch to current classes and also give the possibility to add new classes in the future.

I think it could contribute to class uniqueness greatly aswell. As most things have been streamlined, with bringing those streamlined things under the support class allot of new coolness can be added to most classes.

[Deleted]

the problem is that it would be very situational at best, or neccesary on some fights. If they do lower dps, you are not going to bring them unless you can really use the healing. To offtank 1 or 2 adds is not going to make a big differense really. There is a small hole in 10-man for the fights where you want 2.5 healers, but it´s a samll one and not liky to be usefull for an entire raid

[Deleted]

the problem is that it would be very situational at best, or neccesary on some fights. If they do lower dps, you are not going to bring them unless you can really use the healing. To offtank 1 or 2 adds is not going to make a big differense really. There is a small hole in 10-man for the fights where you want 2.5 healers, but it´s a samll one and not liky to be usefull for an entire raid

Well as I said, they are brining the raid buffs. No supporters, no buff. So its not like there is no reason to take them, you would always want atleast 2. Support classes would actually be needed in the new way of PVE because bosses will be balanced around having the number of support classes you need (except in 5 man content) and as support classes could actually increase your dps by skills like tricks of the trade or a mass stealth that increases dps by 50% on the first attack (for a sublety support) you will want them.

Each spec however will deliver roughly the same, although melee-support will be support for melee/tanks while ranged-support would for ranged/healers and each class will have some things only they bring, like mass stealth or player duplicates (arcane mage)

[Seriss]

Well as I said, they are brining the raid buffs. No supporters, no buff. So its not like there is no reason to take them, you would always want atleast 2.

Blizzard doesn't want a class to be mandatory. That's why buffs were spread out over various classes after BC.

[Talen]

Introducing the support role
I was talking to some friends today about the Support role and why WoW does not have it and we were discussing on how it could solve problems like healing and tank shortages on most servers and give classes that feel neglected something new. The Support role is a healing-tank-dps hybrid, that does rougly 60% the dps of a normal dps, 40% of the healing of a normal healer and is able to tank 1 or two adds at once, ofcourse not all at once.

In other words, a Paladin.

Not quite what Blizzard sees as a support role - which is (keeping it simple) a buffer/debuffer. A force multiplier. Someone who, in Blizzards parlance, stands there and makes sure other players look good.

There are certainly room for expansion in what various classes can perform.

Tanking has been mooted for Shamans, Hunters, Warlocks and Rogues for example.
The mage could be a healer.
Paladins could get ranged DPS (spell) while warriors could get physical ranged DPS.
Rogues could get some aspects of the Bard role.

And so on.

But what you are suggesting as a support role is to step back into the hybrid role. A Paladin who is able to switch between DPS, Heal and Tank modes without changing spec. Its not impossible but has obvious balance concerns.

EJL

[Deleted]

Blizzard doesn't want a class to be mandatory. That's why buffs were spread out over various classes after BC.

This is no class this is a spec, so you would have roughly 6 specs that would each deliver 4 out of 8 buffs (melee classes bring melee buffs, ranged classes bring ranged buffs) so its just a matter of picking one ranged support and one melee support in raiding enviroment. Just like its now on DPS.

@ Talen, its like a hybrid role yes, but weaker. Its mostly a role to fill what is needed during a fight but also making others and himself do better. A support class would be a class that is viable to do anything depending on the needings of the fight and could be assigned the role of buffing with spells that increase damage or healing done for instance.

[Justignoreme]

We had it in TBC that's why it was so fun to play any class those days.

Because people loved being the buff bitch in every raid? That's the reason they changed it...