Why do you play a primarily damage dealing class?

[TheNetstalker]

I usually play healers or tanks.

 

This time I play DPS, both with my Mercenary and my Powertech. I guess it is a change.

 

Although when dual spec is in I will have a healer and a tank.

[Daonte]

I don't like playing healers because I don't like maintaining health bars and I've always found the idea of healing while in combat to be very silly, i.e. magically and instantaneously regenerating someone's wounds as if they hadn't been shot/stabbed/burned/blown-up/ect..

 

Tanking can be fun in groups but not solo, so I never spec tank because I dislike having to manage an entirely different set of gear for when I need to tank. Furthermore I dislike the concept of a taunt ability; I much prefer the system in place for DCUO. Tanks would draw more aggro based on a tanking stat, so when the tank needs to pull aggro off someone it's not as easy as press taunt button and voilà, instead they had to be wiser about who they were attacking.

 

Now DPS is the most satisfying because I can burn through mobs and complete quests much more rapidly. Overall I just feel stronger and more powerful when I can kill quicker.

 

In warhammer online there were these great melee healer classes the DoK/Warrior Priest, they allowed me to play the way I played a DPS class(with some exceptions), but still fufill the healer archetype. Maybe one day they'll add something like that to SWTOR...I can dream.

[Darth_Grissom]

I have hated tanking and healing since the introduction of the trinity system. I have tryed both in multiple games and hate it.

 

I play my DPS toon in this game because imperial agent snipers are swesome, and that i hate tanking and healing.

[Stealthy_Monkey]

I prefer pve dps because I like getting into the theorycrafting side of things and perfecting your rotation. I'm also a moderately good tank, an acceptable healer but a great dps player, so I go where my strengths lie

[ACLucius]

I actually play all three, but for the most part I stick with DPS. It is not that I don't like the responsibility, I just like to be able to tank down a person or mob very quickly.

 

As far as most people, I imagine that they don't do it because there is no real reward for the extra responsibility. The game I came from to this, there was an actual reward for it, though it wasn't considered a reward. In that game, there was only one tanking class and one healing class. There were "off healers" and "off tanks" but none which could heal or tank at end-game. Well, they could if they were willing to spend the money it took to allow them to twitch with 5 attacks per second, but that is a different matter.

 

Anyways, doing any kind of run in a dungeon was very expensive, no matter what class you were. However, the tanks would have extremely high repair bills and they would almost always have to buy healing pots, mana pots, and speciality pots (for increasing defense, health regen, etc.) The healers had a single skill which was almost always necessary. It was a constant heal to the entire party and also reduced all damage to everyone by 50%, so it was very powerful. However, the problem was it would cost 500 MP every 5 seconds, so even when spamming MP pots, you couldn't keep up with it. Because of this, they had to buy an item out of the item mall which would recover their MP to full after it reached 75%, and this of course was also very expensive.

 

The reason I went on to explain all that was to justify the system we had in place. On these runs, we had a system. All of the drops were materials to build armor/weapons, so everyone had something they needed, which often crossed over with another person. So, one person would be the "banker" and keep all of the mats until the end of the run. After the run was over, the banker would list all of the items that were collected over the run and then would hand them out. The order was tank gets first pick, then healer, then dps by level, highest to lowest. Usually everyone would get something out of it, but the tank and healer would always get the most, and it was done this way so they could pay their bills.

 

Now, I never found the bills to be all that expensive, but I rolled a healer just for the purpose of farming mats for my other characters. Knowing that no matter what the levels were I would get second pick, I could get pretty much any mat I wanted and also turn a profit by selling what I didn't need or whatever mat was selling for the most at the time. In that game, you had a reward for that extra responsibility you took on for keeping everyone alive.

 

This game, you run flashpoints for gear, and unless there is someone else of the same class as you, you are most likely going to get the thing you want. Even then though, it isn't expensive to run them unless you wipe a lot. I'll tank or heal if I want to, but because I don't have any real incentive to, I won't unless I need something for that character. On top of that everything you get in FPs is usually bind on pickup, I can't make a profit from it.

[Gaidax]

That's easy - I like dropping people and imagining them rage IRL, that's my cup of tea and that's what DD people do. And I bet there are a lot of those raging guys, every other WZ I get some butthurt dude with some personal vendetta coming after me, usually coming through half of my team and getting ripped to shreds, while at it, which only adds to the hilarity factor.

 

It becomes a fun game of hunter vs hunter, where you are aware of that guy who put you on his personal people to **** now list and you still catch him unaware and leave your signature Takedown's crosshair animation as his lifeless remains hit the cold floor.

 

I personally have 3 such buddies on Rep side: Sentinel, Gunslinger and Trooper that almost always go after me the moment they see me.

 

 

As a tank, you are just some annoying fly with all kinds of buffs/debuffs. You prance around, scratching people and thinking you actually rock, hugging your questionable moral victories from taunt or guard.

 

Healer can produce some good rage, but he is not the one doing the killing. Glorified towel boy.

Edited February 26, 2012 by Paralassa

[NVZIM]

The perceived shortage of healers and tanks in any game based on the trinity is inherent. No game design will ever change that. BW could hand out free lvl 50 healers and tanks and it wouldn't help, They could give every class a free, always available, spec independent tank and healer tree and it still wouldn't help.

 

As long as the basic encounter mechanic is trinity-based and requires a designated tank and a designated healer, people will shy away from those roles in anonymous groups for community/social reasons, not mechanical ones. (And I stress the anon bit.. there are plenty of people willing to tank and heal for friends and guildies but not for random pugs, which is really the crux of the social issue).

 

The best you can do with game design is to not artificially limit players by adding unneeded barriers for someone who would otherwise be willing to take on these roles. And BW for the most part has done decently with that. But no game design will ever change the inherent scarcity of people willing to perform these tasks for abusive strangers.

 

I agree with this, especially the last sentence. I think newer mmorpgs should deviate from the trinity system, but there are too many people that demand it because it's conventional and easy to understand.

 

I played WOW from 2005 to 2010 and my main is a priest. The thought of healing gives me an awful feeling inside. I endured the Whack-A-Mole mini-game and the stress became overwhelming. It was the agony of healing under-geared tanks and overzealous dps, plus being ridiculed for wipes. People can be very abrasive and irrational.

 

In contrast, I enjoyed topping damage meters with my warlock alt, which ironically got me invited to more raids.

[salvadorellama]

My main (republic..when I play it) is a Shadow. I liked the fact that I would be able to tank or do DPS.

 

I'm currently specced DPS on that toon as when I play him, I do pvp. Burst damage is king in PVP, It just bothers me that operatives/scoundrels can do it better, and both are a "backstabbing" class.

[Surebleak]

I always played a tank/off tank usually a Shadowknight equivalent until I played a mage in rift. Didn't like the glass cannon aspect, i enjoy a little survivability. I chose a merc for that reason, a fair amount of hit points and the ability to survive for a bit if necessary. It's the closest thing to a Shadowknight, I like doing damage and if we are three manning Old Enemies I can take the hits while he gets dps'd down.

 

I absolutely do not want the responsibility of healing, I play for fun, not to be stressed.

[salvadorellama]

I agree with this, especially the last sentence. I think newer mmorpgs should deviate from the trinity system, but there are too many people that demand it because it's conventional and easy to understand.

 

I played WOW from 2005 to 2010 and my main is a priest. The thought of healing gives me an awful feeling inside. I endured the Whack-A-Mole mini-game and the stress became overwhelming. It was the agony of healing under-geared tanks and overzealous dps, plus being ridiculed for wipes. People can be very abrasive and irrational.

 

In contrast, I enjoyed topping damage meters with my warlock alt, which ironically got me invited to more raids.

 

 

Agreed. I'd like to see TOR migrate towards an original EQ type play: 6 (maybe 5) character groups, classes devoted to support (tank, heal, dps is just old). Add a support type class (like shaman, enchanter, etc).

 

When it came to true strategic type play, EQ was king. Too bad EQ2 was such a fail. It coming out at the same time as WoW didn't help either. It's not a bad game now that they've changed some things, but the F2P model (if you go that route) costs so much more money to buy extra classes and so on that I'm surprised they even have players.

 

I'd really love to see a regression back to a D&D type RPG where support isn't just a nice option, but really needed in order to do real progression.

 

Edit: Take a leaf out of the SWG (original, don't know if it was in the NGE) and and a squad leader type class that adds combat SUPPORT.

Edited February 17, 2012 by salvadorellama

[Gomuningen]

I like mashing peoples faces in with my tracer missiles and seeing the QQ tears flow on the forums about ranged DPS being OP.

 

Thanks

[salvadorellama]

I like mashing peoples faces in with my tracer missiles and seeing the QQ tears flow on the forums about ranged DPS being OP.

 

Thanks

 

BH's are pretty easy to kill for me. Sorcerers are the ones I usually have the most problems with. And Operatives, stun stun stun stun, run away, vanish.

 

Edit: I can't wait till my RMA MB gets here. Playing F2P WoW on my mac is getting old. I'm not resubbing to WoW till I get my rig back together (if I resub at all...hoping BW will see the light and fix some issues I consider important).

Edited February 17, 2012 by salvadorellama

[wolveroach]

I always played tank classes in the other MMORPGs I subscribed to; I wanted to do something different with SW:TOR.

 

ditto, after a dozen or so MMOs and playing a PvE, good guy tank, I was ready to be a PvP, bad guy DPS.

[Coiffio]

Endgame you only need 1 tank. The Ops aren't that difficult. Honestly if you can beat a heroic 5 man in WoW, then you can beat the Ops in this game in Nightmare mode.

 

This here. Most raiding guilds already have their designated tanks, so leveling one to endgame, it'll just be harder to get into regular runs. While I've done both tanking and healing characters, I really just can't get into the respective playstyles. Take the knight/warrior for instance. In this game, it takes far too long to feel like a tank. While leveling these two classes, through the 20s into the 30s, I just felt like a half hearted dps class. Barely had the tools to keep 2 gold mobs busy, along with having to explain to teams every time that they need to focus down the silver and weaker mobs. For healing, well, healing is a lot more tolerable I admit than tanking, a good healer is it's own reward. My only issue with that is the inability to really customize my UI so it's easier for me to see things like status effects that need to be purged. Then the whole target of target issue in case I also have to toss interrupts into the mix in between heals.

 

I guess with dps, I can just focus on doing my own job well without the headaches most of the time and it feels more fun. I'm not totally opposed to the other options though.

[Siorac]

This is a great point. Tanking and healing has a lot more responsibility and is generally considered "harder". Not only that, but your mistakes are more obvious and detrimental. If a DPS screws up, it usually only means he dies. If a tank or healer screw up, it is likely a wipe. Many people simply do not want that on their shoulders, no matter what the reward is.

 

With the tight enrage timers in this game if a DPS screws up and dies as a result, there's a good chance it will be a wipe. And since tanking groups of mobs isn't easy in this game, especially with Guardian/Juggernaut, the DPS have to pay attention to stray mobs, focus fire to quickly burn down the weakest ones etc.

 

There are responsibilities, even if many DPSers just ignore them...

[KMad]

I for one would love to see more people play tanks.

 

Trying to find a tank on this game is like searching for the Holy Grail. It's impossible sometimes. But to be fair this is a problem on almost every MMORPG I've played.

 

It's nice to see future MMORPGs like Guild Wars 2 moving away from this old and very flawed system of making groups overly-dependent on certain specs. So I hope that's a trend that continues and replaces this current model. I'm sick of having to spend hours finding a tank everytime I want to run something.

 

I think you'll see more tanks when dual-spec comes in. End-game raids only need 1 tank for 8 or even 16 people. So it doesn't add up when the leveling content (and even level 50 hard-modes) need 4 tanks for every 16 people, yet that's how the game is designed. Dual-spec would make issue disappear. For now, you end up with too many tanks sitting around with nothing to do, or bosses that won't die since you can't beat enrage timers with tanks trying to dps, or people having to respec all the time, etc.

 

The people that don't like to tank at all still won't play tanks, but the people that would tank, but know they won't be needed at endgame so aren't tanking along the way, will pick up a tank spec then. I know I plan to on my currently-dps-spec'd Juggernaut (who is, admittedly, only an alt).

Edited February 17, 2012 by KMad

[Revan-the-knight]

The other CLasses have their own charm, but the Sith Warrior Marauder just Roflstomps them all when it comes to Challenge and Enjoyment, Challenging Combat, which makes the Kills all that more Satisfactory, at Huttball when i use Frenzy and Predation to give my team an extra speed boost to get to the ball, in Alderaan when i use my Deadly Throw to lower the healing output on the enemy tank, and taking him down with Smash after using Force Crush, and on Voidstar when i use my ForcE Camoflague to stealth my way over to the unprotected door and plant the bombs, really it cant be topped in my opnion:csw_redsaber:

[ScumNVillawut]

I actually switched from guardian to my gunslinger because I felt they were underrepresented and I like to excel with underrepresented classes. It didn't have anything to do with pure dps, though it's a role I've come to accept as it brings a different set of challenges.

 

It's fun though, that's what keeps me from going back. When I am top damage after a Huttball and the next closest is 100k behind me it keeps me from going back. Halfway through a PvP match when 4 people begin to go after me as a primary target, well, that's the warm fuzzies.

 

This here. I play dps because I PvP often, and I visibly notice the psychological effects that a GS can put on a group of melee tanks/dps. If your class can do enough damage to make four guys actually think that it's a better investment to kill you than to kill the ball carrier? Yeah, I dare anyone to tell me I'm "support."

[erei]

and I'm curious as to why there are not more tanks and healers when the companion system makes them easier to level than in other MMO's.

I tend to disagree, and I will explain my opinion. First, I have both a full tank shadow and full dps commando, both 50.

The AI for DPS companion made me rage many times. They ALWAYS target the untanked mob, even switching target when you take the aggro from them. Then, they focus the highest HP mob first, and weak after (they even make an exception about the rule above, just to annoy you). And finally, they have about the same DPS than my tank (tested with both Nadia and zenith, both with blue-purple gear, same quality than mine).

Overall, it makes soloing longer.

 

Back to topic, why do I have a DPS as a main ?

First, it may sound childish, but I do love to burn mobs/people quickly. And don't care about my life. I absolutely love glass cannon, and/or big guns. I'm also quite subject to go berserk, things I can't do well as a healer/tank. I blame my genetic heritage for this.

And finally, soloing is faster.

About SW:TOR, I do love big guns. Minigun and flamethrower being my favorite. The commando was a sweet call I couldn't resist (even if I'm disappointed the assault cannon looks like a pipe instead of a minigun).

I still enjoy being a healer from time to time, but honestly, I always think healing is more brainless than people use to say, more than a DPS (maybe because I'm far more skilled as dps than healer^^). Strat ? Don't care I just heal and avoid AoE. Interupt ? Too busy to save your ***, DPS do the job. Aggro ? Don't care, I can't manage it, and tank is doing it for me. And I'm still the most loved one of the team, just because they are still alive.

 

Tank is my less played class. Even if I do have one. Mostly because of lower DPS, and too much responsibility. No excuses like "sorry can't heal I was laggy/interupt/need to move/shut up or do without heal". You messed your tanking, everyone see it.

Edited February 19, 2012 by erei

[FobManX]

With the tight enrage timers in this game if a DPS screws up and dies as a result, there's a good chance it will be a wipe. And since tanking groups of mobs isn't easy in this game, especially with Guardian/Juggernaut, the DPS have to pay attention to stray mobs, focus fire to quickly burn down the weakest ones etc.

 

There are responsibilities, even if many DPSers just ignore them...

 

Oh for sure, the GOOD DPS will play properly and put out good #s while also interrupting and not pulling aggro. But it's easier to skate by as bad DPS then it is as a bad tank or bad healer.

[MichelvanMeerten]

I played a Rogue and a Warrior tank and a Paladin tank/healer in WoW. Now I play a Sage and do some nice relaxing dps from a distance.

[bpcatt]

I don't know though that it was really my choice as much as is it was just a natural affinity. When I began playing MMO's, I wanted to be a tank. I liked the sound of it. I was pretty good at it from the standpoint my friends and I cleared current content without too much trouble.

 

However, after a while, I made a dps toon to break things up. It just so happened I was pretty good at it... or so I thought. When I finally went into a raid (operation in swtor), I actually got to see what I could do versus people I knew to be pretty good. I blew them out of the water. For whatever reason, dps just seems to click with me better.

 

Of course, I have mulitple characters and actually do still tank. I just have more fun as a dps assuming there are competitent tanks. When I can't find a competitent tank, I jump to the tank toon and go handle my business .

[Mofotrey]

I was a tank my whole time in WoW, over five years, and though I loved tanking, I grew to hate the responsibility that came with it. "No, you can't hang out with friends tonight, how are we supposed to raid without our main tank?" "We really need you to help gear up these new players quick, can you tank a bunch of heroics for them?" etc. I like helping people, but I like helping people because I choose to help or offer to help. I also wound up leading a lot of raids because as an MT I always had studied fights in advance anyway and knew better than most how everyone needed to do things. I hate leading raids because then you're worrying about 24 people in addition to yourself.

Also, in PUG's, everything is always the tank's fault. "You didn't have enough health!" "You didn't pop enough cooldowns!" "Why didn't you call out that you lost a ton of health in a millisecond?" etc. If a pull goes badly, the tank should have picked everything up better, even if some dumb hunter auto-shot into a group of mobs while you were sending a tell.

 

 

With DPS classes you can sit back and enjoy doing what you're doing without worrying about everyone else as much or having as much riding on your shoulders. If a DPS misses a raid, you just get another one to take his or her place. I'm enjoying that a lot better so far.

[ProsaicProse]

I usually play DPS when I want minimal responsibility and have an urge to blow stuff up. I'm usually the type that has a lot of healers and tanks, and I've always found life less stressful and much easier to play in games as "just another DPS". Edited February 24, 2012 by ProsaicProse

[Aryslan]

I do find DPS classes to be funnier if done right.

 

Tanks usually have enough HP and mitigation skills to kill the mobs out of boredom.

Healers heal themselves until companion kills mob or mob itself dies of starvation.

 

DPS classes have that balance of kill fast but get killed fast too that makes me pay more attention to it and enjoy more.