When did you first understand your role?
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 4th 2007 at 8:30PM
It occurred to me the other day that something I would never have understood before has, thanks to WoW, become part of how I think about gaming, to the point that I instantly recognized it when I heard that the new version of D&D is basically copying it - I'm talking about the role a character plays in a party or raid.Before WoW, I played a lot of pen and paper RPG's, and the one thing that always stayed the same about them when compared to games like World of Warcraft or its MMO antecedents is that, in most pen and paper games, there is no mechanism for roles like 'tank' or 'dps'. There would usually be a healer of some kind or another, but in a tabletop RPG no one cares if the strongest melee combatant in the party is a holy paladin, a brutal sword-swinging warrior or a stealthy rogue, and whether or not any of them did more damage to the monster than, say, the wizard would be totally irrelevant. There was certainly no mechanism in the rules to keep a monster or monsters attention fixed on the guy with the most health or armor, either. So when I first started playing WoW I had no idea that my first character, a paladin, would be asked to heal people nor what 'tanking' even was. And since I was playing it at the time it first came out with other folks new to the game, no one bothered to explain to me what tanking was because none of my friends knew, either.
It wasn't until my first Scarlet Monastery run that I even realized I was supposed to do something there besides just hit things. Now, MMO's like WoW are so popular that the oldest pen and paper RPG is trying to learn from them, including incorporating how the various classes work in combat to some degree. It's all gone full circle, I guess - the first MMO's seemed determined to be D&D, and now D&D is becoming more like an MMO.
Did you immediately understand what you would be expected to do in a party? Did you accept it or reject it? And do you think it will translate into offline play? I went out and bought every book for the World of Warcraft Roleplaying Game but I never tried to actually run it... maybe I was just behind the times.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Virtual selves
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
AndyF Oct 4th 2007 8:53PM
When I first started playing WoW, the only experience I had was watching a friend level a Warrior.
So naturally I was only accustomed to a 'hit things, get XP, get stronger' style of gameplay.
Fortunately for myself, when I decided to start the game for myself, I read up on the classes on WoW Wiki, and decided the Rogue class seemed like it could be fun - big damage, ability to hide etc.
And as luck would have it, damage is all the Rogue class does. I never had to worry about healing or tanking as I progressed up to 60.
Sure, once I started getting into the harder dungeons, I had to figure out that Attack Power is the main source of hitting harder, and Hit became more and more important, but I had it easy compared to people that for their first time as Warrior, for example, realised that they were playing a class that was expected to go 1-to-1 with the hardest hitting monsters in the game, and so needed to start boosting stats they wouldn't normally have thought of.
blitzkrieg999 Oct 4th 2007 9:24PM
My first MMO was Asheron's Call 2 (not counting the 2 hours of AC1 beta I played years before...), where I rolled a Lugian warrior. Once your character hit level 50, you went through a series of quests to become a Hero, and each class had two variations on the Hero class. Warriors had Berzerker (single target DPS) and Juggernaut (Multi-target DPS). I went Berzerker, and spent the last few months of my AC2 time beating the hell out of anything that moved with two very large axes and a lot of combo attacks.
AC2 also had a Defender class, which functioned as a tank. Having never played them, I don't know the full mechanics, but the basis of their class was damage mitigation and maintaining aggro. Granted, noobs like me pulled aggro more often than we should have, but Defenders were made to tank, and did their job very well.
So when I went to WoW, I rolled a warrior with the intent of doing DPS. Tanking did not come naturally to me, and while I think I'm pretty good at it nowadays, even tho I'm Fury-spec, it was a bit of a let down in the beginning to find out Warriors weren't the highest damage class.
Jess Oct 4th 2007 10:05PM
I remember doing my first deadmines run with a hunter and a paladin (we were so noobtastic we didn't know it was designed as a 5 man) and about half way through I realized I could use my bear form to tank the mobs and keep them off the hunter and paladin. It was a revelation. And I've grown to love tanking and have been doing it every since.
Odintu Oct 4th 2007 9:47PM
When I started WoW I had no idea what I was getting into when I started my druid. However, through continued reading and stuff I was coaxed into the feral build through friends who have played the game for a long time. It was through this that I learned that my role was to be a utility-man of sorts. Tanking in one spot, DPSing in another, even healing in a quick pinch.
Bbcversus Oct 4th 2007 10:07PM
When I started WoW two years ago I started with the char I have now...mage. I knew what mages are all about and I took that class on purpose. So yes, I knew my role, anyway in later raids and dungeons I saw that my role happens to be roles now. To make food/water, to cc/poly/frost nova/to decurse etc... So I discovered my roles one by one. Anyway, all I know is I cant be another class whatsoever. Heh.
Emerylle Oct 4th 2007 11:46PM
I started out in WoW as a lark, I was used to playing MUD and roleplaying so it was quite an experience. I knew I needed to heal but never really dealt with "quests" etc before.
And no one told me about "FADE" or how "mind control", "mind blast" worked. I was a total noob. Luckily my guild helped me out by dragging me to SM!
I got shouted at for using too much power word: shield and not using fade :) I learned not to shield the tank or anyone unless necessary because they drew aggro (aggro? What was that? said the noob in me!) and to use FADE a lot.
Much love to my guild for teaching me that instead of finding out in some PUG group who would have chewed my ass because of it.
nekkiddo Oct 4th 2007 10:38PM
I love the concept of the restoration druid. HP regen used to be just for the holy. When Tree of Life arrived, I knew the game was getting serious about this healer subrole.
Ortai Oct 4th 2007 10:43PM
I was lucky in that I got into what was a closed beta guild when I was in the stress test beta. It was they who taught me about tanking, although, adittingly, i was pretty cluess about other aspects of the game.
It was once I started my mage that I really began to understand game mechanics and roles better, and, if you take the comments made to me when I was a warrior compared to those when I was a Mage, I was a much better mage (still am BTW).
Some might be thinking that the mage is easy mode compared to a tank, but I do not think that is it. I found being a mage was much more in line with how I liked to play. I got into the strategic aspects of mage play alot more.
ubu1968 Oct 4th 2007 11:07PM
"Know your roll"
Thats exactly why I don't raid with most people is that they have pigeonholed everyone they game with into certain slots:Tank, DPS, Heal, yada yada yada. Whats fun about that? I have a 62th level "ret" paladin that, until about a month ago, I had no idea what the hell a "ret" paladin was. He is specced how I think the character would be done, because he's, to me, a person. I'm an old school paper gamer, and to me, its much for fun to play that way. But, this game is infinate, and everyone everyone plays the way that makes them happy.
ajaxsirius Oct 4th 2007 11:26PM
You only have a role if you're in a group or a society. If you're alone ofcourse you can do w/e you want. but the momeny you join a group, something is expected of you.
Corvikkan Oct 4th 2007 11:29PM
I leveled basically from 1-60 and almost into early endgame content with a group of RL friends. We just happened to hit on a pretty good mix for dungeon runs, and just kind of operated organically. I knew that as a mage I could put major hurt on things, but the nuances of the class, the importance of mana efficiency, threat management, etc. never really were impressed on me until we hooked up with a raiding guild and suddenly we couldn't just anticipate what the rest of the group would do.
Every now and again we'll get together for a few 5-mans and rock out. it's so much fun because we can basically just roll through without strategizing communicating much, or even thinking terribly hard. Everybody just knows what to do. I think SM was where things started to coalesce into more concrete roles, but even up into BRD if our warrior was in over his head, I could mage-tank a couple mobs off him and then iceblock once I was really in trouble, and our priest wouldn't bat an eyelid about it. He'd just throw a couple heals my way and keep going.
The flipside, of course, is that raids don't work that way. All of a sudden specs, casting rotations, and threat generation mattered in very specific ways that they never had before. Since it was still about pumping out as much damage as possible, I adjusted fairly well, but it took some getting used to to have to monitor all those things instead of just rolling with it.
Milktub Oct 5th 2007 12:53AM
First toon was a rogue. Picked it because I'd always loved the thief/ninja characters in the other RPGs I'd played.
Spent 1-30something pretty solo. I'd group with another to kill stuff, but I was pretty much just running around hitting things as fast and hard as possible.
Then I ran SM. It was then that I learned "be in stealth or die" as a prayer.
But I never really understood my role until I'd started, leveled and ran as a warrior tank in dungeons.
Heraclea Oct 5th 2007 1:25AM
I, too, am an old school paper gamer. In D&D, I played clerics. My introduction to MMORPGs was "City of Heroes", where I gravitated to the tanker class, which over there is easily my favourite.
But in City of Heroes, a tanker ultimately becomes a strongly defended character with a self-heal for improved survivability and more than adequate damage. That's what I wanted when I made and levelled a warrior here. Silly me, for thinking that a warrior might actually get to kill things with weapons.
I specced out of tanking when grinding some old quests for rep, but getting rid of Prot was like a great weight being lifted from my shoulders. It made the game fun again. Now, I'd rather delete my warrior and quit the game than spec Prot again.
joan Oct 7th 2007 8:24PM
i am very curious when i first play wow game .i remember priest is my first character .i am so wow powerleveling
stronge with the game .even i don't know how to operate it at all.i can not adjust perspective , but i could play better by myself under the professional and skilled powerleveling player's guide.i feel wow game is so fun and at the mean time i also feel that there is a corporation work in the game .by the wow powerleveling
corperation we can arrive our goal and also upgrade our character faster .
world of warcraft power leveling
Cheapcoil Oct 5th 2007 1:54AM
I was a Warr, and i like most others thought that i could dps, and, by getting the very best gear out of instances, i could. B4 i played WoW, i played some Pand P, but i always liked to be the one with the most HP and that would wield massive weapons and smash thru foes, i was rong... The first point i started tanking and getting to hear the notion was SM, and i was aoe tanking back then, - ravager, whirlwind cleave, and cos of my gear, out dpsed even the mage. I started lagging behind in the dps tables at ZF, and needed a better way of getting aggro than simply beating on a mob and some HS's into the mix, so i started tanking with a shield and sword in D stance. I was reluctant at first, but heaps of friends and guildies hammered into my head that WARRIORS CAN ONLY TANK1111111. So, i started tanking, and although hard "When mages sart pulling with fireballs, and it feeling like a retarded game when the monster thats beating on u is dealing 100x the damage and not even going down to ur attacks, its sorta cool having people depend on u to essentially keep them alive, so, ive sorta accepted that warrior dps has not much use, but tanking is also fine, and thats my drawn out explanation
ps What i hate most bout WoW is that its hard to not pug, and when u do, its hard to find people and stop tham from leaving.
Zaringu Oct 5th 2007 2:20AM
It seems like everyone started the generic warrior or mage for their first char, but I see so many hunters on what is obviously their first char I'm surprised not to see more of that. Anyway I rolled a hunter to begin with and barely got him past level 20 and only then because I had a rl friend making a char along with him. I found that hunters were too much of the same and so I switched from alliance to horde and picked the only class I'd never seen in an rpg before. It's simple: I love my shaman. I made it and leveled it up to 70 without playing another class but for a rogue i didnt get beyond 10. The hybrid classes are just amazing and dont box you in like many others. I was kind of a hybrid (I think id like this talent) spec al the way past 40 and noone ever said anything in instances, maybe because they have no idea what a shaman should do either XD. After that i went enhancement wanting to live longer, but seeing vids of ppl with their 2k crits on three targets at once made me go ele in about a week and I haven't switched back. The damage is insane considering I can heal a decent 5 man with no issues and have upwards of 8k armor and health meaning I actually LIVE when I do accidentally aggro. The versatility is what made it for me in the end. Even with D2 every class could self heal with potions and I couldn't see not being able to do that effectively in combat. The ONLY problem I have with versatility is that I'm always trying to get gear of one type or another. Atm I have my ele gear and most of a healing set, and I always feel like I might be taking gear from someone else, but on the upside there is something I can use from almost any boss in the game.
Jack Oct 5th 2007 2:53AM
I started a druid thinking, wow a class that can do anything and turn into cool animals! And then eventually got to 60, and found I had to heal all the time, which wasn't so bad because I like healing (most of the time). But now, at 70, I've gotten tired of healing all the time, and luckily druids live up to being able to do anything enough for me to do pretty well as moonkin, unless I'm doing arenas.
As a druid, I understand my role to be whatever I feel like doing (and have the gear and spec for ^_^ )
Proxy Oct 5th 2007 2:58AM
My first char was a shaman. I thought it was kinda clever to be a tank who could heal as well. The shaman ended up at level 30'ish doing nothing because I geared for dps/tank/healer in one gear set and thus became weak in all.
Next character became a shadow-priest who had to occasionally heal only in instances. SM was most fun, because of the huge gear upgrades and the short runs, which I did 10 times each!
At level60 I went holy healer in raids. While it was fun to be so important, it burned me out. I got stressed by healthbars, from life-tapping locks for example. I felt overresponsible and HoT'ed everyone who was low on health.
At level70 I turned shadow again, doing dps only in raids. I've never had so much fun in instances since pre-60.
Utena Oct 5th 2007 4:05AM
Nubs.
This is the problem with WoW.
WoW is MMO-Lite.
This is the cause for huntards, and for lvl 60 wars who don't know what taunting is.
D&D always had roles. You always had healers, utility classes, magic classes, dps, tanks, and yes, even hybrids. If you don't think so, then you've obviously never ever learned how to play not just WoW, but D&D as well.
MartinC Oct 5th 2007 4:25AM
D&D is copying WoW? LOL, now *that's* funny.
Roleplaying education FTL.