What is my Role?

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noobas
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What is my Role?

Post by noobas »

This is a guide to complement Rojo's very nice progression guide.

Synopsis
In this document, you will find a brief discussion of the various "Roles" in AO, and a breakdown of those roles and which profession can perform which aspect of that role, and some benchmarks for some roles.


Introduction

There are four main roles in AO. They are: Tank, Healer, DPS, and Crowd Control. Crowd control often isn't applicable, so, it can be labled support - support, is, in fact exactly what the role is, and, a good support prof can significantly change how well the other three roles are able to function.

Tanks - In AO, the main tank is the Enforcer. The enforcer is capable of AREA of EFFECT tanking, which means aggroing several mobs in an area and using absorbs, AC's, defences, self healing and reflects to effectively deal damage, maintain or even heal HP while several mobs are hitting him. The primary purpose for enforcers is, literally a meatshield. They stand in the way of mobs and have the best taunting tools in game. With area mongo's, individual taunts, several item taunts, proc taunts, self buff proc taunts (ice shield), damage shields, reflect damage, and finally good DPS in perks and weaponry, enforcers are more than able to effectively tank every single encounter in game.

The secondary tank is Soldiers. Soldiers are in many cases superior tanks compared to enforcers due to their extremely effective damage mitigation. However, soldiers are only effective tanks in single mob encounters. Soldiers are good at keeping aggro on single mobs with single taunts, great DPS and big reflect shields. Soldiers, however, are almost completely useless in tanking multiple mobs. Soldiers should focus on keeping specials recharge low and high add damage ratings to keep up the DPS. regular perk cycling and effective useage of strong taunting perks such as weeapon bash will mantain strong "hatred" and keep the soldier cemented at the top of single bosses hatelist.

Healing - Doctors are the best healers in game. They have hugely effective single and team heals and have a wide variety of supporting nanos to efectively boost team HP, provide ongoing healing with heals over time and boosting natural regeneration (Heal delta).
- supporting healers include advies, keepers, martial artists and traders, but realistically only advies can really provide any measure of non-self healing thats even remotely comparable to doctors.

DPS- To some extent, every single prof in AO is capable of DPS, but, the best DPS'ers are shade, MA, fixers, NT's, Engineers and bureacrats. Every DPS prof is slightly different, but all require one thing: activity. To be an effective DPS'er, you must play white knuckled, on-the-edge-of-your-seat, balls-to-the-wall hardline, hardcore, and on the edge of death ALL the time, or you're not doing it right. Every single DPS prof has other abilities than just providing massive mind blowing numbers, but, not one DPS prof will make those numbers without a quick thinking controller working magic on the keyboard+mouse.

Some basics to DPS are: equip as big a weapon with fast specials and high min damage as you possible can that you have perk support for (and best nukes), then raise your AR until you hit MBS (maximum beneficial skill), as soon as you've hit MBS start trading out AR for crit. if you can't put crit in a slot, put add damage, if you can't put add damage, put AR, if you can't put AR, well, you need to look harder.

Basically, FC in the last 3-4 years has made it possible for almost EVERY prof to become a strong DPSer by merit of adding a LOT of add damage, and crit into game. Paired with good weapon selection for almost every prof, there's basically not one prof out there who can't put up big damage. But, if you're one of the profs listed here and you're NOT putting up big numbers, don't expect to get many invites to teams. Many people run damage dumpers to assess how well they are doing, JUST for the purpose of attempting to max out their damage... If you aren't pulling your weight, you can usually expect some retribution, or lack of invites if you're consistently not pulling your weight.

Benchmarks in an inf mission:
<50k damage per minute - likely boot next inf mish
80k damage per minute - barely acceptable
100k damage per minute - meh
120k damage per minute - acceptable
180k damage per minute - good
220k damage per minute - very good
>250k damage per minute - excellent

Support - basically, any prof in DPS or not in any of the other two categories can also qualify as support. Support profs MUST be pushing hard dps unless you are a supporting doctor whose sole job is babysitting a second (non tanking) team of DPSers, in which case you should have your hands full while they are busting their balls trying to "score" agg from the primary tank. If your team is good, you will be fighting tooth and nail trying to keep a shade with 14k health pumping out 450k DPM alive. If he dies, you failed but he thinks its ok, becuase what that actually means is that he out "proffed" you and the tank, which is sort of like dying to show that he's a better shade than you are a doctor and the tank a tank. In otherwords, you just got owned son.

There are a few different kinds of support profs, but, in general, the primary role of the suport prof is to provide SOME level of damage mitigation for the primary tank. Here are some methods of damage mitigation:
1. AC's (engineers)
2. Reflects (engineers, soldiers)
3. Attack blockers (keepers)
4. evades (advy, crat, keeper, MA)
5. AR debuffs (engineers, traders, NT's, shades)
6. init debuffs (doctors, crats, MP's, MA's-perks, shades)
7. Nuke disablement (Traders, MP's)
8. stuns (MA's, shades, agents, crats)
9. support heals (advy, MA, keeper, agent, trader, 2nd doctor)
10. Absorbs (NT, enforcer)
11. Damage drains (MP, Trader)
12. The best defence is a good offense; dead mobs don't hit back, ie. DPS (shade, engi, crat, MA, NT, soldier, advy, agent, MP, keeper, fixer, trader)

So theres a basic rundown of where your prof fits in on this topic. In general, whichever profession you've chosen, you need to learn how to do good damage, quickly, and at the same time manage your support toolset to mitigate damage on the primary tank. If you're stealing main tank aggro, GJ! you're doing it right.
" I Don't Like That Man. I Must Get To Know Him Better." -Abraham Lincoln
Porvalsh
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Re: What is my Role?

Post by Porvalsh »

Just wanted to provide some current insight here.

I've been doing some inferno missions lately to level up and I've noticed damage numbers significantly lower than posted here. These must be end game setup numbers?

From 200-205 I was doing about 80k DPM (scewed a bit down by downtime between mobs or slow team). From 205-210 I am now pushing around 93k DPM consistently. Generally speaking I am top 3 DPM in my team. Usually the 220 is top...in most cases if we have a 220 Enf, they are able to out damage me by maybe 2x max. Overall I have not been impressed with the DPM of people I've teamed with.

Lately, in Inf easies I end up tanking most mobs. I aggro them based on my damage output and unless the Enfy is working to maintain agg they stick to me. Now that I'm 210 and with SWS8 and better evades I don't mind this too much as most mobs in easies don't really hit me much. In easy's I no longer wait for everyone else between mobs...they are commonly slow and lack the desire to lead. Instead, I am first to mobs frequently, which also helps establish the Aggro. Most people my level have not OD'd me. I even teamed wtih a 220 fixer the other day which I beat in the DMG dpt. Most equal level shades have been able to OD me and there's a Soldier from Vogue that OD's me by quite a bit.

I have done a few Inf hards now with PUGs. Usually we'll do an easy and if everyone seems to know what they are doing and it goes quickly we'll try a hard. Hards will reduce my overall damage a bit, and I've noticed that the 220's maintain theirs...so the gap is a bit more than in an easy. This will improve as my attack rating increases. Main thing that is frustrating is that I have to wait for the tank now because if I'm first to a mob and have some specials up the tank has a hard time taking aggro away for some reason. Didn't think that at 210 a 220 tank would have this problem.

The last PUG I was in there was an engi with dismal numbers...less than 10k DPM and she was looting every frickin thing in the mission. She wanted to leave but I encouraged her to stay as her damage was better than 0.

Just wanted to give my observations. I hope that my damage will continue to increase...I already have QL 300 weapon on and am working to get the FA required to get QL 300 Hawk MK 5 on. I'm going to get special edition helm on and ql 300 ofab as well now. Not sure if I have the stuff yet to get into betas. Rojo says I can realistically wait until 215 for these.... Still would like MoTR.
Entevenr - Crat
Ficksterama - Fix
Porv - Adv
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noobas
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Re: What is my Role?

Post by noobas »

yes. damage numbers you should be working on at endgame.

good effort porv!
" I Don't Like That Man. I Must Get To Know Him Better." -Abraham Lincoln
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