MMORPGs: Choosing Your Character Type

Perhaps you'll be getting an MMORPG (a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game) as a present this year. Perhaps you're thinking of buying one, joining a free game or just downloading a short trial to see if you enjoy it. Whatever your situation, the biggest influence on your play experience (apart from the other players) will be your choice of character type. Looking at virtually all of the major titles available, characters can be divided into six broad categories, each of which plays a different way. Choosing the right one for you can really help improve your enjoyment of your chosen game.

In an attempt to avoid using specific class or type names, I will refer to the six categories as follows: tanking, melee DPS, ranged DPS, healing, support and control. Bear in mind that these are wide descriptions and that most games allow a certain amount of crossover between types.

Tanking is generally performed by the biggest, toughest class available (warriors, brutes, tankers, etc.) and is the art of getting hit a lot. The Tank's job is to charge into the enemy and hold their attention (known as 'keeping aggro') while the rest of the team perform their tasks. If too much damage is done to a particular enemy and it switches its attacks to another member of the team, the Tank must attempt to convince that enemy to focus its aggression back on him or her. Good Tanks - that is, those who are responsible and can keep all the enemies hitting them and them alone - are extremely valuable in group play. They generally have a lot of health, good armour or defenses and special abilities to help them with their job, but they don't do a lot of direct damage. Consequently, playing a Tank character alone can be a slow process: you will die a lot less, but will conquer enemies relatively slowly. Advancement outside of a team can be arduous.

Melee DPS characters (rogues, scrappers, assassins, fighters, etc.) are designed to maximize their damage output. 'DPS' is the abbreviated form of 'Damage Per Second' and characters of this type are measured on their ability to produce comparatively monstrous amounts of damage in short periods of time. While the tank holds the enemy's attention, the 'DPSers' surround the target and batter it senseless. Good DPS is essential in team play to remove enemy threats quickly, before the tank is killed or loses aggro. The character type is extremely popular among adolescent males as it is one of the easiest with which to be impressive (one-shot kills, fancy footwork and high-damage weapons all help the 'killer' image) without actually having too much responsibility for the outcome of a fight. In solo play, they are also very effective, basing their survival on their ability to destroy enemies before being destroyed, and can be a lot of fun. Deaths tend to come more frequently, though.

Ranged DPS characters (blasters, archers, mages, etc.) do the same job as Melee DPSers: they just do it from a distance. They are, in general, physically weaker than those involved in the close-up fighting, but gain the advantage of being able to attack enemies without being hit (unless the bad guys have ranged weapons, too, of course!). They often have secondary skills in the Control or Support areas to give them extra flexibility and responsibility during group efforts, but apart from those they simply stand back and do damage. As a solo character, they are often difficult to play at first due to their low health levels - they are what is commonly known as 'squishies', since they are easily reduced to a bloody mess by enemies. However, with some practice they can turn out to be one of the quickest and most efficient types to advance, and very enjoyable.

A Healer's (priests, healers, medics, etc.) primary function is to ensure that their teammates don't die. They are expected to stand back and keep everyone's health topped up while enemies are dealt with. Often, this type of character also has abilities that enhance the group's abilities or defenses (known as 'buffs'). Good Healers are as valuable as good tanks: these two types together are the backbone of any group and it is extremely difficult to perform any quests or missions of any measurable difficulty if they are absent. As a solo character, Healers can take a long time to advance. Their skills are not designed to harm, after all.

Support characters (who have all sorts of names, depending on the game) are built primarily for group play. Their skills help their team with extra damage, protections, control of the enemy, bonus healing or any number of other such 'buffs'. They can be back-up healers, produce extra damage, off-tank (that is, hold off an enemy as necessary) or perform other tasks. They tend to be more of a jack-of-all-trades and consequently are neither the quickest nor the slowest to advance while playing solo. Often, they have a good range of abilities which help them survive and allow them to do good damage to the enemy, but they can be seen as rather dull, since they are not at one of the extremes of damage or healing.

Finally, Control characters (who again have a vast variety of class names) are built to provide a means of controlling the enemy. 'CC', as it is known - Crowd Control - can be vital in a group, particularly in games where the enemy has the option of running away and getting more help. By removing enemies from combat, the Control characters reduce the damage being done to the tank and can alleviate difficult situations, such as errant monsters battering the Healer. They often have spells or abilities to freeze, glue, immobilize, slow down or dismiss their targets. In solo play, Control characters are somewhat like Ranged DPS: once the tricks of the trade are learnt, they are enjoyable but, until then, they're squishy.

As I mentioned at the outset, most games these days allow a certain amount of crossover between character types, giving (for example) Healers the choice of turning their skills into anti-healing (i.e. damage) or Tanks the opportunity to act more like Melee DPS. I hope, however, that the general practice defenses descriptions above will help make the choice of character type a little easier for new players.