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Current Patch Game Difficulty based on Role
Hi I am here yet again with another probably pointless group of info based entirely on personal opinion and experience.
Contrary to what some people may think, the holy trinity doesn't have all the content fair to them. The current general idea of how hard a role is now is based on the amount of significant work needed to be done in dungeons, such as the need to iframe (front/back), role only mechanics and stuffs.
General difficulty: Healers < Tanks < DPS.
Tera's current state of the game is interesting. Contrary to what some healers may think, they have the easiest job in the game right now. They have very few things they need to move in and out of. There are no mechs in current patch that force healers to keep people alive (eg: Akeron's Inferno's Duras). And most of all outside from the need to push for dps by facetank, you pretty much have a whole lot of time to randomly dps and do pretty much nothing but wait for something to happen.
Healers also thus have the lowest barrier of entry. It is interesting to note that any bad healer in this game will most likely also end up as a bad tank and dps just because you are actually working with lesser mechs. Similarly, most if not all good tanks/dps who can clear all the game content in the game should be able to heal the same content after a small amount of mechanical practice.
The only true difficulty of healers come in PvP, where mistakes will pretty much kill your entire team.
Tanks currently are not the hardest in the game, primarily because their difficulty hasn't changed in a very long while. Ever since the DPS buffs and aggro management on tanks, Tank's only difficulty comes from the constant need to fully gear. Without VSHM's Darkan mostly, you actually reposition and dodge much less than previous content.
Also, outside from slaying runs, Tanks do not actually need to be 100% perfect. They can afford to facetank some blockable hits to push for more damage, although they need to do mechs all the time.
(Fun fact: Tanks are the easiest in Lucid patch and is nearly equal to DPS difficulty in VSHM patch)
Tanks are actually the easiest in PvP as long as you know how to properly engage (giga/ground pounder) due to the innate endurance and survivability you have.
Now for the moment of truth: Why DPS is now the hardest role in the game now.
1) You can't afford to make mistakes like tanks unless you are ridiculously geared.
2) Current content forces you to lose dps.
3) Shield phases are pretty much on the DPS and not the other two roles. And if you are not so geared you actually need to save your burn phases for shield ALMOST ALL THE TIME
4) Current tanks these days actually do quite a fair bit of damage when played right, and DPS players actually have to work harder now to not be last place
5) Back hits are very common and part of the rotation.
6) DPS in general take the blame most of the time for slow runs. It is often not the healer's and tank's fault since 90% of them actually properly rotate and do stuff due to content allowing them to freely do so.
Now that I have given the explanation to the roles, I will give some notable things.
1) Mystics are ridiculously overbuffed to the point that role reversal was actually true. Mystics became the main healer (and it is going to be more so post awakening), and priests become an actual support. Honestly, I find it ridiculous. Is it actually that hard for both roles to actually have the same buff values? Even without contagion Mystics destroy priests in stat gains for most classes therefore most endgame players build around mystics and not priests.
At the current point of stage, even if Priests were to get the exact buff as Mystics, Mystics will probably be more preferred because they are more consistent and they help in burn phases more with Contagion and Thrall of Wrath.
2) Slaying IS meta in RKEM due to the ridiculous amount of time you need to do content.
3) RK is slightly easier than VS. Unlike VS's Darkan, you actually don't have a true "it is a wipe" indicator.
4) Anyone above 150ms will have twice the difficulty of ANY class with lower ping. You spend double the time iframing and dodging out of mechanics, and shield phases also take into account that everyone has low ping and roughly can do the amount of damage the shield has.
Contrary to what some people may think, the holy trinity doesn't have all the content fair to them. The current general idea of how hard a role is now is based on the amount of significant work needed to be done in dungeons, such as the need to iframe (front/back), role only mechanics and stuffs.
General difficulty: Healers < Tanks < DPS.
Tera's current state of the game is interesting. Contrary to what some healers may think, they have the easiest job in the game right now. They have very few things they need to move in and out of. There are no mechs in current patch that force healers to keep people alive (eg: Akeron's Inferno's Duras). And most of all outside from the need to push for dps by facetank, you pretty much have a whole lot of time to randomly dps and do pretty much nothing but wait for something to happen.
Healers also thus have the lowest barrier of entry. It is interesting to note that any bad healer in this game will most likely also end up as a bad tank and dps just because you are actually working with lesser mechs. Similarly, most if not all good tanks/dps who can clear all the game content in the game should be able to heal the same content after a small amount of mechanical practice.
The only true difficulty of healers come in PvP, where mistakes will pretty much kill your entire team.
Tanks currently are not the hardest in the game, primarily because their difficulty hasn't changed in a very long while. Ever since the DPS buffs and aggro management on tanks, Tank's only difficulty comes from the constant need to fully gear. Without VSHM's Darkan mostly, you actually reposition and dodge much less than previous content.
Also, outside from slaying runs, Tanks do not actually need to be 100% perfect. They can afford to facetank some blockable hits to push for more damage, although they need to do mechs all the time.
(Fun fact: Tanks are the easiest in Lucid patch and is nearly equal to DPS difficulty in VSHM patch)
Tanks are actually the easiest in PvP as long as you know how to properly engage (giga/ground pounder) due to the innate endurance and survivability you have.
Now for the moment of truth: Why DPS is now the hardest role in the game now.
1) You can't afford to make mistakes like tanks unless you are ridiculously geared.
2) Current content forces you to lose dps.
3) Shield phases are pretty much on the DPS and not the other two roles. And if you are not so geared you actually need to save your burn phases for shield ALMOST ALL THE TIME
4) Current tanks these days actually do quite a fair bit of damage when played right, and DPS players actually have to work harder now to not be last place
5) Back hits are very common and part of the rotation.
6) DPS in general take the blame most of the time for slow runs. It is often not the healer's and tank's fault since 90% of them actually properly rotate and do stuff due to content allowing them to freely do so.
Now that I have given the explanation to the roles, I will give some notable things.
1) Mystics are ridiculously overbuffed to the point that role reversal was actually true. Mystics became the main healer (and it is going to be more so post awakening), and priests become an actual support. Honestly, I find it ridiculous. Is it actually that hard for both roles to actually have the same buff values? Even without contagion Mystics destroy priests in stat gains for most classes therefore most endgame players build around mystics and not priests.
At the current point of stage, even if Priests were to get the exact buff as Mystics, Mystics will probably be more preferred because they are more consistent and they help in burn phases more with Contagion and Thrall of Wrath.
2) Slaying IS meta in RKEM due to the ridiculous amount of time you need to do content.
3) RK is slightly easier than VS. Unlike VS's Darkan, you actually don't have a true "it is a wipe" indicator.
4) Anyone above 150ms will have twice the difficulty of ANY class with lower ping. You spend double the time iframing and dodging out of mechanics, and shield phases also take into account that everyone has low ping and roughly can do the amount of damage the shield has.
2
Comments
At their core, they heal. Slightly above surface level, they buff and debuff. Yet, I can't tell you how many times awful healers proc secondary aggro and turn the boss, forcing everyone to reposition and lose back time. I can't begin to explain how punishing being a healer actually is in RK9.
If your DPS, who are almost always slaying, die under the boss, you are risking an Outer Area Not Verified by ressing them. You are also risking a Target Locked by ressing them. Obviously, you can res bait Target Locked, but with bad luck it won't take the bait and still lock you when you actually intend on ressing. As well, Outer Area Verified/Not Verified is basically just RNG, and you have to hope that he doesn't do the attack when you're ressing DPS under the bosses feet. I've wiped RK9E more than once because I've had to res someone and Outer Area Not Verified 1shot my slaying tank/dps because they all had under 50% hp. This basically makes ressing one of the most punishing things you can do right now.
As well, the recent nerfs to res make "healer carry" even less realistic. My res has a 10 second cooldown now (after triple cdr + double energetic 4) as opposed to a 5 second cooldown. It takes me 30 seconds to res 4 people as opposed to 15 seconds, which is a significant amount of time. I literally carry around res scrolls now if I have to res multiple people before shield in RK9E.
In order of most punishing roles to die as, Healer is #1 with Tanks being #2. DPS have the leniency of being able to die pretty much whenever and not risk wiping the run (with the exception of DPS checks like shield/timer in RK9E, etc.) whereas if the healer dies without selfres you have to hope one of your DPS actually has a res scroll.
Obviously every role has its own difficulties, but you've written from a perspective that doesn't really grasp every detail. I don't tank and I only play DPS in mid-tier dungeons so I don't have personal experience on the difficulties of those roles. Healers may be the easiest role in the patch right now, but being a good healer still requires effort and you can still be punished really hard for mistakes.
I play Warrior/Archer Dps with 190ms and do RKEM Slaying easy. Just need buy hands in Amazon :^)
btw just have weap stormcry +7, my armor/boots frostmetal +5/+3. Just farm IoD T1 and get your weapon, is very easy lol
And what is Priest? we have priest class? :^)
I always think that tank and healer classes are the most toughest classes and most dependent for everyone to do well in the party. If the healer is not good but tank is good, then overall party performance is very low. Same can be said if tank and/or dps are not good. Like imagine if healer doesn't know how to use debuffs and energy stars or mystic not using double aura, etc. I ran into that one day in an IM RG where the priest didn't use anything lol. I tried to ask nicely if they can but it never occurred. Luckily it was RG and not a higher level dungeon. One good example I encounter is in rk9hm last boss, sometimes the healer isn't outside enough where the boss triggers,"outside not verified". I have to constantly look out for this and dodge backwards out of the range so I don't get stunned (Recently found out you cannot iframe this while in range lol). If I get stunned, I use my brooch as a last resort if available and only if healer can't cleanse me in time or they are out of range. Other than that then there is high chance I might die when boss does that triple smash lol. Then this puts strain on rest of the party. Sometimes it's not the healer's fault as sometimes they have to res people but other times it is the healer's fault. But then again the healer is probably still learning the ranges so it can do "outside verified" more often than the other mech.
I think overall every role has its own difficulty but all in all every role depends on each other.
@seraphinush
I know what you mean. I've known one priest long ago (holly.bright, you might know her lol) who I used to play with but sadly I have not seen her since tshm patch. She was arguably the best healer I've played with. She joined a scnm (pre-nerf) in lfg one time and had no prior experience or research. We explained each boss and she only died twice the whole run. Since that run, I realized how skillful she was lol. It's hard to find people like that. She always cleared hard mode dungeons with gear being as 2 or 3 patches old and was always on top of everything from healing, buffs, everything. Nowadays it takes luck to even have a decent healer.
PVP:
Being a really good healer is very hard, having to keep yourself alive and useful when you have dps on u is challenging no doubt, however this gets alot easier as soon as you hit ilvl449. At that point, with the proper rolls on ur gear EQ dps just tickle you. So you're right, for most of the population, healing in pvp can be challenging, esp when a well geared dps can just cc lock you to death.
Tanks have it alot harder than you think.
Have you tried to giga someone at mid in FWC? Even assuming perfect conditions (high fps, all characters properly rendered, low ping) there are a lot of ways a good player can avoid your giga. Given how much impact there is to landing a giga, it's a pretty high stakes situation.
The sheer number of things that can negate a ground pound is not even funny. You either need to brooch or have red to prevent people from iframing the last hit, the one that really matters. You can't ground pound people with kaias, you can be stunned/cc'ed during ground pound by anyone that's not in front of you.
Based on what you wrote you just sound like someone who's had a hard time killing tanks in pvp so you think it's easy to play them. Just cause you can stay alive as a tank, doesn't mean you're a good pvp tank.
A good dps needs to have proper rolls and need to know at least their basic rotation which would allow them to cc lock someone and deal significant amounts of damage in one rotation. Hard to learn and master but once you have it down it's really not that hard, hardest part is probably landing the skill that allows you to start your rotation and dodging any incoming CC. Considering the fact that fwc and cs are the most popular bgs, most of the time dps just throw their hardest hitting aoe skills into the fight to follow up on giga/gp and tbh, that's just fine.
DPS can be very skill intensive but for the majority of people, you just need to know when to to follow up on skills that matter.
In pvp DPS classes are hard to master but really not that hard to play at an acceptable level.
PVE:
Healers have to do just as many, if not more mechanics than tanks and they have less stats to potentially buffer any screw ups. the fact that you think a good healer should have time to "do nothing" tells me you really haven't played healer at a very high level. If the healer dies you better hope they died at a non-critical juncture, dying at the wrong time will instantly wipe the party due to lack of cleanse/heal. If you think a healer is just responsible for healing and debuffs... i have nothing to say. Add the fact that healers have short/clunky iframes, what you have a class that's really quite unforgiving for new players/ people learning new dungeons.
Tank dies = massive loss of dps, which depending on the dungeon your running and when the tank died = wipe. Facetank? maybe an auto attack but fail any of the mechanics in HM dungeons and you're pretty much guaranteed to be dead unless your healer is amazing. Keeping aggro is another mini-game in and of itself. So many high damaging dps skills these days that can steal aggro, lose aggro for a second and you risk wiping your party, Gunner BV, stacked warrior scythe, archer TB, valks, etc, etc.
Tanking is alot less forgiving than you make it out to be. If you're geared it's easier, but that can be said for any other class.
DPS, let's just address the things you said because there's plenty of errors there already.
1) You can't afford to make mistakes like tanks unless you are ridiculously geared.
You make it sound like tanks can screw up and suffer no consequences.
DPS can usually tank atleast 1 non-critical attack from a boss and not get 1shot. If you mess up a crucial mechanic, then you're dead, just like the healer or tank would be.
2) Current content forces you to lose dps.
If you mean that you have to do mechanics to not die? tanks and healers both have to do that. Previous content did that too. why is this even a valid point?
3) Shield phases are pretty much on the DPS and not the other two roles. And if you are not so geared you actually need to save your burn phases for shield ALMOST ALL THE TIME
I'm sorry what? having mystic aura is pretty crucial to breaking shield. Having all the buffs and debuffs that your tank provides is pretty crucial to breaking shield. Compared to the benefits that a tank/healer can give to the ENTIRE party, missing 1 dps really isn't any more important in comparison. You make it sound as if tanks and healers don't have to save skills for shield (contagion, thrall of wrath, arush, etc)
4) Current tanks these days actually do quite a fair bit of damage when played right, and DPS players actually have to work harder now to not be last place
If played at the same skill level and with the same gear, no dps class should be out damaged by a tank, lancer or brawler, in any of the current endgame bosses. If you're not playing at the same skill level, that's a player skill issue, not a class balance issue. if you don't have the same gear, that's a gear issue, not a class balance issue.
5) Back hits are very common and part of the rotation.
what? yea dps have to back crit and tanks have to front crit. again, why is this even a valid point, proper positioning applies to all classes in all dungeons.
6) DPS in general take the blame most of the time for slow runs. It is often not the healer's and tank's fault since 90% of them actually properly rotate and do stuff due to content allowing them to freely do so.
slow runs aren't as bad as wipes, which usually get blamed on the tank/healer because their deaths are much more detrimental.
Tanks who don't know their proper rotations will have difficulty keeping aggro against a skilled dps, so tanks have to know their rotations too. Healers are too situational to have a set rotation.
TL;DR: OP needs to actually play these classes before ranking them based on difficulty. you sound like a dps main who's QQing because your party blamed you for a slow run.