Keep it classy: Tank, DPS and healer, my favourites for each

Over the years, I've played many a game that deals with different jobs, classes whatever you may call it. I've no particular affinity to any class and mostly choose my class according to whatever mood strikes me at the moment. For this Bloggers Wanted entry, I'll detail my favourite entry for each of the three big archetypes.

Let's start things off with the DPS, shall we?

Summoner from Final Fantasy XIV

When starting FF XIV it took me a good while to decide on a class to start out with. In MMo's, I never really played as a tank or healer before as I did not want the responsibility of these roles at the point. Being a DPS has its downsides like longer queue times for dungeons unless you're with a tank or healer, but that's something I haven't minded so much.

However, I did also not want one of the melee based DPS classes I usually play, so the Summoner quickly caught my attention as he relies heavily on DoT (damage over time) spells, something I normally don't really use so I decided to take my chances starting out with this class. What pushed me over the edge is this little fella, though.

In juxtaposition to this adorable little guy my character was a taciturn Elezen, and together they set out to poison the countryside. Surprisingly for me I developed an affinity for the playstyle of the Summoner with his various summons and DoT spells, a playstyle I normally don't enjoy this much. Keeping the rhythm of constantly refreshing the spells during fights was a fun challenge to me , so much so that playing as a Summoner has become my favourite DPS experience. One of these days I'll have to revisit Eorzea to see which new adventures the Heavensward expansion and the content patches since then hold.

This brings us to number two on this list, the healer

Mercy from Overwatch

More or less through the unwillingness of my teammates to play as one I've developed a great affinity to playing support characters in Overwatch and after some internal debate, I have to say Mercy is my favourite. As mentioned in the DPS section of the blog, in MMOs I shy away from the responsibility of a healer, even in offline games I mostly delegate this rule to other party members. 

Playing Overwatch, however, has given me an appreciation for how satisfying it can be to play as one, keeping your time alive against overwhelming odds while trying to avoid enemy fire is a thrilling experience and resurrecting your team to turn the tide of a battle in your favor your enemies deemed won is an incredibly rewarding thing. Mercy also has another utility besides healing, she has a damage boost as well so you can switch between benevolent salvation for your wounded allies into becoming a harbinger of destruction for the enemy team in the blink of an eye, which adds another layer to her that is highly appreciated. I've enjoyed playing Mercy so much I might consider more support based characters in other games.

Now, last but not least, we have the Tank.

Gunlancer in Monster Hunter

 This might be considered cheating a bit since this is more a weapon class than a character class, but it's my blog so I'll allow it.

Starting out in Monster Hunter, you're given a selection of weapons that define your playstyle, from fast dual daggers over hard hitting greatsword to bows with a wide variety of ammo with different effects basically any archetype of RPG class is somewhat represented. When browsing the possibilities the gun lance immediately caught my eye. The imposing shield and the fact your lance doubles as a huge shotgun had me sold immediately. Being able to take the charges of most of the monsters besides the biggest ones feels and looks great, with your shield up you're slowly inching forward to your current mark, ready to poke at vulnerable spots and unleash the explosive might of your gun lance in full should your prey show a weakness.

Once you start using the skill system for MH as well you can get skills that decrease the stamina cost of blocking attacks or make unblockable attacks blockable you'll truly start to feel like a truly immovable object in the path of the giant monsters you encounter. The Gunlance truly nails how it should feel to be a tank to me, it's not only a bigger pool of HP than everyone else like a tank is often portrayed, it's something that makes you look and feel the part and that's what really makes it special to me.

This concludes my blog, I hope you enjoyed reading it, I'd be glad to hear your favourites for each archetype in the comments, and if you have criticism or suggestions for improvements on my writing I'm always happy to hear that too.

Malthor, out.

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