MMO Weekly: The Triad Of Classes

11 May 2010 at 00:00:00 by Jeff Hollis

Hello and welcome, my fellow fanbois and fangurls, and welcome to the latest edition of MMO Weekly.  This week, I'd like to talk about the widely accepted status of the “triad of classes” that exists in contemporary MMOs.

What is this Triad of Classes (TOC)?  It's simply a reference to the fact that the group dynamic in today's MMOs is built around the idea that every group will be composed of tanks, healers, and DPS classes in some combination.  Generally, this combination varies very little – there is one tank, one healer, and three DPS classes in a WoW pug, for example.  Occasionally, you may find a group with an extra healer or a spare tank (commonly referred to as the “off tank”), but a group with four DPS classes, and short a healer or tank, will be critically disfunctional.  

While I used WoW in the above example, the TOC isn't WoW specific.  Many games employ the exact same triad; in fact, I'd argue that it's now the industry standard.  The question, of course, is “why”?

The answer is rooted in human psychology. Over the course of years, many tabletop RPGs have come and gone, and now MMOs are filling the same gaming niche.  Even a cursory view of the most popular tabletop RPGs in history will tell you that players tend to like games with clear-cut classes, as opposed to the more complicated skills-based RPGs.  My personal theory as to why this is so is that a class is simply easier to wrap your brain around.  When a players says he wants to play a wizard, we all have a pretty good mental image of what that looks like.  Likewise, if he wants to play a priest (or a cleric, or a rogue, or a fighter) we instantly have an idea as to what that character will look like, act like, and do.  

The same holds true for MMOs.  A warrior, in every MMO I've ever played, has been the tank.  He's a meat shield.  He holds aggro, takes a beating, and has short list of abilities that enable him to hold aggro and take a beating better than everyone else.  The warrior is instantly understandable and recognizable.  The priest, likewise, is iconic.  The wizard?  The necromancer/warlock?  The thief/rogue/assassin?  Yep, it's the same for all of them.    

However, it doesn't have to be like this.  I mean, I understand the advantages from a developer's point of view.  The dev team is responsible for designing instances and encounters based on group dynamics, and it's a lot simpler if every single group is composed of 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 DPS classes.  However, this tends to hurt DPS classes more than anyone else.  Why?  Because they aren't really needed.  First, a group can consist entirely of healers and tanks (though this may not be optimal).  Second, the majority of classes fall into the DPS category.  So, most players play DPS classes, and yet groups can exist without them.  (In fact, in WoW, every healer and every tank class has the option of employing a second spec as a DPS class.)  Thus the DPS classes are desirable, but not always entirely necessary.

One solution to this problem is to introduce more necessary roles.  For example, in old EverQuest (and I do mean old, as I started playing in 1999), there was no TOC, no triad of players.  There was, instead, a quartet.  There was the tank, the healer, the DPS classes, and the crowd control class, or CC.  In fact, in some instances it was virtually impossible to do anything with a group that did not have an enchanter or bard included.  Those two classes, and only those two, could keep large groups of mobs effectively mezmerized so they could be killed one by one.

Another solution is to allow classes a kind of dual status.  This way, under and over representation of any classes isn't much of a problem, since every class can fill two roles.  The shaman class in Warhammer online is a excellent example of this.  The shaman can be either healer or nuker, and is equally good at both.  If your group needs another DPS class, grab a shaman.  Likewise, if you need another nuker, grab a shaman.  The beauty of this class is that there is no switching specs or gear needed; the shaman is designed to switch roles on the fly, and be extremely versatile in the moment.

You get the idea, right?  Imagine an MMO in which paladins can be both healers and tanks; warriors can be both tanks and DPS classes; shaman can be both nukers and healers; wizards can be both nukers and crowd control experts.  With this kind of set-up, players are intrinsically more versatile.  Groups can be made up of far more various combinations:  if three paladins and two warriors happen to be in the same area, they can easily group together, and everyone will have a purpose.  One pali decides he's the healer.  The other pali decides to tank, and all three warriors decide to DPS.  What's more, if more healing is needed in a pinch, the tank pali can suddenly become a healer, and one of the warriors can become the main tank.  This kind of set up helps players do what they want to do:  play more, and not spend time finding groups.   

Is this kind of design problematic?  Sure it is.  Developers have to ensure that certain combinations are not overpowered, and do not become “I win” setups.  They also have to find secondary roles for every class in the game.  For example, what is the secondary role of a rogue?  Is he a crowd control class (sapping, stunning, etc), in addition to his DPS role?  Or should he fill some other, yet to be determined niche?  What about the priest?  Is he a healer and nuker, or a healer and CC expert?  

While I think that WoW's “dual spec” option addresses this concern to some degree, it falls short of what I've described above.  One problem is that specs cannot be switched on the fly.  A second, more critical problem is that some classes do not have secondary roles.  In fact, some are super versatile. A paladin can be tank, healer or melee DPS; a shaman can be a nuker, a melee DPS class, or a healer.  In fact, a druid can be a nuker, a healer, a tank, a melee DPS class class (come to think of it, I am filled with jealousy of these versatile bastards).  But what about the mage or rogue?  A warlock can be a DPS class specializing in nukes, or a DPS class specializing in DOTs.  The unfortunate bottom line:  he's a DPS class no matter what he does.  

While there are problems to be sorted out, I believe that this kind of design – allowing every class to play two distinctly different roles – will make MMOs better in the future, and I hope that these kinds of classes become more common in future games.

Any ideas or insights you'd like to share?  I look forward to your comments, below.  If you enjoyed these MMOish musings (or even if you didn't), feel free check us out each day at Cool-O-Rama.com,  where we dwell upon these arcane mysteries every single day.  For now, ciao!   

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