Forums » Pantheon Classes

Gear and altering class roles

    • 23 posts
    October 10, 2021 8:45 PM PDT
    I'm curious how everyone feels about classes, after investing a substantial amount of time grabbing certain drops, would be able to full time into another role in niche situations. For example, a monk has every piece with as much mitigation as he can muster, and of course all his skill load out is for damage reduction. Should there be a place for him/her?
    • 223 posts
    October 10, 2021 9:48 PM PDT

    I would hope a class/character isn't strictly defined by its gear. Skill sets should play a more significant role.

    • 422 posts
    October 11, 2021 3:39 AM PDT

    The Monk is designed to be a DPS with off-tank abilities. I'd expect the Monk to be able to tank for a group in a pinch, but to far less effect than a real tank. Even with the best gear they can find for "tanking".

    At no point should a Monk be able to tank as well as a true tank class. This same should be true for all classes.

    • 2001 posts
    October 11, 2021 11:24 AM PDT

    Like many other subjects, there is no black & white answer for this. It's all a matter of degree.

    VR has been pretty consistent in the position that no Class can be generally competitive for a spot in groups while playing a role other than their primary one, regardless of gearing. Yet most classes have some abilities that fall into a different role than their class's main role, and can do a bit of short-term 'filling in' should the main person in that role be incapacitated.

    Early levels are also not expected to require 6-person groups with all 4 roles represented, for every situation. Some non-hardcore players may choose to play this way thru as many levels as they can. I'm sure some will try. How far up the levels such an approach can get you remains to be seen. I doubt those players will be in very many raids, unless enough of them form their own Guild.

    I don't believe VR is - or should be - putting much effort into creating situations to do this. They are aiming for strong Class & Role identity as a major attraction of the Game. If you can find a way to expand your character beyond that, good on you. VR calls it 'emergent gameplay'.

    Another consideration is that serious effort to play your char in an 'alternative' role would include putting points into different stats than you would for your primary role, and putting Mastery Points into abilities that aren't the main ones for your primary role. Thus you would have a char that couldn't just switch his gear in order to return to full functionality in his primary role. That would be a lot of time and effort invested in a char who only was played "in a niche situation".

    • 23 posts
    October 11, 2021 10:48 PM PDT
    I bring this up because when all is said and done, things like warrior in EQ dualwielding, Ninja in FF11 eventually becoming a viable tank, and prot warrior becoming fury prot 10 years later in vanilla wow. I found myself actually liking these things in the end. I'm not saying the game should be designed specifically around these ideas. I think Jothany hit the nail on the head mentioning 'emergent gameplay.' Anyhoo whatever happens, looking forward to the future of this game.
    • 68 posts
    October 12, 2021 8:12 PM PDT
    If a piece of gear has mitigation and a monk can wear them, bully. But BY DESIGN they should get more out of a piece of avoidance gear, or gods forbid, dps gear. They're not tanks. Can they "flex" into that role, sure. But if you're party's MT is a monk and your dps is a warrior... good luck with that...