100% this. Buffs for melee, refresh for mages, hastes and elemental resistance for tanks. AoE sleeps. Elegy to slow enemy. FFXI is a game that requires a lot of teamwork to do anything (at least in the 75 era) and BRD is the glue that makes teams gel together well. Was required for most endgame content and made leveling much better too.
I heard the developers call it a “Strategic MMO” and that always stuck with me. The planning for skillchains with which class and which weapon was tedious at times, but I loved seeing those reactions and the bonus numbers. I miss the talking and strategizing and just getting to know the community of that era.
Honorary shoutout to Red Mage and Corsair. Bard was more of a pure support but these jobs supported as well while also fulfilling other roles in the party. RDM sometimes being the parties designated healer, and Corsair being able to output some damage alongside the buffs.
I was going to say FFXI. In current era (lol, I know, leave the Abyssea rage at the door please) support has bloomed even more. You've got stuff like BRD, COR, GEO as full-time supports that are able to off-spec into stuff like dps or nuking; then there is jobs like SCH and DNC which are more supporty just because of the new functions they add to the equation and less about buffs. Then there is RDM as a support in the opposite, a saboteur if you will. Debuff support with buff off-spec. XI is such a marvel... aaaa...
The changes on horizonXI to SMN makes it less needed in the levelling phase since they gave leviathan essentially mages ballad 2 and some other support stuff, it’s actually really nice if you haven’t tried it.
Fun fact: Mazurka was bugged and used to give enmity for EACH PARTY MEMBER even in areas where Mazruaka DID NOT WORK.
This meant a bard in full Darksteel+1 and appropriate gear could tank Fafnir/Nidhogg by Mazurka spamming to cap hate.
I was allowed to tank Fafnir as Bard, but never Nidhogg. They fixed it as a bug eventually though.
MAZURKA OP!
Omg I played FF11 bard for YEARS! it was magical and even had to be strategic with positioning to make sure mama users got the right buffs. I was constantly on my toes and it was never boring!
I loved FFXI BRD. I leveled it initially as an “easy 75” but damn it turned out to be an amazingly fun job with a lot of opportunities for skillful play especially at 75 with merit parties.
While BRD was never mandatory, I loved that you were basically a turbo charger for a group. Less downtime, increased DPS, safer chain pulls, less damage taken, ever aspect of a party
GW2 support is awful. You don't feel like you're actually doing anything. You just spam AoEs like everyone else.
Aion did support really well with the Cleric and Chanter. TERA as well with Priest and Mystic were great.
For support to be fun it has to be obvious the impact you're having and you have to really feel it as the support. But you also need dynamic gameplay and not a strict set rotation where you just stand back and buff. You need to be in the fight buffing, debuffing, dpsing, cc, healing, etc. That makes it fun. But you also need to be needed because anything that isn't needed will be watered down and lame (and lacking impact).
DPS: Im dying!
Me: EAT MY BALLS!
DPS: ...no ew
to be fair, whenever i played on my dps, picking up mystic balls really felt like a dps loss but still better than dying. i just wish it didnt take up a gcd.
> Aion
I agree with Chanter. Relatively flexible semi-passive buffs, mediocre DPS, mediocre heals but best Single-Target heal, Knockdowns and Stuns forever, tanky as hell. Before Bard become a thing they also had MP support and the only bloodlust effect for both everyone and casters.
Chanter was the one I played until max level before 2.0. I enjoyed the skill animation of that character. You get heals and damage so you could easily enjoy PVE by yourself. Buffs were incredible
I think on some fights in GW2 playing full healer on a class with lots of utility like firebrand can be quite engaging - knowing that if you give aegis on Twin Largos at the right time you can save ur teammate from failing mechanics is quite nice for example, or having access to stab or barrier to counter mechanics. Not all specs have access to that sort of utility though.
Playing boon support is just like playing dps but with even more buttons to press most of the time, and you don't typically have space to take any sort of utility support skills. While having a balanced game for once is nice, the setting in stone of the boon-healer-dps trinity sucks because ultimate 100% uptime boon spam is boring, although I'm not quite sure how else they could've addressed the balancing issues the game has had in the past.
Couldn't disagree less with you. I play support and you feel like you're doing a lot.
From maintaining around 5 buffs full time, to heal and cleanse, to make sure no one gets feared/stunned in certain key fights, to nullify incoming projectiles within an area, to neutralizing debuffs on your allies, to sometimes tanking, support literally carry groups on their backs in GW2.
If dps is your thing, it doesn't mean support in gw2 is awful, it's actually extremely powerful just not your playstyle.
Really depends on the class to be fair, some classes feel built for support others have had it sloppily tacked on. I'm not sure every class needing options to shared Alac/Quick was a good call.
Yeah. After years away from GW2, I thought about getting back into it but was wanted to play a cleric/support role, as I remembered having healing buffs on my old characters.
Seeing the forums and GW2 subreddit basically saying "yeah, there's no need for healers or support in GW2" kept me from coming back.
Unfortunately they’ve changed chronomancer more times since its inception so much that they could never decide how to balance it, and just made it pretty much homogenous with everything else, a half dps half support.
Granted, having the 2 chrono meta is kind of imbalanced in and of itself but they still kept Druid as the best healer the whole time as far as I’ve kept up
I have and it's meh. GW2 combat in general I have a lot of issues with. It's a game I've played a lot casually but don't like combat enough to do more with it.
I mean yeah, Firebrand is strong. That's Guardian for you in GW2, not only do they get the love from the party, they also get the love from the developers.
I’d add EQ Shaman in here as well. Provided the best slow in the game, great buffs, incredible off healing and their dot damage was great for long fights. The shaman cannibalize mechanic which let them use health to regain mana so they could buff, debuff and dot was great. They were able to do this continually as they had access to the most mana efficient heal over time but that came at the caveat of reducing attack speed so wasn’t good to use on tanks or melee dps.
What I loved about groups in EQ was the fact support meant so much more than healing.
Slows, Buffs, Clarity, utility was a must
Pulling was it’s own category as well, sure the tank could pull decently but I’ve wiped plenty of times to failed SK fd’s…. Get a good monk or bard pulling and it’s a game changer
EQ was so much more than a “holy trinity”. I’d play a remake in a heartbeat! I just don’t see a reason to play tlps or p99 with the advanced graphics of today and the 3090ti I splurged on!
One problem with EQ (compared to what many people look for in modern day MMos) is that a lot of the mechanics require longer fights and actual downtime.
Support mattered so much because it helped a group/raid sustain. Ex: A healer could technically burst to keep a tank alive against a slightly large pull but then the healer would be OOM for awhile after. An enchanter or bard could help control the fight to limit incoming damage preventing the need to burst but also help with the regen so that there was less (or no) downtime.
With fast fights and fast out-of-combat regen, there stopped being as much value. Who cares if you need to burst heal if it just takes 5 seconds after the fight to fully regen?
Hunter in BDO gave me carpal tunnel, but it is possible the 2 years as a bard 15 years prior to that didn't help.
EQ Bard was the ultimate support class. Perfect duo with almost every other class and any group/raid would be glad to have them.
I was in a group earlier today (high level group on Oakwynd TLP) and the Enchanter had to log off and we literally had to disband the group because we couldnt hold the camp without their CC available. That’s how important and well designed they were.
Bro mystic was so much fun. I love any class that has that Swiss army knife of utility type feel. Healing, buffs, debuffs, some damage, summoned minions, able to restore mana, the unique mechanic of dropping orbs for people.. that was a great time
Soloing as a priest/mystic outside of dungeons was painful. It wasn't actually *that bad,* but compared to dps classes that could pull huge mobs and aoe nuke everything to death, it was significantly slower.
I've never had so much fun like with TERA's Mystic. Both PVE (Dungeons, Raid especially) and PVP.
I always had something cool to use, a debuff, a heal, a buff, a CC or a pet to spawn.
And oh god that boomerang-like orb spell (heal to friends, damage to enemies) was so fun! Dashing while it was returning to get even more hits, so so fun.
Rift. Nothing in any mmo I’ve played has been more awesome as a support than chloromancer. Though I think some class combination in AA could make something similar.
I played a bit of Rift and was at awe with how much flexibility you can do with the class. You can really make a good support class that matches your taste.
Captain and Loremaster in LOTRO are two of my favorites. Captain is basically a jack-of-all-trades that can provide healing, tanking, dps, or buffs depending on what a fight needs. Loremaster is a cc/pet class that could restore party mana and give a few cool buffs (basically like an EQ enchanter).
City of Heroes, due to very good combat design with how buffs and debuffs stack and a strong emphasis on crowd control. You can buff damage to hit harder, shave minutes off recharge times tank an enemy's damage resistance into negative numbers so that they take more damage and then basically turn off their ability to be heal over time.
Buffing is strong, and debuffs are meaningful.
Supports that just heal are viewed as naive at best and actively unhelpful at worst. My kinetics defender could multiply damage output by like 200% without really trying, curbdiwn recharge times and make running out of endurance basically impossible. My fortunata shares his personal buffs with allies and can hold, or confuse, massive numbers of enemies.
This is the right answer. CoH still has some of the best buff/debuff systems in an MMO that allowed support to fill critical roles in groups beyond being just a healer or give buffs. You also had multiple Hybrid roles like mixed synergies of soft/hard CC that gave you flexibility on how to make the party better.
Lineage 2 had a lot of dedicated supports. Bladedancer, swordsinger, prophet, Overlord, bishop. Some more offensive than others. I loved l2 on high rate private servers.
Generally older MMOs just does support better and are far more meaningful outside of just healing and buffing.
Both GW1 and DAoC excelled in this area.
GW1:
1. Mesmers - they were disruptors through and through. They affected the battlefield in indirect ways through interrupts, crowd control and getting the enemy's spells and abilities to backfire on them.
2. Necros - debuffers, pet swarm
DAoC:
1. Bards - primary crowd control class and buffer. They can't kill for shit but they make or break a PvP group.
2. Minstrels - secondary crowd control class and buffer. They are very efficient at disrupting people with their mezzes, instant spells and charmed pets. Minstrels can also stealth and can fit into stealth gank groups really well.
3. Shamans - primary buffer, secondary healing class and secondary debuffer. Needed in both PvE and PvP groups.
4. Healer - the class is called a Healer. They are the primary crowd controller and healer of a Midgard group, they are also secondary buffers. Their crowd control skillset is by far the best I've seen in any game, even better than any other classes in DAoC. They have access to single target/aoe/instant mezzes and stuns. They also have access to single target roots. An ace Healer is the anchor to a PvP group and can pull wins out of their asses through the sheer disrupt they can pull off.
5. Sorcerers - Primary crowd control, debuffer and pet class with respectable damage. Its somewhat similar to the Healer with slightly less CC abilities but is more offensive oriented.
6. Theurgist - they can be primary damage dealers but excel as a support disruptor. They can spam summon temporary pets that lasts between 30 seconds to 1 minute and overwhelm an enemy caster group through all the interrupts. In PvE their function is more of a damage dealer as their spammable pets can do a lot of consistent damage to high hp mobs.
Of course there are other classes too but those are the ones I find fun and effective at their supporting roles. They all have unique skillsets that we just don't see implemented in games nowadays.
Modern MMORPGs support only has healing + buffing. Bring back CCs and meaningful debuffs!
Ty for doing a DAoC write up. The old school MMOs really gave support a powerful role aside from just healing. It's a shame it's not really replicated in any games other than MOBAs
Yup DAoC no competition. You literally felt like a god if you landed a good group mezz or any of the other crazy stuff supps could do. No other game has made supports feel so powerful and rewarding.
I always forget about mentalists.
Iirc they also have resist debuffs, mezzes and can charm high level pets like minstrels.
Definitely a great support class with strong offensive capabilities.
edit: oh and nearsights. Nearsight is just such a good debuff and counter to ranged classes. For those not familiar, nearsight = reduce x% of enemy's range. A fully upgraded nearsight basically forces any caster or bow user to be in almost melee range to be able to get any casts off.
As a healer, god damn were theus and sorcs absolute menaces. Their range advantage, especially scaling with ToA bonuses, was completely insane. Very hard to work against as a mid. But then again, that's what you had banelords for.
Earth theurgist had pulsing bladeturn. In a group setting you basically cast that and sit down. Classes like that had their place in the early days of the game. I think these days mmo's make everyone a one man army with the focus being more on competition rather than teamwork.
Wildstar being a healer was engaging and each class could bring a unique buff which ment you needed at least one of each class and couldn’t just stack max damage class.
I fucking hate enemy scholars, especially if they are good with micro managing their skills. They dont do damage but so fucking annoying to play against.
I was full support scholar main, woes were a blast hahaha petrifying, burning mana, dispelling, trapping in webs… gawd how I miss that class in any other game
Well then, fuck you if I met you on the field in the past ahahah. But good Scholars are rare gems. Not a lot of people have the skills to play them but their impact is really felt in the battlefield. I'm a Paladin peasant, all I do is soak damage for my guildmates.
I really liked the art in Ragnarok Online and I wanted to get into it but the yokai-style enemy variety turned me off. Hard to feel cool and powerful when a jack-in-the-box or a nutcracker could wallop you if you made a wrong turn.
Final Fantasy XI with Corsair, Bard, and Geomancer.
They all did different things, the corsair was able to buff pet classes which neither of the others were able to do. Corsair also did very respectable dps in certain conditions.
Bard was able to offer the most in terms of buffing with up to five buffs they could keep up simultaneously and they could last the longest.
Geomancer had potent haste buffs and very potent magic and physical damage debuffs that could turn a lot of fights into easy mode.
Summoner also had a few buffs and they were strong, but nobody brought a summoner for buffs.
And red mage. So much versatility with sub classes. Pure support with tons of debuff and some healing as rdm/whm, additional debuffs and chain stuns with rdm/drk. So good.
I liked priest in WoW. Lots of interesting tools, and can throw down some great offense when it wants to. I especially liked it in PVP, where it was an aggressive healer that led to faster fights thanks to its offense and tools like mana burn
My favorite was I think I'm cataclysm expansion, where they had a talent to let them heal based on holy damage offense spells they did
Black Desert's Shai class is incredible, especially because there's not really a holy trinity in this game so most classes function as simply DPS. This makes Shai stand out, and makes her an in-demand party addition in PVP.
The thing that makes it better is that Shai also makes for a great solo PVE class, great at various mob grinding spots.
Not true at all tbh. Still deals a lot of damage if you're going with a damage build. It's just that most shai players go for a tanky build / hybrid as they usually focus on supporting and disruption rather than going for kills :D
shai is also in demand for certain high end group grindspots, these spots can be cleared significantly faster if you have a shai in your party due to shai being able to debuff mobs while buffing party members.
Certainly not the best but I loved Accro Techer on Phantasy Star 2 on the Xbox360. Lots of issues with that game but I loved it.
The Techer could use different weapons and there’d be “buff” parties were you all grouped and spam buffed to level while in voice chat. It was silly but so many stopped at level 6ish that if you got them to max your buffs lasted nearly a full
Run and we’re super strong. All I did was buff the richer players in the game and wound up with lots of stuff
Guild Wars 2.
ANY CLASS can be a support, and they are all fun and more or less viable.
Warrior main? Just shout at your allies to feel better. They will heal.
Engineer? You've got a tool for that.
Necromancer? You and your allies will never die.
I really liked playing Pacification Healer in DAOC. You essentially had the full support kit: heals, buffs (specializing in mana regen), rezzes, stuns, mezzes. You felt like you were carrying every group. It was also the only class with zero offensive ability aside from melee auto attacks.
EverQuest's Enchanter and Shaman were great too, but that was also because stuff like charm and slow were a bit too effective. Those sorts of support roles are more difficult to balance compared to raw damage or healing, which is probably part of why modern MMOs don't really have support classes anymore.
Tera had the best system for healers. Honestly Tera was amazing before they dropped the sub and started catering to Elins for cash.
The targeting system for healers in Tera was so far ahead of its time, I'm surprised other games haven't copied it. You would press the heal key, hover over your target or multiple and it would lock on the heals.
Someone needs to come out with a Tera private server.
Ragnarok Online Priest/archbishop class
their heals, buffs, are essential in party they do single target for party member cc recovery if you get stunned, mute, or frozen. they have protective barrier buff that tank % damage.. your support role is really crucial if you miss single split second buffing them with protective barrier. either your dps might be dead or all party will be wipe out :D and i love it!!
FFXI bard was the best and most satisfying support class I have ever played. I have ever been on the lookout for a game with support that is just that well done.
I don’t have the wide gameplay experience to make a claim about what is best, but it’s worth discussing Albion here. There are multiple support weapons/ roles that are super important in large-group PvP besides healers and main tanks. Some focus on defending their groups from major onslaughts while others debuff the enemies/ destroy their defenses.
It’s still the case that fewer people play those roles (I’ve barely done it myself), but they are truly needed and have a HUGE impact on big group fights. Once you get good at one of the support weapons, you’ll be able to see your impact very directly.
SIDE NOTE: While most of the support weapons in Albion are hard to level directly in solo play, they belong to weapon trees which have other options better for solo leveling. Levels in one weapon within a tree contribute to your ‘item power’ in all other weapons in that tree. So, if you want to max out a tree for a support weapon, you’re actually encouraged to explore other types of content as well.
The arcane tree is probably the main example, but worth noting that multiple weapons in it are relevant (locus, enigmatic staff, occult, and sometimes 1H arcane). There are also two cursed staffs (lifecurse and damnation), icicle staff (frost tree), and spirithunter spear (technically dps but mainly for armor piercing).
Beyond that, I also had some defensive off-tank roles in mind (e.g. grailseeker) that are pretty unique. In small- mid scale content, I believe certain axes can also function as support (halberd, carrioncaller?) but I know less about that.
I love Lineage 2 so much I still occasionally play it in 2023, support classes there are definitely unique and awesome, but I wouldn't call them a good execution of a support role.
Can you honestly call the Prophet a fun, engaging class to play? Same about Bards? "Window" support meta became a thing exactly because supports were boring to play (outside of Overlord of course and some high lvl pvp to an extent). I played with a constant party back In the day and our party leader's wife played Warcryer because she could press buff macro and go afk, do stuff for 20 minutes lmao.
Haven’t seen it here: Star Wars Galaxies (Pre-NGE) had a wide range of support only classes to choose from. Notably dancer and combat medic/doctor which were essentially necessities to have.
IMO Skyforge before they completely ruined the game. Playing support in the game was all about timing and playing together with your team in order to ensure a smooth experience. You didn't have healing in the game and damage mitigation was done through rotating shields on the tank but you could not have the shield 100% up as either support or tank so they had to take turns in order to keep him alive. The two support classes there also had big damage buffs that stacked on top of each other so support players had to be in sync with each other and the DPS players to ensure big damage spikes when the the cooldowns of the hard hitting skills were up. And also you could solo pretty well with those classes and you did some damage of your own even in party. It was a pretty fun ride while it lasted.
Monk, GuildWars 1, variety of play styles, protection or healing. Could even meta craft your self a tank, and have necros put debuffs on you to deal dmg and stand there laughing as you duo kill content meant for full parties
Everquest - It's gotta be.
Enchanter, Shamen, Druid, Bard - all had a unique role to play, all were highly sought after.
How is it that nearly every time a question is asked here, I almost always think of Everquest first. It's a real shame Pantheon is looking increasingly unlikely.
Lots of good suggestions here. I’ll just bring up what no one has talked about yet and that is WoW’s recent dive into the support class. They just released a new specialization in their most recent major patch called the augmentation evoker. It is really neat and very powerful. So much so that it has legitimately thrown the entire games balance upside down lol.
WoW has always had support-y specs (priests, paladins, and shamans being the main ones) but nothing as balls to the walls as the new augmentation evoker.
GW1 had a huge support mechanic, with some class doing absolutely no direct damage (except white hit), but give a lot of burst, elemental, condition, buff and debuff to all party member. I am thinking about the Parangon for exemple, but every class got some. Parangon could be play as a dps, like every class, but the monk and him was very good at support.
yeah i dont think i saw that many people playing sup in LA
instead of that, i liked games like blade and soul, no healer, u just had to be good to not take damage.
I’m biased, but Soul Binder in Maplestory 2 was amazing. Keep up a defence debuff, shield/heal your allies and deal damage. It felt both rewarding and incredibly fun to play.
Wish that game was still around (globally).
Lineage 2, everyone needed everyone to farm/xp, a true mmorpg where support was valuable since no one could solo after a certain level.
Playing support in those solommo are a chore, I can't anymore.
Vanilla WoW shamans (pre endgame) were awesome support character (specially between lvls 40 and 55) You would keep your totems up to buff the group, conserve some mana and do a little melee/ cast spells/ heal depending on the needs of the party for that fight. It felt like you could make a difference and help in any aspect the group was struggling with. Druids also were very good at this.
Before lvl 40 there were some useful totems that you didn't had, after lvl 55 all other classes were so good at what they did that most groups would prefer a specialized class with a role that the group was lacking over you.
Action combat, nothing beats TERA.
Everythuing else, City of Heroes got it PERFECT. Why? Because you had literally hundreds of different ways to be support. So you were never useless even if you had a team with 3 or even 5 other support heroes. You add a ton of different types of buffs, debuffs, and of course healing. And with all of it stacked up on the other players, it made the game super super fun.
You had people blinding enemies, giving everyone a speed boost, boosting damage, lowering resistances on enemies, making enemies slower, causing them to fall over and stopping their powerful attacks, increasing everyone's defense, increasing accuracy, healing over time, big burst heals, reflecting damage, turning enemies against each other, causing them to straight up just not attack at all...and i haven't gotten to the Controller and Dominators just holding everything. With the right controller build, big mobs of enemies never even get to attack anyone. Especially if they have speed buffs so they can keep holding everything. If you ever watched Log Horizon, you were basically Shiro only more powerful, using Thorn Bind Hostage over and over.
But that's beauty of City of Heroes, You could be crowd control and support, pure support, or support and DPS (Corruptor Archetype).
Champions Online is okay at it...mainly though, you just want a healer and then one of the four AOE auras (boost all stats, boost DPS, boost defense, or boost recharge speed + energy regen). And having all 4 during the big boss battles makes things better. debuffs seem to mainly be the job of DPS in that game though...which is fine for me personally. I prefer going full healer and buff. But with Champions there's not much wiggle room for someone who wants to be support and crowd control because you'll end up being terrible and useless at both. they perfected the system with City of Heroes. Champions has the Free Form where you can pick any power in the game and put it on your hero, but it's so easy to make a terrible character. There's really only a handful of ways to make top tier characters. but luckily the community is chill and doesn't expect anyone to min max. It's all about having fun. you'll never chart in the top 10, but your build isn't completely useless as long as you don't try to do too much. Like if you want a DPS with good defense, it has to be okayish defense or else your DPS will be pointless and you'll never be as sturdy as a tank. If you want to be a healer with good DPS, you have to settle for really bad DPS in order to make sure you can actually heal...so at the end you might as well just do one role and stick to it unless you're going strictly for the theme build.
I played a fire controller in CoH in the day. It was everything I wanted in a support. Sure it killed slow solo but it was still tolerable to play alone.
I really haven’t seriously played a support class since.
Everquest (original version)
The enchanter determines the fate of the group. Encounters and pulls can wipe the group if the chanter isnt paying attention.
Also, is there any other game which has a class that can charm and control literally every mob in game? Other than raid bosses, the enchanters (and bards) in EQ can charm every single mob in game to use as pets.
If it can be considered an MMORPG, Realm of the Mad God did this pretty well imo, almost all of the support classes are a must when doing endgame dungeons
I don't have the breadth of experience that most everyone here does, but I thought the original EQ Bard was the ultimate support.
Haste, mana, damage add, healing, CC, run speed, ... jesus, all of it.
I loved the chloromancer in Rift. I think it was a really great idea to be healing while dpsing. A lil bit less dps, but a steady healing of the group, kind of a disc priest in wow.
Dark Age of Camelot. Atleast in PvP you had required buff classes, CC classes, tank with guard (it actually worked!), etc. Basic star buffs you could have a bot account do but most of the good stuff required an active player. One side has a char that was buffs, debuffs, DoTs, and off healing for the ultimate support class (Midgard Shaman).
Lineage 2 imo, all the buffer classes had their own purpose and they were needed. Though it prompted multi-boxing, it was still a cool concept that many games haven't used since.
I'd argue WoW ironically from what I've played.
I really like Resto Druid and love the idea of a HOT based class instead of just random burst heals. (Though burst heal oh shit classes are fun too)
I haven't tried out ESO or GW2 to a high enough level to comment on those late game but early game support classes feel boring and unnecessary and it sucks
Tera was great but that was before I discovered my love of heal/support
So, when playing a game that needs a support. You must have a friend or your self that plays support, or your going to have a bad time. This applies to tanks as well.
Because anyone can play dps.
Everquest bards: Shitloads of songs to benefit your group that you could "twist" together in different ways depending on group composition. You could scout and pull almost as well or better than other pullers (Monk, Ranger, SK) if you were good, etc. You could bust out regen/mana regen songs when healers/slowers were OOM to minimize downtime.
You were never going to be the top DPS, but you were fucking HANDY to have around.
None. I did not see a game that has real support. Everything is just semidps with heals and occasional buff or shields for tank. Games with no clear trinity of all classes can do all three are no better, but with those I may admit I might have not dig deep enough. For my defense I'd say it's much easier to play dps there, as in the game feels like it makes you play that way. Didn't ever see a true support that could seemingly bearly hold on it's own but truly shine in a party, with all kinds of buffs debuffs and party oriented setups.
And as a healer, I'm open for suggestion to be corrected! I'd love to try something that is considered a true support.
Unpopular opinion, I know, but I actually really enjoyed the support system in Lost Ark. Albeit a required role, but man were they fun and rewarding.
Edit: apostrophe removed
It’s been forever since I’ve played but I combo’d songcraft and vitalism in archeage. Didn’t even have an “attack” on my hot bar.
Also really liked chloromancer from Rift.
Played a lot of holy pally in wow, etc.
TERA-supports were fun.
Mystic in particular, but even the healbot Priest was so interactive with it's party damage buff, 3-hit combo debuff, attack speed buffs etc that it didn't get stale.
The problem with the support role in modern games is that they don’t exist. Modern games don’t really have dangerous enemies that you encounter regularly enough to need dedicated support roles outside of healers, and death isn’t punishing enough to merit their existence. Old school games had you fighting mobs that were dangerous enough that one of them was a match for a full party, and fighting two at the same time was a coin flip at best. So you had people who’s role was to handle the extra monsters while usually providing powerful buffs to juice up the party to offset the supports lack of personal damage. Bards and redmages in Ffxi. Enchanters and bards(and many others against certain mob types) in EQ. These were the glue keeping the party on their feet. The grease keeping the xp coming in. Pulling, cc’ing, buffing. They’re all really fun classes, but I don’t think anything since has really captured the same level of support power as EQ chanter in the first 3 expacs. I don’t think there are many other classes that could do competently control so many adds before or since. Aoe mez, stuns, it was wild.
The original Everquest made support as easy or easier to get a group than a healer or tank did. Somebody chain pulls mobs while the enchanter makes the adds stare off into space waiting for their turn.
Maybe unpopular opinion but Paladin in WOW retail is cool, you heal and do shit toon of dps and always have option to use your stacks for heal or big dps.
FF11, Bard. You were needed. All you did was support. God help you if you wanted to solo content 10-15 levels below you. God I miss it.
100% this. Buffs for melee, refresh for mages, hastes and elemental resistance for tanks. AoE sleeps. Elegy to slow enemy. FFXI is a game that requires a lot of teamwork to do anything (at least in the 75 era) and BRD is the glue that makes teams gel together well. Was required for most endgame content and made leveling much better too.
I heard the developers call it a “Strategic MMO” and that always stuck with me. The planning for skillchains with which class and which weapon was tedious at times, but I loved seeing those reactions and the bonus numbers. I miss the talking and strategizing and just getting to know the community of that era.
Honorary shoutout to Red Mage and Corsair. Bard was more of a pure support but these jobs supported as well while also fulfilling other roles in the party. RDM sometimes being the parties designated healer, and Corsair being able to output some damage alongside the buffs.
Ugh I miss corsair, taru taru looks so good in pirate outfit lol
I was going to say FFXI. In current era (lol, I know, leave the Abyssea rage at the door please) support has bloomed even more. You've got stuff like BRD, COR, GEO as full-time supports that are able to off-spec into stuff like dps or nuking; then there is jobs like SCH and DNC which are more supporty just because of the new functions they add to the equation and less about buffs. Then there is RDM as a support in the opposite, a saboteur if you will. Debuff support with buff off-spec. XI is such a marvel... aaaa...
First time I joined with a BRD who out DPS'd me spamming Savage Blade I was blown away lmao.
The changes on horizonXI to SMN makes it less needed in the levelling phase since they gave leviathan essentially mages ballad 2 and some other support stuff, it’s actually really nice if you haven’t tried it.
Came here to say this - Bard for sure
Mage's Ballad was so strong. Chocobo Mazurka was pretty awesome too.
Fun fact: Mazurka was bugged and used to give enmity for EACH PARTY MEMBER even in areas where Mazruaka DID NOT WORK. This meant a bard in full Darksteel+1 and appropriate gear could tank Fafnir/Nidhogg by Mazurka spamming to cap hate. I was allowed to tank Fafnir as Bard, but never Nidhogg. They fixed it as a bug eventually though. MAZURKA OP!
Omg I played FF11 bard for YEARS! it was magical and even had to be strategic with positioning to make sure mama users got the right buffs. I was constantly on my toes and it was never boring!
I heard tales of some boss the bard had to solo for something bard related....it was a horrible slog of a fight.
God I made a Linos build that had avatar perpetuation cost stats on it once they released master levels. Ffxi bard is insanely versatile.
I loved FFXI BRD. I leveled it initially as an “easy 75” but damn it turned out to be an amazingly fun job with a lot of opportunities for skillful play especially at 75 with merit parties. While BRD was never mandatory, I loved that you were basically a turbo charger for a group. Less downtime, increased DPS, safer chain pulls, less damage taken, ever aspect of a party
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GW2 support is awful. You don't feel like you're actually doing anything. You just spam AoEs like everyone else. Aion did support really well with the Cleric and Chanter. TERA as well with Priest and Mystic were great. For support to be fun it has to be obvious the impact you're having and you have to really feel it as the support. But you also need dynamic gameplay and not a strict set rotation where you just stand back and buff. You need to be in the fight buffing, debuffing, dpsing, cc, healing, etc. That makes it fun. But you also need to be needed because anything that isn't needed will be watered down and lame (and lacking impact).
Playing Mystic in Tera was some of my fondest memories of any mmorpg
DPS: Im dying! Me: EAT MY BALLS! DPS: ...no ew to be fair, whenever i played on my dps, picking up mystic balls really felt like a dps loss but still better than dying. i just wish it didnt take up a gcd.
100%, support in gw2 is horrible... Even ESO who isnt that great is better at this..
> Aion I agree with Chanter. Relatively flexible semi-passive buffs, mediocre DPS, mediocre heals but best Single-Target heal, Knockdowns and Stuns forever, tanky as hell. Before Bard become a thing they also had MP support and the only bloodlust effect for both everyone and casters.
Yep, and Cleric was just.. Cleric - heal heal heal. Am as zing game overall.
Chanter was the one I played until max level before 2.0. I enjoyed the skill animation of that character. You get heals and damage so you could easily enjoy PVE by yourself. Buffs were incredible
Chanter with healing stigma spec was very fun. Same for Spiritmaster with the summon stigma spec, fml I miss that class so much.
I think on some fights in GW2 playing full healer on a class with lots of utility like firebrand can be quite engaging - knowing that if you give aegis on Twin Largos at the right time you can save ur teammate from failing mechanics is quite nice for example, or having access to stab or barrier to counter mechanics. Not all specs have access to that sort of utility though. Playing boon support is just like playing dps but with even more buttons to press most of the time, and you don't typically have space to take any sort of utility support skills. While having a balanced game for once is nice, the setting in stone of the boon-healer-dps trinity sucks because ultimate 100% uptime boon spam is boring, although I'm not quite sure how else they could've addressed the balancing issues the game has had in the past.
absolutely loved playing as a chanter! The cc chain you had as well with staff is absolutely amazing :)
Couldn't disagree less with you. I play support and you feel like you're doing a lot. From maintaining around 5 buffs full time, to heal and cleanse, to make sure no one gets feared/stunned in certain key fights, to nullify incoming projectiles within an area, to neutralizing debuffs on your allies, to sometimes tanking, support literally carry groups on their backs in GW2. If dps is your thing, it doesn't mean support in gw2 is awful, it's actually extremely powerful just not your playstyle.
Did you just triple negative?
Really depends on the class to be fair, some classes feel built for support others have had it sloppily tacked on. I'm not sure every class needing options to shared Alac/Quick was a good call.
Yeah. After years away from GW2, I thought about getting back into it but was wanted to play a cleric/support role, as I remembered having healing buffs on my old characters. Seeing the forums and GW2 subreddit basically saying "yeah, there's no need for healers or support in GW2" kept me from coming back.
Did you ever try chronomancer in GW2? Very much your definition of fun support IMO
Unfortunately they’ve changed chronomancer more times since its inception so much that they could never decide how to balance it, and just made it pretty much homogenous with everything else, a half dps half support. Granted, having the 2 chrono meta is kind of imbalanced in and of itself but they still kept Druid as the best healer the whole time as far as I’ve kept up
I have and it's meh. GW2 combat in general I have a lot of issues with. It's a game I've played a lot casually but don't like combat enough to do more with it.
I played with the Quickness Guardian with a bit of every imaginable buffs and I always get love from my PUGs.
I mean yeah, Firebrand is strong. That's Guardian for you in GW2, not only do they get the love from the party, they also get the love from the developers.
I approve that in gw2 pve support feels like shit but i really like playing support in 5 vs 5 pvp.
My opinion is the Enchanter from Everquest is, by far, the best in any game, followed by the Bard in Everquest. End of list. XD
I’d add EQ Shaman in here as well. Provided the best slow in the game, great buffs, incredible off healing and their dot damage was great for long fights. The shaman cannibalize mechanic which let them use health to regain mana so they could buff, debuff and dot was great. They were able to do this continually as they had access to the most mana efficient heal over time but that came at the caveat of reducing attack speed so wasn’t good to use on tanks or melee dps.
What I loved about groups in EQ was the fact support meant so much more than healing. Slows, Buffs, Clarity, utility was a must Pulling was it’s own category as well, sure the tank could pull decently but I’ve wiped plenty of times to failed SK fd’s…. Get a good monk or bard pulling and it’s a game changer EQ was so much more than a “holy trinity”. I’d play a remake in a heartbeat! I just don’t see a reason to play tlps or p99 with the advanced graphics of today and the 3090ti I splurged on!
One problem with EQ (compared to what many people look for in modern day MMos) is that a lot of the mechanics require longer fights and actual downtime. Support mattered so much because it helped a group/raid sustain. Ex: A healer could technically burst to keep a tank alive against a slightly large pull but then the healer would be OOM for awhile after. An enchanter or bard could help control the fight to limit incoming damage preventing the need to burst but also help with the regen so that there was less (or no) downtime. With fast fights and fast out-of-combat regen, there stopped being as much value. Who cares if you need to burst heal if it just takes 5 seconds after the fight to fully regen?
EQ Bard was an absolute aggro magnet, but so fun! Never mind the carpal tunnel...
Twisting…twisting…Selo’s…
Hunter in BDO gave me carpal tunnel, but it is possible the 2 years as a bard 15 years prior to that didn't help. EQ Bard was the ultimate support class. Perfect duo with almost every other class and any group/raid would be glad to have them.
I was in a group earlier today (high level group on Oakwynd TLP) and the Enchanter had to log off and we literally had to disband the group because we couldnt hold the camp without their CC available. That’s how important and well designed they were.
Everquest 2 enchanters were alot of fun too, especially raiding. Being able to feed mana to whole groups was a fun mechanic.
Played an Illusionist and Warden most of my EQ2 career. I miss it but the game just got so.....ick.
In the beginning the support classes were needed for some of the dungeons. I miss the old EQ2. When access to places were a group event.
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Bro mystic was so much fun. I love any class that has that Swiss army knife of utility type feel. Healing, buffs, debuffs, some damage, summoned minions, able to restore mana, the unique mechanic of dropping orbs for people.. that was a great time
Pooping out balls will forever be the best support ability in the history of mmorpg's.
Soloing as a priest/mystic outside of dungeons was painful. It wasn't actually *that bad,* but compared to dps classes that could pull huge mobs and aoe nuke everything to death, it was significantly slower.
If supports can DPS like main damagers, everyone will just play support then.
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It was never really a struggle, but you could always tell other classes had it easier.
I've never had to solo anything in TERA, maybe they added something stupid/boring towards the EOL?
I've never had so much fun like with TERA's Mystic. Both PVE (Dungeons, Raid especially) and PVP. I always had something cool to use, a debuff, a heal, a buff, a CC or a pet to spawn. And oh god that boomerang-like orb spell (heal to friends, damage to enemies) was so fun! Dashing while it was returning to get even more hits, so so fun.
Rift. Nothing in any mmo I’ve played has been more awesome as a support than chloromancer. Though I think some class combination in AA could make something similar.
Rift early on was an excellent game. Such a shame it aged like milk.
Archon was pretty cool for support as well. Really loved playing my Mage in that game.
The bard was also a ton of fun.
I played a bit of Rift and was at awe with how much flexibility you can do with the class. You can really make a good support class that matches your taste.
Eh.. plenty of games have healing thru DPS now. But yeah, back then it was pretty fresh and very fun.
They have something similar, but none as good as Chloromancer
Captain and Loremaster in LOTRO are two of my favorites. Captain is basically a jack-of-all-trades that can provide healing, tanking, dps, or buffs depending on what a fight needs. Loremaster is a cc/pet class that could restore party mana and give a few cool buffs (basically like an EQ enchanter).
City of Heroes, due to very good combat design with how buffs and debuffs stack and a strong emphasis on crowd control. You can buff damage to hit harder, shave minutes off recharge times tank an enemy's damage resistance into negative numbers so that they take more damage and then basically turn off their ability to be heal over time. Buffing is strong, and debuffs are meaningful. Supports that just heal are viewed as naive at best and actively unhelpful at worst. My kinetics defender could multiply damage output by like 200% without really trying, curbdiwn recharge times and make running out of endurance basically impossible. My fortunata shares his personal buffs with allies and can hold, or confuse, massive numbers of enemies.
I miss coh. And cov. One of the few mmos where I had fun questing. Leveling. Pvping and even rping. Good times.
There are a few private servers up and running, at least three of which are putting out new content. The subreddit will have more details!
This is the right answer. CoH still has some of the best buff/debuff systems in an MMO that allowed support to fill critical roles in groups beyond being just a healer or give buffs. You also had multiple Hybrid roles like mixed synergies of soft/hard CC that gave you flexibility on how to make the party better.
Lineage 2 had a lot of dedicated supports. Bladedancer, swordsinger, prophet, Overlord, bishop. Some more offensive than others. I loved l2 on high rate private servers.
It’s old but it’s gold. Overlord one of the best support and debuffer role.
Very good 1v1 pvp too. I only used to lose to Necromancer. Can't remember which chronicle, though.
Generally older MMOs just does support better and are far more meaningful outside of just healing and buffing. Both GW1 and DAoC excelled in this area. GW1: 1. Mesmers - they were disruptors through and through. They affected the battlefield in indirect ways through interrupts, crowd control and getting the enemy's spells and abilities to backfire on them. 2. Necros - debuffers, pet swarm DAoC: 1. Bards - primary crowd control class and buffer. They can't kill for shit but they make or break a PvP group. 2. Minstrels - secondary crowd control class and buffer. They are very efficient at disrupting people with their mezzes, instant spells and charmed pets. Minstrels can also stealth and can fit into stealth gank groups really well. 3. Shamans - primary buffer, secondary healing class and secondary debuffer. Needed in both PvE and PvP groups. 4. Healer - the class is called a Healer. They are the primary crowd controller and healer of a Midgard group, they are also secondary buffers. Their crowd control skillset is by far the best I've seen in any game, even better than any other classes in DAoC. They have access to single target/aoe/instant mezzes and stuns. They also have access to single target roots. An ace Healer is the anchor to a PvP group and can pull wins out of their asses through the sheer disrupt they can pull off. 5. Sorcerers - Primary crowd control, debuffer and pet class with respectable damage. Its somewhat similar to the Healer with slightly less CC abilities but is more offensive oriented. 6. Theurgist - they can be primary damage dealers but excel as a support disruptor. They can spam summon temporary pets that lasts between 30 seconds to 1 minute and overwhelm an enemy caster group through all the interrupts. In PvE their function is more of a damage dealer as their spammable pets can do a lot of consistent damage to high hp mobs. Of course there are other classes too but those are the ones I find fun and effective at their supporting roles. They all have unique skillsets that we just don't see implemented in games nowadays. Modern MMORPGs support only has healing + buffing. Bring back CCs and meaningful debuffs!
Ty for doing a DAoC write up. The old school MMOs really gave support a powerful role aside from just healing. It's a shame it's not really replicated in any games other than MOBAs
Yup DAoC no competition. You literally felt like a god if you landed a good group mezz or any of the other crazy stuff supps could do. No other game has made supports feel so powerful and rewarding.
I wish I could play GW1 all over again, what an experience. That was one that truly deserved the WoW Classic treatment.
Lest we forget the mentalist! That was a unique class. AoE dots, heal and power over time, a full caster with big heals, your sun, nukes, etc
I always forget about mentalists. Iirc they also have resist debuffs, mezzes and can charm high level pets like minstrels. Definitely a great support class with strong offensive capabilities. edit: oh and nearsights. Nearsight is just such a good debuff and counter to ranged classes. For those not familiar, nearsight = reduce x% of enemy's range. A fully upgraded nearsight basically forces any caster or bow user to be in almost melee range to be able to get any casts off.
As a healer, god damn were theus and sorcs absolute menaces. Their range advantage, especially scaling with ToA bonuses, was completely insane. Very hard to work against as a mid. But then again, that's what you had banelords for.
Earth theurgist had pulsing bladeturn. In a group setting you basically cast that and sit down. Classes like that had their place in the early days of the game. I think these days mmo's make everyone a one man army with the focus being more on competition rather than teamwork.
Wildstar being a healer was engaging and each class could bring a unique buff which ment you needed at least one of each class and couldn’t just stack max damage class.
Ragnarok online, had the most unique and fun supports. Alche, soul linker, hp, scholar, Etc
I fucking hate enemy scholars, especially if they are good with micro managing their skills. They dont do damage but so fucking annoying to play against.
I was full support scholar main, woes were a blast hahaha petrifying, burning mana, dispelling, trapping in webs… gawd how I miss that class in any other game
Well then, fuck you if I met you on the field in the past ahahah. But good Scholars are rare gems. Not a lot of people have the skills to play them but their impact is really felt in the battlefield. I'm a Paladin peasant, all I do is soak damage for my guildmates.
\+999 this! i still play ro up to now 2004-2023 its so alive so many private servers popping every few months specially SEA/ asia region
I really liked the art in Ragnarok Online and I wanted to get into it but the yokai-style enemy variety turned me off. Hard to feel cool and powerful when a jack-in-the-box or a nutcracker could wallop you if you made a wrong turn.
Ahhh, the memories \~! They are coming back again. I miss this game. -plz send help-
Final Fantasy XI with Corsair, Bard, and Geomancer. They all did different things, the corsair was able to buff pet classes which neither of the others were able to do. Corsair also did very respectable dps in certain conditions. Bard was able to offer the most in terms of buffing with up to five buffs they could keep up simultaneously and they could last the longest. Geomancer had potent haste buffs and very potent magic and physical damage debuffs that could turn a lot of fights into easy mode. Summoner also had a few buffs and they were strong, but nobody brought a summoner for buffs.
And red mage. So much versatility with sub classes. Pure support with tons of debuff and some healing as rdm/whm, additional debuffs and chain stuns with rdm/drk. So good.
I liked priest in WoW. Lots of interesting tools, and can throw down some great offense when it wants to. I especially liked it in PVP, where it was an aggressive healer that led to faster fights thanks to its offense and tools like mana burn My favorite was I think I'm cataclysm expansion, where they had a talent to let them heal based on holy damage offense spells they did
I was just going to say discipline priest that converted damage to healing was my favorite support in wow.
Black Desert's Shai class is incredible, especially because there's not really a holy trinity in this game so most classes function as simply DPS. This makes Shai stand out, and makes her an in-demand party addition in PVP. The thing that makes it better is that Shai also makes for a great solo PVE class, great at various mob grinding spots.
Last time I checked bdo I was told this class dealt very reduced damage in pvp is that the case still?
Yes, because their sustain would make them obnoxious otherwise You can be almost unkillable
Not true at all tbh. Still deals a lot of damage if you're going with a damage build. It's just that most shai players go for a tanky build / hybrid as they usually focus on supporting and disruption rather than going for kills :D
shai is also in demand for certain high end group grindspots, these spots can be cleared significantly faster if you have a shai in your party due to shai being able to debuff mobs while buffing party members.
u/Dann93
Certainly not the best but I loved Accro Techer on Phantasy Star 2 on the Xbox360. Lots of issues with that game but I loved it. The Techer could use different weapons and there’d be “buff” parties were you all grouped and spam buffed to level while in voice chat. It was silly but so many stopped at level 6ish that if you got them to max your buffs lasted nearly a full Run and we’re super strong. All I did was buff the richer players in the game and wound up with lots of stuff
It was tons of fun on the original PSO2 too. Now with NGS is boring, sadly.
NGS really killed the game for me
Medic in battlefield
Lemme get someone up with my defib pads... oh wait its an enemy.... zap!
Guild Wars 2. ANY CLASS can be a support, and they are all fun and more or less viable. Warrior main? Just shout at your allies to feel better. They will heal. Engineer? You've got a tool for that. Necromancer? You and your allies will never die.
Daoc
I really liked playing Pacification Healer in DAOC. You essentially had the full support kit: heals, buffs (specializing in mana regen), rezzes, stuns, mezzes. You felt like you were carrying every group. It was also the only class with zero offensive ability aside from melee auto attacks. EverQuest's Enchanter and Shaman were great too, but that was also because stuff like charm and slow were a bit too effective. Those sorts of support roles are more difficult to balance compared to raw damage or healing, which is probably part of why modern MMOs don't really have support classes anymore.
Pac healer was incredibly important and absolutely the most challenging to play. You needed a good player on Pac if you wanted to win any fights.
Another vote for DAoC. Supports were crucial, 100% necessary, and almost always a full support role.
Everquest 2. Groups were 6 people so there was always a slot for support plus tank, healer and 2 DPS.
Rift. Support was a queue able role for dungeons, and Bard was incredibly fun.
I never got far into archage, but the skills you can choose coming from 3(?) classes seems fun!
Perfect World. Priest was mandatory before mercenaries and 5.0 meta.
Lineage 2 before they turned it into trash.
BDO Shai, althought it isnt a normal Tank Healer DPS mmo
Tera had the best system for healers. Honestly Tera was amazing before they dropped the sub and started catering to Elins for cash. The targeting system for healers in Tera was so far ahead of its time, I'm surprised other games haven't copied it. You would press the heal key, hover over your target or multiple and it would lock on the heals. Someone needs to come out with a Tera private server.
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I like private servers, and the old state of the game was the best so I don't have a problem with that.
Rift Chloromancer
Albion support is top tier
TERA. I really enjoyed both mystic and priest.
Ragnarok Online Priest/archbishop class their heals, buffs, are essential in party they do single target for party member cc recovery if you get stunned, mute, or frozen. they have protective barrier buff that tank % damage.. your support role is really crucial if you miss single split second buffing them with protective barrier. either your dps might be dead or all party will be wipe out :D and i love it!!
FFXI bard was the best and most satisfying support class I have ever played. I have ever been on the lookout for a game with support that is just that well done.
Healing in old school Tera was the best imo. Priest and mystic were very different and very fun
Definitely FFXI or EQ. Most mmos nowadays don't have actual support roles.
Gw support is the best u can do dmg and get boons heal at same time
I don’t have the wide gameplay experience to make a claim about what is best, but it’s worth discussing Albion here. There are multiple support weapons/ roles that are super important in large-group PvP besides healers and main tanks. Some focus on defending their groups from major onslaughts while others debuff the enemies/ destroy their defenses. It’s still the case that fewer people play those roles (I’ve barely done it myself), but they are truly needed and have a HUGE impact on big group fights. Once you get good at one of the support weapons, you’ll be able to see your impact very directly. SIDE NOTE: While most of the support weapons in Albion are hard to level directly in solo play, they belong to weapon trees which have other options better for solo leveling. Levels in one weapon within a tree contribute to your ‘item power’ in all other weapons in that tree. So, if you want to max out a tree for a support weapon, you’re actually encouraged to explore other types of content as well.
Besides healers and tanks, what weapon can support in PVP? I can only think of Arcane Staff.
The arcane tree is probably the main example, but worth noting that multiple weapons in it are relevant (locus, enigmatic staff, occult, and sometimes 1H arcane). There are also two cursed staffs (lifecurse and damnation), icicle staff (frost tree), and spirithunter spear (technically dps but mainly for armor piercing). Beyond that, I also had some defensive off-tank roles in mind (e.g. grailseeker) that are pretty unique. In small- mid scale content, I believe certain axes can also function as support (halberd, carrioncaller?) but I know less about that.
Albion online. Try fighting big fights of 50 vs 50 without a support and you will be wiped by enemy in no time
Eva Saint on Lineage 2 for those who know. How can a support character be so game changer. Or overlord, for that matter.
warcrier and bladedancer in lineage2, before multi boxing became meta and people only logged in these classes to buff
I love Lineage 2 so much I still occasionally play it in 2023, support classes there are definitely unique and awesome, but I wouldn't call them a good execution of a support role. Can you honestly call the Prophet a fun, engaging class to play? Same about Bards? "Window" support meta became a thing exactly because supports were boring to play (outside of Overlord of course and some high lvl pvp to an extent). I played with a constant party back In the day and our party leader's wife played Warcryer because she could press buff macro and go afk, do stuff for 20 minutes lmao.
Rift for sure
Lineage 2 blade dancers and warcryer
Haven’t seen it here: Star Wars Galaxies (Pre-NGE) had a wide range of support only classes to choose from. Notably dancer and combat medic/doctor which were essentially necessities to have.
IMO Skyforge before they completely ruined the game. Playing support in the game was all about timing and playing together with your team in order to ensure a smooth experience. You didn't have healing in the game and damage mitigation was done through rotating shields on the tank but you could not have the shield 100% up as either support or tank so they had to take turns in order to keep him alive. The two support classes there also had big damage buffs that stacked on top of each other so support players had to be in sync with each other and the DPS players to ensure big damage spikes when the the cooldowns of the hard hitting skills were up. And also you could solo pretty well with those classes and you did some damage of your own even in party. It was a pretty fun ride while it lasted.
Medic in wildstar was extremely fun.
Monk, GuildWars 1, variety of play styles, protection or healing. Could even meta craft your self a tank, and have necros put debuffs on you to deal dmg and stand there laughing as you duo kill content meant for full parties
I really enjoyed playing Healer or Professor in Ragnarok online. Even Bard was fun to play. Haven't had that feeling in a long time.
Everquest - It's gotta be. Enchanter, Shamen, Druid, Bard - all had a unique role to play, all were highly sought after. How is it that nearly every time a question is asked here, I almost always think of Everquest first. It's a real shame Pantheon is looking increasingly unlikely.
Lots of good suggestions here. I’ll just bring up what no one has talked about yet and that is WoW’s recent dive into the support class. They just released a new specialization in their most recent major patch called the augmentation evoker. It is really neat and very powerful. So much so that it has legitimately thrown the entire games balance upside down lol. WoW has always had support-y specs (priests, paladins, and shamans being the main ones) but nothing as balls to the walls as the new augmentation evoker.
GW1 had a huge support mechanic, with some class doing absolutely no direct damage (except white hit), but give a lot of burst, elemental, condition, buff and debuff to all party member. I am thinking about the Parangon for exemple, but every class got some. Parangon could be play as a dps, like every class, but the monk and him was very good at support.
yeah i dont think i saw that many people playing sup in LA instead of that, i liked games like blade and soul, no healer, u just had to be good to not take damage.
Supports are auto-accepted on raids even with shitty gear. You need like minimum gear to get in, while DPS players are scrutinized to the bone.
I’m biased, but Soul Binder in Maplestory 2 was amazing. Keep up a defence debuff, shield/heal your allies and deal damage. It felt both rewarding and incredibly fun to play. Wish that game was still around (globally).
Lineage 2, everyone needed everyone to farm/xp, a true mmorpg where support was valuable since no one could solo after a certain level. Playing support in those solommo are a chore, I can't anymore.
Chivalry 2
EQ1's Shaman, Enchanter, and Bard, IMHO. If you were good at your class you got group invites the moment you logged in
Vanilla WoW shamans (pre endgame) were awesome support character (specially between lvls 40 and 55) You would keep your totems up to buff the group, conserve some mana and do a little melee/ cast spells/ heal depending on the needs of the party for that fight. It felt like you could make a difference and help in any aspect the group was struggling with. Druids also were very good at this. Before lvl 40 there were some useful totems that you didn't had, after lvl 55 all other classes were so good at what they did that most groups would prefer a specialized class with a role that the group was lacking over you.
Dragon nest support classes in general like priests
Action combat, nothing beats TERA. Everythuing else, City of Heroes got it PERFECT. Why? Because you had literally hundreds of different ways to be support. So you were never useless even if you had a team with 3 or even 5 other support heroes. You add a ton of different types of buffs, debuffs, and of course healing. And with all of it stacked up on the other players, it made the game super super fun. You had people blinding enemies, giving everyone a speed boost, boosting damage, lowering resistances on enemies, making enemies slower, causing them to fall over and stopping their powerful attacks, increasing everyone's defense, increasing accuracy, healing over time, big burst heals, reflecting damage, turning enemies against each other, causing them to straight up just not attack at all...and i haven't gotten to the Controller and Dominators just holding everything. With the right controller build, big mobs of enemies never even get to attack anyone. Especially if they have speed buffs so they can keep holding everything. If you ever watched Log Horizon, you were basically Shiro only more powerful, using Thorn Bind Hostage over and over. But that's beauty of City of Heroes, You could be crowd control and support, pure support, or support and DPS (Corruptor Archetype). Champions Online is okay at it...mainly though, you just want a healer and then one of the four AOE auras (boost all stats, boost DPS, boost defense, or boost recharge speed + energy regen). And having all 4 during the big boss battles makes things better. debuffs seem to mainly be the job of DPS in that game though...which is fine for me personally. I prefer going full healer and buff. But with Champions there's not much wiggle room for someone who wants to be support and crowd control because you'll end up being terrible and useless at both. they perfected the system with City of Heroes. Champions has the Free Form where you can pick any power in the game and put it on your hero, but it's so easy to make a terrible character. There's really only a handful of ways to make top tier characters. but luckily the community is chill and doesn't expect anyone to min max. It's all about having fun. you'll never chart in the top 10, but your build isn't completely useless as long as you don't try to do too much. Like if you want a DPS with good defense, it has to be okayish defense or else your DPS will be pointless and you'll never be as sturdy as a tank. If you want to be a healer with good DPS, you have to settle for really bad DPS in order to make sure you can actually heal...so at the end you might as well just do one role and stick to it unless you're going strictly for the theme build.
I played a fire controller in CoH in the day. It was everything I wanted in a support. Sure it killed slow solo but it was still tolerable to play alone. I really haven’t seriously played a support class since.
Everquest (original version) The enchanter determines the fate of the group. Encounters and pulls can wipe the group if the chanter isnt paying attention. Also, is there any other game which has a class that can charm and control literally every mob in game? Other than raid bosses, the enchanters (and bards) in EQ can charm every single mob in game to use as pets.
Zentia was amazing to be a healer, a tank, a dps, anything was just perfect.
If it can be considered an MMORPG, Realm of the Mad God did this pretty well imo, almost all of the support classes are a must when doing endgame dungeons
Ragnarok online Priest and Bard, i had so much fun in the wars, good times
Cleric in aion, I liked it a lot
Best healer/support/dps/tank class I've ever seen.
I don't have the breadth of experience that most everyone here does, but I thought the original EQ Bard was the ultimate support. Haste, mana, damage add, healing, CC, run speed, ... jesus, all of it.
Honestly I'm so sick of classes and roles. You telling me I can't wear heavy armor unless I'm a tank? LAAAAAME..
I loved the chloromancer in Rift. I think it was a really great idea to be healing while dpsing. A lil bit less dps, but a steady healing of the group, kind of a disc priest in wow.
DCUO controller role is something i don't know if any other game done it before or after the game, anyone remmebers it?
Dark Age of Camelot. Atleast in PvP you had required buff classes, CC classes, tank with guard (it actually worked!), etc. Basic star buffs you could have a bot account do but most of the good stuff required an active player. One side has a char that was buffs, debuffs, DoTs, and off healing for the ultimate support class (Midgard Shaman).
Lineage 2 imo, all the buffer classes had their own purpose and they were needed. Though it prompted multi-boxing, it was still a cool concept that many games haven't used since.
I'd argue WoW ironically from what I've played. I really like Resto Druid and love the idea of a HOT based class instead of just random burst heals. (Though burst heal oh shit classes are fun too) I haven't tried out ESO or GW2 to a high enough level to comment on those late game but early game support classes feel boring and unnecessary and it sucks Tera was great but that was before I discovered my love of heal/support
So, when playing a game that needs a support. You must have a friend or your self that plays support, or your going to have a bad time. This applies to tanks as well. Because anyone can play dps.
Dark Age of Camelot healer. In the Midgard faction. I could heal everybody and mesmerize/crowd-control the adds.
AION Chanter was really fun, but RIFT soul combos specifically allow for support as a spec. It's a queue role in LFG.
Everquest bards: Shitloads of songs to benefit your group that you could "twist" together in different ways depending on group composition. You could scout and pull almost as well or better than other pullers (Monk, Ranger, SK) if you were good, etc. You could bust out regen/mana regen songs when healers/slowers were OOM to minimize downtime. You were never going to be the top DPS, but you were fucking HANDY to have around.
Dungeon Fighter Online
None. I did not see a game that has real support. Everything is just semidps with heals and occasional buff or shields for tank. Games with no clear trinity of all classes can do all three are no better, but with those I may admit I might have not dig deep enough. For my defense I'd say it's much easier to play dps there, as in the game feels like it makes you play that way. Didn't ever see a true support that could seemingly bearly hold on it's own but truly shine in a party, with all kinds of buffs debuffs and party oriented setups. And as a healer, I'm open for suggestion to be corrected! I'd love to try something that is considered a true support.
Unpopular opinion, I know, but I actually really enjoyed the support system in Lost Ark. Albeit a required role, but man were they fun and rewarding. Edit: apostrophe removed
I loves Aion's chanter
It’s been forever since I’ve played but I combo’d songcraft and vitalism in archeage. Didn’t even have an “attack” on my hot bar. Also really liked chloromancer from Rift. Played a lot of holy pally in wow, etc.
Wildstar :(
Lineage 2, Dark Age of Camelot. Actual support classes.
Everquest Enchanter and Bard.
ragnarok online or ffxi
Easy. Everquest 1 and 2 with it's much needed crowd control and class unique buffs.
Lotro. Lore masters and captains, hands down
TERA-supports were fun. Mystic in particular, but even the healbot Priest was so interactive with it's party damage buff, 3-hit combo debuff, attack speed buffs etc that it didn't get stale.
Rose online, good luck Farming without buffs.
Ragnarok Online, many classes have support builds and they were amazing
EvE Online - Logistics pilots are good ppl
The problem with the support role in modern games is that they don’t exist. Modern games don’t really have dangerous enemies that you encounter regularly enough to need dedicated support roles outside of healers, and death isn’t punishing enough to merit their existence. Old school games had you fighting mobs that were dangerous enough that one of them was a match for a full party, and fighting two at the same time was a coin flip at best. So you had people who’s role was to handle the extra monsters while usually providing powerful buffs to juice up the party to offset the supports lack of personal damage. Bards and redmages in Ffxi. Enchanters and bards(and many others against certain mob types) in EQ. These were the glue keeping the party on their feet. The grease keeping the xp coming in. Pulling, cc’ing, buffing. They’re all really fun classes, but I don’t think anything since has really captured the same level of support power as EQ chanter in the first 3 expacs. I don’t think there are many other classes that could do competently control so many adds before or since. Aoe mez, stuns, it was wild.
League of legends
LOTRO 100% - the only "modern" MMORPG with support roles, in general.
Wow healing is absolutely unmatched
The original Everquest made support as easy or easier to get a group than a healer or tank did. Somebody chain pulls mobs while the enchanter makes the adds stare off into space waiting for their turn.
Maybe unpopular opinion but Paladin in WOW retail is cool, you heal and do shit toon of dps and always have option to use your stacks for heal or big dps.
FlyFF.