Quit telling new players to go DPS

Every time I see someone ask what class they should try, I hear the same old mantra: Go DPS, nobody will notice you suck!

That is just untrue, and worse yet it's harmful to their growth. As someone who mains tank and healer, we DO notice when a DPS isn't paying attention, when they just auto-attack, when they ignore mechanics. Largely because there are many fights where poor DPS is.as bad or worse than a poor tank or healer.

This mentality of "DPS is where it's ok to suck!" Is why you have hour long queues. It's why people can wipe repeatedly on simple content like Crystal Tower (You'd think out of the 15 DPS one of them would think to kill adds). And the worst part is these players will never improve. Becauase they feel entitled to poor performance. Becauase any criticism of their playstyle is a breach of that promise they were given.

Instead, encourage people to try all the roles. Let them know the base mechanics for each one, and how simple they all are to play. The truth is, in no class is it "ok to suck." But it doesn't take much to be passable. Tell the healers how to easily target members so heals become a simple game of whack-a-mole. Tell the tanks about using a few AoE moves to get enmity on a group before rotating their combo. Tell the DPS about making sure their DoTs are up and how to prioritize squishy and hard-hitting targets in order to keep a tank alive.

All classes are suitable for new players. They all require a little instruction. And players should never be satisfied with playing terribly.

The reason that this is always said is because it is still better than having a bad tank or healer. You have at least 2 dps in your party. If one is sucking, odds are the other one is doing fine. Fights might go slower and take a bit longer, but it'll still get done. Plus if your tank and/or healer are putting out good dps, it helps make up for that. A bad tank = no enmity control which leads to party member deaths. It a bad tank that doesn't know how to use cooldowns and gets wrecked which again leads to unnecessary deaths. Same with healers. If people are dying all the time, it greatly increasing dungeon times. It's just common sense. Yeah, no one should suck, but most brand new players aren't going to be great tanks or healers until they get some experience. So there is nothing wrong with suggesting for someone to start as a DPS.

Um.... where are these threads telling people to go DPS because it's OK to suck?

I haven't seen even one.

Now, sometimes I do see it advised when someone wants a low pressure, low responsibility playstyle, but that's not the same as saying "it's OK to suck." Simply, not everyone wants the limelight of playing a tank or healer (in fact not many people do).

I'm gonna have to actually agree with the OP. A bad dps is very noticeable and even a really good dps rarely mkes up for a bad one.

I'd rather have two decent dps over an amazing dps and a horrible one.

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Originally Posted by Jamez82

I'm gonna have to actually agree with the OP. A bad dps is very noticeable and even a really good dps rarely mkes up for a bad one.

I'd rather have two decent dps over an amazing dps and a horrible one.

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This isn't the point. No one is arguing that a bad dps is noticable. Would you rather have 1 bad dps or a bad tank or healer?

The part of your argument that you completely ignored is the fact that a bad tank or healer are still far more detrimental to a group... If you leave this part out of your argument, you don't have a point as it was exactly what you seemed to be arguing.

A bad dps may be noticable but it still will never compare to a bad tank or healer. I've seen content beaten with bad dps. I don't see content getting finished when the group has an incompetent tank.

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Originally Posted by Urthdigger

Largely because there are many fights where poor DPS is.as bad or worse than a poor tank or healer.

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I'm sorry, but this statement is just flat out wrong. I'm not encouraging anyone to purposely suck, but truth is dps can't do any damage if they're dead. Which is exactly what will happen if the tank can't hold hate, or the healer can't keep people alive. In content where there are 2 dps. 1 one bad dps doesn't mean it's a fail. Same with 8 and 24 man content. There is not a single fight in this game that requires every single dps to be on their A game in order to complete content.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

Um.... where are these threads telling people to go DPS because it's OK to suck?

I haven't seen even one.

Now, sometimes I do see it advised when someone wants a low pressure, low responsibility playstyle, but that's not the same as saying "it's OK to suck." Simply, not everyone wants the limelight of playing a tank or healer (in fact not many people do).

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If we're splitting hairs, people say "Go DPS, people won't notice if you do poorly.

And to everyone else, quite frankly I'd put up with the occasional poor tank if it meant not dealing with the legion of DPS who think they're invisible. Hell, if anything I pay more attention to the DPS so I know who to kick when dps checks fail yet again.

I've lost count on how many TERRIBLE garuda HM DF/light runs where I was MT and someone commented only one person was out-damaging me...

Its what the new players want - If someone right now were to ask me what class should they play? - Then I'd tell them to pick the one's that looks interesting to them, I mean afterall we can have all classes in one class so theres no need for alts for those that hate it...However "If" someone were to ask me what class they should play with low pressure that he or she won't get bashed if he or she makes mistakes then I'd definitely go say DPS. Only because making mistakes as a tank and healer has more repercussions than a dps.

I main WHM but have PLD, NIN, and BRD all at 50 and at least over 110 on each. If a new player friend asked me what to play, I'd actually say dps unless I knew they were skillful and could perform under stress and had a thick skin. If they were these three things, I'd recommend they challenge themselves by playing a tank or healer, and I'd co-support them by playing whichever other role (healer or tank) they chose not to play. I agree that dps shouldn't be able to be terrible and not held accountable, but the fact is that at this current time, they are exactly that since it is illegal to point out the dps doing 101dps in WoD.... Plus, I'd much rather be in parties with many mediocre dps that took longer to finish than in parties with bad tanks or healers that never even finish at all.

I always ask them what looks the coolest to them. Secondly I ask them if they have thick skin.

Fact of the matter is if your the tank or the healer your gonna get people angry at you. It's a fact of the current MMO structure. If somebody is affected by these kinds of things then they are not gonna last long in the tanking and healer world.

This is of course assuming that they want to do any kind of endgame content.

When I have someone ask me what class to pick I tell them to start off with one they think is the most interesting one and get it to at lest lvl15 and try the next and so on. Sooner or later they will run into one they like the most. Also because I have gotten all class's to 50 and I think I play them well, I try to tell them IMO what class's can be easy and what one is hardest wich one is more beneficial and so on. And that's is if they insist on digging into more detail. But that's just my opinion. They or others may find the one I think is hardest class to play to be easy for them. I sorta understand why ppl whould say go dps though. They are IMO the easiest class to play due to not worry about keeping hate or keeping evryone alive. Props to those that tank and heal and keeping me alive. =D

In my experience of playing tank as my first MMO class, the best advice for new players really is practice, practice, practice. It doesn't matter what your class is. You will have awesome runs, terrible runs, and even some runs that make you question why you pay for a game that makes you feel like shit. But those awesome times make up for it in my opinion, and I don't think this is limited to just Tank or Healer classes. I've had some DPS just doing whatever they want, and sometimes someone will be really rude to them, so it's not exactly free from criticism or ideal for those who have anxiety either.

As someone with anxiety, my personal advice would be to run the lower level dungeons many times. Get familiar with working with others. Get familiar with the mechanics of your class. And ALWAYS read a guide before starting a new dungeon(at least for the boss strategies). Sometimes not knowing something in a group that wants to do everything quickly can make you feel like crap.

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Originally Posted by SkyRobo1

Agreed.

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Because later on they can lvl Tank or Healer with more high lvl gear and experience.
It will less ruin other people experience and both side are happy for new player and veteran.

I'm about to lvl Tank after done with MSQ, all WOD gear are prepared...
But I don't think so I can catch up because xpax is next week (T_T)

Tbh, the only threads I've seen where people are told "go dps" are ones lime where the person with anxiety was learning, as a tank, and it was rightly reccomended to learn the dungeons as dps first.