True Support Class even possible...

[Zourin]

WoW tried a 'support' class with the release-day Paladin and Shaman. That setup was inevitably burned to the ground by the church of the Holy Trinity within a year or two.

However, I'm not a stuck-up zealot when it comes down to what others would consider sacriligious to raid-class MMO gameplay (totally disregarding the pretender freemiums), but NOBODY has ever done a support class that can hold its own against the big three. Buffs are all too often mediocre if not downright pittances. Bosses are generally outright immune to control abilities. Nobody has really gotten a 'support' role right where the DPS IS the support role. They make things die faster, resulting in shorter dungeon turnarounds, less damage done to the tank, and less pressure on the healers.

So unless a 'support' class can be a force multiplier, even on boss fights, then the idea is just another stillbirthed brick expanding the foundation of the Holy Trinity.

The current class system is engineered on this foundation. You have two tank jobs, two healer jobs, five DPS, and the bard who is the closest thing to a support class that the game can allow while calling it a 'dps' class.

Do you think people, unless forced by game design (and I wouldn't put past Yoshi to all but schedule our play time for us), would willingly 'take more time' to do dungeon runs to carry a support class through? The bard gets away with it by at least being a reasonably mobile damage dealer in this increasingly boring game of red shapes.

[Duelle]

WoW tried a 'support' class with the release-day Paladin and Shaman. That setup was inevitably burned to the ground by the church of the Holy Trinity within a year or two.

A large part of that came from the people who were pissed off for being sold a master of the elements (shaman) or a light-touched knight with holy powers (paladins) only to find they were buffbots or gimped healers with little other use in endgame. Even in burning crusade the devs were hesistant to buff either and instead fell back on clutch buffs to try to justify those classes' raid spots (which pretty much blew up in their faces when non-healing specs for both were sat in favor of bringing a real DPS in that spot).

You effectively had two very popular classes that contained a large portion of pissed off people who felt bait and switched.

However, I'm not a stuck-up zealot when it comes down to what others would consider sacriligious to raid-class MMO gameplay (totally disregarding the pretender freemiums), but NOBODY has ever done a support class that can hold its own against the big three. Buffs are all too often mediocre if not downright pittances.

It's hit both extremes. Your support was either mediocre and better replaced by a DPS, or so powerful it was outright required for everything in the game because the encounters were balanced around the presence of said support. When developers took aspects of support and blended them into the trinity, it was a breath of fresh air (because it increased diversity and flavor in tank, heals and DPS) while also dealing with the problem of making support aspects fit into the game without borking party dynamics and overall balance. There's a reason I was happy to see design in the last couple of years phase "support" out of the picture in favor of baking aspects of support on the holy trinity. It is much more solid design and gives the involved classes a little more flavor.

FFXI had BRD and COR...it's not like they'd have to look far for inspiration....

One was mandatory but no one liked to play it, the other was relegated to cure-botting with token gunshots via Light Shot because SE was boneheaded enough to make COR ammo difficult and very expensive to obtain. That's not what I would call a winning formula.

[KHShadowrunner]

One was mandatory but no one liked to play it, the other was relegated to cure-botting with token gunshots via Light Shot because SE was boneheaded enough to make COR ammo difficult and very expensive to obtain. That's not what I would call a winning formula.

Not to throw a hissy fit, but I played bard for years in XI, absolutely loved playing it. So much fun, so many smiling faces. I'll admit I was probably a weird one tho.