Quit telling new players to go DPS

[Urthdigger]

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.

[Garotte14]

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.

[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).

[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.

[Garotte14]

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.

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?

[Cirgellon]

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.

[Garotte14]

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

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.

[Urthdigger]

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).

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.

[Duuude007]

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...

[SkyRobo1]

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.