Roles

Class roles refer to the "job" of a player in a group setting. There are three primary roles: tank, healer, and damage dealer (DPS). These may be further divided into sub-roles, such as main tank and off-tank. Groups may also choose to assign support roles, such as being responsible for crowd control. Balance of class roles is critical to attaining an effective composition in dungeons, raids and battlegrounds.

Choice of the role is largely determined by specialization, with each specialization designed to perform a specific role. While it is possible for characters to perform roles other than those intended for their spec, the result is generally ineffective and/or inefficient, and often cannot be sustained for long.

Primary roles
There are three primary roles in almost every MMORPG, and they are:- The role of a tank in the group is to take damage for the group, protecting the others from being attacked. Tanks usually have high health, high armor, and often high Avoidance. In PvE, a tank's job is to keep the monster's threat or attention on them, preventing them from attacking others in the group, who are often less armored and less well-suited to taking damage. Tanks are often the leaders of the group, the first ones into a fight and the last ones out. Good tanks can make a very hard dungeon seem easy. Small groups will have a single tank, while larger groups may have several, often switching targets mid-fight. Tanks are less common in PvP, but can be extremely effective as flag carriers and defenders. Despite the lack of use for their taunting abilities, tanking specs are often still effective in PvP, trading sheer healing and damage output for resilience and staying power.
 * Tank - Tanks protect their allies by drawing enemies' attacks toward themselves and absorbing damage.
 * Healer - Healers keep their allies alive by healing their wounds and protecting them from harm.
 * Damage Dealer (DPS) - Damage dealers focus on the critical task of dealing damage to the party's foes.

The role of a healer in the group is to heal others when they are hurt or take damage, thus keeping party members alive in order to tank or kill the enemies. The role often requires quick reaction time and steady nerves. Healers must anticipate incoming damage and balance the protection of their allies with their finite supply of mana. Healers are often credited (rightly or wrongly) for the success or failure of a group. In PvE, healers are mostly focused on the tank(s), but must do their best to keep all members of the group alive. Healers are arguably the most critical and responsible members of a group, capable of compensating for others' errors and often expected to pull absent-minded allies out of the fire.

The role of DPS is to kill the monsters. This may sound simplistic, but it takes skill and know-how to dish out powerful damage without overwhelming the group's tank and causing the monsters to attack you. While the tanks and healers focus on keeping the party alive, it is the DPS that must attend to the vital task of actually defeating the group's enemies. The DPS must also deal damage quickly enough to defeat their target before the healers' mana expires, the group is overwhelmed by additional mobs, or the enemy enrages and wipes the party. The most populous role and also the least responsible, DPS are often given additional tasks such as interrupting and crowd control.

Sub-roles
Sub-roles refer to the breakdown of each of the primary roles. For example, DPS is composed of melee, ranged physical, and ranged caster. The following is a breakdown of all the sub-roles within WoW and the corresponding classes which fill those roles.

Tank Healer DPS
 * Single-Target Tank - tanks and holds threat on a single target in a group setting.
 * Small-Group Tank - tanks and hold threat on 2-4 targets in a group setting.
 * Large-Group Tank or AOE Tank - tanks and holds threat on 5 or more targets simultaneously.
 * DPS Tank - deals high amounts of damage while tanking.
 * Single-Target Healer or Tank Healer - heals a single target over an extended period of time. paladins and Discipline priests make excellent tank healers.
 * Raid Healer - heals multiple players either simultaneously or over a very brief period of time. The summoner excels at healing melee groups, the Holy priest does very well in large, spread-out groups, and the druid does well in situations that involve large areas with lots of movement.
 * PvP Healer - heals in PvP combat. This takes additional skill and know-how. Each class can fill this role, but they do so in different ways: druids are able to sneak and heal on the run; summoners can armor up with a shield and self buffs, making them difficult to take down even if they aren't moving; priests utilize magic shields and multiple healing techniques to survive; and paladins are able to survive extreme damage in many situations due to their shields and protective buffs.
 * Support Healer - heals when needed, supporting other healers in the raid/party. Again, all healers can fulfill this role, but often the druid and summoners are considered best.
 * Melee DPS - deals large amounts of damage at point-blank range. The rogue is the ultimate melee DPS class.
 * Ranged Physical DPS - deals large amounts of physical damage from afar (the difference between physical and caster DPS is that physical damage can be blocked/reduced by armor, whereas magical damage can be resisted/reduced through resistances, not armor). The hunter is the only class in this category.
 * Ranged Caster DPS - deals large amounts of magical damage from afar. The mage is very good at fulfilling this role.
 * AoE (Area of Effect) DPS - deals damage to multiple targets simultaneously. The mage is the perfect class for this, but many others can also do well in this role.

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