Solving the Support Shortage

You’re not going to get DPS players to switch over and play supports. The real problem can’t really be fixed easily. One thing you can do is make the quality of life for supports to be good enough that existing support players continue to play

Support builds should be able to tackle solo content. Don’t force supports to build out and spend resources on a whole other engraving/gem/gear set just to deal 70% of a dps character’s damage that dps characters don’t have to spend extra on

On that note, BOTH support class engravings should be support oriented AND deal damage. Just decide whether you want to heal or shield, gain meter faster or have more efficient spells. The customization done here should be a gameplay “feel” choice, but not a complete change as to the character’s purpose in the game. You are always there to provide team utility and shield/healing. Both options should reflect this AND deal damage. Not SurgeDeathblade damage, but not laughable “you are contributing nothing” damage either

And finally, maybe give incentivizing a try. Maybe allow support classes to queue up for things twice a week. Maybe they can do it 10 more times at 1/10th the additional reward. Maybe give free character slots and boosts to only support classes. Think outside the box. This is a fixable problem but ignoring it doesn’t help. Be bold and try things

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I agree, supports life kind of sucks when it is not raiding. Had to build a dps set to solo velganos because every dps preferred soloing back then. Spending extra pheons/gold. I know duo is an option but it is just too much work/ time consuming to make a party finder. Too much reliant on other players.

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exactly. no one should have to build “another set” in this game. the cost is ridiculous even for something no one uses like TRUE COURAGE, the pheon costs alone are so prohibitive

the game needs to NOT lock people out of content. and beyond that it should reward people who want to do JUST THAT. give them tokens they can redeem for side-content

i HATE questing. the quests in this game make me want to bang my head against the wall. i’m not going to read all of this nonsense. i get nothing from going 15 places and talking to 200 people

give me raiding tokens that i can turn in for a completion like the knowledge transfer or power pass to just take all of that stuff off my plate and i will gladly fill support spots all day

this is not complicated at all

let people play your game

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Err, what solo content can’t they tackle?

You don’t have to build another set, when vykas launches and you get 55 of the material from valtan and from vykas you can literally switch your set affect whenever you want as often as you want for free, which allows you to go damage on a support for your chaos dungeons and other solo stuff

Doing twisting legion gate requires DMG to get contribution and sometimes your Bard pitiful DMG isn’t enough for rift shards. World boss scales out of 3 contribution for DMG dealt.

The story content such as South Vern took a lot longer time to do, the tower is really just a DPS check with the longer the fight goes the harder a few bosses get as they collect more buffs. Doing tower as a bard is literally a pain unlike no other.

Red portals in chaos dungeons often take 3-4minutes with some supports straight up failing. Story dungeons take a lot longer and are significantly more difficult.

Chaos line normal and hard should never be done solo as a support as you’ll be burning 15min fighting that 30mil HP bar boss.

2 Likes

no one should have to reach end game before their class starts doing what it should have done from day 1…

cmon man

So basically mabye in 2 months after getting 1460 and beating vykas for a month support becomes easier? So a very small and hardcore group finally gets the relief all support players want? You know you’re suggesting things that aren’t even out yet for a while, then which takes a while just to solve an issue that has been ongoing for months?

No.

At least not for paladin. The judgement spec is perfectly fine, but my only issue is pheons. I just can’t afford 125 pheons to buy a relic set, it’s way too much. My legendary is still good for 1445 chaos, but it’s so annoying having to pay such huge tax in order not to have your solo content be a chore. When you get good gear, Paladin solo is really fun, it’s not even expensive for gold cost, but fuck pheons honestly.

let’s talk it over. why wouldn’t you want both specs to deal the damage that blue paladin does right now?

your choice would be, do you want to melee and build meter faster? or try and backline support cast auras and blessings and other holy nonsense but do slightly less damage because its safer

both of these choices would not lack damage, they just wouldn’t be competitive against a pure DPS class. meaning that if everyone in the raid dies, there’s actually A CHANCE that the lone support can finish the last 2% of a boss instead of just hitting him with a featherduster while he laughs his ass off at you…

What exactly are you having issues with? I have both a bard and paladin at 1390 and I haven’t had issues with any content solo? Group content I am not supposed to do damage I support, and solo my damage is enough, bard has an ability that essentially one taps an entire group in chaos dungeons and paladin has some crazy good aoe for that too

let’s talk it over. why wouldn’t you want both specs to deal the damage that blue paladin does right now?

Because it’s the best class in the game, anyway, support build doesn’t need to do damage.

What needs to be done is reverting the stupid change of holy and executioner sword being back attacks.

CHANCE that the lone support can finish the last 2% of a boss instead of just hitting him with a featherduster while he laughs his ass off at you…

Raids aren’t designed in a way someone should be able to solo it unless they’re severely overgeared, regardless of the class.

not an argument

I’m guessing you didn’t read anything from what I wrote there so I’m just gonna say refer back to my post. You get a 3/3 contribution on world boss based on your damage dealt and support players will get less rewards at world bosses.
Get a DPS friend. Be in voice, read what stuff you get back to each other.

I have a 1445 bard 1415 bard near 1370 pally and another bard near t3 since we’re flexing our “high Ilvl supports” to make a point.

Yes, it is an argument.

You’d change the entire class just because you thought it’s a good idea, which it absolutely isn’t.

nothing would change. i literally said, blue paladins would keep the exact same damage they have right now

your character wouldn’t change other than become MORE useful

kinda seems like you’re just being contrarian to be honest

This is also completely wrong. Stars mean nothing.

I got my Moake ominum star at 1340 as a support spec paladin. Took me nearly a hundred Illusion isle runs for the soul, won it like 10 times and then I got it when I just got one kill and sat afk in spawn while being dead last in rankings.

And they even removed the 1-2-3 stars thing, now it’s just contribution required.

Paladin is already too good, doesn’t need any more buffs. It’s the best class in the game and I’m saying that as a paldin main.

If you make the support build do damage, then it’s not a support build and loses every purpose, game balance completely shifts.

“best class in the game” struggles to keep supports from lacking representation… yeah that makes a lot of sense…

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Ok, tell me one class in the game that’s better than paladin?

Party content? Best class because it’s easier to play than bard and excels lategame when it’s about buffs and not heals. Also tanky compared to bard being the squishiest class in the game.

You have DPS build that can do good damage with basic stuff, there are DPS spec paladins competing with top DPS, it’s just that they don’t brag about it because idiots flame DPS paladins.

Solo content and leveling is easier than most classes.

For PvE the only class that’s better imo is Gunlancer, but then it’s also played even less than Paladin. Why? Because West players don’t want to do anything other than running around and popping big numbers.

Then you add PvP into the mix where paladin does the same damage as other classes while supporting and it’s easily the best class in the game.

Like what the fuck else could someone want from a class? It has great visual identity and skills look sick.

People don’t want to play support. If you think that adding a 10 year old girl that drops orbs areound will change that, you’re wrong.