Better to have too many supports than not enough. Does suck to have multiple in pugs.
Tower is kinda ass on support, but I managed to do it all on paladin. But I was over ilvl
depends… if you need high stagger, i prefer zerker / arty
but i really don’t mind the classes, i ALWAYS look at engravings… it baffles me how many players don’t know what a “build” is …
worst i saw, only lvl 2 defense reduction, no positive engravings.
so if you can cherry pick as a support, don’t mind the class, check the engravings!
don’t even check if they are perfect for the build, check if anything is there…
Is this an issue in KR/RU too? I mean will it ever be addressed, having 2-4 supports in a party? Even if it increases their queue a little I assume they would prefer being the only support? And it’s only gonna get worse when Artist comes out if this queue system remains as is.
I find I enjoy Bard more than the DPS classes…
When solo for things like Chaos Dungeon, Bard complete deletes volumes of monsters without much issue / don’t really feel like I’m at much of a disadvantage to my DPS classes. However for Multi-HP bar Bosses is a totally different story… Bard feels like special training mode that lets you see every single mechanic possible.
That said I have a completely different experience encountering other supports… I can’t even think of a time where a party was filled with more than one support (myself in this case). Probably the worst case I’ve encountered was entering a Guardian Raid at minimum ilvl, both “DPS” classes felt the need to inspect the floor multiple times immediately, and then it was an excruciating process of Support Bard + Gunlancer having to duo the fight from like 75% HP remaining.
bard is pretty fun except do not clear fatespire 50 at 1100 as bard that actually sucked the life out of me for 2 days straight. even more so do not clear it at 1040. it might be doable with lvl7 gems and above but otherwise i would not recommend.
We will have shortage on Main support char on end game for sure, most of you only park a healer on alt. Organized veteran guilds has already begun filtering its members to form a health party composition to prog.
I can’t say for other region, but based on my experience in JP : Bard is treated like a queen and will be welcomed with red carpet.
Right now, in NA west People are shouting all night to fill the healer slot on Argos P3.
On clown legion raid healer is mandatory, you will need 1 healer per 3 DPS player.
If you are not a main healer, better get out there and start finding your static healer bro / sister to progress or prepare to get trapped and waste your battle items
I’ve noticed this as well.
My Gunlancer gets groups instantly and they’re only part support.
Meanwhile my Blade and Scrapper will sit for a while waiting.
Lack of classes may be the reason. Blame AGS for their decision of not releasing most of them since day 1.
I wish I took a SS of the matchmaking today. It was just 10+ groups with 1-2 supports needed in the title.
I still don’t know if I wanna bring my bard out to T3 simply because of how unfun it is to play when not in a raid. It isn’t a surprise to me that a support is more enjoyable to play in a supporting setting…it’s just tough to really invest heavily in a class that I do not want to goof around on. Might just be the slow crawl of bound mats up to T3.
I’m waiting for the KR balance pass, should know soon if supports will get some love. I enjoy the aesthetic of paladin but it’s awkward, in my opinion, to play support in an mmo that has so much solo content.
I much prefer playing healers in MMOs but playing a Lost Ark support with their mediocre heals is not fun so far for me. It’s more about knowing every mechanic of every fight and every class mechanic and a bunch of other stuff, so you can anticipate things. It feels like too much this early for new players.
Unfortunately this game doesn’t really have traditional healers. Supports in this tame are mostly about buffing allies in various ways or preventing damage. While supports can heal in this game it is not something that they can just do 24/7. DPS are expected to dodge and use potions when possible as well because any healing a support has to do will lead to slower raid clears as, at least in the case of bard, any healing that needs to be done means significantly less buff uptime. While this might not be important right now people will quickly come to this realization when we finally get harder content with DPS checks like legion raids.
Yeah, support just isn’t popular here in the west. Even tank is typically more played. I won’t consider maining one until artist is out, and I’ve been really considering maining one in the long run, but hopefully I can still get into content, because I hate bard.
I know, and that’s my point. I would be happy playing a healing role, but being a buff bot is so far not fun. It’s fine that there aren’t really healers in this game, it just seems to not appeal to healer players coming from other MMOs.
It may be fun later in tier 3 but as people have mentioned, it’s not fun getting there so most quit–according to every report I’ve read, there are many t1/2 supports (where being a dps paladin/bard is viable because it’s easy content) and very few t3 support players, for reasons.
I’ll probably end up pushing my gunlancer as my main, as it’s semi support but mostly dps.
I’m a healer main coming from other mmorpgs. it’s just garbage for the content we have right now. There are only select instances where it really matters, and a lot of players dodge anything you try to put down. Right now, a lot of the current content is farming, so my DPS are just better. I think my opinion will change when I can play a support in legion raids, and similar higher tier content. Also, at least for me, support options are limited to just bard, and paladin, and I like neither.
Yeah, hopefully they will give bard and paladin some love in the balance/rework pass.
The only other support, artist, is apparently very unwanted in groups as support, because it’s awkward for the group.
On the plus side, artist has a viable dps spec, but that doesn’t help the support drought. It’s going to be pretty bad later unless they help the support classes out, I think.
I think one problem is that it is a bit difficult to actually feel like you matter as a support in this game. When you are running with random people and your buffs don’t line up with their burst etc it can be very demoralizing. This probably makes a lot of people feel like support is not fun.
Another thing I noticed is that support in this game is very similar to healing in FFXIV. As the people you play with get better and better you generally need to heal/shield a lot less. Support in this game will mostly only feel fun for people who exclusive support by healing when you are initially progging an encounter. Although at least in this game there is something for you to do once content is on farm unlike in XIV…
Artist might be more acceptable for groups, due to the drought however. Artist looks like something I’ll really enjoy so I’m highly anticipating it. So, I hope I will be able to get into groups. 
@Manami Yeah, I just feel like I’m contributing more as a DPS. There has only been a couple times where I felt like me playing my bard actually mattered for the run.
I main White Mage in FFXIV, it’s really just how the encounters are designed. Also, having things to do is something I really like about this game, I do like a decent amount of farming, if I have a goal to work towards. With FF, I am just done, and have to take breaks for long periods of time - even when I don’t want to.
Regarding DPS artist…it is “viable” if you are overgeared in terms of your engravings item level etc. In general if you are at the minimum required item level a DPS artist will not do as much as a regular DPS. In Korea people actually feel frustrated by this because a lot of times if an artist joins the party it may be a DPS artist so people feel like a DPS slot has been wasted.
Support artist is also not as good as bard/paladin at the moment so artist is in a bit of an awkward state.
This is actually a big enough problem that Korea has “no kids zone” parties.
The only good things which I can think of for artist are that:
- In solo content like chaos dungeons she is way stronger than other supports
- Her skill animations are beautiful IMO
- She’s adorable (honestly the only thing that matters to be honest)
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The other day i was running Abyssal T3, i am a paladin, and had a bard as well, it was bad because 2 supports in a HC abyssal doesn-t work.
Would be great if the system would separate the support classes, so that it wouldn-t be 2 in the same partry, but i guess they don-t care.
Yep, these aspects are what make me see her more as a main than an alt. 