A Little Help With Classes

I'm new to MMO's with my only experience being with DC Universe Online. On that game, the descriptions are pretty cut and dry. You are either a healer, tank, or controller. Everyone can be DPS as long as you run in that stance and have the appropriate equipment on. But I know what role is what there:

Fire/Ice/Earth/Rage = Tanks
Mental/Gadgets/Hard Light/Quantum = Controllers
Sorcery/Nature/Electricity/Celestial = Healers

And as I said, you can run all as DPS as long as you do your powers and equipment properly. Now, for here, I think I understand that Priests are healers but what roles are tanks, controllers(support), and exclusively DPS?

I'm not sure I understand your question correctly, but let me try to give an answer.

Archetypical MMO classes
The "typical" MMO-group setup is as follows:
Main tank: He makes the enemies hit my primarily.
Off tank (optional): He assists the Main tank by binding additional enemies, switching position with him and so on.
Healer: He heals the tanks so that they don't die.
DPS: They kill the enemies while the tanks... well, tank them.
Controllers (optional): They control some enemies with "crowd control" abilities so that the don't need to be tanked at all or all the time.
Debuffer (optional): They mess up the enemies' ability to deal or withstand damage.

In Age of Conan, all classes have a controller and debuffer aspect to some degree. The priests are all hybrid Healer/DPS classes. Some soldiers have a DPS aspect mixed in. Rogues and Mages are the "purest" classes, as they focus on DPS, but also provide valuable Debuffer, Controller and sometimes even healer aspects. Debuffing is pretty important in Age of Conan, but all classes have to contribute there - no specialised debuffers in Hyboria.

Age of Conan classes
The classes/functions present in Age of Conan are as follows:

Soldiers
Classes: Guardian, Conqueror, Dark Templar
Role: These are mainly tanks.
Special note: Conquerors and Dark Templars have viable DPS specs available, too. But: If a player wants to play a "pure" DPS character, do not, I repeat, DO NOT, choose a soldier class for that. As a soldier, you'll be required to tank at least occasionally. If you're looking for a pure DPS melee class, take the Barbarian or Assassin.

Priests
Classes: Tempest of Set, Priest of Mitra, Bear Shaman
Role: DPS + Healing.
Special note: The DPS is not to be underestimated: In Age of Conan, all priests are capable of doing significant damage, providing essential buffs and debuffs and CCing mobs. If a priest player believes his class to be "pure healer", he'll not advance very far and will get a lot of grief, as the DPS from priests is essential in many fights. Compared to some other MMOs, the priests in AoC are primary DPS classes, with healing being the minor aspect. Most of your time will be spent dealing damage, CCing, debuffing and so on, and maybe max. 20% on healing. I stress this because I've seen more groups fail because of low DPS priests than because of bad tanks.

Rogues
Classes: Ranger, Assassin, Barbarian
Role: DPS (best in single target DPS), CC

Mages
Classes: Herald of Xotli, Necromancer, Demonologist
Role: DPS (best in AoE DPS classes), CC
Special note: According to a recent poll by the Stygian Academy of Science, players of mage classes are about 37,5% more intelligent and handsome than players of other classes. Also, they are morally superior, especially more humble.

"Typical" Age of Conan 6-man-Dungeon-Group
In Age of Conan, a good group setup might look like this:

Main Tank: Guardian/Dark Templar
Off Tank: Dark Templar/Conqueror
Healer: Priest of Mitra / Tempest of Set / Bear Shaman
Rogue: Ranger / Assassin / Barbarian
Mage: Necromancer / Demonologist / Herald of Xotli
Second Healer / Third DPS / Tank in Training: anything

The "perfect" setup however, depends heavily on the dungeon, the players, their equipment and so on. Conquerors can main tank, too, some dungeons don't require a second tank at all, others make a second healer almost mandatory, ... In many cases, though, a group may look like the one described above.

I'm pretty sure there was a guide or something in these forums for this precise sort of question.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khaletohep

Special note: According to a recent poll by the Stygian Academy of Science, players of mage classes are about 37,5% more intelligent and handsome than players of other classes. Also, they are morally superior, especially more humble.

---

This is malicious misinformation spread by infernal and necromantic elements within Stygian parliament for propaganda purposes. As scientifically proven by Khitan experts from Paikang, only Herald players are about 37,5% more intelligent and handsome than players of other classes, on top of being morally superior and more humble.

wow, grats to Khaletohep for giving a great answer!!

Appreciate the input but it seems as though the other MMO I play the classes are more defined. For example, my main there is a mental controller(mental being the powers). I run her exclusively as a controller as I geared her powers, skill points, and gear to be a controller. My main job is to keep the team's power bars up. Power bars are like the mana/stamina bars here. All players have a power bar(blue bar) as these are expended when you use your powers. You can regen power 2 ways: by a controller and by using weapon combos or if you're in a pinch by drinking a "soder"(equivalent to potions here the difference being that soders regen both power and health. The higher the level of soder the better they are. A subject for another day). Anyhoo, my main job is to make sure the tank and healer's power bar is up so the tank can grab aggro and the healer can keep everyone alive while the DPS' can deal damage. My secondary role is debuffing. 2 types of debuffs are healing and damage. 3rd role is crowd control. This I do through my power over time power(PoT) which both stuns whoever it makes contact with and provides power ticks to the group. I have a debuff that stuns up to 3 enemies as well.

I know this all sounds convoluted but it's really cut and dry. I guess for this game's purpose I'll stick with my Barbarian as DPS.

Khaletohep that was probably the best description of classes ive seen for newbies. Funcom should steal it or sticky it somewhere imo.

Khaletohep's description is a good one. You sound like a Priest of Mitra would suit you good. Thats a character with high potential of restoring health and energy to your teammates, also good damage potential, spiritual debuffs, and quite the number of crowd controls. A Spellweaving Priest of Mitra can "perma knockback" all mobs that can be knocked over.

Age of Conan also has the Alternate Advancement tree, and for some classes there are quite important skills and spells to be learnt there. I see you play a Barbarian, which is capable of doing high damage in a melee physical fight. He can buff the group with bonus weapon damage, and debuff the mobs with armor wracks. He can also have many crowd controls, but only two out of five are innate, so a lot of feat points are needed to get them all.

Age of Conan is quite different from anything else, and the more you play the game, and learn it, the more you fall in love with it. :)