Tank, Healer & DPS Build Bibles

## The Three Roles: Why Each Exists and What It Actually Means Every group-based MMORPG is built around a trinity of roles: Tank, Healer, and DPS. Understanding not just the mechanics but the psychological purpose of each role is what separates players who fill their role and players who carry their group. ## Tank: The Art of Controlled Aggression The tank's job is not simply to have the most health or the highest armor rating. The tank's job is to give the healer enough time to respond to incoming damage and give the DPS enough freedom to output their full potential. Three principles define a competent tank: **1. Positioning is non-negotiable.** Every boss in every MMORPG has a facing requirement, a hitbox consideration, or a cleave direction. As the tank, you are the one who determines where the boss faces, which means you determine which of your teammates takes unavoidable frontal cleave damage. The rule: face the boss away from the group, keep the boss out of any AoE zones you are supposed to position into, and never back into a wall that traps your healer. **2. Threat management is a resource, not a guarantee.** In WoW, Taunt has a 8-second cooldown. In FFXIV, Provoke has a 25-second cooldown. That cooldown is your emergency fallback — not your primary threat tool. Build threat continuously through your opener (lead with the highest-threat abilities in your rotation), and communicate with your DPS about when it is safe to full-send their burst. **3. Cooldown discipline is what separates average tanks from great ones.** Most tank deaths in progression content happen not because the incoming damage is too high, but because the tank popped a defensive CD reactively after a hit rather than proactively before a hit. Learn your encounter timers. Pop your cooldowns when the damage is incoming, not after you have already taken the spike. **Recommended external resources:** - For WoW tanks: Tettles' tank guides on YouTube provide fight-specific positioning maps - For FFXIV tanks: The Balance Discord has per-boss tank swap timing charts for all savage encounters ## Healer: Throughput, Cooldowns, and the Concept of Healing Budget The healer's core tension is always between throughput (how much healing you can output per second) and efficiency (how much healing you output per resource spent). In casual content, you rarely need to manage this tension — you heal whatever is taking damage and use mana potions when you run low. In progression content, efficiency is everything. **Throughput vs Efficiency:** Throughput healers (Holy Paladin, White Mage) output massive healing but consume resources quickly. Efficiency healers (Restoration Druid, Scholar) heal less per cast but sustain indefinitely. Know which type you are and plan your cooldown usage accordingly. **The Healing Budget:** Every encounter has an expected incoming damage profile. Your job is to assess how much of that damage requires immediate emergency healing versus how much can be absorbed by HoTs, shields, or natural regeneration. Wasting a 3-minute cooldown on a moderate damage phase leaves you without that tool for the spike phase — and that mistake kills groups. **Communication rules for healers:** - Always announce externals before you cast them (the player you are targeting should know the CD is coming) - Call out "running low on mana" at 40% so your group can adapt — not at 10% when it is too late - Identify which tank is your primary healing target during tank busters; the off-tank should be running a self-sustain CD during a tank swap ## DPS: Priority Rotations, Pooling, and Burst Windows The DPS role has the most players and the widest skill range. The gap between a median DPS player and a top-tier DPS player is almost never about knowing more abilities — it is about knowing when to use abilities, and managing resources to maximize burst windows. **Priority Rotation vs Rotation:** Almost no modern MMORPG DPS spec uses a strict fixed rotation. Instead, you use a priority list: if Ability A is available and condition X is true, press Ability A. Otherwise, if Ability B is available, press Ability B. Understanding your priority list is the foundation of DPS mastery. **Pooling:** Most DPS specs have a primary resource (Energy, Mana, Focus, Fury, etc.) that builds passively and is spent on powerful abilities. Pooling means intentionally holding your resource near the cap just before your major damage cooldown activates, so when the cooldown is up, you can immediately spend into your highest-damage abilities without waiting for resource to regenerate. **Burst Windows:** Identify which abilities constitute your burst (typically your 2-minute or 3-minute cooldowns) and build your entire rotation around maximizing what happens during those windows. Everything outside the burst window is setup for the next burst. **Universal DPS principles that apply across all MMORPGs:** - Never be casting/attacking nothing. Dead GCDs are permanent DPS losses. - Move only when you must. Unnecessary movement disrupts your rotation more than any enemy ability. - Know your DoT timers. Refreshing a DoT at 80% of its duration wastes 20% of a cast. - Pre-pot and use consumables. The players who do not use potions are consistently at the bottom of meters. 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