Submitted by sam on Mon, 06/21/2004 - 19:41.

Now let's take a look at the possible roles in a party and who can fill them.



Tank

A tank is one of the two most important components in a party. The tank is the person who will keep the enemy occupied while the rest of the group attacks it. Often this means that the tank doesn't have to have much by way of attack strength, but they do have to have high defense.



The Warrior (WAR) is the basic tank class in the game. The WAR has quite high defense and the ability to "Provoke" the enemy. The Paladin (PLD) is usually the prefered tank class however, with PLD/WAR being ideal for tanking. The PLD has additional hate-generating abilities over WAR, and higher defense. They also have the ability to heal themselves a little bit. All of this means that they can generate more hate than the typical WAR.

Healer

The healer is the other most important component in a party. The healer's job is to keep the group alive. However, in ideal situations, the enemy should only be attacking the tank, so the healer will mostly be just healing the tank.



Healing generates hate from the enemy, meaning that the tank needs to be on their toes to keep the enemy away from the healer. Because it is so easy for the healer to generate hate, they should not also attack the enemy physically. Attacking the enemy while healing your teammates will generate so much hate that the tank might not be able to pull them back off from you. The basic rule of any party is the healer must be protected at all costs.



The White Mage (WHM) is the basic healing class in the game, although Red Mages (RDM) can also work in a pinch. Dragoons (DRG) with WHM subs can also be decent healers, but a pure WHM is often prefered.

Puller

The puller needs to be someone who can somehow provoke the enemy to attack them and bring them back to base. The best pullers have high evasion, the ability to scout out areas, and often some sort of ranged attack.



Rangers (RNG) make some of the best pullers in the game as they have ranged attacks, high evasion, and wide-scan (the ability to scan areas for monsters). Thieves (THF) also make decent pullers as they have most of what the RNG has except for wide-scan.



Someone with WAR as a main or as a sub will also have th "Provoke" skill, which will make them decent pullers. Additionally, mages with their distance spells may also function well as pullers. Heck, in a pinch, someone who is willing to run up to an enemy and punch it in the face and then run back to camp will even work as a puller.



The key with pulling is that it is more of an art than a skill. This means that not everyone can do it effectively, and it is something which requires a lot of practise.

Damage Dealer

The damage dealer is someone who simply pummels the enemy (with weapons, fists, arrows, or spells). This is my personal favorite class. The damage dealer generally coordinates with the rest of the team on skillchains and other combinations to more efficiently kill the enemies.



There are a lot of classes that are damage dealers. When they connect, the RNG is probably the biggest damage dealer in the game, with the Black Mage (BLM) being its only real competition. The Monk (MNK) is a great damage dealer, but they are a damage dealer over time (they hit for less damage each shot, but they make a lot more shots). DRGs can also be damage dealers with effective subs, as can Samurais (SAM) and Dark Knights (DRK).



The one thing the damage dealer does need to be careful of is doing too much damage in too short a time. Doing a lot of damage very rapidly can steal the hate away from the tank and draw the enemy to you, making it very hard for the tank to pull them back. This is especially bad for RNGs that have high accuracy and participate in skillchains, or for BLMs in general.

Enhancer/Enfeebler

The remainder of the mage classes are generally enhancers and/or enfeeblers. This means they enhance the team or enfeeble the enemy. They could do this by singing a song that boosts team moral or attack, or by casting a spell that blinds or poisons the enemy.



Red Mage (RDM) is the basic enfeebler class, although they are pretty flexible and can heal and attack as well. Bard (BRD) is the basic enhancer class. Summoners (SMN) can be both enfeebling and enhancing as well as moderate damage dealers (but they are harder to play as you need to know all the elemental interactions).

Other

The remainder classes have different things they bring to a party that doesn't exactly fit in here.



Thief (THF) does a fair amount of damage (more as they get higher levels) but realistically isn't a damage dealing class until they hit 30 or so. They can function as pullers, or as drop enhancers (they help earn more gil for the party from enemies and can improve item drop rates when looking for specific items). At low levels, THF is really under-appreciated by most groups, which is tragic. But once THF gets high enough, they become one of the best classes in the game.



Beastmaster (BST) doesn't really fit into the general party infrastructure. They do have wide scan, which can aid them in pulling, but the wide scan is a lower area than Ranger. They typically cannot charm beasts high enough to fight the VT or IT mobs that a typical party will be fighting, so their beasts generally are best utilized as last ditch efforts to keep enemies occupied while the rest of the party zones. When they do charm a beast to help fight, it will lower the party's EXP rate. The one situation where they do work well in parties is when the party consists of multiple BSTs each with a different subjob. In those situations, BST parties can be sick because they will effectively have alliance strength with almost normal party EXP rate.



These things being said, BSTs can sometimes work in parties, but those occasions are more rare.