Influencing People (Know Your Role)

Now that you’ve chosen a general type of character (known colloquially as Tank, Healer, or Damage-Dealer), it’s important to know and play your role effectively for the good of the group, and to increase your chances at victory. Heed the following advice:

General Advice

The Holy Trinity: Your party should be properly balanced, with one Tank, one Healer, and two Damage-Dealers (DPS), though you can tweak this setup, providing you have one of each type of player. Wading in with four players of the same type means you’re likely to cripple yourself during combat, simply because a greater variety of options isn’t available to you.

First We Feast!: Ensure that you’re fully equipped for the dangers that lie ahead. Though you may need help from your group, your safety is usually of paramount concern. Check your equipment and eat a food item—ensuring that your Health, Stamina, and Magicka are as high as possible. Bring along potions to use as you progress.

Local Knowledge: If you’re new to the dungeon you’re wandering through, spend time researching the location, and converse with your team about the dangers and how the larger enemies should be fought. Forewarned is forearmed!

Swapping Roles: Once you reach Level 15, you have the ability to weapon-swap, and this flexibility allows certain party members a “dual personality.” For example, if your style of play calls for a Tank the majority of the time, but a Damage-Dealer if you weapon-swap, you can change roles based on the need and situational threats.

Exceptional Synergy: Explained earlier in this chapter, the use of Synergies (group attack abilities) enables your party to more easily protect yourselves and create greater damage potential during combat. Not only do you receive bonuses like resource restoration for using Synergies, you inflict greater damage. The advantages are numerous; there’s never been a better time to be an Undaunted!

Tank Advice

Crowd Control and Taunts: Your main task is to beckon enemies into attacking you instead of the others in your group by taunting them. You must decide which mobs are the most dangerous to the group and keep them taunted. There is no need to taunt all enemies as DPS and healers can survive some monsters solo. Learning which enemies to deal with and keeping their attention is vital to being an effective tank. Taunting every five seconds or so is usually sufficient to ensure your foe doesn’t ignore you and attack teammates. Be sure to intercept your targets if their attention sways before they inflict real damage on your friends.

Leader by Example: As you’re likely to be the first one into battle, and usually pick the enemies to fight first, it makes sense that you become the leader of the group. You’re here to scout the unexplored areas, bear the brunt of enemy attacks, and explain to the group how to tackle a particularly troublesome foe with specific takedown needs.

Faith in the Healer: As a Tank, it’s assumed you have impressive reserves of Stamina. Pick the biggest foe and bring them down quickly and effectively. You’re relying on your Healer to help you maintain your Health (though not exclusively), but if something massive and terrifying is charging your party’s way, the Tank should be the one to step in and intercept it.

Block (and Bash) Around the Clock: Learn to block continuously to deflect damage before bashing (aka “interrupting”) to disorient foes, stopping many from retaliating or casting spells. Effective against all types of foes, but particularly enemy mages and bowmen, this is another way to minimize the enemy’s aggressions.

Healer Advice

Feeling Flexible: A wide variety of classes can make the most of the healing abilities and spells on offer (the Templar especially), but if you’re not used to the carnage-filled combat of group dungeon exploration, you may find you haven’t set yourself up with enough healing power. Ensure you have at least two Action Bar slots filled with healing abilities, and learn what healing capabilities your team members have so you know who to focus on once the damage is being taken. Also, you have enough Magicka, right?

Healing First and Fast: Be the first to cast healing spells, rather than waiting until your friends are struggling. Spells that give continuous healing over a period of time (known as “healing over time”) should be cast just before engaging the enemy, and again just as it finishes attacking, until the fight is over. In addition, these spells—plus spells cast on the ground and spells allowing your teammates to step to an area to be healed—are more helpful than spells focused on a single teammate, or spells that shield them. Those usually cost more to perform and are a less proficient use of your time and Magicka.

Other Actions: When you’re not healing, your secondary actions (without compromising your Magicka needed for any subsequent healing needs) should include abilities that back up your Tank and Damage-Dealers. These include Synergies, buffs, and stuns. If combat is progressing well with little need for healing, weapon-swap to a more combat-support Action Bar.

Non-Class Skills: Take into consideration alterative skill lines that can assist in your task as the healer. Select skills from Restoration Staff, Undaunted (Bone Shield, Blood Altar, and Energy Orb), Assault (Vigor, War Horn), Support (Purge), and Fighters Guild (Circle of Protection) to give an added boost to healing.

Damage-Dealer (DPS) Advice

Sometimes, You’re on Your Own: Don’t rely on your Healer to consistently keep you alive, or your Tank to bear the brunt of every attack. Instead, balance your team and independent actions, using your dodging and blocking to maintain your health, and use the techniques you’ve developed to slay foes in other game modes. You may wish to forgo spells that have an area of effect, as they can cause multiple enemies to engage you.

The Order of Death: You’re here to properly prioritize your targets, especially with the Tank usually going for the most ferocious entity. Depending on the situation and the state of your teammates, you should provide combat support to your Tank. Otherwise, target ranged foes (archers) first, then spellcasters, then the weaker enemies, and finally the foe the Tank is tussling with. However, every encounter is different, so alter or ignore this order as the situation demands.

Prioritize and Protect: Your obvious advantage is the damage you can deal, but this may not be the best way to support your team. Situational awareness is a must; make full use of dodging and blocking so the Healer isn’t constantly having to expend Magicka to keep you alive. Similarly, keep an eye on your Healer; take some of the enemy’s attacks off them so the Healer can use up Magicka on you and the Tank rather than themself.

The Nimble Resurrection: You’re the default teammate in charge of resurrecting teammates who’ve died. This must be done as soon as possible, especially as the Healer and Tank have more focused and protective roles. You should be saving your friends both before and after they drop.