Standard RPG Combat Roles

In games with multiple units, different units will have different capabilities, leading to the Common Character Classes. These character abilities lend themselves to particular tactics. When working together as a group, these characters tend to fall into certain roles -- some distract the enemy while others attack, some use beneficial abilities to keep their allies alive, some deal as much damage to the enemy as possible, and some use abilities to boost the effectiveness of allies and reduce the effectiveness of enemies. These are the standard RPG combat roles.

These can show up in any game with multiple units of differing capabilities working together to defeat an enemy, but they're most often found in MMORPGs. This allows players to enjoy different playstyles while still participating meaningfully to the group's overall success. For obvious reasons, this is particularly valuable for online games where every individual unit is a Player Character.

The basic version of the standard RPG combat roles is a three-way split: someone takes damage, someone deals damage, and someone heals damage. If everyone does their job right, then the enemies focus their attacks on the damage-taker, while the damage-healer keeps them alive and the damage-dealer retaliates. The common names for these roles are, respectively, tank, healer, and DPS. A fourth role, used to boost the effectiveness of the other three roles, is occasionally added as well.

Complicating this arrangement is the fact that the roles usually have to balance their effectiveness with one another or else they'll run into problems. If an individual tries to do too much, they'll get themselves killed. If they do too little, though, they'll get their allies killed (and probably themselves killed soon afterward). A balanced effort is required for a party to be successful. Each member of the team relies on the other members to do their job properly.

Tank
The tank's job is to make sure that enemies attack him rather than the other party members. They tend to have good defensive abilities (such as heavy armor and lots of HP) but limited offensive punch, making them a type of Stone Wall. This allows them to survive the punishment delivered by the enemy, while forcing them to rely on their party members to actually defeat foes. They'll usually have abilities to make sure that opponents attack them rather than their party members, thus allowing them to cover for their less defensively-minded allies. Using these abilities correctly is essential to good tanking.

Healer
The healer's job is to keep the rest of the party alive by acting as The Medic. They generally focus on the tank, healing the damage that accrues in the process of tanking, and healing others only as required. As a type of Squishy Wizard, healers are usually very reliant on their group in order to actually kill things -- being both unable to effectively take or deal damage gives them limited options in solo combat.

DPS
The DPS's job is to kill the enemy. They focus on offensive power over all else, particularly defense, meaning they're classic Glass Cannons. With lots of ways to hurl messy death at the enemy, DPS is instrumental in winning any given encounter -- while a tank-healer pair can last for a while against attackers, it's the DPS's responsibility to actually end the fight by dealing enough damage to kill their targets.

Support
The support's job is to make the other roles' jobs easier. It generally comes in three flavors: buffers, who provide Status Buffs to boost allies' effectiveness; debuffers, who use Standard Status Effects to lower enemies' effectiveness; and mezzers, used for "crowd control" to break up groups of enemies instead of fighting them all at once. Unlike the other three roles, a support role is not mandatory for survival, so they're more likely to show up in large, organized groups than smaller, informal ones.

Note that roles are rarely "pure". Since a tank's role is "stay alive" and DPS's is "deal damage", the vast majority of characters will be able to do both of those to some extent (a One-Hit-Point Wonder or a Stone Wall with no offensive power at all being fairly rare character types), but not as well as a character actually dedicated to that role. "Hybrid" characters that can perform two or more roles simultaneously (or switch between roles as necessary) also exist. A White Mage may be both a healer and a buffer, for example, or a Combat Medic may be able to fill either a healer or DPS role.

Compare Common Character Classes (which covers abilities, rather than roles) and Competitive Balance (which covers competitive, rather than cooperative, character comparisons).


 * Every MMORPG ever.
 * Nippon Ichi's Strategy RPGs have always had the first three in various forms, with Disgaea 3 introducing pure Support types, as well, in both buffer and debuffer flavors.
 * Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2 have roles that correspond directly to these categories, and you can switch between preselected paradigms with one role per characters. Sentinals are tanks, both Ravagers and Commandos are DPSers, Medics are healers, and Sabotuers and Synergists are support (debuffing and buffing, respectively).
 * All four flavors can be found in Square Enix's Strategy RPG Tune Summoner, although pure Support units are rare.