Talk:Team roles

Frontline
Is this article specific to PvP? If so the notion that frontline characters primary job is to tank damage is incorrect. If the article is about PvE and PvP then surely a note should be made that rarely are frontline used as damage absorbers other than NPC tanking. The frontline position is a requirement in order to pressure backline, not to put yourself in harms way. 83.104.169.126 02:20, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Split proposal
The frontline, midline and backline roles aren't exclusive to PvP. -- Gordon Ecker 03:07, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
 * But their general reasons for being designated as such are somewhat the same, even if what they do in those roles is different. Would make more sense to move to a area-neutral title and provide subheadings within each role for PvE. [[Image:User Aiiane-a.gif|Go to Aiiane's Talk page]] (Aiiane - talk - contribs) 04:36, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Split the article, so in the new headings it can give tips oriented to PvP or PvE.--ShadowFog 13:50, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Feature
This article needs some serious work before it's accurate; please don't feature it until that's happened. :\ &mdash;  Raine Valen    2:02, 27 Sep 2010 (UTC)
 * you should make that comment on the feature page.- [[Image:User_Zesbeer_sig.png|link=User talk:Zesbeer‎]] Zesbeer 02:03, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
 * My sentiments, exactly. &mdash;  Raine Valen  [[Image:User_Raine_R.gif|19px]]  2:07, 27 Sep 2010 (UTC)

Changes
Changes so far to the "intro section" to remove specific references and translate into examples, also moved experimental into its own section. moved table up as just a place holder, please do not move it down, it may not look pretty but it provides some information. Ideally a new table should be made to accomodate this, instead of using a table which seems to scale with the section improperly. Sorry for not signing in the changes, I am working from a public computer.

Also made a new table, integrated into the article, if i can figure out how to move it to a seperate page and keep this one cleaner I will. Please do not revert, as it removes changes which have been made, insead improve the page with your suggestions so i dont have to spend an extra 20 minutes of time looking for the changes.

"roles"
Almost all of the roles mentioned in the introductory table are builds, not roles. Here's a hint: It's not a role if the page starts with " is a which...".

I would argue that the roles are spiker, nuker, control (focusing on the positioning of enemy players, including builds such as linebackers, cripshot rangers, sword warriors, and what have you), utility (focusing on empowering allies or making enemies not run at full power, including non-spiker mesmer and necromancer builds, shutdown builds, and commandagons), defender/"healer" (focusing on keeping allies alive, including builds such as motigons, bonders, prot and heal monks, rits, and so forth), and toolbox/flagger. I could also see an argument for a "pressure" role, but most individual pressure builds are just bad versions of other builds.

"Tank" is not a PvP role. It's not really a PvE role, either, since SY exists (and even if it didn't, there's plenty of ways to make yourself a big dps character that just happens to be unkillable), but eh.

Furthermore, a ton of these "roles" are outdated. Beast Master? Battery? Minion Master? Spirit Lord? Infuser? Seriously? The best of these is infuser, but again, infusers are monks that fill and just happen to have infuse on their bar because it's a good skill and they're good at using it.

-- Armond 05:46, 20 April 2011 (UTC)