Warhammer Online: Class Act

Currently I have been messing around with the various classes on the Order side of Warhammer Online. Since I am relatively new, I figured I needed to gain an understanding of what I like.

I have several solo characters who I will use to grind when the "Family who MMO's" is not playing. For the family though, I seem to be the one who gets put in a particular role. During this playtime, one thing became abundantly clear.

I was attempting to play as I normally played most MMO's.

In choosing the classes, which I have a good variety of to pick from, I followed my hearts desire, and what I was most familiar with. The healer classes.

If anything, the Archmage should have been my opportune class. All previous MMO's had me as the healer type, the one who always kept the "Family who MMO's" safe. But, I had to redirect my efforts this time.

Last nights game session proved to me that maybe I should not always be looking out for them, and instead try to make it an overall system of defense. Maybe it is the fact that in WAR the heals are not powerful enough to heal both yourself AND the group. You either focus on one or the other. As well, if you follow the Archmage path, then you must have a strong group around you who can keep you safe.

This was not the case in scenarios last night. Lets just say I have never been dead so much in any MMO.
Maybe this was a one time deal? Maybe I could learn to work around this? But, I really feel if I am not twinked out in armor and talismans, I will spend more time kissing dirt than kissing the sky with the healing love.

Now, keep in mind, we started new characters, as we wanted to try an alternate group, and I already have other characters I could play. But, so far, my wife enjoys being a tank class (Swordmaster) moreso than a DPS and my son loves his DPS (Witch Hunter) more than tanking.

So, where does this leave me? This morning I decided to solo level a character up, a Warrior Priest. Now, this class is still heals based, but with an advantage.

ARMOR.

I spent time doing quests and after reaching level 4 (quite quickly I might add), I queued up for scenarios solo. Now, again, was it the group? This time I do not think so.
I watched as I was being pummeled by a Choppa, and was able to keep myself healed, and doing damage...massive damage...at the same time.
I then noticed they stopped attacking me, and went after the Archmage in the group. Maybe they thought they were not making headway with me (they were not...hehe). I started to heal the Archmage while still attacking that same Choppa (I wish to also note, he was rated "Challenging").

The Archmage lived. I got the kill. And I was happy again.

I guess I can still be the one who "helps" others. But, maybe I need to be able to do some of my own damage as well. I just could not get to grips with the concept of the Archmage. But, for the Warrior Priest, I truly felt like I could contribute.

Sometimes we need to step out of our norms and try new things. We may be surprised.