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Last time I blogged, I talked about what 4e's combat roles are, their brief origins, and how they compare with the ideal. What worked with the roles and what could have been done better.

Upon reading the comments and after more thought I realized there were a couple points I missed, which needed further thought and nitpicking.

Squishiness

The controller class is based on the wizard, for better or worse. Which means now that every controller has wizard-type hit points. Why? Why are wizards so darn squishable?

This goes back to 1e and beyond, when wizards were the long ranged damage dealers that couldn't take the hit. This contrasts nicely with the heavily armoured melee fighters that are harder to hit and take more to put down.

However, in 1e-3e, druids and other classes also fit what would

4e firmly introduced combat roles to the game, and the idea every class should have a role in the party they are working to fulfil. Although, 4e did not create or introduce this idea: it is prolific throughout MMORPGs.

In *most* MMOs there tends to be three roles: damage (DPS), tank, and healer. This is the World of Warcraft model. There's no real "controller" because many classes have a crowd control mechanic and because controlling is undesirably during boss or raid fights for the exact same reasons heavy controlling  breaks solo fights in D&D.

Looking Back

The above statement is a lie. Like cake. 3e explicitly said the game was designed around a party of four characters, typically a fighter, cleric, wizard, and rogue. These are big archetypal classes, with some wiggle room: druids could

I've played a number of different MMOs including EQ, UO, and WoW. But I've also dabbled quite a bit in City of Heroes and its related games. After a year away I returned to CoH last month to try out its new content and additions.

For those who've never played the game uses a level system but doesn't rely on it for hitting and missing, and recent content – mostly world events – does away with levels for enemies. CoH assumes a 75% hit-chance for even levelled opponents, which can be modified by gear to a maximum of 95%.

World of Warcraft has a similar system. No matter how much weapon skill you have, a certain percentage of your attacks will miss, be parried, be blocked, and be dodged. This overlaps with critical and other attacks and reduces damage, so you need to increase your Hit.