The Daily Grind: Do you play specialist or generalist characters?

by Justin Olivetti on May 28th 2011 8:00AM

Culture, Professions, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

Myself, I'm a jack-of-all-trades type of player. If there's a class, profession or build out there that allows me to do a wide variety of things OK, then you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be playing it. Sure, I never hit the top of the DPS or healing charts, but the freedom of choice that generalist builds allow me more than makes up for it.

Classes are easy to define as either "specialist" or "generalist" if you're painting with a broad brush, although the truth is that many specialist classes and roles have generalist aspects, and generalist classes often can be specialized. So I think it all boils down to what you like to play and how you like to play it.

So what do you enjoy more: playing specialist or generalist characters? Would you rather do a narrow range of actions really, really well, or a wide range of actions decently but not exceptionally?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Tags: class, classes, generalist, opinion, profession, professions, specialist, tdg, the-daily-grind

Reader Comments (29)

Although being versatile is always nice, in MMOs being the best at one thing tends to be the goal.

Bruce Campbell is awesome.

@Daverator

Bruce Campbell = generalist.

Tom Cruse = specialist.

you really should have used that as the theme for this.
(I vote Bruce all the way)

Generalist. Specialists are usually too dependant on teaming, especially late game.

And "Jack of All Trades" was an awesome show.

I lean more towards generalized. I feel like specializes classes aren't really given the opportunity to shine. Yeah they are good at one thing, but how much of that is due to player skill and how much due to arbitrary numbers? Generalized classes have a little bit more strategy involved in terms of how you develop and use your character, and how you compensate for weakness, so that's a whole new aspect to gameplay.

But, as i most favor magic dps classes, which are predominantly specialized, i have to go for that... But if i can have magic dps AND support in one character, i will go for that. I love my GW Ritualist :)

I'd rather be good at one specific thing rather than a jack of all trades. Plus, having one specific thing to do frees up your mind quite a bit. In RIFT, I do play a cleric. She can be a DPS, Tank, or Healer. It's hard to remember what skills do when you have so many. That's over like...a hundred abilities to remember really. So I typically just stick with Healing at all times and I try to do that well (Though I find Warden hard to heal with...).

As a matter of fact, I'd much rather have a much shorter list of abilities. I hate having three long rows of skills. A lot of then could be combined so that abilities only take up one row.

@Tizmah I agree that games can have over complicated systems.

But I have to disagree that rift has one. You can honestly macro yourself down to only a 10 or so buttons, not 3 bars full.

My cleric (sham/just/fire healing thing) has all 8 attacks macro'd to 1 button. It feels a little weird being allowed to prioritize abilities in a macro, but at the same time it is nice as it lets you focus on your cooldowns, which seem to come up faster in rift than other games.

Played a Shaman for 2 years in WoW and loved every minute of it. So I guess it's pretty clear where I stand. (tried most of the classes too, but didnt enjoy them as much)

I usually dont care how good my class is at a certain role and if it's slagging behind other classes at its role... I try to make the best of what I have. As long as the game is not completely screwed up, this is usually more than enough for me to compete with any other specialist classes.

Related to the other aspects... generalist classes are usually better for solo-ers... and I tend to be one. They are also great for keeping the game fresh... there's nothing like changing some gear / skills and feeling like you're playing a completely new class.

Definitely generalists. Altitus is a very real danger for me and I get bored of specialists much faster than I do generalists. Typically I go for classes who can provide strong support while hurting/annoying the enemy. The character I'm enjoying in Guild Wars PvP at the moment is a Signet of Suffering Necro that spreads conditions/ health degeneration on the other team. Just for kicks I gave him Foul Feast which lets him take conditions off of team members on put them on himself lessening the pressure being put on the group's healer. I especially like it when I steal Daze off of the monk :)

I also really liked City of Heroes Defender for being able to have a "generalist" feel while keeping people alive. The Kinetics and Dark primaries are a blast.

Does caster/healer (needs both parts) count a specialist or generalist? Those are the parts i use. somehow don't end up using the hand to hand or tank abilities. I played a druid and shaman on wow for years before I quit that. I'm having fun with trees for clerics and mages on Rift. I'm still experimenting with classes in Vanguard. I've got a loremaster in Lotro, and a variety of other healer/casters in other games.

I've tried hand to hand and tanking classes, and never get very far; not fun for me, and make me stressed, which is not the purpose of playing a game.

I always play a hack and slash rather than a castor or healer. There is something about advancing with a sword or an ax that is satisfying for me. I will also play a rogue or sometimes a ranger, I like the ability to stealth, especially while soloing which I do a lot of. So those are my two specialties, stealth and blade. The other thing is I prefer dealing out damage rather than absorbing it. I find a straight up tank to be kind of boring. I like being nimble and quick and to specialize in damage per second with my blade.

I generally play classes that can fill multiple roles. That is why the Captain from LotRO will forever be one of my favorite classes.

I like having options just in case ya know?

My problem with generalist classes is that in teams you tend to get pingeonholed into being a less effective version of a specialist. This takes away a lot of the fun of playing the generalist, since you're only using about 1/3 of the class' total potential.

@Wisdomandlore

That depends entirely on the game. World of Warcraft, for example, doesn't really allow generalist characters because of how much of your character's power comes from talent trees which forces you to become highly specialized for a specific role (even classes like the Druid that were originally intended to be "generalists).

City of Heroes and Guild Wars are game where well played generalists are very powerful. I've been playing Dark Age of Camelot again recently, and the most effective Healer spec I've found has been a mix of all 3 spec lines, giving you one character with strong healing, crowd control, buffs, and even "damage support" (the celerity spell which makes your melee group mates swing `30% faster). Then you've got classes like Wardens that can heal in a pinch, buff, deal melee damage, and are great healer/caster protectors.

@Ehra

I just want to clarify that my comment about WoW is directed at how the game is now, where characters are forced to go to the bottom of one talent tree before they're allowed to spend points in another. Generalist characters were viable at one point in the past, but not really now.

@Ehra Let's hear it for Guild Wars! I play a Rit/Necro Minion Bomber, and while it can't AOE like a Fire Nuker Ele, it can't heal like a Monk, and it can't raise as many minions as a Necro, no other class can do all three, simultaneously and (more importantly) SUSTAINABLY.

I've beat all 3.5 campaigns with the build, and it's yet to be significantly nerfed.

I prefer to specialize, as a dps player I love maxing out my numbers to efficiency. Hybrids while offering versatility just won't do the damage numbers that I like.

@Seldra

That's just a false myth in my opinion. If you are good, you can rock the meters with just about any class, even generalist ones. And the reward is that much bigger, knowing that you beat the odds.

I was resto / enhancement on my shaman in wotlk... both builds were among the worst of their type when it came to meters and even so I had no problem being no. 1 on healing and in top 5 on dmg. And my guild was pretty decent, considering we had 2 realm firsts and by far the best progression on the server.

Specialist! I'm a healer in most games and love doing it. When i played a druid in wow I was always being asked to respec into another role. Even if I had the ability to tank, I didn't because I'm terrible at it!

Priest or a similar strong healer is what I tend to play. Takes me longer to level, but in the end I have strong gear for that one way of playing and can mess around and priest tank, aka pull and run away.

I like having generalist classes. Yes, I like my pure DPS mage, but having a multi-tasking class is just fun.

I play several generalist classes in RoM - and the DPSing priest (p/r) is among my favorite. There's just something about being able to heal a raid and then go out and solo just as easily that makes it a fun class to play.

What if I like to generalize my specialists?

I play classes of all types. My main when I used to play WoW was a Retribution paladin (I played that way since BC came out). I dabbled in tanking though.
But I also have god knows how many alts, and have healed and tanked through most content besides raids and high-end dungeons (never got them THAT high).

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The Daily Grind: Do you play specialist or generalist characters?

Reader Comments (29)

Posted: May 28th 2011 8:28AM Daverator said

Posted: May 28th 2011 9:25PM Fakeassname said

Posted: May 28th 2011 8:29AM The Ogre said

Posted: May 28th 2011 8:29AM Dumac said

Posted: May 28th 2011 8:34AM Tizmah said

Posted: May 28th 2011 3:17PM Averice said

Posted: May 28th 2011 8:48AM Mynsc said

Posted: May 28th 2011 9:05AM Ehra said

Posted: May 28th 2011 9:17AM Thremma said

Posted: May 28th 2011 9:49AM Poordevil said

Posted: May 28th 2011 9:58AM PrimeSynergy said

Posted: May 28th 2011 10:38AM Wisdomandlore said

Posted: May 28th 2011 11:06AM Ehra said

Posted: May 28th 2011 11:08AM Ehra said

Posted: May 28th 2011 6:41PM BarGamer said

Posted: May 28th 2011 10:50AM Seldra said

Posted: May 28th 2011 11:05AM Mynsc said

Posted: May 28th 2011 10:55AM Looski said

Posted: May 28th 2011 11:03AM TheElvenAssassin said

Posted: May 28th 2011 11:03AM DevilSei said

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