Regarding Aristeia general classification i sometime struggle with definition. Once you agree that Lunah and Bill are long range Defenders like Overwatch then there's Close Range Attacker like Musachi or Massacre but Gata can't be classified as Attacker so how do you brand them? Currently I tends to refer to them as Striker who get close to action to bring the points.
I also saw the terme frontliner but caracters like 8Ball, Kozmo, Prism deserve this title as well though they are definitely Tanks
The terms I normally see are scorer, defender/tank, support, and damage dealer. Or something to that effect.
Official designations (that you can see on the character design dossiers) are Combat, Ranged, Tank, Support, Controller, Scorer. Some of them aren't necessarily where you'd expect them to fall (Murtair's a Tank, Hannibal's a Controller, etc.) but generally they're pretty well placed.
Remember that sometimes category stack. Example Kozmo for me is a hybrid tank/Support. If you are familiar with Moba you can use the game classification adding scorer as a category. The rest are the same Maxximus is a Tank, Valkyre is a bruiser, Musashi Assassin/Scorer, Wild Bill Marksman, Mendoza Supp and so on.
Here's a list of all the categories and which character belongs to each, taken from the official designations. Tank: Maximus, 8-Ball, Valkyrie, Kosmo, Murtair, Prysm - General Traits: High health and defense. Combat: Miyamoto Mushashi, Senor Massacre, Final Boss, Shona Carano - General Traits: Melee damage dealer. Ranged: Wild Bill, Major Luna, Dart, Koorie Queen - General Traits: Ranged damage dealer Support: Parvati, Laxmee, Padre-inquisidor Mendoza, Eclypse, Oberon - General Traits: Healing, Buffing, Debuffing. Controller: Hexx3r, Hannibal, Taowu - General Traits: Moving characters, Activating characters when not active, Making opponent discard cards. Scorer: Gata, Bixie - General Traits: Extremely good mobility. These are more general guidlines as characters such as Valkyrie is more of an off-tank and Padre-inquisidor Mendoza is a healer whereas Laxmee is a buff/debuff and state managment character.
I imagine that these categories are most helpful to compose a balanced team or to game a specific scenario such as "Carnage"
It's very interesting how people break this down. I'll be doing a video series covering my personal thoughts on the matter.
It depends often on how you are playing the Characters. Kozmo is a support, but in your team it could be played as the scorer. 8-Ball is a controller, but if you leave him in the middle of the fight, he'll do well as a tank.
Very curious on what your definition of support is for Kozmo to fall under that category Can you elaborate?
Well, just simply in my experience is more important to me his role as a support than as a tank. To me he's a support/tank and not a tank/support.
Thanks @-V- for ease of explanation I tend to explain that each expansion team has one of the 4 core role (Tank, Support, Range DamageDealer/Overwatch Defender, Scorer/Attacker) with a twist!!!
That's right. When designing an expansion we don't like to repeat main roles so the expansion is the more assorted.
I've been working on my own classifications for this at the moment. The goal is to help new players understand how each of the characters works, without getting into the stats. It also helps me define a balanced team when going into events or playing the tournament formats (8 character selection). My current role list blends types found across MOBA games (e.g. DOTA) or Overwatch and are as follows; DPA An Aristo that can deal a significant amount of damage with or more of their attacks. Support An Aristo that can focus less on scoring and kills, and more on using their actions to gain an advantage for the team. Disabler An Aristo that has one or more attacks or abilities that can impose negative states to the opposing Aristos. Durable An Aristo that can last longer and soak damage through health, defence and/or abilities. Elusive An Aristo that the ability to avoid death through abilities or states Initiator An Aristo that is good at starting a teamfight. Scorer An Aristo that can focus on moving and scoring instead of engaging enemies. Tactician An Aristo that uses their actions to manipulate tactic cards and/or other Artisos in the Hexadome. Control New role [characters who others don't want to get close to, hold zones well, control the flow, still not defined] Each character is assigned a primary and a secondary role to help provide a 'focus' to each profile. I should add that this is all WIP, and my own thoughts/opinions but welcome other peoples constructive ideas. Here are 3 examples of DPA heroes from the core set, but how their primary/secondary types help improve clarity on their role; Musashi | DPA, Initiator Lunah | Disabler, DPA Wild Bill | DPA, Tactician I don't see this as an exhaustive list, some roles may be added, or removed. But I'm pretty happy how it's shaping up.
Some characters are hard to categorize. But I like to go with generic types such as "Tank", "Close Combat DPS", "Heal", "Scorer", "Ranged DPS"... Also, these categories are submitted to players feeling. Some may all agree, like Gata = Scorer. But other might be different. For example, I'm not considering Prysm as a tank. Or not fulltime tank. I totally understand why she is considered as such, but I use her as a DPS. But all this is just categories. You'll all agree when I say they all kick asses. No ?
I like your list, but I find some terms still unclear, what's the difference between Durable and Elusive? Control is pretty undefined yet, obviously, so I won't inquire on that. I don't understand what an Initiator role really is, what do you mean "starting a teamfight"? For the record, my categories are mostly Tank, Scorer, Controller, Support, Debuffer, and, of course, meat grinder, but they don't describe the Aristo in a vacuum, they describe their role in a certain team. For instance, we could have Murtair exclusively as Meat Grinder, but in a team without Gata or Bixie, he can also perform well as Scorer and Controller. Another example is hExX3r, which I find does an excellent job as Controller, but also as Scorer when the need arise. Tank Aristo in charge of keeping the rest of the team alive by making him/herself the target of attacks. Maximus, Mr. Massacre, Prysm. Scorer High mobility aristo focused on finding ways to reach otherwise unreachable places. Gata, Bixie. Controller Aristo focused on changing the mobility state of the characters in the hexadome, by displacing others, bullying them into melee with their strong , or tagging them with states such as or -2. 8-Ball, hExX3r, Lunah, Valkyrie. Support Aristo with non-confrontational abilities that usually targets allies, or the player (like drawing cards). Parvati, Mendoza, Laxmee, Oberon. Debuffer Aristo that applies negative states on targets, or force the player to discard cards. Laxmee, Taowu, Eclypse. Meat Grinder Aristos that roll at least , but have extra or in most of their attacks. Musashi is a special case since he can switch his for , making his and even more dangerous than the others. Wild Bill, Musashi, Lunah. The smoke state is an interesting case in which I find it's a debuff, but I'm tempted on calling it a control tactic. Thoughts?
Just to add a little twist to the thing... each aristo can perform more than one role, and he is unable to do other roles just because (like taowu cant do damage). So depends in your team composition and your preference what role that aristo is accomplishing. My example here: 8-ball, Massacre, Dart and taowu. I decide to play massacre very offensive as a DPR, and taowu as a support following him (looking to freeze opponents and making the enemy discard). Dart and 8-ball in the other side will be the scorers (Dart going double move almost always, safe because hidden, and attacking just if somebody else is about to score; and 8-ball always in last activation, messing up the enemy plans displacing annoying aristos, and putting my dart into scoring zone). and worked great! so think about your options and your tactics... be creative and surprise your enemy. as Vince McMahonagy says "dont blink or you will miss it"
