14 DAY TRIAL // The developers at Sony Online Entertainment are saying that their coming EverQuest Next will completely eliminate the Holy Trinity model for MMO gameplay, which focuses on very narrow roles for each player in a party.
Terry Michaels, a senior producer working on the game, tells US Gamer that, “There will be different classes and different builds that are angled towards some of the roles, so there might be a class or a build that is more tankish but you don’t need that person to accomplish that goal and content.”
He adds, “You can go in there without having somebody who is the stereotypical tank.”
Traditional MMO gameplay requires a tank to attract the attention of enemies and soak up the damage that they are dealing while being healed from the back by a dedicated character who is very weak in actual combat.
A damage per second dealer also destroys the enemy forces before they can take out the tank.
SOE has already said that EverQuest Next will not include any predetermined traditional classes and will allow players to choose from an initial array of eight before they get the freedom to branch off into whatever direction they want.
The typical threat mechanics of traditional MMOs will also be absent from the new game as the team tries to make overall combat more dynamic and more interesting regardless of the skills a player has access to.
EverQuest Next will also include destructible terrain, which will have a big impact on combat.
The MMO is designed to include a more complex game world which will be permanently changed by decisions that gamers make during quests.
EverQuest Next is expected on the PC in early 2014 and might also get a release on the PlayStation 4.
A Landmark companion game will arrive later this year, complete with many of the content creator tools that SOE is using.