A discussion on MMORPG – what works – what doesn’t work – and suggestions for better. The Buff Masters are an interesting and challenging class to play and are in the support class category.
Party Animals 2
One of the major differences in MMO RPGs from solo-play games is the role of Parties within the game. In a MMO RPG no one character holds all the skills. Each class has a role to play within the party. Here I want to explore how this works and the possibilities. For the most part, I prefer to play a healer. In Aion I have played all of the classes so will use it for my examples here.
Support Classes
Your support classes are truly the life of the party. They are your healers and buffers and they play a vital role in keeping the party alive in difficult situations.
Buff Master
The Buff Master’s primary roll is defense and is one of the most demanding classes to play in the MMO RPG.
This class holds the powers to strengthen other players with various buffs and to weaken the opposing player or mob with debuffs. Often this class has healing skills, though weaker and more limited than the Healer in the game, and they have a descent self-heal. This class, as a whole, has low to average hit points and deals moderate damage. Most buffing classes wear light to medium armor types and carry either a staff or blunt style weapons such a mace and shield.
Solo play on a buffer can be a blast. With the advantages of its own buffs and self-heal they 
rarely need to slow down and are relatively quick to level. In Aion the buffing class is the Chanter. It’s a melee class with good DPS but lacks in ranged and AOE attacks. Builds will vary from game to game and with your own playing style. Some wisdom in your build will strengthen healing. I built parry into my Aion Chanter’s armor, as they have skills that proc off parry. But this only works when you have agro so a second set of armor built with wisdom was needed for when I was in party. So this can be an expensive class to play.
In parties the Buffer plays defense and must really be the jack of all trades and on their toes. First, the Buff Master has the larger range and stronger buffs and debuffs than the Healer. Therefore, their primary responsibility is to manage buffing the party and debuffing of the foes. Second, the Buff Master is the back up healer. While the healer concentrates on keeping the tank alive the Buff Master keeps the healer alive and throws spot heals as needed on the rest of the team. They can do secondary damage and in a pinch, act as a secondary off-tank pulling agro off teammates and bringing the mob forward to the tank.
If things go wrong it’s their role to resurrect the fallen getting them back into the fight. And if it goes very wrong, to cover the retreat of the Healer. All these skills are tied into a point system such as mana points. Managing these points is done with certain skills, potions, serums, foods and/or nos – depending upon what is available within the game you play.
The Buff Master’s greatest strength is in the defense of the party. Playing defense and doing it well takes focus. A Buff Master’s ability to be just about everywhere at once depends on knowing how and where to position one’s self during the battle and excellent communication with their teammates.
If I built the world …
If I built the world I would design the buffs to be built on a tree system, giving the player control over the elements and balance within their buffs. There would be group buffs and at higher levels, stacking individual buffs. Sometimes, I think this class tends to be overlooked by the designers. Personally, I think the Buffing class is a great deal of fun to play. The role is one of the more challenging ones in the game.