Group Roles There ' s a few established Roles in a group . Each class either covers one role exceptionally well , or the class will cover multiple roles . The roles that are the most sought after though are the Main Tank , Main Healer , and Crowd Controller . Main Tank . The main job of the main tank is to gain the attention of the mobs . The key things for a tank to have is high survivability . This usually means a main tank requires high health and high armor in order to take a beating . Also as important is the ability to generate a lot of aggro from the mobs . It does no good to have a durable player of which no mobs choose to attack . This ability to generate aggro depends on the skill set of the class and damage the class does . Death Knights , Warriors , Druids , and Paladins are often time the main tank . Off Tank / Aggro Manager . The main job of the off tank is to become the tank for the mobs who leave the main tank . So if the main tank has 5 mobs on him and one mob leaves the main tank to attack another party member , it is the job of the off duty to grab the aggro from the main tank and allow the mob to attack him while the main tank works on reestablishing aggro . Generally the Off - Tank needs to protect the priests and mages . In addition to the classes listed for main tanking , Shaman and Hunters are good off tanks as they have mail armor and some high aggro attacks , ideal for distracting mobs until the tank can regain aggro Main Healer . The main healer ' s job is to keep the Main Tank alive . The main healer can heal other players in the party , but only if the main tank is not in danger of death . Normally , it is desired to have a Main Healer who can also resurrect the party . Also it is beneficial for the main healer avoid grabbing too much aggro through healing . Correctly specced these four classes can serve as the main healer : Priests , Druids , Paladins and Shaman . Secondary Healer . The secondary healer ' s job is to provide healing to sources other than the Main Tank ( which is the Main Healer ' s job ) . The Secondary Healer should not be healing the main tank unless absolutely necessary ( as in the main healer is oom as it will throw off the Main Healer ' s rhythm . ) The Priest , Druid , Paladin , and Shaman are all capable of being secondary healers . Crowd Controller ( CC ) . This player helps manage crowds by taking them out of the battle . Fighting 5 mobs at once is much more difficult than fighting 3 mobs then 2 mobs immediately after . Many classes have crowd control ( cc ) spells , but many of them are specialized . Mages and Hunters are brought for crowd control since they can Polymorph and Freezing Trap , respectively . Rogues , Druids , Priests , and Warlocks are less desirable because their crowd control techniques are much more situational . Damage Dealers ( DPS ) . Damage Dealers are the party members who kill the mobs the tank is tanking . Most classes can fill this role . Most restrictions on damage dealers is created by their players . All damage dealers should know how to manage their DPS while killing a mob as quickly as possible . Too high of a DPS can cause a damage dealer to pull aggro causing the mobs to attack them . While most classes have a way to lower aggro there is always a chance it won ' t save you . All classes can effectively fill the role of damage dealer .