Battle Roles
The Battle Role system assigns every party member one of four combat roles. Many instances and raids use it both as an entry requirement (your party may need a specific mix of roles) and as a combat rule (your role changes how enemies react to you). It is part of the Instance System.
Why roles exist
Group content on Vortex Legends is balanced around a real team, not a pile of damage dealers. The role system makes sure a party brings the pieces an encounter needs (someone to hold the enemy, someone to keep the team alive, and someone to deal the damage) and it gives the Tank a reliable way to control where the monsters attack.
The four roles
🛡️ Tank
Holds the enemies' attention so the rest of the party can act safely. The Tank is built to draw and keep enemy aggression (threat), standing at the front and absorbing the encounter's damage while teammates heal, support and attack from safer positions. In instances that track threat, the Tank is the role that keeps bosses facing away from the group.
Hate generation: Tanks build hate at 3.5× the standard rate. Every action generates more threat than any other role. As long as the Tank is actively attacking, the boss naturally stays locked on them.
Tank role skills
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 30 |
| Target | Enemy |
| Range | 9 cells |
| Cooldown | 60 s |
| Duration | 10 s |
Enrage
A single-target taunt. Cast on an enemy, it instantly jumps the Tank's threat on that enemy above the current threat leader, forcing it to turn and attack the Tank right away — the go-to tool for ripping a boss off a teammate who pulled aggro. In addition, the Tank's threat generation is doubled for 10 seconds, helping the new lead stick. Pairs well with high-damage windows.
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 40 |
| Cooldown | 45 s |
| Duration | 5 s |
Bastion
A brief defensive stance that makes the Tank immune to knockback and crowd-control effects for 5 seconds. Useful for standing firm during boss mechanics that would otherwise interrupt positioning.
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 25 |
| Range | 2 cells |
| Cooldown | 10 s |
Blood Strike
The Tank sacrifices 10% of their maximum HP to deal that same amount as fixed damage to a nearby target, then generates full threat from the hit’s damage, a bonus equal to that damage again (double aggro), and an instant flat burst on top (+300) so aggro lands immediately rather than ramping up. A reliable way to spike aggro in a pinch, at a personal cost.
✚ Healer
Keeps the party alive by restoring health. Because instances apply a recovery penalty, healing is more demanding inside group content than out in the open world: a dedicated Healer is what lets a party survive sustained boss damage.
Hate generation: Healers generate hate at 1.25×, but healing itself produces 1.5× more hate than equivalent damage. A big heal restoring 500 HP generates the same base threat as dealing 750 damage. Healers should heal when the party needs it, but avoid spamming unnecessary heals, as sustained heavy healing still adds up on the threat table.
Healer role skills
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 80 |
| Cast time | 8.1 s (uninterruptible by DEX) |
| Area | 9×9 cells around the caster |
| Cooldown | 3 min |
Tranquility
A channeled heal that pulses every 2 seconds for the full 8-second cast, restoring HP to the caster and all nearby party members within a 9×9 cell area. The SP cost is paid when the channel begins. Recasting the skill while it is active cancels the channel immediately. Taking damage also cancels it, so positioning and timing matter. The heal scales with the caster's INT and Base Level.
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 30 |
| Cooldown | 60 s |
| Duration | 10 s |
Fade
Reduces the Healer's threat generation to half for 10 seconds. Use it after a burst of emergency heals to let the Tank reclaim top threat before enemies switch targets.
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive |
Divine Grace
A passive ability. While this skill is learned, the instance's healing penalty is completely negated for the Healer's own skill-based heals, so they heal for full value inside instances. It does not affect item heals or SP recovery.
⚔️ DPS
Focuses on dealing damage to bring enemies down. DPS players turn the time the Tank and Healer buy into actual progress, racing boss enrage timers and clearing waves before they overwhelm the group.
Hate generation: DPS generates hate at only 0.5× per damage point. A DPS dealing 1,000 damage produces just 500 hate, far below the Tank's threshold. This gives DPS players wide margin to attack freely without risking pulling aggro, as long as the Tank is active.
DPS role skills
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 30 |
| Cooldown | 2 min |
Vanish
Instantly removes half of the accumulated threat the DPS holds against every enemy in the encounter. A panic button for situations where the DPS is about to overtake the Tank on the threat table.
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive |
Survivor's Instinct
A passive ability. Inside instances, each time the DPS kills a monster they recover 5% of their maximum HP. This cannot trigger more than once every 3 seconds.
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 40 |
| Cooldown | 60 s |
| Duration | 10 s |
Bloodlust
A high-risk offensive cooldown. For 10 seconds the DPS deals 20% more damage, but also takes 40% more damage from all sources. Timing it carefully around predictable boss attacks maximizes the gain while minimizing the danger.
✨ Support
Assists the party with utility and backup: buffs, crowd control, and filling whatever gap the team needs. Support rounds out a composition and helps a party handle mechanics that raw healing and damage alone can't.
Hate generation: Support generates hate at 1.5×. More than DPS, but well below Tank levels. Support contributions rarely threaten the Tank's lead in a well-run party.
Support role skills
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 30 |
| Range | 9 cells |
| Cooldown | 30 s |
| Duration | 10 s |
Analyze
Applies a debuff to a target enemy that reduces its DEF and MDEF by 10 points for 10 seconds. Makes all physical and magical damage from the party land harder for the duration.
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 40 |
| Range | 9 cells |
| Cooldown | 45 s |
| Duration | 10 s |
Empower
Grants a party member a buff that raises their ATK and MATK by 10% for 10 seconds. Can only be cast on allies, not on enemies. Useful for covering a damage dealer's burst window.
| Max level | 1 |
|---|---|
| SP cost | 40 |
| Cast time | 4 s |
| Area | Entire map |
| Cooldown | 60 s |
| Duration | 20 s |
Heroism
Grants the entire party on the same map a buff that reduces their after-cast delay by 10% for 20 seconds. The Support's own skills benefit from this as well, letting the team chain abilities faster during the effect.
Assigning a role
Every member must have a role before the party can enter. If anyone in the party has no role assigned, entry is blocked until they pick one.
Composition requirements
An instance can require a minimum and/or maximum number of each role. For example, an encounter might require at least one Tank and one Healer, or cap how many of a given role can join. If your party does not match the required composition, entry is blocked and you are told what is missing.
Not every instance enforces a composition: each one sets the requirements that fit its design. Always check the instance's own page (or the entrance NPC) for its exact rules.
Roles in combat
Once inside, your role determines how much hate you generate. The player with the highest accumulated hate becomes the boss's main target.
| Role | Hate modifier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 🛡️ Tank | 3.5× | Highest: designed to lead threat |
| ✨ Support | 1.5× | Above average |
| ✚ Healer | 1.25×* | Healing multiplies this further (see below) |
| ⚔️ DPS | 0.5× | Below average: safe to attack freely |
* Healing generates 1.5× more hate than equivalent damage before the role modifier is applied. A 500 HP heal produces the same base threat as 750 damage.
Playing to your role (rather than ignoring it) is what makes the harder encounters survivable.
A party in practice
Here is how hate builds up in a typical 5-player party (1 Tank, 2 Healers, 2 DPS) after a single combat exchange:
| Player | Role | Action | How hate is calculated | Hate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ragna | 🛡️ Tank | Attacks for 1,000 damage | 1,000 × 3.5 | 3,500 |
| Aria | ✚ Healer | Heals for 500 HP | 500 × 1.5 (healing) × 1.25 | 938 |
| Mira | ✚ Healer | Heals for 300 HP | 300 × 1.5 (healing) × 1.25 | 563 |
| Storm | ⚔️ DPS | Attacks for 1,200 damage | 1,200 × 0.5 | 600 |
| Blaze | ⚔️ DPS | Attacks for 1,500 damage | 1,500 × 0.5 | 750 |
Outcome: Ragna has the highest hate by a wide margin and is Aggroed (the boss targets him). Both Healers and both DPS sit well below him. Accumulated hate does not fade on its own: Ragna's lead persists even through pauses in his attacks, and teammates can only catch up by out-generating him. To actually take the boss off the Tank, a challenger must not just match his hate but exceed it by a clear margin — small differences never flip the target.
The takeaway:
- Tank: keep attacking to stay comfortably ahead of ongoing healing and damage — and if someone does rip aggro, Enrage taunts the boss straight back to you.
- Healers: heal when needed, not on cooldown. Heavy sustained healing still adds up on the threat table.
- DPS: attack freely. Your multiplier is low enough that a healthy Tank will always stay ahead of you.