Your Job (or: How Not To Look Like A N00b)
This is intended to be a quick primer for new players who want to get a basic idea of how to play their character in an effective and team-friendly way. There's a lot of detail and some options I won't go into, rather, see the various class guides for Bears, Birds, and Elves.
For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to limit discussion to "pures", as they're the simplest and most straightforward way to play, especially for beginners. A "pure" is a character that is focused on its class' primary attribute (STR for bears, DEX for birds, and INT for elves). Other types of builds ("hybrids" and "dual specs") are more specialized and are more likely to be successful for more experienced players.
So, without further ado... here are the basic roles you're expected to fulfill when playing in a group.
Bears
Your job is to "tank". All that STR you're pumping up? Well, its not really for damage (yes, it helps, but that's not your main job) -- it's to increase your hit points and armor so you can take more damage. You go in first, and get the attention of the enemies. Make them attack you. Use Taunt continuously... it's free in terms of mana cost and it increases the chance that enemies will focus on you.
Get the best armor rating and H/s regen rates you can. Yes, a two-handed sword looks cool and does more damage, but in a group, that's not your job. A shield will serve you better and some of the 1-handed weapons have nice effects that can help offset their lower damage.
Birds
Ok, see everything above about bears? Do the opposite. You want to hang back, using long-range attacks, focusing on the enemy causing the biggest problem. No one, repeat, no one is better than you at dealing damage to a single target, and your presence will help greatly in boss fights.
But beware, you're squishy and taste like chicken. The last thing you want to do is stand toe-to-toe with any enemy, let alone a boss. If they decide to target you, run. Literally, you can run circles around the bad guys while continuing to fire away at them. Discretion is the better part of valor, and cowardice is the better part of discretion, so valiantly run like a scared child. Thorn root can also hold them still while you make a brave dash for safety.
Your long-range attacks can be used to "pull" single targets toward the group, allow the team to split up encounters into more manageable chunks. Once you've pulled, though, stop firing until the tank draws enough hate to keep you from being turned into a chicken nugget snack.
Elves
You are the kings (queens?) of area-of-effect damage. Single-target? Not so much. At higher levels, you will literally be able to blast apart "trash" mobs with your standard battery of area-of-effect spells, especially if you time them correctly for combos.
But for now, early on? You're going to maximize exactly 2 skills: Lightning and Heal. And Heal is vitally important. That bear tanking for you? Keep it healthy, because if the bear dies, you're probably next. That means you've got to close in a bit tighter than the bird, to keep your tank inside the effect range. You can also soften up enemies or finish them off with some Lightning strikes.
Like birds, your best defense if you become the hunted is to run. Since the game forces you to take a rank in Frostbite, you can use this to freeze a pursuer in its tracks, at least for a second, to buy yourself some time.
Heal is important for more than just hit point recovery; in a pinch, everyone can (and should) use potions for that, allowing you to save mana for later. But many negative statuses can be cured by Heal, in addition to hit points -- broken armor is the most common at low levels. Keep an eye on the icons next to character names, and you'll soon learn when to patch them up before they take big damage.
As You Progress
Teamwork means understanding what you and your team members are supposed to be doing, and executing accordingly. Use tactical positioning and skills to control the battlefield to let the tanks draw enemy aggression ("aggro") while the others deal the main damage and debuffs. Learn what skill combos exist, and know when to contribute part of the chain and when to hold off because someone else is setting something up.
And whatever you do, stay with the group. If you go wandering off on your own, it likely won't turn out too well.
In addition to the notes below, everyone will want to invest in skills for self-preservation (e.g., Evade for bears and birds).
Bears
Taunt and Beckon. Even without the stun effect, drawing groups of enemies toward you make the bird and elf jobs a lot easier. Stomp, while quite useful early on, becomes a lot less useful because it has the nasty habit of breaking up the others' combos as well as scattering all of those enemies you want to group together.
Still, Stomp can be useful to trap enemies in a corner, but it requires good positioning and working well in timing with your team.
Birds
As tempting as some of the skills may look, you are most valuable to the team when you are focused on boss killing. This means ranks in Focus to do more damage, Blast Shot and Blinding Shot to debuff them, and Thorn Wall to slow down pursuit (and set them up for a Nature Strike combo).
It can be hard to be patient, but know that even if you fell like a "hanger-on" during routine mob clearing, you will get a chance to shine with bosses.
Elves
One you've got some skills built up and some pretty good mana regeneration going, it's up to you to handle most of the routine "clearing" work by dropping area-of-effect skills pretty much as fast as they recharge. Throw out a Heal as soon as it will help anyone, to avoid letting them drop into danger realms. You'll want at least 1 rank in both Blessing skills to keep the team buffed.
Against bosses, you want to ensure the team is buffed with Blessings, that you keep the enemy debuffed with Nightmare and Weakness, and that you spam Heal as often as possible. Any damage you contribute is generally secondary, though be ready to jump in with a combo when the opportunities present themselves. You'll want to use your area skills to mop up the "entourage" of mobs around the boss so the team can focus on the boss by itself.
