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World of Warcraft Party Roles

Every player should be aware of their role in a party setting. The three primary roles are tanking, healing, and DPS. Your chosen class and talent choices will essentially determine what role you are best suited for. Detailed below are the archetypal party roles:
Tanks
A tank is a character designed to take a lot of damage from enemies and thereby protect the rest of the party. Tanks include Protection Warriors, Protection Paladins, and Feral Druids.

Purpose: To keep the enemies' attention on them and away from the rest of the party, while taking a beating.

Threat Generation
Keeping the monster's undivided attention on them is a key part of tanking. Party members, such as cloth-wearing Priests and Mages, are not suited to taking much damage - particularly from a hard-hitting boss enemy. Tanks have a variety of abilities to accomplish this which vary by class. In addition, tanks typically have an ability that will taunt the monster off another player and onto them. That way the tank continues to take all the hits and the rest of the group can do their jobs of healing or DPS.

Pulling
Another usual role for the tank is to pull enemies for the group, because it causes the monsters to initially go after the tank. Tanks have some ability or weapon that allows them to pull with a ranged attack, depending on class.

Leading
The tank is usually responsible for leading the group around to their destinations, and is frequently the member who marks the enemy targets for DPS and CC priority.

First In, Last Out
The tank should be the first person into battle under most circumstances. If the party is forced to run, the tank should be prepared to buy time for the other party members to escape - taking one for the team. The other party members can then (hopefully) resurrect the dead tank.

Main Tanks vs. Offtanks
If there are multiple tanks in a group, a main tank should be chosen. The offtanks are responsible for helping out the main tank, by backing them up or by tanking additional enemies.

Healers

A healer's job is to keep the party alive and well with timely and efficient use of their healing spells. Healers include Holy or Discipline Priests, Restoration Shamans, Holy Paladins, and Restoration Druids.
Purpose: To heal party members and keep them alive.

Healing Tips

Always pay attention to party members' hit points. You don't want to be in a situation where party members die and you could have saved them if you were paying attention.

Use keyboard shortcuts to heal people faster. One common method is using the Function keys to select party members and the number keys to cast your array of healing spells.

Become completely familiar with your entire healing arsenal so that you know exactly what spell to use in any given situation.
Don't burn through your mana too fast, use timely healing so that you don't waste mana from overhealing.
Prioritize your healing targets when things get rough - you will likely want to prioritize the tank above all other members.
Always try to learn and accept tips from others on becoming a better healer.
Be Prepared
Always have the necessary tools of the trade on hand - reagents, mana potions, and water. Every healer will find himself or herself in need of some extra mana on occasion - having a potion ready could mean the difference between victory and a wipe. In addition, have at least one stack of the highest-quality water you have access to. The group only moves as fast as its healer, and having lower-quality water (or not having any at all) greatly slows down your mana regeneration between fights, and thereby the entire group.

DPS

The term DPS, an acronym for the game mechanic Damage Per Second, is also used to refer to classes whose primary role is damage-dealing. Melee DPS classes include Rogues, Fury or Arms Warriors, Enhancement Shamans, Retribution Paladins, and Feral Druids. Ranged DPS classes include Mages, Hunters, Shadow Priests, Warlocks, Elemental Shamans, and Balance Druids.
Purpose: To quickly and efficiently destroy enemies.

DPS Tips

If you draw monster hate while in a party, resist the temptation to run away - unless you have the ability to escape the enemy with a skill such as Frost Nova or Vanish.

Pay attention to which monster the tank is attacking - most of the time that will be the first target for the party's DPS to kill.

DPS classes need to watch their threat/aggro to prevent the monster from leaving the tank. Threat-reducing abilities such as Feint (rogues), Feign Death (hunters), Fade (priests) and Invisibility (mages) can cause the monster to forget about you and return to the tank. If your class does not have one of these abilities or it is on cooldown, you can also simply stop attacking momentarily.
Figure out a good ability rotation that maximizes your damage per second and uses a wide variety of your offensive abilities.

Hybrids

A hybrid is any class that is capable of filling, at least partially, more than one of these primary roles. However, their effectiveness in these roles may be less than non-hybrids, particularly if they are performing a role that is not suited to their current talent specialization. For example, a protection paladin can become an effective healer simply by changing his or her gear, but will not be as effective in that role as a dedicated healer such as a holy priest (or holy paladin, for that matter).