Class Revamp: LA

Palerion · 2013-01-26, 10:53 PM

First of all let me clarify this is not a thread meant for people to say how much they want infiltrator to be revamped instead of light assault.

I understand that may be logical, but all classes need a bit of revamping; I'm just talking about LA since it's coming up quick in the roadmap.

Their current suggestion is half good half bad.

New utilities for light assault: Good.

Dual Weilding: Sounds appealing, but a gimmicky excuse for a class ability. Bad.

Personally, my suggestion would be to ditch the dual weilding idea.

Give the light assault more choices of how it can be played: aggressive fighter or sneaky flanker. Or a hybrid if you so choose

This would mainly affect how you use your jetpack.

For instance:

Sneaky Flanker:

This archetype is centered around, as the name suggests, sneaking and flanking enemy defenses. The jetpack is certed for long flight time and fast regeneration, allowing for effective positioning in hard to reach areas behind enemy lines and the ability to go around the fight and destroy enemy facilities.

This lets the light assault use high points to its advantage, picking off enemies and wreaking havoc from above. It can move quickly from high areas through its long sustained flight time and short fuel regeneration time, letting it easily glide past the fight and take out the enemie's facilities.

This gives light assault players the option to be more of an assassin class, with more of a sneaky playstyle. The flanker can use its long-lasting, quickly regenerating jetpacks to unleash its power behind enemy lines.

Aggressive Skirmisher:

For this archetype, the jetpack is certed for speed and agility in more direct, face to face infantry combat situations. While regenerating slower and lasting for a shorter period of time than the flanker archetype's jetpack, the Agressive Skirmisher's jetpack can either be used normally for upward thrust in order to reach vantage points (with noticably less effectiveness than the flanker's jetpack), or it can be used in quick, powerful bursts to leap across a short distance.

This allows the light assault to gain the advantage in face to face combat by outmanuevering their enemy instead of using sheer firepower. While coming at the cost of the ability to quickly access vantage points, the agressive skirmisher's jetpack ability can be extremely potent in the hands (or, rather, on the back) of a skilled user.

This jetpack gives light assault players the option to utilize their ability (jetpack) in a more aggressive and up close manor, rather than picking off enemies from vantage points.

So...

Instead of letting light assaults dual weild, which I think most people agree will do more harm than good, give them more playstyle options.

Right now they mainly fit into the sneaky flanker category, but with the added jumpjets (whatever they may be called) that emit concentrated bursts, quickly launching the player a short distance across the ground, light assault players are given another path.

This lets light assaults choose between more sneaky vertical superiority, picking off enemies from above and behind the lines, or more aggressive combat ability, using speed bursts to gain the upper hand in face to face combat.

DarkMesa · 2013-01-26, 11:06 PM

It was never stated to my knowledge that the dual wielding of the light assault would take over the role of the jetpack.

Palerion · 2013-01-26, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by DarkMesa

It was never stated to my knowledge that the dual wielding of the light assault would take over the role of the jetpack.

Your knowledge is correct

They said they wanted to add to the light assault class.

I don't think dual weilding brings anything beneficial to the table.

I think my suggestion makes more use of the jetpack though, and is a pretty good idea. I actually got the idea from some comments on the roadmap, so it's not entirely original at all.

Anyway, there used to be 3 types of jetpacks. They could still do that, just make them more different from each other.

As in, to where they can be used to change up the playstyle from sneaky to aggressive.

Jaged · 2013-01-26, 11:20 PM

They said in the community design meeting that the reason they removed the Icarus Jumpjets was because the rapid movement they allowed required clients to update too fast and was slowing down systems. I think your aggressive skirmisher jumpjets would not work for the same reason.

Palerion · 2013-01-26, 11:30 PM

Hmmm, I didn't get a chance to watch that.

That's an interesting issue though. This would be a nice feature to have if they could get it to work.

Either way, if you want to improve light assault, increasing its capabilities somehow would be best, not giving them dual weilding.

Dual weilding just doesn't fit this game, and I can't see it being useful unless it's absolutely overpowered.

AThreatToYou · 2013-01-26, 11:46 PM

Personally, I don't think it would be all that bad if we could dual-wield our ES pistols. Honestly I think that'd be a great idea.

Should it be limited to LA? Probably not, but I'm not going to exclude a feature just for what classes its on. It fits LA well, because you won't be able to ADS when using two weapons.

BlaxicanX · 2013-01-26, 11:57 PM

LA needs a long-range combat option. They have jetpacks, which allow them to get up into places that other people can't. They should be able to take advantage of this by having a weapon that allows them to pick people off from a superior vantage point.

Not saying a full-on sniper rifle, but I would love to see an option for a precision rifle; high damage per shot but semi-auto only.

Palerion · 2013-01-27, 12:12 AM

Originally Posted by AThreatToYou

Personally, I don't think it would be all that bad if we could dual-wield our ES pistols. Honestly I think that'd be a great idea.

Should it be limited to LA? Probably not, but I'm not going to exclude a feature just for what classes its on. It fits LA well, because you won't be able to ADS when using two weapons.

The TR ES pistol is supposed to be fully automatic. I can't imagine dual weilding being anything but a hassle for balance.

But if this jumpjet idea was possible, it would be great.

I believe on the roadmap someone posted a Warhammer 40K vid of the jetpacks, pointing out how you could lunge forward, backward, etc. with them.

I think this would open up more possibilities for players who like the concept of the jetpack, but want to utilize it more aggressively.

That is, if the devs can make it possible.

I'm still not understanding how this and the Icarus jumpjets cause problems.

And, although I didn't mention it in the original post:

I think having standard jumpjets (sneaky flanker), lunge jumpjets (aggressive skirmisher), and Icarus jumpjets (haven't come up with a niche for this yet, but people liked it xD) would be perfect. Lunge for x-axis speed (combat use), Icarus for fast upward lift (more y-axis), standard for a balance of both with long flight time.

AThreatToYou · 2013-01-27, 12:16 AM

Originally Posted by BlaxicanX

LA needs a long-range combat option. They have jetpacks, which allow them to get up into places that other people can't. They should be able to take advantage of this by having a weapon that allows them to pick people off from a superior vantage point.

Not saying a full-on sniper rifle, but I would love to see an option for a precision rifle; high damage per shot but semi-auto only.

Play NC, cert into AC-X11 + HVA + BDS, spawn, equip weapon, hit the B key. Problem solved.

Ghoest9 · 2013-01-27, 12:30 AM

Originally Posted by BlaxicanX

LA needs a long-range combat option. They have jetpacks, which allow them to get up into places that other people can't. They should be able to take advantage of this by having a weapon that allows them to pick people off from a superior vantage point.

Not saying a full-on sniper rifle, but I would love to see an option for a precision rifle; high damage per shot but semi-auto only.

umm they are called slugs

Helwyr · 2013-01-27, 12:31 AM

Since SOE seem to have abandoned a real Infiltrator class, I'd say give LA Hacking and sniper/scout rifles and remove Infiltrator from the game. At least that way you'd have one decent class and people can stop being strung along that there's a real possibility of a return of a PS1 style Infiltrator.

Palerion · 2013-01-27, 07:14 AM

Originally Posted by Helwyr

Since SOE seem to have abandoned a real Infiltrator class, I'd say give LA Hacking and sniper/scout rifles and remove Infiltrator from the game. At least that way you'd have one decent class and people can stop being strung along that there's a real possibility of a return of a PS1 style Infiltrator.

There's already a discussion about class order.

That's not the topic of this thread.

We know the order may be a bit off; but combining the classes?

Far too drastic.

Mietz · 2013-01-27, 08:22 AM

LA's are getting dual wielding? What?

Gunzerkers with jetpacks?

Why don't we have sharks with lasers instead?

PS: Don't like the fast burst jetpack idea. Movement is key at this short TTK and having someone move fast and in 3 dimensions would make the LA very OP in close and medium range.
It sounds fun, don't get me wrong, but it feels like this is going to make LAs majorly hardcore to deal with if you prop up their survivability with movement this much.

Rothnang · 2013-01-27, 08:41 AM

I don't really get what they are getting at with the dual wielding. What is he dual wielding? Pistols? Ok, why not. Anything bigger though and it just has to be overpowered.

What I would like to see for the Light Assault would be an assault teleporter. It's a two-part deployable that you set up like an ammo pack. The first part goes on the ground somewhere and activates, then the second part can go on the ground somewhere within 30 meters of it, and establishes a one way teleport that your squad can use. This teleport only has 11 charges, or one full squad, once that many people have moved through it its power source is burned out and it disappears.
It would cost maybe 150 infantry resource to buy one of these, and you could only ever carry one.

The idea behind assault teleporters is that when you think about most classes you can point out how their specialty adds to the team. A Heavy adds anti vehicle firepower to a squad, a medic adds healing to a squad, an engineer adds ammo and repairs to a squad, an infiltrator adds hacking to a squad. The Light Assault however adds nothing to the squad. It's specialty is mobility, but it doesn't add mobility to the squad, it only adds mobility to itself. By giving it the assault teleporter it becomes a useful addition to a squad, because now it can use its superior mobility to create paths for the rest of its squad.

ShadetheDruid · 2013-01-27, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by Rothnang

The Light Assault however adds nothing to the squad. It's specialty is mobility, but it doesn't add mobility to the squad, it only adds mobility to itself.

Mobility that allows them to get in unexpected places, flank enemies, get on roofs to provide covering fire.. Seriously, where did this meme that LAs are useless to anyone but themselves come from?

When I play LA and we're assaulting or defending a base, I spend most of my time keeping the rooftops clear so the people on the ground don't get ambushed by other LAs and drop podders.