[noxious]

After reading the description and the replies in this thread, here are my brief thoughts;

Giving the class both AV and AI abilities is necessary, I think.

The lighter classes all have specific roles; intelligence gathering, long range damage projection, high mobility, heals, deployables, etc.

Then there's the heavier class, the MAX, that does just one thing (AA, AV, or AI, assuming they're like PS1 MAXes) but it performs that single role better than any other infantry unit.

Finally, you have the heavy assault. Like the MAX, it is designed expressly for death and destruction, but it trades exceptional performance in one area for flexibility; the heavy assault is a jack of all [damage dealing] trades, master of none. What the class gains in flexibility for dealing with immediate threats it loses in ability to maximize damage output to specific target types and further, cannot perform at all any of the variety of support roles that the lighter classes perform.