Played LA For 2 Hours: Already Know Why It's Unpopular

Discussion in 'Light Assault' started by Alarox, May 13, 2013.

  1. janerowdy

    The Light Assault is amazing at breaking enemy defenses. You can maneuver to attack, harass, or just distract the entrenched enemy, eventually causing enough commotion that the rest of your team can advance.
  2. VogonPoetMaster

    It's a very situational class, and is not meant to be lone wolfish like the infiltrator, although on some bases you can get away with it. I find it's hard to 'main' LA precisely because he's not useful 100% of the time, unlike HA, medics or engineers. But given the right scenario and battle configuration, no class other than the infiltrator can do what he can.
  3. Wolfwood82

    Just remember, those situations where your side is falling back and you have no idea why? It's because your side didn't field enough LA to control the rooftops.

    Elevation is everything in combat. I've seen the ebb and flow of combat revolve completely around control of the rooftops. That isn't something many HA can say about their favorite rocket-spam locations.
  4. Morti

    I disagree OP.

    Nothing says "WTF" like a LA on a turbo flash launching yourself into a tank zerg and single-handedly removing a MBT from the battle.

    Honestly doing stuff like that has been the most fun I've ever had in planetside 2.
  5. lilleAllan

    LOL one of the most worthless OPs I've read here yet.

    "Guy fails and concludes that LA's suck. Discuss."

    LAs are essential for breaking chokepoints, scouting and flanking enemy positions. Add to that the capacity to easily instakill most vehicles and maxes from above. It's also basically one of the best classes for going on kill streaks, and I don't even use shotguns.
  6. Hagestol


    And then what? Nothing I cant do with a lancer, free of resource cost and a death. Those situations are fun, but they don't happen often enough to warrant playing LA as a "main".

    You should read his post before concluding. Almost everything you wrote here is wrong. This guy played LA for a few hours and offered his insights. He also got a great KDR with it.
    Insights of new players are important as it can explain why so few play this class. And LAs arent essensial for anything but covering roofs really, a good squad of HA and medics can do the same thing, consistently and not have to run every time they die.
  7. lilleAllan

    I did read it, and it was fail.

    He thinks the class is only useful in infantry combat.

    Which of course is sort of dumb, since LA by far is the easiest class to place c4 with. Meaning they are among the best classes for taking out single vehicles. If they are at a distance, drop out off an ESF.

    Light Assaults are absolutely instrumental in assaults on certain facilities, like towers, biolabs etc. Try assaulting a well defended tower up the stairs as HA's/Medics only. You will do far better with LAs flanking their positions meanwhile.

    Want to assault a cappoint? Odds are you will want a LA to go through the first floor windows or down the stairs from the roof while you step on a mine going in the ground level door.
  8. Morti

    Choosing a "main" in planetside 2 altogether is a bad idea. I play whatever suits the situation and would provide the largest asset to my team. NC don't have a sniper RPG, but even if we did, a smart MBT knows when to retreat for repairs. The resource cost has never really been a huge issue for me either. I'm usually sitting on 750/750 because I don't tend to bother with grenades/AP/ATmines. Run out of resources? Go use something else for a while.

    As for dying. What are you so afraid of?

    Also you would be surprised at how oblivious some people are simply because they're part of a zerg.
  9. Hagestol

    You really think a LA with shotgun is more powerful than a slew of HA with shotguns and hip attached medics? LA might be good for sprees, but for tactical teamplay a well balanced squad will outplay LAs every time.

    As for placement of C4 - some math on the cost of ESF + 2 c4. Now imagine a tank column and that they'll have bursters out around ten seconds after the first tank is hit. You'll get one tank with one guy, sure. Won't matter. You might get two-three tanks with two three suicides, sure. You won't get 20-30 tanks with 20-30 LA. No chance.

    However, 20-30 HA will decimate the tanks. So from utility/platoon perspective the C4 solution is quite bad outside of assaulting single sunderers - which is no longer an opinion.



    You can play HA, Medic and Engi as "mains" without issue. Why shouldn't our aim be equal utility to said classes?
    As for the use something else argument - when have you ever stopped doing core gameplay on aformentioned classes because of lack of resources? Never? Thought not. You can't claim LA utility is superior and then say go play something else when resources run out. Doesn't work.
  10. lilleAllan

    No, I don't think a single LA with a shotgun is more powerful than a slew of HA and medics with shotguns.
    Considering I never said or even hinted at that and hate shotguns, it is quite the odd strawman.
    But I do think that having a few of those HAs spawn as LAs will grant you a serious tactical advantage in a lot of faculty/tower pushes. LAs can flank and disrupt the zerg meatgrinders - like stairs leading up to the first level of towers. The concept is to have a tactical composition of troops and for me, LA is often a part of the composition since their jetpack lets them flank or come up behind enemy positions or supply lines.

    As for the HA tank scenario, that's another strawman.
  11. Chemicalnurd

    When I'm playing with my friends (We often have a small squad, only like 4-5 people, nothing huge) I sometimes like to go light assault as it's a very good class for a squad leader. The ability to get up high makes it easy to have a clear view on the situation, which helps me guide my friends and help stop them getting flanked. It also lets you find hard to reach places to put squad beacons down.
    The potential for creativity you get with the jetpack is awesome, too. Using an SMG or semi automatic shotgun and the jetpack has allowed me to defend points singlehandedly (only against a steady trickle of enemies though, I'm not that good.) until help can arrive. It gives you a lot of survivability compared to the other classes - maybe you're less likely to survive a single fight if you don't get the drop on whoever you're attacking, but if you do manage it consistently you seem to be much more likely to survive throughout several fights.
    • Up x 1
  12. WookLordz

    Once you get a taste of flight, other classes just seem a bit pedestrian, no?
    • Up x 3
  13. WookLordz

    You're overlooking the enormously useful squad utility of being able to scout the battlefield from rooftops, and place squad beacons in hard to reach places.

    One of the big reasons that it is unpopular, is a lot of people just like stuff that's familiar. The HA/engineer, etc, is immediately familiar, comforting, and accessible to the CoD or BF crowd. The jetpack is too "out there" for some people to handle.
  14. HeadshotVictim

    I played LA for something like 270 hours (?).
    I think I played enough to have an opinion, I guess.

    And I still miss something teamplayish. Medics can heal, Engis repair and give out ammo and have a tool against vehicles/infantry, HA can stop a rolling zerg (not alone for sure, but as mentioned before 20 HA will slow a tnak zerg, 20 LA will be shot down.)

    Only LA and Infi lack some kind of teamplay ability (Infi got more due to recon dart and ahcking ability).
    What would be really nice would be a tool like an underbarre flashbang launcher only available to LA.
    Or the possibility to carry more than one flash bang at a time (without bandolier).
    Since flashbangs are the ONLY thing LA can, that no other class can do.

    Sure LA can fly. But what for?
    Shooting an Engi? What stops an Infi to do the same from 200m away? Or a massive Phoenix spam?
    C4 vehicles? You can ask engis and HA as well to do that... from 200m away without inf resources cost.
    Kill people? well shooting while flying is not really possible because of bloom. most infantry combat is done on ground anyway...

    it is a fun class, no question, but there are better classes in outfit operations
  15. Posse

    Again, squad beacon solves (except in Bio Labs) :D
  16. ghnurbles

    The problem LA has at the moment is that their utility is completely terrain-dependent: their jetpacks provide mobility if you're around buildings and hilly terrain, but if you're in a relatively flat area they do next to nothing.

    I feel like the best way to give LA more utility is to give them a jet-pack variant for flat terrain - one that makes quick horizontal jumps.
  17. Hagestol


    Scouting can be done by aircrafts in platoons, they are much more suited for the job. Use and throw away ESFs are better for planting beacons.

    As for familiar - that would explain the lower played, but not lower score. So it doesn't really explain it.
  18. Posse

    Not really, depends of the situation, if you want to plant a beacon on top of a spire you can't do it with ESFs. LAs is definitely the best class for squad leading because of that, and also the best class to destroy beacons.
  19. Hosp

    While I agree that LA needs some sort of Utility, I completely disagree with the notion that it's only useful in Infantry combat and has very little it can do. Your style may not lend to its utility, I use it quite effectively with my outfit. (we don't run many LAs). It's not even an L2P issue, it's an issue of how you prefer to play and how the people you play with can be best augmented with an LA.
  20. WookLordz

    But maybe you arent running any air in your platoon? But the main thing that makes them a better scout than air, is the ability to quickly chase down and eliminate lone threats before they get to the rest of your squad. Lower score, who knows?