[Suggestion] Give the Light Assault more Firepower

Discussion in 'Light Assault' started by placeholder22, Aug 25, 2015.

  1. placeholder22

    So I think the Light assault is in a pretty weak position. Drifters are easily the strongest option, Icarus is still a bit too slow for my taste, and the biggest issue of Light Assaults is that they can't aim for **** while flying.

    Currently they're only good for fast (ghost) capping from aircraft, and as C4 fairies.

    It seems to be a core LA design concept to not give them any weapon with range. Similar to how Infiltrators have the core design concept not to have anything capable of damaging vehicles (I wouldn't mind giving Infils the archer though)

    So first, tighten the cone of fire while flying. There's no reason it should be bigger (or even as big) when floating than when sprinting. Sprinting involves a whole body movement, while Flying just has you suspended in a harness. This gives Light Assaults the capability to actually fire and kill stuff from the air. Right now they're the only thing that gets killed by Spitfire Turrets because while in the air, they simply cannot kill a spitfire turret. Not that Spitfire turrets shouldn't be made tougher in general, but seeing that LAs are the *only* thing they seem to kill, it is pretty obvious there's a problem with the LA.

    Second: Give them a heavy weapon. To be accurate, a china lake style pump-action grenade launcher. It would have 3-5 rounds depending on empire, shoot a (wildly inaccurate) 40mm Fury-style grenade with AOE, that compensates for the lack of firepower while mid-air. Give it Ammo options to fire flashbangs, smoke grenades, Super-Shotgun rounds, EMP grenades, specialized AV rounds with no splash and what else you can think of. All in all a much lighter & compact weapon than what the heavy is running, but through the pump action, being able to shoot 3-5 rounds in ~4-5 seconds (and then having to reload it round by round, similar to a pump action shotgun) and only few reserve rounds, it gives the LA a tremendous amount of burst firepower, and turning it into an ASSAULT class instead of the C4 Fairy class that dies to Spitfires.
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  2. Heelixs

    1. Yeah I remember being able to scope while flying and falling. Zooming while flying is a bit apsurd but scoping/smaller cof while flying would be nice.

    2. Something like tear gas launcher that police riot squad uses? Instead of tear gas it would be some kind of a grenade. Hmm...sounds nice. Could be fun.

    But that would be maybe a bit too much. Every class has its powers and weakness. It would be boring that any class can kill every other class/vehicle. Not depending on a players skill. I hope you get my point.
    I play la for a 2 years 96% of time and I find it strong enough. Not strong as heavy but thats why its called light assault. Can't say I would complain if scoping while jump jetting comes back :)
  3. Stroheim

    I usually like to use a move that I call "rain 'o pain" where I fly far above my opponent firing a volley of blasts, It mostly fails but it worked once or twice; otherwise I agree, make the light assault more offensive and dexterous.
  4. RideMyChicken

    I joined the game for a week now, and I have to say Light assault is the only class worth playing IMO. but... meh it's lacking firepower for sure. once you fly you die if there is someone around noticing you. if you get into a fight vs mostly anyone, you might die if they have seen you.

    your best chance is to fire first (even tough you wont do **** vs heavy). so yeah definitly a little aim + fire while flying would be beast.

    (sorry about my english, it's not my native language)
  5. BrbImAFK

    Go tell Iridar that LA is weak! :D LA is fine.
  6. Iridar51

    I kinda chuckle at "dies to spitfires", but I do think LA is missing some things. With the abundance of hard targets such as MAXes and vehicles, our arsenal of *just* C4 leaves us a bit limited.

    In their entirety, carbines are adequate, but SMGs and shotguns need adjustment to be more viable.

    I would very welcome if LAs had more accurate mid air fire. I like to believe that the original blanket nerf to accuracy while jumping and removal of mid air ADS was to discourage bunnyhopping in close quarters, for all classes.

    I proposed that dual wielded pistols would be a weapon balanced around accurate fire while flying on the jet pack, so they wouldn't affect the current weapon system too much, but I'd welcome a more broad change as well.

    They could also borrow the mechanic from Halo, where ADSing in mid air briefly stabilizes the player, so he slows down his movement, and is able to shoot with some degree of accuracy.

    I do believe that jet options or run mechanics are somewhat lacking. It feels really terrible to lose all flying momentum because you stumbled on a tiny pebble or be unable to blast away at rocket speed because there's a tiny bump in front of you.

    And finally, there's the eternal tool issue. I wish we too could do something cool by pressing [F], and that we too had something to use besides the 1-2-3 primary-sidearm-utility stuff. Without that, the class feels kinda underdeveloped.

    My current go-to idea for activatable tool/ability is the wallhacking heat vision goggles (with massive balancing, naturally).

    I think that with the new Sunderer meta, the problem of "LA dies where he can't be revived" is mostly solved.
  7. Steza

    Solstice SF (for the VS), Gauss Compact S (for the NC), TRAC-5 S (For the TR) can have a under barrel grenade launcher you can rearm via ammo packs and just fly and shoot them down at people. Maybe those will be to your liking?

    Also the jump jets are quite situational the Icarus goes straight up paired with a shotgun makes a great tower stomper.

    The Drifter is great to close the gap on the ground or bail out of a plane going down or just passing long distances from a up high position.

    The regular jump jets is just the all around jump jets not great at one thing but decent at multiple.

    Use them to your advantage and keep up in high and unexpected positions that is the class strength and you're guaranteed to get a few kills.
  8. placeholder22

    Especially for the Icarus, it would make sense to activate the jumpjets with F alternatively, as there is a small delay between jumping and Jumpjetting that makes Icarus just a tad to slow for my taste. Press F to Activate Jumpjet at the same time as jumping for a quicker velocity gain.

    Not a bad idea. The core issue of the LA is that once the other classes have shown up at the point, the LA is literally the weakest link. No support, little firepower. Strongest are Infils due to Motion Spotters, followed by Medics (ability to revive said Infil) followed by Engineers (Turrets) and Heavies (near-unkillable) who have the extra firepower in case a Max shows up. Giving the LA a motion spotter-like ability (your wallhack-glasses would work out that way) would kind of make the Infil redundant though.

    You mean "Sunderers everywhere, SPAM MORE SUNDERERS, Sunderersunderersunderersunderer"? I'd like this to be toned down.

    Obviously I'm familiar with the SF/UBGL guns. But they're more an Engineer thing IMO, who can just sit on his ammo pack. A ~60-RPM Pump action grenade launcher with 4 rounds and no extended mags would increase the firepower of the LA a great deal. Wildly inaccurate both in ADS and Hipfire, 3-4 LAs in the air at the same time could quickly lay down some massive suppressive fire, clear out a room, take out maxes and light vehicles. More kablooey is always fun, you know.
  9. Iridar51

    Never had this issue, I wonder if just quickly double tapping spacebar would solve it.

    Infiltrator spots for everyone, LA spots for himself. Infiltrator's motion detection is more about defense and counterattacking, wallhack goggles are about finding opportunities to attack.
    Sunderers supply the lifeblood of every battle, without hard spawns for attackers, there should be lots of sunderers, but even for defenders having a sunderer to spawn closer / at a batter position to the objective can make defending a breeze.
    Except for people who are getting kablooey-ed :)
  10. IronMouse

    LA lacks more mobility, not more firepower.
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  11. placeholder22

    I think that Sunderers are too cheap, too many of them get pulled, they're too weak and they're cert piñatas. I understand why the Sunderer was made this cheap, because few people want to pull one when mostly you're a cert piñata for everyone - but without Sunderers, attacks simply don't happen. The solution is to give Sunderers plain 50% more HP and slightly more armor, un-nerf Blockade armor (it's practically useless right now) and rework the armament slightly.

    Making a cert pinata cheaper just means more people get to farm the pinata. The correct solution would have been to make the Sunderer tougher and more survivable overall.

    Right now if an LA is caught mid-air - and even within the split seconds before landing on a window ledge or w/e, when he's caught by anybody with the slightest aim, the LA is toast. Killing an LA in mid-air is just sad, which is why LAs usually avoid flying under fire. Like the infiltrators cloak, the LAs special ability not only makes him unable to effectively fight back, but it also exposes him to more enemy fire!

    A lightweight, hipfire-capable grenade launcher might allow the LA to be a credible threat even in mid air, as it is perfect to be used from above. Also, damaging people around corners when assaulting the insides of a building, clearing turrets and mines, and not just be "the first guy on the point who then better redeploys into a real assault class" or "The statpadding guy who's picking off guys from the roof or ammo tower" which is sniper-infiltrator levels of uselessness.
  12. Eternaloptimist

    Probably because I just lack skill in this class I find running out of carbine ammo a long way from resupply is a major pain - or having to give up nano for an ammo belt. And the things I've seen when I haven't got a grenade left.........well.

    I also feel that LA is patently lacking a utility when the other classes all have one. But my lack of familiarity (as well as skill) leaves me with no ideas as to what it could/should be.

    If you look at roles, I always thought that LA was meant to be able to take and hold objectives for a short time or to interdict enemy forces trying to respond to an attack. Mostly though, I find they tend to pick off lone individuals or act as super grenadiers with C4.

    A bit more speed (as in Light Assault) a bit more resilience (enabling more 'stay and play' and less 'shoot and scoot') or a bit more self sufficiency (when ffar from home) would no doubt help the less experienced or skilled players stick with this class more than they seem to at present.
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  13. Iridar51

    Sunderers already have more health than MBTs, and blockade armor / deployment shield increases that even further for different purposes. For something that any player can pull at any time sunderers are already frighteningly survivable.

    Preaching to the choir on this one. I just don't think that no skill grenade launcher that an LA fires in the general direction of the enemy while flying is the right solution. It would just be lolpods 2.0 - another insufferably annoying ***** slap rage inducing explosive spam crap.
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  14. TechPriestess

    Would you be opposed to like giving LA an ability where they can do squad support actions? Like letting them fashion ziplines or rappel ropes from rooftops which can help position squads on rooftops and such? Or would that encroach too much on the classes own strength of being the sole person to be able to reach places?

    As to the wallhacking thing, all I can think of is some sort of 'tag' function where you can mark a single target (most likely MAXs and enemy vehicles) so you could track them through walls and such so you could maneuver around and precision take out single targets.
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  15. Iridar51

    That would encroach.

    And I don't want LA to be a glorified liftman, nor do I want the "one LA per squad for utility" thing, like infiltrators are currently. "We need an infil to place a motion spotter and then he can go die I don't care" mentality.

    It's not about marking, more about knowing what you're getting yourself into, knowing a precise layout of troops in a room you're about to bust in.
  16. TechPriestess


    I figured as much toward the first one.

    The second one does seem like a good idea, just trying to imagine how it could be worked in balance wise.

    All I can think of is some sort of heartbeat sensor, possibly similiar to how Rainbow Six: Siege was going about it? It was OP in that settling, but that was more because of no respawns/low player count.

    It could be workable here though, where you could bring up a screen and see the hearts of enemy units through walls but still would be mostly oblivious as to what the class make-up is as well as leave things like mines and spitfire turrets unmarked so there'd still be some fairly decent counters to it.
  17. Iridar51

    I don't know how it works in Siege, I was thinking about more some other free to play shooter, forgot its name.

    Press [F] to activate goggles for a few seconds. The ability doesn't have energy, but has cooldown of about 20+ seconds and only lasts for a few seconds, can be deactivated prematurely.

    While goggles are active, LA moves at run (not sprint) speed and can't use his weapon. After ability deactivates, there's a weapon equip delay before he can use the weapon (sort of like after quick knifing).

    With active goggles, LA can see enemies through walls within short range, around 30m.

    Not sure if LA should be allowed to spot enemies or be able to see cloaked things and deployables.

    If further balancing deemed necessary, the amount of information LA gets can be limited; don't show enemies in detail, just show some heat blobs or silhouettes.

    Not sure if goggles should somehow inform enemies that they have been seen.

    Example uses:
    • fly up on a building's roof, briefly activate goggles to quickly ***** the situation and find the best entry point and storm in.
    • check if anyone is around the corner
    That increases the "firepower" of LA without actually giving him more powerful weapons and increases the "assault" part of the class.
  18. FunBotan

    I've already suggested to add a second sidearm slot, so that 1 goes to Blackhand and another to something that actually is a sidearm.
  19. OldMaster80

    I would say more an infantry thermal vision, without cooldown. Definitely useful for a class that has access to smoke grenades.
  20. AlterEgo

    What the LA should be. Giving them increased speed would be epic, too; Light Assaults are the faster Assaults, and I think it would balance nicely with the massive health bonus the HA can have.
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