I've noticed that every lane's (high traffics, predictable movements) front line has about 20% LA players. These people look just like most players, standing in a decent position, shooting at enemies, trying to push forward or hold a position. However they are using the LIGHT ASSAULT class, which can do precisely NOTHING more than shoot in those situations. The carbine is inferior to every other weapon in lane combat, and there are no support tools in the LA inventory to justify even being close to allies for extended periods of time. Want to use your favorite carbine? Switch to engineer and have infinite ammo. I'm willing to bet that these players could make at least 100% more experience just by switching to engineer and supporting MAXs and heavies. An engineer doesn't even need to shoot at enemies, just using both the resupply boxes and repair tool will grant tons of experience. If they absolutely must be shooting, then they should go out and play LA properly. Want to kill stuff without supporting anyone? Switch to heavy and have more firepower, accuracy, defence and AV tools. If every LA player switched to heavy, MAX crashes and HE Lightings would be dead on sight. The heavy has superior firepower compared to the LA in EVERY area, and beats out the medic in a few as well. More LMGs = more bullets = good. Even if the player is bad, there's very little room for error in the HA class. Nothing they do can be 'wrong' since it all involves hurting the enemy. Bad engineers piss everyone off, bad medics piss good medics off, and bad infiltrators are just funny. Speaking of bad players on the front lines, MANA turrets placed in the WORST possible places. They block everyone's retreat route, or even worse, their line of fire coincides precisely with everyone else's retreat route. It's just mind boggling.
I love my LA, but I've taken to just ****** face in direct combat situations in a Max with dual Hacksaws. nom nom LA could definitely use some team utility, but I wouldn't knock the carbines.
Flash grenades is my excuse. I'm still kinda borderline about them, but I'm starting to come down off the fence in favor after getting more time playing with them. An organized offensive line in lane combat breaks down hilariously quickly when they're suddenly all blind due their monitor suddenly turning into OH GOD MY EYES WHY DO I PLAY IN A DARK ROOM AGAIN. The total lack of a warning indicator on the grenade to let people know they should move makes it staggeringly effective if you can lob it into the right spot. Smoke grenades too if for some reason you haven't bought the underbarrel smoke launcher for another class, although it's not as effective due to doing almost nothing on low rendering.
The point of the LA is to always be where no one expects you to be. If you're sitting in a lane you are doing it wrong, because that's exactly where the enemy expects you to be. To some extent you're even expected to not follow the squad/platoon leaders orders when you play LA. Is your squad ordered to get point A? Don't go there. Go around the flanks instead and get up on the roofs to act as a general nuiscance and distraction to the defenders, so your squad mates won't have to push through a fully organized defensive line. Let the rest of the squad get and hold the point, while you're spotting and distracting the enemies that try to recapture it.
By the tone of my post it's kind of a given that these players don't even have them or use them to any sort of tactical advantage. Even if they are using them, there's very little those grenades can accomplish without coordination. As a front line medic or heavy, I shouldn't be seeing many light assaults by my side, but I do. The LA play style is most concisely described by the motto "Give me mobility or give me death." These players often don't move more than 10 metres if there's a stalemate going on, which is throwing away the LA's greatest asset. I'm not flabbergasted about the decent LA players who try to be useful, just those that do the same things as a HA but worse. I wish all BR<20 LA players would read this post.
