Sick of Light Assaults.

So I've been playing this game for almost a year now, and there have been a lot of frustrating parts about the game. However, at this point, by far the most frustrating thing about PS2 for me is how ridiculous Light Assaults are as a class. They have extreme mobility which lets them get to places far outside the field of combat, which lets them flank far, far more effectively than an Infiltrator ever could. This means a shotgun or C4 to the back 9 times out of 10.

To elaborate: Everyone knows that Infiltrators have cloaking which makes them rather hard to see, but anyone who has played for a while knows just how easy it is to see and hear cloaked Infils. Furthermore, they only have 900 total HP, have to decloak before doing anything, and can't equip shotguns. They make up for this by having a motion detector utility slot (which is very exploitable, but let's leave that talk for later). Overall, they feel like a fairly balanced, if tricky to use class.

Now I'm not saying LAs don't take skill to play; they certainly do and I understand that from the time I've played as Light Assault. However their ability to ignore base design and get on roofs and strange places makes them much more lethal to skilled players than any direct combat class. It's hard to keep track of things in a large fight, but there is generally a set of rules that all players go by. If you need to get to this capture point, you need to go through this door, etc. There is a flow to combat. Light Assaults completely break this flow, and this results in getting shot, or more often C4'd, in ways that are impossible to predict or counter.

I want to keep this a constructive thread, so I'm not going to suggest removing LAs or nerfing shotguns into the ground. However, here are some of my ideas on how to address them:

•Make jetpacks louder and more distinct, similar to Infiltrator cloaks. This gives them counter-play from aware players, and not just the hard counter of dart spam.

•Change C4 so that it can only be placed (or dropped) instead of thrown. This prevents cheesy kills from the safety of a roof or window.

•Give Light Assaults a utility gadget that gives them more of a role in teamplay. I think a deployable radar jammer would be a good fit, and it would serve as a counter to the often-spammed recon darts. Of course, the radius could be traced back to the LA who placed it. Someone else had the idea of a spotter scope, which has a high level of zoom and spots targets for an extended period of time, and shows information about targets. More ideas are welcome.

•Make shotguns more skill-indexed by tightening their spread and reducing fire rate and possibly damage in some combination. This would make them more usable and less of a "close range gank" weapon type.

Let me know what you think about my suggestions, do you love them, hate them, why? Do you have any other ideas you'd like to share?

jetpacks are already super loud, if you still can't notice a light assault how about... this may Sound outrageous, but please consider it... you look around and shot them when you see them?
My biggest enemy while on a Roof is not air or other Light Assaults. It's that one guy out of 50 who Looks up, sees me and shots me. If that guy can, so can you.
It's just a L2P issue

Please... Stop it

Use headphones. You'll be able to hear them just fine.

Situational awareness - use it. A radar jammer would be pretty cool though. I always thought it would be cool to have some sort of utility which would generate signatures on the mini-map, like decoys (Think RUSE here).

I admit, I usually use speakers instead of headphones because of comfort, but I can hear infiltrators just fine on my speakers. Light Assaults on the other hand are almost literally silent. Even with headphones, the only times I can honestly say I've heard jetpacks in time were in practically empty bases with one rogue LA. In any larger fight, they're utterly drowned out in the audio mix.

I believe what you need is to be more aware of what is going on around you

The light assault is currently the weakest class at the moment. It can't assault in masses and outgun enemies like heavy, it can't recon as an infiltrator, can't support other classes like a medic or engi. Yes, lights can ambush enemy from above, but seriously, with any other class you can do greater thing on the battlefield.

Light assaults are actually very slow and can be shot out of the air like target practice. The game also has a tool to help people who don't know how to find the enemy, called audio spotting, motion sensors, etc, these tools generally cause light assaults to be shot off roofs quickly.

If anything, the class should be exempt from nerfs, and in fact, given a slight jetpack acceleration boost and fuel.

I would like LAs to have access to LAW type rocket launchers. Then they would have a role outside suicide bomber.

Also LAs are no longer the fast movers. every class can put Adrenaline pump on now I believe.

To be clear, I don't want to leave Light Assaults worse off compared to where they are now. But I think that by giving them more counter-play and support roles, they'll be both more fun to play and fight against.

So far I see...

Complaints about Infiltrators and their cloak.
Complaints about Heavies and their shields.
Complaints about Engineers and their turrets.
Complaints about Medics and their Revives.
Complaints about MAXes because of their killing power
and now...
Complaints about Lights and their mobility.

Looks like SOE balanced the classes to me. If everyone is complaining about the others, then its balanced. If there's complaints, that means they're effective. If there is complaints about everything, then everything is working. If everything is working, then we have balance.

I think it's the C4, not the LA.

Is it me, or this sounds like someone who has never ever played LA?

Want utility? pick medic/engi
Want "I win button"? Play HA
Want a rogue or sniper? play inflitrator
Want mobility? pick LA

I like that idea!

If you think playing against LAs is frustrating, try playing as LA. You pretty much only get cheap flanking kills or cheap tree camping kills. Removing the former just leaves us with another camping class alongside infiltrators.

Also, if you're going to nerf shotguns, then give us jumping ADS back -- we need a weapon to use while our ability is active...

No, most of them make up for it by spamming SMG everywhere.
...even in longer range fights b/c a couple of them are almost as good at midrange as the scout rifles are


I'm strongly in favor of better Quality of life for infiltrator, it's all I ever think about. I have strong disdain for the over-use of C4 in infantry fights and won't be happy till it's fixed with better visability or a longer Arming time. But I can't reasonably propose either of those things until SMG's see a major nerfing in this game and are brought down to the level of what most people consider the lowest-performing Terran Republic SMG's (I forgot their names)

That's absolutely true, and I felt driven to post this after getting C4'd maybe 10 times yesterday while defending a base. But the C4 itself wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem if the class who uses it most wasn't able to fly. And it's really not just C4, LAs kill me when no other class can even see me. The only real skilled counterplay is being hyper-aware of LAs at all times, which leaves you vulnerable to every conventional class.

As an avid Light Assault player, let me assure you: these changes wouldn't have the effect you want.

On the topic of jetpacks, they actually were much louder before, and even made a distinctive boom sound every time they activated. It made Light Assault almost impossible to play, since the class lives and dies by its ability to catch targets off guard. Aware players already can easily spot a Light Assault, and most veterans will keep an eye on the rooftops for precisely this reason. The best thing you can do here is actually play Light Assault more. The class trains you to think in three dimensions, and an hour or two fighting as one will help you identify ambush spots.

C4 changes are a threat unto themselves, so I'm not touching that one. Simply put, C4 has been nerfed into near total uselessness. Keep an eye on your surroundings and you'll avoid it nine times out of ten.

As for some team utility, we Light Assaults have been begging for that since release. While I like the idea, I'm wondering how you think buffing Light Assaults will make us less powerful.

Lastly, shotguns. You do not want to give us more accurate shotguns. Trust me when I say that extending our range, even for a damage loss, with a high-damage weapon is not a good idea. There's already one shotgun like that in game: it's called the Jackhammer, and if you haven't learned to hate it yet, you soon will.

All in all, the best counter to Light Assaults is experience. A good Light Assault can slaughter a mob of new players with a little careful planning (and no small amount of luck), but a single alert individual is all it takes to ruin our day. Our jetpacks are actually fairly easy to hear once you learn to pick out the sounds from the noise of a fight, and you'll soon learn that a flying Light Assault is easy prey - hence our common nickname, "clay pigeons." Fighting us is one of those things that gets easier as time goes on.

Anyway, I'm sure Iridar will be along shortly to explain this in far greater detail, so I'll cut this off here. In short, just stay mobile and keep an eye on your surroundings. We can only surprise you if you let us. Happy hunting.

I dislike LAs. I get what they bring to the table and I am not bitter enough to not use them when I find the situation right. But I just find them cheesy. They are not recon. They are a nuisance. They are that little bastard that ruins your perfect killstreak by being an ungodly *****.

Working as intended. That's their utility: being annoying.

I do hate their C4 though. The only thing more nastier then this would be if infiltrators had it. The fear and paranoia that would follow if infiltrators had C4s... sweet merciful hhhesus.