Would we have less grenade spam? Or should it be changed to have less lethal grenades & more non-lethal grenades?
Who's even using grenade bandolier for lethal grenades? A small handful of engineers with stickies maybe. Probably a seperate loadout for situations where they're particularly good, and even then I doubt many go through the effort and spend the certs. Wasting your suit slot on bando for regular frags seems super dumb. Medics use it a lot, but only for revive grenades. Infils are only going to use it for nonlethal EMPs, and even I'd guess that most of them don't use it at all, especially since the majority of infils seem to be snipers. This seems like a complete non-issue.
It's a specialist loadout; one trick, no mix-match, no extra defenses. You don't take it unless you plan to throw lots of grenades. Some people may have a loadout tailored for a lot of grenade throwing but probably don't constantly pull it out. I doubt other players will notice each other not having that many grenades at the same time. There's more than enough people in any fight that either too many grenades are used or you encounter few grenades.
Personally I think only Light Assaults should be able to cert it to level 3, while other classes only get level 1. Aside from Light Assaults being best suited to get above a huge mass of enemies and let loose with frags, heavies use it with AV grenades to wreck MAX crashes, infils with EMP grenade bandolieres are great for squad support. Engies with stickies are a pain, but hopefully that gets nerfed. I can see why solo players wouldn't want to pick it over alternatives like Nanoweave or ASC, those are definitely more attractive options for a primary loadout.
I think 'nade bandolier and ammo belt should be removed from all classes, then made passive on each class. Cap them out at two ranks each (250/500 for ammo, 750/1,500 for 'nades), or maybe just a single rank for 'nades. Also reduce all weapons ammo pools by one clip for balance.
I took a look at my last 100 deaths on my TR main. Seven were grenades. Three for my Connery Vanu. Seven again on my NC, even though I had a fight at Subterranean Nanite Analysis where grenades fly free. And three for my Emerald Vanu. 5% deaths by grenades. I can't say I'm impressed by the power of grenades in this game right now.
Only time I personally use Grenade Bandolier is with specialty grenades, Concussion, Revive, and Flash Bangs. Rarely with anything else as it turns into a resource drain that isn't worth the cost to kill ratio.
I get a good number of kills with my one grenade. My one grenade is special to me. I throw my one grenade right before I die to maybe snag a kill. I bounce my one grenade off of door frames to clear people standing near them away. I love my one grenade and my one grenade loves me.
There was a certain irony that the Grenade Bandoliers made themselves less useful. After the August 4 resource revamp, infantry use of grenades went super crazy. So naturally people were investing into the Grenade Bandolier to get in on the explosive fun. Then because of all the explosives, many started switching out to Flak Armor instead. It was almost a necessity if you were defending a point because there would be the inevitable spamming of grenades into the room. Standing instructions in my outfit were to equip Flak Armor when on the defensive, and I even had to give up Grenade Bandolier for my Medic because I wasn't surviving long enough to throw out all the Rezz 'Nades. Since Flak Armor occupies the same slot as Grenade Bandolier, this in effect helped to reduce the amount of grenades flying around.
A player with with bandolier is not using nanoweave. You throw your grenades, maybe get a few kills. Now what? You are left with no suit slot until you rearm. Grenade "spam" can be avoided. I would rather fight a bunch of people with bandolier than nanoweave.
Some nades are weak and should be buffed based on class imo. LA's should get two of their specialty grenades without bandolier (smoke, flashbang) and even more with bandolier. I would have argued for decoy nade too but that's removed, rip.
I only ever run grenade bandos on my engineer when stickies will be a good idea (pushing a crowded point room, bio rab SCUs, SNA, ETC) and on my non sniper infiltrator loadouts. On everything else its generally not fantastic. Heavy assaults, generally, for their playstyle need more defense so id say most go nanoweave or ASC, LAs id say mostly run nano, ASC, or ammo belts because flashbangs, while decent at times, are highly situational. ive never been in a situation where a flashbang helped me more than a frag because of its low radius (buff pls) and smoke nades are really just annoying for me since i dont run HSNV really ever, and im sure most of the playerbase is in that same boat as its the sight i see the least. Medics also run it for revive nades (obviously) but those arent lethal. In general, there will almost always be a better suit option athan nade bandos unless youre trying to aurax your frags or know youll be hucking nades everywhere (as was said above, situations include CQC infil******** EMP spamming crutch assaults, sticky farming, and medic reviving rooms)
Always run it on medic. Res Grenades are just stupid powerful. Sometimes with Engineer. Sticky 'nades are useful things. Sometimes with Infiltrator when using Automatic/semi-automatic scout/sniper rifles. Good evening the odds versus HAs but even then I stick to ASC 90% of the time. Sometimes with HA, using AV 'nades, when NC decide to bunch up in a small room with MAXes.
The game would change very little. Same as if you removed all unpopular weapons, ALL suit slots, all weapon variants (nobody needs 3 BASR or 2 SASR to choose from), ALL cosmetics, and many other things. It would just remove options for those who are looking for them. Why make the game less?
