In Planetside 2, infantry is the only class that truly matters. Infantry is the only class that is able to capture points. Even with the introduction of the construction system, the role and importance of infantry has remained unchanged. Without a conquest-minded attitude, a faction will slowly be eaten away through attrition by the other factions. Factions that are able to capture more bases are able to build their bases closer to enemy warpgates, are able to connect to more warpgates, are able to capture more facilities and thus are able to generate more victory points than the others. Furthermore, factions that play aggressively can place their bases further up without having to expend additional resources to defend them. While a strong defense is a critical component of any offensive, the faction that wins is the one that is consistently able to take more bases than their opponents. Since capturing bases and securing territory is and always will be the main objective of PS2, the most critical non-renewable resource is time. It takes between 5-10 minutes to sprint from one base to the next and another 3-7 minutes holding the objective to capture the base. Given these numbers, one unaided and unopposed infantryman can capture a base about every 10-15 minutes. However, let's say 1 enemy infantryman meets him halfway and kills him. In doing so, he just saved 2-5 minutes of time; whether he advances forward or remains at his position, the enemy loses all that time expended with that death. Should he make it all the way to the capture point and die, the result is even worse; he loses far more travel time than the defense, which typically spawns anywhere between 30s-3min away. If the travel time is far enough away, the defending soldier could redeploy, capture a base, then come back and save the cap point, almost entirely negating the enemy's time expenditure (minus any time lost due to uncappable point at next enemy base) without wasting any of his own. And if you increase the number of repelled attackers to two, then the time efficiency of that defending soldier doubles; he loses nothing but his capability to attack and defend other bases, and nullifies at least twice the amount of enemy time expenditure for his own. Because capturing bases is the only true objective and time is the only resource, the most powerful tool in any arsenal is the sunderer AMS. The sunderer is able to spawn squad members while mobile or anyone while immobile and uncrewed. With exception to the aerial drop ability of galaxies and valkyries and the ability to place squad beacons (which is further limited in use by a spawn timer) in unconventional locations, the sunderer is by far the most exceptional vehicle in the game, and that does not even include it's capabilities as a weapons platform. A sunderer is able to cut almost the entirety of travel time between bases for hundreds of soldiers, providing a near unlimited projection of power and point defense. Given the 1v1 scenario described above, the inclusion of a sunderer provides HUGE time savings for the offensive soldier, to the extent of being able to give that soldier an edge so far as it holding the point goes. If the offensive sunderer is closer to the point than the defensive spawn and the better player is the one on offense, he will eventually win through attrition, provided he doesn't lose his spawn point if he dies. As such, the most important role for the defensive soldier is not to defend the point, but to act offensively and kill the enemy spawn. In a 1v1 scenario, unless the travel time and ttk of the offending sunderer (granted, sundies more distant from spawn are often more distant from the point) and infantryman is higher than the cap time, the defense can nullify the enemies time expenditure by destroying the enemy spawn and killing the enemy one time. If the time to clear the attackers is lower than the time they spent to set up and take the point, then the defending faction will at least stalemate the enemy, if not win through attrition by acting under higher efficiency. As you may have caught, the above points eventually disprove my initial statement: infantry is not the only class that matters, because infantry has very few capabilities to reduce travel time between bases and between spawns, and thus operate inefficiently without proper support. Without sunderers, it is impossible to mass an offensive beyond your squad/platoon capabilities and near impossible to set up a reliable forward spawn point. Without armor and air it is near impossible to deal substantial damage against locally more populated enemies to slow an offensive or to suppress defending forces for a more efficient point hold. That said, no amount of armor or air bombardment will capture a base. Though someone can hop out of their vehicle, flip a point, and then hop back in, unless they are able to truly suppress the capture point so nobody can enter, a single stalker infiltrator can theoretically destroy hundreds of minutes of the offenders time simply by flipping the point and increasing the cap time. Since it is difficult to completely shut down access to many capture points externally, having some infantry hold down the point is more efficient than having those infantrymen pull AI suppression vehicles. Efficiency in operation, and thus victory when given equal resources, is based on using the smallest amount of soldiers for the highest nullification of enemy time. Since offensive conquest increases the amount of contested ground the enemy has to cover, provides victory points and decreases enemy access to victory points, successful conquest is typically more efficient than a successful defense. Since infantry is the only class that can capture bases and travel time is typically the largest expenditure of time on the battlefield, actions that reduce travel time from spawn to cap point (and thus typically increase enemy spawn to cap time) for infantry are ultimately the most valuable. Since locking down territory to create a safe zone for spawns is the most valuable action, actions that destroy or negate the offensive action of enemy spawn points are the most valuable defensively. Ultimate victory is derived from knowing useful action and knowing how to lead the enemy into wasteful action. This is the basis of strategy.
Ok before I'm going to read it... I'm already assuming this is a troll attempt. Please hold while reading. Ok... So TL: DR Infantry are the most powerful because base capture is still the most important feature in getting HIVE's in good places and scoring points. Base capture happens by infantry so they are the most important. The amount of time destroyed when you kill an attacker compared to the time required to do so scores efficiency. The higher your efficiency the more likely your team is going to win, because you are sucking up more time from players than they are sucking from you, more time spend on you is less time spend on other attacks. To cut down on time spend running between bases and increase attacker efficiency, AMS Sunderers are critical, making them the most powerful vehicle/unit in the game. Because of the AMS the most important role for a defender is to destroy Sunderers rather than defend points. Vehicles still have some importance when capturing, but mostly as extra firepower in hopes of preventing enemies from recapturing points. Reducing or increasing travel time is a main ingredient for winning.
We had this down pat twelve years ago. VAS (use: v-a-s). VAR (use: v-a-r). Edit: also, if you really needed it, VAV (use: v-a-v).
