Ok, so we all know the LA needs a little love, how about some realistic buff suggestions? It's really hard to think of something that really emphasis the "light assault" - the troops that go in first, or sacrifice armour for mobility. There's been a ton of suggestions, so here's my 0.02$... scout rifles; fits with the theme of light assault; a little height and a scout rifle could be a very naughty combination.. adrenaline boost as a toggle-able ability. switch jump-jets to drifters with F: 'travel mode' for jetpacks; no timer, no cooldown, weapons must be holstered, increased speed and reduced turning circle. how about a really extreme form of adrenaline boost, like ZOE?; extra damage/run speed/reload speed at the tradeoff of lowered damage resistance, or a health DoT. This would really emphasise the 'light assault' aspect of the class... dual wield, but only for pistols - retains pistol run-speeds. (and probably only faction-specific pistols!). Pop-up forcefield deployable (like the mana AI turret, but without the gun) - really adds to the "beach-head" aspect of the class, as the initial invasion force, adds team utility.. pocket grenade launcher- only fires smoke/concussion/flash or a very weak variant of frag (could be abusable, en-mass?) Faction-specific, scoped pistols. scuba gear night-vision goggles (toggle with F
Dual wield even with pistols would be imbalanced, even the lowest DPS pistol would be on par with ZOE or Anchored MAX when paired. If dual wield is to implement, it would require a brand new type of paired weapons. Scout rifles are bordering from bad to "OMG I want my certs/SC back", so why not. All deployables of tech nature belong with engineer. We already have a launcher of frag/smoke grenades under barrel, and separate flash and smoke grenades, why would we need a tool to do what we already can do? Scoped pistols - sure, why not, but not really LA-themed. Infiltrators use their sidearms the most. I really wish people would stop munching over what could be done to LA, when there's no indication whatsoever that anything will be done to LA by devs in any foreseeable future. They're doing optimization now, will probably screw something in the process and will be finished by the end of november, if we're lucky. Then they will push infiltrator and ESF updates, along with Hossin and battle islands. This will also probably take them a couple of months. When the devs will need our feedback they will call. No use bothering until then.
They might also just stay low if the impression that the current situation is "fine" is constantly recited on these forums.
You don't want scout rifles, they're already downgraded carbines so LAs would just get something that's worse than what they already have. Otherwise, speed and mobility are the suggestions I like. Faster forward running speed, .75x ads movespeed on all carbines, little things like that to give them a better niche as a more run and gun style of class that relies on speed instead of extra health to survive.
What light assaults need is a tool that fits the class (a net-gun that traps an enemy would be perfect), as well as better mobility such as faster jetpacks and more levels of adrenaline pumps.
I agree that the LA's role as a *Light* Assault should be emphasised through enhanced mobility. Something like a small flat boost to movement/sprint speed or a toggleable adrenaline pump 'F power' with a cooldown (only effecting spring speed, so it doesn't lead to ridiculous strafing ability etc). I personally agree that all carbines should have a 0.75 (or maybe even just 0.7/0.65) ADS movement speed, to emphasise them as a indoor/urban combat-specialised rifle variant, as opposed to just a gimped AR. However since the Jaguar and Lynx have this as a unique feature currently, this might be a bit unfair on the TR. Carrying two primaries would be nice, but I can see how that would get a bit ridiculous, as literally every LA would end up carrying a shotgun indoors again, without having to sacrifice mid-range effectiveness outdoors. As it is, switching weapon loadouts isn't a huge issue anyway. As for a utility -> maybe some sort of callout/debuff thing (for enemy MAXes and tanks) to have a bit more team synergy than just being a C4 fairy or tower shotgun *****, but that would probably fit more with the infiltrator role. I do like the idea of having a 'climbing/travel mode' on jetpacks with a larger fuel reserve or the ability to switch to drifters in the field, because its often a pain trying to climb a clifff, and having to stop precariously on the cliffside so frequently to recharge the jetpack. However, this would definitely have to be balanced by a) having a cooldown before C4 is usable again, and b) being deactivated by being shot at, as well as losing all fuel upon unsheathing a weapon. This would mean that upon climbing and taking out a camper/sunderer etc using this feature, the LA can't just fly off again straight away. In the end though, Iridar's right - there's really no point discussing this until the Devs are ready for our feedback.
I think that light assaults are fine for the most part. They can´t have another tool because they have to be light to use the jetpacks properly (according to logic). What i could think of is : - Adrenaline Pump as a passive system ( You don´t have to give up a suit slot for it; it bothers me, that someone with a Light Machine Gun, Pistol, Rocket Launcher and his heavy armor including the overshield can run, just as fast as someone limited to a Carbine and Pistol) - Second Utility slot to carry medical kits and C4 to emphazise the role of the light assault generally being a lone wolf - Spawn Beacons only for LAs ; What normally happens in a squad is, if the spawn beacon is destroyed you just make someone else the leader and it´s deployed again instantly. Making it LA only lets people think about the use of a spawn beacon and gives incentive to have more LAs
I'm no against changes to LA but I think most of the class is ok. After all they're light soldiers: their main task is fighting but unlike HA they trade armor for better mobility. Some comments I could make: - Adrenaline Pump as a toggleable skill: makes sense. After all HA can have their special shield without giving up their Suite Slot. - As LA have carbines there's no need to give them Scout Rifles. They're basically like "minor carbines", they would be hardly useful for LA, imho. - Jump-jets swithing would imho be too much, then everyone would ask for switchable skills. SOE should instead try to understand why Drifters are still so under-used and try to improve them. - Travel mode: it could be interesting, but it should be designed very well to prevent abuse. - ZOE-like skill: ZOE is the most hated skill in the game and many still think it should be changed. Do you really want to extend it to another class? - Deployable force-field: sorry but during beta this was in the Engineer Certification Panel. I believe that's more Engineer stuff actually, a deployable barrier sounds more like a support tool. - Dual wield: this could be nice if Pistols weren't so freaking powerful. What's the point of this change? To give LA a superior damage at close quarter? Because that's the shotgun's job and they're already in your arsenal. I'm afraid dual guns would just look cool but they wouldn't add much to the class. - Night vision: most of weapons can have NV as attachment, everyone can use it. But the problem is the night is too freaking bright and SOE doesn't listen to the community that has been asking for a change for months. If night were darker then LA could take advantage of jetpacks, and they could have a new Suite Slot for a heat dissipator making them less visible at night.
They should add a short duration jump jet that act more like the one we can see in titanfall : jump jet that is more like a double jump on steroid and allow fast action around building and so on, and not like a fat *** jump jet like the one actually
Adrenaline Pump - Increases sprint speed by 20% and walk speed by 25%. Viable for suit slot, in my opinion. Thumper - Six round grenade launcher that can equip frag, EMP, decoy, smoke, anti-tank, and flashbang grenades. All grenades have 50% the effectiveness as the standard ones. Most are modified to detonate on impact. Uses tool slot.
I would prefer adrenaline pump to have levels, with the maximum level featuring 50% more sprint speed, 25% more walk speed, and a jump height boost of 50%. As for the thumper and other stand-alone grenade launchers, combining them with the light assault class would be so overpowered it should not even be considered. Medics stand to benefit more from grenade launchers.
Yeah, that makes more sense. However, 50% sprint speed would be insanely fast. 30% at max level would be okay, IMO. You may be right there. I think it'd be cool to see on LA, though. If it was that OP, they could just nerf it to hell as they do with everything else.
Special grenades are one of the things that makes every class feel "unique", honestly I wouldn't see LA throwing every kind of grenade of the game.
I'm all for buffing Adrenaline Pump. It does something currently, but does not have as much benefit as say, grenade belts or nanoweave
light assaults should be able to hold onto air craft, they should be able to fly longer distances leaping from galaxy to galaxy as seen in the promo video. they should be able to deploy off friendly gals and land on enemy gals to plant c-4. let the epic light assault footage roll in!
You can do that ingame already. See? It's just crazy hard to do and requires 3 light assaults - It takes 4 / 5 C4 to blow up a gal.
This ^ If nothing else, It'd be really good to not have to choose between long-term survivability (medikits) and a useful utility (C4). The LA is currently the only class (apart from the infiltrator, which doesn't really count) which has to choose between the ability to damage vehicles, and heal themselves in a pinch. This doesn't make sense as the LA is often behind enemy lines, unable to easily access medics etc. Only issue is that this (esp. along with grenade bandolier) would cause the LA to chew through resources like no tomorrow.
