Scoundrel progression feels bad.
Okay, let me preface this post by saying this is mostly just my opinion. While there are some facts in terms of numbers (DPS while bashing, squishyness, etc), those can be tweaked fairly easily without any major overhauls.
Scoundrel progression feels bad. I'm not sure how many of you opted for the lesson packages, but playing a Scoundrel without them doesn't feel fun. Numbers aside, I don't feel any more effective at level 15 than I did at level 4. I have played a few of the other classes in the game, and I get a sense of clear progression from them. BEAST in particular feels great early game, even without a lesson package.
To start, the whole cover mechanic feels like a complete waste of time. I get the idea of a Han Solo character hiding around corners and blasting bad guys. But mechanically it just doesn't work in game. The website says "When you're behind cover, you get partially protected from ranged attacks, and completely protected from melee attacks until someone just jumps behind the cover you're behind and punches you in the face." Why didn't you go with that version for the actual mechanics? Why do things get bonus melee damage against me instead?
Reloading sucks. I know Scoundrels get some cool reloading abilities eventually, but the mechanic feels detrimental until you get those cool abilities. There's nothing more terrible than ending a fight with one or two bullets left and not being able to reload outside of combat. Why is this a thing at all? Surely a Scoundrel should be able to reload their gun whenever they want to outside of combat. Mag is particularly bad. It hits for about 1/3 as much damage as a Crackshot, and doesn't really do anything else. Sure, it's a mild damage upgrade over Quickload, but it's so minor it feels insulting. Not to mention it's immediately made obsolete with Fling fairly early on in the IED tree.
This also brings up the issue of ability bloat and obsolescence. As I level up Gunslinging, I'm awarded with minor upgrades that make previous abilities completely pointless to use. Why is Regular a skill? It does nothing but turn off skills you get deeper into the tree. Why couldn't its functionality be baked into said other skills as an on/off toggle? Same issue with Ammoselect. Why do Scoundrels need two essentially useless skills lodged into their primary offensive tree which can just as easily be toggled into ammo skills baseline? The BEAST skill Nozzle is a good example of how to do this the right way.
It leaves me feeling like I'm not rewarded at all until I get super deep into each tree. Impairing ammo seems relatively worthless in both PvE and PvP as the afflictions it inflicts aren't very good. It doesn't seem to open up any instant kill mechanics that I'm aware of, and is rendered useless by more potent affliction ammo deeper into the tree. I was super exited to finally get Rapidfire, but in practice it's not as great as it seems on paper. The second hit of Rapidfire always hits for considerably less damage. At almost twice the balance cost, it probably just breaks even damage wise compared to spamming Crackshot. It's probably more useful when better reload skills are factored in, and it's certainly better for afflictions in PvP, but it's not much of a boost for bashing when compared to Nozzle. Also I've noticed my weapon durability being completely thrashed when using Rapidfire in my bashing sessions, could be a coincidence but I feel like it's bugged.
In the end, I hope that the design choices for Scoundrel aren't final. I'm sure the class plays fine with more lessons, I just wish it wasn't such a slog to get there in direct comparison to other classes.
Scoundrel progression feels bad. I'm not sure how many of you opted for the lesson packages, but playing a Scoundrel without them doesn't feel fun. Numbers aside, I don't feel any more effective at level 15 than I did at level 4. I have played a few of the other classes in the game, and I get a sense of clear progression from them. BEAST in particular feels great early game, even without a lesson package.
To start, the whole cover mechanic feels like a complete waste of time. I get the idea of a Han Solo character hiding around corners and blasting bad guys. But mechanically it just doesn't work in game. The website says "When you're behind cover, you get partially protected from ranged attacks, and completely protected from melee attacks until someone just jumps behind the cover you're behind and punches you in the face." Why didn't you go with that version for the actual mechanics? Why do things get bonus melee damage against me instead?
Reloading sucks. I know Scoundrels get some cool reloading abilities eventually, but the mechanic feels detrimental until you get those cool abilities. There's nothing more terrible than ending a fight with one or two bullets left and not being able to reload outside of combat. Why is this a thing at all? Surely a Scoundrel should be able to reload their gun whenever they want to outside of combat. Mag is particularly bad. It hits for about 1/3 as much damage as a Crackshot, and doesn't really do anything else. Sure, it's a mild damage upgrade over Quickload, but it's so minor it feels insulting. Not to mention it's immediately made obsolete with Fling fairly early on in the IED tree.
This also brings up the issue of ability bloat and obsolescence. As I level up Gunslinging, I'm awarded with minor upgrades that make previous abilities completely pointless to use. Why is Regular a skill? It does nothing but turn off skills you get deeper into the tree. Why couldn't its functionality be baked into said other skills as an on/off toggle? Same issue with Ammoselect. Why do Scoundrels need two essentially useless skills lodged into their primary offensive tree which can just as easily be toggled into ammo skills baseline? The BEAST skill Nozzle is a good example of how to do this the right way.
It leaves me feeling like I'm not rewarded at all until I get super deep into each tree. Impairing ammo seems relatively worthless in both PvE and PvP as the afflictions it inflicts aren't very good. It doesn't seem to open up any instant kill mechanics that I'm aware of, and is rendered useless by more potent affliction ammo deeper into the tree. I was super exited to finally get Rapidfire, but in practice it's not as great as it seems on paper. The second hit of Rapidfire always hits for considerably less damage. At almost twice the balance cost, it probably just breaks even damage wise compared to spamming Crackshot. It's probably more useful when better reload skills are factored in, and it's certainly better for afflictions in PvP, but it's not much of a boost for bashing when compared to Nozzle. Also I've noticed my weapon durability being completely thrashed when using Rapidfire in my bashing sessions, could be a coincidence but I feel like it's bugged.
In the end, I hope that the design choices for Scoundrel aren't final. I'm sure the class plays fine with more lessons, I just wish it wasn't such a slog to get there in direct comparison to other classes.
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Comments
I do wish the damage reduction on bullet types from the recent adjustment was reverted and combusting ammo was just given muscular damage as an addition to its standard damage to make it worthwhile. Regular ammo is still a bit of an enigma given it probably should not be the strongest or it wouldn't give you a reason to progress down the tree.
(Scatterhome): You say, "Which by my calculations, it's your turn to pay."
(Scatterhome): Brantar says, "That's what my calculations have come to."
(Scatterhome): Paavo says, "My math adds up to that, yeah."
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "Bastards."
I talked about both Fling and Rapidfire. Fling is great, it just made Mag completely redundant to the point where I wish Scoundrels had something else in Mag's place. Rapidfire also feels great, but I think it tore through my weapon durability faster than should be happening.
Fling and Rapidfire are the BEST parts of Scoundrel progression, my issue wasn't with them. It was with everything else.
Typical rotation is to lead with ambush if I can, rapidfire if I can't. I'll use fling whenever I can and eject on cooldown, but only if a mob is > 40% HP. Similarly I won't rapid fire if the mob has < 15% HP and instead use crackshot. Kneecap gets used when the mob will die from it instead of a ripper fling (some 5-10% HP).
It depends on how much damage you're doing with rippers, but the preferred ammo is either weakening or combusting.
I prefer having an empty magazine because ripper + shrapnel in one balance does more than rapidfire in many cases, and you get a reload out of it, as such I'd rather have the opposite of you, the ability to empty the magazine after a fight instead of reload it.
What I would like to see addressed are these:
Other than that just having the bugs fixed would be great. Like when you fling an IED with wiring but it hits you on the subsequent hits if they leave, things like that. I realize that will come with time.
Add your feedback specifically if you have some ideas, I think the more information we put out there as players the better the class will be with time!
21000 IEDs? This is my sad lha-ti face.
Some good ideas here. I agree with basically everything.
Replacing Regular with Combusting would help with low level progression, and a small damage buff would go a long way. Just give Combusting and all the other ammo types an <off> syntax in case you ever want to switch back to regular bullets for some reason. Also I'd like to reiterate that I think Ammoselect should be replaced with something cool, and just have it be a baseline for the status ammo skills.
Magtoss with a lot more damage could be a nice no-status alternative to Fling.
Quickload being instant and usable any time in combat is probably too good. I'd settle for just being able to reload whenever I wanted for 2 seconds of balance.
I don't really have any of the other skills mentioned yet, so I'll leave those for others to comment on.