Jack-of-all-trades Build

(Shadowcat) #61

[QUOTE=Jimmy James;349393]I find the one ability (Extra Magazine) I invested in for soldier is sufficient for me since I only switch to that class for HE objectives or when there aren’t enough soldiers to supply ammo.

Also, playing today, after playing a few days with my one-class builds, I find the JoaT build to be a little disconcerting because I’m constantly looking to use abilities I expect to have as the various classes but don’t. After a few maps I get used to it though and the versatility of the build makes it a lot of fun to play.

-JJ[/QUOTE]

I’ve noticed that the Kevlar ability is pretty useful for planting the HE charge as well, since you are often doing it under fire, and i cant tell you how often you get it planted just before you die. Even if it only gets you another half second alive in that situation, it can still be helpful.

(Jimmy James) #62

I think someone mentioned the Engineer Kevlar is superior to the Soldier Kevlar and, despite the in-game description, can be applied to a Soldier that already has the Kevlar ability. If that’s the case, does the Engineer Kevlar replace the Soldier Kevlar or do the abilities stack?

-JJ

(Shadowcat) #63

[QUOTE=Jimmy James;349418]I think someone mentioned the Engineer Kevlar is superior to the Soldier Kevlar and, despite the in-game description, can be applied to a Soldier that already has the Kevlar ability. If that’s the case, does the Engineer Kevlar replace the Soldier Kevlar or do the abilities stack?

-JJ[/QUOTE]

They’re identical, both offer 20% reduction, and they do stack, although having both only gives you 30%, not 40%

(Throbblefoot) #64

At Level 20, I have one unspent point and one spent point I’m regretting.

Universal

Battle Hardened
Supply Max Increase
Combat Intuition
Sprinting Reload
Resupply Rate Increase
Silent Running
Downed Fire

Soldier

Extra Magazine

Medic

Increased Supplies
Transfer Supplies
Improved Increased Supplies
Improved Life Buff
Self Resurrection

Engineer

Nerves of Steel
Extra Landmine

Operative

Firewall Command Post
Comms Hack
Caltrop Grenades
Cortex Bomb

-Throbblefoot

(burawura) #65

Get rid of that downed fire and get improved weapon buff; other than that everything looks good :stuck_out_tongue:

(Shadowcat) #66

The first thing I would ditch off of that build would be Silent running and transfer supplies, and put them into either kevlar ability and/or improved damage buff. Other than that, looks good. Both are far too situational for a balanced character IMO. Most players use combat intuition more than radar, so silent running gets you noticed more than it hides you.

Downed fire may not be the most useful ability, but I personally like it, cuz then you can at least do something while you’re sitting there.

(burawura) #67

[QUOTE=Shadowcat;349471]The first thing I would ditch off of that build would be Silent running and transfer supplies, and put them into either kevlar ability and/or improved damage buff. Other than that, looks good. Both are far too situational for a balanced character IMO. Most players use combat intuition more than radar, so silent running gets you noticed more than it hides you.

Downed fire may not be the most useful ability, but I personally like it, cuz then you can at least do something while you’re sitting there.[/QUOTE]

Good players will use radar to find enemies. Silent Running keeps this from happening. The tighter the game, the more it seems to matter. And lol at the combat intuition argument, I really dont care if there’s a little orange thingy on the dude that I’m fragging’s screen. Combat intuition sucks; more nuisance than help for me.

Downed fire is terrible; in mp games it just gets you gibbed faster which is not what you want. You want to be able to stick around for a revive.

(Shadowcat) #68

[QUOTE=burawura;349485]Good players will use radar to find enemies. Silent Running keeps this from happening. Also in the patch notes you will notice “Combat Intuition no longer gets triggered by disguised players”.
So yeah.

Downed fire sucks. It’s terrible; in mp games it just gets you gibbed faster which is not what you want. You want to be able to stick around for a revive.[/QUOTE]

Silent running =/= disguised

Combat intuition only works on players who aren’t on your radar, silent running keeps you off of their radar. I find that setting off someones combat intuition gets the moving a lot faster than a small red dot on their map that they may not notice right away. Doesn’t matter how good or bad the player is, there’s a giant yellow indicator and a noise for CI.

I wont argue downed fire, since I would never use it on a tryhard build, but I do find it fun; sometimes that’s all that matters.

(burawura) #69

Please disregard the disguise thing; I was thinking about something else.

You think the fact that you can be spotted on the radar by anyone who cares to look while flanking is preferable to having somebody you are about to frag get a noise and an orange indicator when you are fragging them?

Silent Running is certainly more useful generally than Combat Intuition which (if you’ve actually used it) you should agree is redundant information. An enemy pip on your radar, is not redundant information.

(Shadowcat) #70

Difference in play-styles I suppose, by the time I’ve gotten close enough for my footsteps to show up on radar, I have usually already made myself known. Whether its grenades, flashbangs, or the rest of my team backing me up, it just generally isn’t going to apply.

And combat intuition generally isn’t redundant considering that it only applies to people not on your map. Just looking at a person puts them on your map.

The size of the indicator tells you the distance. If the indicator is a yellow sliver, I duck for cover from a sniper just by reflex. If its a huge indicator, that means someone got right behind you, another useful bit of information.

(FireWorks) #71

When I am on the hunt, I look for dots on the radar… Silent running would save you there.

(wolfnemesis75) #72

I am finding the 3rd perspective view to be a cool ability. If you crouch down before taking a command post, you remain crouched.

(Jimmy James) #73

[QUOTE=burawura;349485]
Downed fire is terrible; in mp games it just gets you gibbed faster which is not what you want. You want to be able to stick around for a revive.[/QUOTE]
I was playing Prison Break yesterday and with a minute left I was able to kill three soldiers with Downed Fire who were trying to plant HE charges and we won the map.

-JJ

(burawura) #74

[QUOTE=Shadowcat;349493]And combat intuition generally isn’t redundant considering that it only applies to people not on your map. Just looking at a person puts them on your map.
[/QUOTE]
I find it redundant because when I am being shot, it’s obvious to me that an “unseen” enemy is shooting me. Whether I have CI or not, I will be moving toward cover and/or searching out the target. CI is only useful against the bots, who have that half-second reaction time thing before they respond to a threat. Human players at a reasonable level of play will be shooting you immediately as they trigger CI. Human players at a reasonable level of play will also be able to react properly to incoming fire regardless of whether they use CI or not.

CI would seem to be alot more useful on console versions of the game, with the generally slower pace of the game.

(burawura) #75

Jimmy, downed fire is great when you have a chance to use it but I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people trying to use it just gibbed outright with a few extra bullets. The number of times I’ve ended someone’s Downed Fire time with one burst far outweigh the times I’ve died to Downed Fire.

Alot of these choices really just hinge on the individual’s playstyle.

(Jimmy James) #76

[QUOTE=burawura;349673]Jimmy, downed fire is great when you have a chance to use it but I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people trying to use it just gibbed outright with a few extra bullets. The number of times I’ve ended someone’s Downed Fire time with one burst far outweigh the times I’ve died to Downed Fire.

Alot of these choices really just hinge on the individual’s playstyle.[/QUOTE]
Heh, the trick is to make sure you die in a really obscure place or behind cover. I was killed once midair and landed on my back on a crate with my legs dangling off the side facing backward (the direction the enemy was coming from), it was hilarious because the enemy couldn’t figure out who was mowing them down.

Can soldiers give ammo to teammates who are in Downed Fire mode? If not, they should be able to because I frequently run out of ammo when I’m down.

Anyway, I agree it all comes down to play style. I’m not a big fan of grenades and I don’t invest in abilities related to them (caltrops and sticky being the exceptions) but I’ve seen other players who use them to great effect.

-JJ

(St NickelStew) #77

I must say that I am having a difficult time making a jack-of-all-trades build, primarily because I find it so difficult to spec a Soldier with 4-5 abilities. I can do everything else, but not Soldier. I just think Soldier “needs” the most abilities, to be done “right”. My fully-spec-ed Soldier will have al 10 Soldier abilities, plus Sprinting Grenade and Grenade Shooting (which I really only take for my Soldiers).

Alternatively, I find the Medic the easiest to spec. Medics only have three passive abilities, four if you include Self-Revive. And those are the first four I take with my Medics. Because Medics have so many active abilities, but can only use three at a time, it takes only seven abilities to completely spec-out a Medic with all passive and a D-pad full of active abilities.

Thus, I can fully spec an Operative (or Engineer) with all 10 abilities , spec out a Medic with 7 abilities (but choose the active ones wisely because one cannot change them without totally re-spec-ing the character), and still have 7 slots for universal abilities.

Operative + Medic is probably my favorite blend because most of the time they are needed (at least in additional numbers) only on hack objectives. So I can play Medic (my favorite class), but can change if necessary to Operative should the need arise for an additional hack-specialist.

I have made a Medic+Engineer+Operative combo, and another for Soldier+Engineer+Operative. But other than than, all of my characters have just a dual-specialization.

Sadly. :frowning:

(Throbblefoot) #78

So I said I regretted an ability, and was really surprised that no one guessed Firewall Command Post. I think this has been helpful in about 2 situations. In the history of Brink.

Can anyone explain why Downed Fire or Transfer Supplies is worse than Firewall Command Post?

Thanks,

Throbblefoot

(Cep) #79

[QUOTE=Throbblefoot;349950]So I said I regretted an ability, and was really surprised that no one guessed Firewall Command Post. I think this has been helpful in about 2 situations. In the history of Brink.

Can anyone explain why Downed Fire or Transfer Supplies is worse than Firewall Command Post?

Thanks,

Throbblefoot[/QUOTE]

I can’t explain why people would make that choice. Personally Firewalling is pretty useless as it stands at the moment. My JOA is setup to be a team player not and objective player but even I do not use this ability any longer.

The ability would be useful it it either doubled or even trebled the time it takes to capture or better yet left a nasty surprise for anyone who attempted to capture it.

However I just got fed up of capturing/firewalling a CP, getting to the other CP, capture and firewall that to then hear the immortal words “They’ve captured our command post!”. sigh runs back

(wolfnemesis75) #80

[QUOTE=Cep;350047]I can’t explain why people would make that choice. Personally Firewalling is pretty useless as it stands at the moment. My JOA is setup to be a team player not and objective player but even I do not use this ability any longer.

The ability would be useful it it either doubled or even trebled the time it takes to capture or better yet left a nasty surprise for anyone who attempted to capture it.

However I just got fed up of capturing/firewalling a CP, getting to the other CP, capture and firewall that to then hear the immortal words “They’ve captured our command post!”. sigh runs back[/QUOTE]

Firewalling slows down the enemy. Your team is always against the clock. What firewalling does is make the enemy take longer to retake the command post. If you planned accordingly, and had the post firewalled and upgraded, the enemy should be a man short near the objective essentially while they are trying to retake the post you still have the buffs and advantage. Downed fire is situational, and actually very ineffective. I rarely get killed by downfire because you can tell when the enemy is about to use it. Same with Cortex Bomb. Bad players/teams leave enemy with downedfire around. Transfer Supplies is most useful if you are playing with a familiar team and against a team full of 20 level players.