(I literally copied and pasted this from my post on the Bethesda forums. I did NOT run a search, so I am sorry if this was posted twice and if it’s closed, I understand. It’s late and I’m lazy right now… 
I had some pretty positive feedback over there, I just wanted to see what the majority of the player-base though over here. If you have any criticism, PLEASE VOICE IT! I want to understand where you’re coming from, rebuttal your issues or find a way to compromise in some manner. I hope you guys like this.)
Alright, so I was watching some Brink videos and considering hopping on for a bit and it dawned on me… THREE of our classes have buffs for their team mates but not one has any form of debuff.
A lot of you might not care about this, but I’m a pretty big believer of debuffs (from my love of MMOs and the likes).
We have THREE classes (Medic, Engineer and Operative) that can utilize debuffs and have it make sense. Now, to an extent we DO have debuffs, like flashbangs and EMP grenades… But we don’t have anymore than that…
I think it’d be interesting to have a ton of other abilities that directly affect the effectiveness of an enemy… I’ve only come up with a few, some of which have been discussed here and what’s-not… So I’m just going to list them here.
Keep in mind, some of these may not make much sense at first… But I thought of these skills in particular to add more versatility to our classes. It would offer up more skills, therefore, we can change our roles on the fly… And with more skills and different uses, certain un-used classes will see new life… At least that’s my hope.
Also, Debuffs are just awesome… I LOVE shutdown classes. I also want to see what you guys think and what ideas you can all come up with, if the idea sticks.
STAAAAARTIIIIING… NOW!
Medic: Perhaps the most capable of delivering some heavy debuffs… Directly affecting the overall health or well-being of an enemy, but also requiring the most risk in using close-range tactics. However, my problem here is that it’d be USELESS against bots (damn psychics) and I strongly disagree with the medics having grenade based skills.
Poisons - They fill their syringes with some kind of poison that slowly drains away at the enemy’s health, causing subtle damage over time (DoT)… I think to counteract this, the player need only be healed.
Health Pip Removal - Through the use of some kind of scanner or otherwise, the Medic is able to detect what enemies on the battlefield have received extra health pips from SOME manner… Through this, they’re able to approach the enemy, however possible, and essentially remove the pips, thus weakening the target.
Health Sapping Beacons (TERRIBLE name, I know) - These stations effectively leech health from any enemy that passes through them, the longer they sit in its range, the more health they lose. You could place this at objectives, making the medic even more defensive and useful… It’d be interesting to see an “end-use” that scatters health pips to allies in the area, or something to that effect.
Some kind of ability that leeches health from enemies and gives it to the medic… Something like that… It’d be cool to see medics have more overall survivability and actual combat utility.
Soldier: The soldier, I think, should be the least effective with debuffs… So I couldn’t think of much…
Stun Grenades - These little things act a lot like flashbangs, but rather than obscuring vision, they are able to stop (or DRAMATICALLY decrease) the movement of enemies… Including their aiming. I would expect it to have a VERY narrow range so it can’t shut down a whole room at once… And like the flashbang, it has some recoil if your allies are too close to it.
Ammo sabotage? - This makes the LEAST sense to me, but I figured I’d toss it out there… Basically, the Soldier is able to throw one pack of fake ammo every now and again to an enemy, so upon their next reload their weapons deal either less damage, or no damage. This lasts for ONE clip (reload and it’s gone). I don’t know why anyone would accept ammo from their enemy… Maybe he slipped it in his pack or something.
Tripwire [Suggested by Crytiqal] - S strategically placed wire. Effect has yet to be established.
Engineer: EDIT: YAY IDEAS!
Command Post Sabotage [Crytiqal and wolfnemesis75] - Engineer traps the CP so either the enemy cannot receive ammo from it or it damages them lightly. (If it matters, I favor the lack of ammo).
Operative: (Best for last, I love me some Operative.) The Operative’s class seems to make the most sense in terms of debuffing… They already specialize in causing sheer chaos and disruption, but I would like to see this expanded on… Perhaps there guys are the most capable…?
Some kind of weapon sabotage - At first I thought this made more sense on the Engineer, but I think it fits more with the Operative’s theme… He specializes in sabotage and the likes. I don’t know how he would do it, but ultimately he either makes a gun completely useless (just one gun, not both) for a very short time or weakens the damage it does. Another cool idea, an alternative, is that is causes the gun to overheat and damage the user a little after a certain number of shots. Perhaps that should be its own skill?
A buff removal tool - It’d be interesting to see them use some kind of item that removes buffs on a specific target. Much like the Medic’s health-buff removal. I don’t know, it may be unfair for two classes to have something like this.
Bolas - These little bastards could finally tie up those pesky lights… They’d be a quick one use thing that would have to hit a target and immediately slow down ONE guy for a short period of time. It’d be great for those of us playing mediums and heavies to have SOME weapon against the lights. Either a bolas, or some kind of trap we lay down. It’s more immediate than the caltrops, deals little-to-no damage and affects only one target.
Stungun/tazer/etc. - Something that could completely stun a character for just an instant… Maybe it’s used as a weapon or a quick get away. The stun is only a split second, something less than one second, but it can mean the difference between life and death. Again, this only affects one enemy.
Mine hacking - We already have an effective turret control, but I would like to see something with the mines. The mines use a friend/foe program that determines whether or not to blow up (at least I would assume)… It’d be cool if Ops could hack that and turn the mine against their enemies. This would officially make the Op the Engineer’s rival and nemesis. This is an indirect debuff.
Turret sabotage - Someone else suggested this awhile back, I can’t remember who (I THINK it was Chaos) and it sounded nifty once he explained it. Basically, rather than hacking a turret or otherwise, you’d instead set up a booby trap on it… So when an ally approaches it (I assume to repair it), it detonates. This is less a debuff, though.
Corpse Sabotage - Perhaps this is too macabre, but I like the idea… Two classes in the game have access to bodies in this game and it’d be interesting to see more done with them. I can’t think of what it would do, but I like the idea. Maybe the Op places a proximity mine that sets off a bomb with a short fuse under a body… It obviously goes away once the body disappears… So it’s got a limited use. I’m not sure what else to think of for this.
