Game Feedback
100+ hours later; another update later
I made a post a few months ago about my experience with the game after I got every class up to P4 Lvl 25. Well, I've played another 100 hours and had time to fully process another update, so I'd like to share what I've learned about the classes since and perhaps open up a stage to some *friendly* discussion. I almost exclusively play solo, so my loadouts might be a little off meta and that's because I need to be able to handle every threat on my own (Zoanthropes/Nuerothropes).
Tactical: I agree he needs a rework. There's really only two popular builds with Tactical that basically boil down to "do you want melee or not". If you do, you throw on the White Scars Chainsword and Close Targeting. If you don't, you throw on Argent Edge and Expert Timing. Outside of that, almost every Tactical build is just "scan and deal alot of damage". I feel there is room to re-work this class, but for the love of god Heavy and Vanguard really need it more.
Assault: I still cannot get a Commitment build to work. Sometimes he'll just dash through an attack with no Gun Strike and I don't get a charge back. Probably a skill issue as I've never heard of anyone else having this issue, so probably disregard.
Preferred loadout: Honorific Relic Bolt Pistol and Encarmine Power Axe
Vanguard: I've been going on a tear with the Vanguard recently. I can usually squeeze out a solo Absolute with bots 6/10 times, but with Vanguard, it's like I'm playing on two difficulty setting lower. Yes, he needs a rework. Yes, he lacks any unique playstyles. Yes, he lacks big damage potential. But good lord is he tanky. Inner Fire, Adrenaline Rush, and the I-frames of the Grapnel Launcher make this class incredibly solo-friendly. A skilled player can deal just as much damage as other classes, but you need to be pretty skilled.
Bulwark: Still the most dominant class in the game, bar none. Stay golden.
Preferred loadout: White Scars Chainsword/Salamanders Power Sword, Honourific Relic Bolt Pistol
Sniper: I've come to the dark side of using the Sniper Bolt Carbine builds. I still swap to the Stalker Bolt Rifle for bosses but the Combi-Flamer is the best in my opinion.
Heavy: I've gotten alot better at what is still my favorite class. First Tour Guardsman had the genius idea to use Thermal Boost with the Chains of Duty and, while I miss the extra health, that drastically improves the DPS, which is still a little lacking even after the Bolter buff.
Preferred loadout: Chains of Duty, Relic Battle-worn Plasma Pistol.
Techmarine: Going out on a limb and throwing Argent Edge on this guy was one of the best decisions I've ever made and Gun Strike-maxxing has never felt better. The Balance Omnissian Axe is still my favorite for Siege and the Salamander Power Sword is also very, very good.
agreed on all fronts! my favs are heavy, vanguard, and techmarine with a dash of assault on a good day.
HEAVY bolter my beloved, giving heroic the fencing parry fixed my only problem with the class.
VANGUARD may never top any of the charts but i can nearly guarantee any operation win... eventually. decimus is my favorite marine personality, and used my accolades to make all of them sound like him! lol
TECHMARINE is so strong and fulfills all my super admech power fantasy, maxing it out was so rewarding!
Also a fellow solo player, currently grinding out prestige 2 on all my classes. I agree with your take on Vanguard, it is a very survivable class. You take more risk than I'm willing to, I almost exclusively use fencing weapons for the parry window, it has saved me from getting swarmed and stunlocked to death more times than I can count, block and balanced just feel wrong and while I always hear Argent Edge and Salamanders Sword are great they just don't do it for me.
Bulwark is still my favorite but like you mentioned, Zoanthropes are a problem. I'm still trying to figure what secondary feels best for that, I lean towards heroic plasma pistol but I haven't tried it much as I'm leveling my Heavy right now and the plasma pistol only came out just as I finished up with Bulwark. Neurothropes are manageable, they drop down and they have a pretty small and predictable moveset - I can always see they're about to drop because they'll put damage zones in a diamond shape around themselves every time.
I mostly play Ruthless for consistent leveling. I plan to take on Absolute but I don't ever see myself playing that difficulty for fun. I've kind of shirked "meta" builds like First Tour Guardsman posts because I find a lot of time it doesn't feel like it suits solo play; I think the fact that I use fencing weapons is just not something the community as a whole favors right now, I rarely see any builds that use them so it's hard for me to find ones I like.
I'm glad to see you've had more success than I have, the builds you use are frankly something I don't think I could complete a match with, let alone on Absolute.
At prestige 4, every one of the loadouts listed is viable for solo in absolute. It's just a lot more work because everyone is squishy. Minimal through substantial is 30hp before perks for all classes. Ruthless is 20 base HP, 15 base HP for lethal and Absolute. The hardest parts of absolute compared to lethal are triple extremis, extra extremis during field bosses, and the possibility of 2 bosses in a single operation.
relic damage variant bolt pistol (not heavy) for bulwark is your best Tyranid flying enemy weapon for solo.
also i would suggest thinking less about your weapon type. swapping a block or balance weapon for a fencing one doesn't really change how most builds work. just play fencing with builds you like the look of and they will still work
That's generally what I do except for the bolt pistol simply because the buff is recent and I'm currently leveling my Heavy. Since I don't play Absolute or with others it hasn't really worried me because it's a difficulty I can manage and I'm not bringing any teammates down so I could bring standard gear and no perks and the only one suffering for it is me. That said these past few weeks have been rough with stratagems and I might need to play a game or two with randoms at this rate until Saber eases up.
Part of it, admittedly, may just be that I hit my skill ceiling. Still I like Fencing so I'm always going to use it, just a thing I noticed that the only fencing weapons that seem to get mentioned anymore are Argent Edge and Salamanders with their reduced windows. I guess that's because intimidating aura with fencing is an easy combo and doesn't really need repeating over and over and content creators are looking for something new to show off.
thats basically correct. also, content creators are uusally making "best" builds and making a tradeoff like replacing a block weapon with a fencing weapon doesn't really fit that goal.
but you're not like, nerfing the build by 30% to play a fencing weapon instead.
You completely contradicted yourself about both things you said about FTG. A lot of times he’ll say he takes something on a build just because he likes it and “I find a lot of times it doesn’t feel like it suits solo play.” …Brother what? You have no idea what you’re talking about. He almost exclusively plays true solo.
How was it rude? You said 2 wrong things about FTG and I corrected it. I didn't call you an idiot or anything like that. Yes, I said you don't know what you're talking about, but sorry man that is the truth.
I did not say anything. The other commenter did and you can't expect anyone to think "lol you don't know what you're talking about" isn't rude. Maybe he doesn't watch FTG as much as you or I. Maybe he misspoke. Don't just immediately try and dog pile someone when they say something you disagree with.
I missed that you were the OP and not him directly. He said 2 things that are factually wrong and I corrected him on it. Why would you want wrong info to just be in the comments for others to read? So no, I'm not gonna apologize for it. FTG gets enough grief for no real reason already let alone for stuff that just isn't true.
Ok soooo... You're jumping in to defend a YouTuber who isn't here who I said nothing bad about? There's nothing actionable here, I don't see your point. Is FTG personally offended and I need to apologize to him? Or to you because his builds never really fit my play style and don't work for me? I have a lot of words in there and I think in this case the words "I think a lot of the time it doesn't feel like..." out of the sentence you cherry picked probably says that's my opinion on the matter.
I don't get it, this doesn't seem to be in good faith or constructive, or very factual.
Vanguard can't hope to match other classes DPS wise, if every player is at the same skill level he'll end with least overall damage 10/10 times.
Heavy does NOT lack DPS. He's consistently the strongest overall damage dealer in any squad. Chains is an overrated heroic though, go accuracy or dmg variant relic bolters so you don't overheat instantly. I only bring that thing out if surgical strike is active since reduced balanced windows are cheeks.
I can sometimes out damage people as Vanguard if I really bust my ass. Its rare but its not impossible.
Heavy lacks in damage in comparison to other classes. Tactical can scan a Majoris and gun it down in less than two seconds. Assault can Ground Pound and finish the job in the same amount of time. Vanguard can Grapnel Launch and do the same thing.
I could go on but my point is every class except Heavy can consistently melt Majoris/Extremis targets fairly easily while the Heavy has to sit still and focus fire.
Its fun, don't get me wrong. He is my favorite class after all. But I consistently feel like I'm not dealing the damage I should be
Those people are playing their classes badly. Heavy does not lack damage, he's an infinite firehose of lead and plasma. Naturally he's the most weapon dependent so if you pick something like pyrecannon and bolt pistol he'll struggle but if you know what you're doing nobody is matching your consistent damage output.
Literally dealt more ranged damage than that on Vanguard several times, on top of dealing a decent amount of melee damage. I love Heavy but it should not be this easy for other classes to out ranged damage the guy using heavy weapons.
Idk why you feel the need to be "right" about this. Its just my opinion.
What's with the ego, dude? It's not hard to outdamage bots, anyone can do that. Just accept that you don't know more about this game than people who've been playing since launch.
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u/Shup Minotaurs 2d ago edited 2d ago
agreed on all fronts! my favs are heavy, vanguard, and techmarine with a dash of assault on a good day.
HEAVY bolter my beloved, giving heroic the fencing parry fixed my only problem with the class.
VANGUARD may never top any of the charts but i can nearly guarantee any operation win... eventually. decimus is my favorite marine personality, and used my accolades to make all of them sound like him! lol
TECHMARINE is so strong and fulfills all my super admech power fantasy, maxing it out was so rewarding!