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So we have to run DPS, cause as SBs you can't get enough cooldown, skill power, and still have enough juice too unload lead into the enemies. So what I noticed this weekend as I was tweaking my different builds.

Now my LMG/SMG DPS build and my AR DPS builds are in a good place, especially seeing how I can heal myself just as good if not better then a SB Medic. Both builds are made for solo as well as team efforts.

My 3 SBs are in bad places. Working on a Medic, a Fire Turrent, and a Seeker builds. All 3 have the same issue, to get my skillpower high enough to unlock mods. I sacrifice cooldown and fire power. Which means once the skill is in cooldown I have nothing to do till they cooldown and firepower is non-existent. If I go for the 10 sec cooldown, I always have the skill available, but non of the mods are worth using and they are weak and firepower is non-existent. If I focus on firepower, then they aren't really SBs and I have no skillpower nor 10 sec cooldowns. So for SBs, there is no fire power, armor/health, and basically no skills. Yet DPS builds suffer no negatives.

I understand the specialist weapons are not suppose to be our primary weapons and that we are suppose to use guns 1st, skills 2nd, and our specialist weapons when all else fails.

Now here is where the rules don't match up. NPC medic can be tanky enough to run through the battle field and take almost no damage. So they have skills and are tanky and can pick up any of their buddies almost as quick as a Nemisis Sniper built player can put them in the ground. NPC Drone specialist can craft and launch drones, has firepower, a bit tanky, and unlimited drones that can almost kill you with one shot. The Grenadiers, how those are my favorite a bit tanky and unlimited grenade spam, yet I have very limited special weapon ammo. Which I have to find only when RNG is kind enough to share.

Meanwhile all of the NPCs run like the Flash, while shooting like Deadshot, being tanky like Superman, with unlimited resources like Batman.
almost 5 years ago - Ubi-RealDude - Direct link
Originally Posted by YodaMan 3D
Now here is where the rules don't match up. NPC medic can be tanky enough to run through the battle field and take almost no damage. So they have skills and are tanky and can pick up any of their buddies almost as quick as a Nemisis Sniper built player can put them in the ground. NPC Drone specialist can craft and launch drones, has firepower, a bit tanky, and unlimited drones that can almost kill you with one shot. The Grenadiers, how those are my favorite a bit tanky and unlimited grenade spam, yet I have very limited special weapon ammo. Which I have to find only when RNG is kind enough to share.

Meanwhile all of the NPCs run like the Flash, while shooting like Deadshot, being tanky like Superman, with unlimited resources like Batman.
Well... Yea. The NPCs function under extremely different rules than players. Players have an extreme advantage in pretty much every situation by virtue of adaptability and the breadth of options at their disposal. I can understand the frustrations over the lack of viable build diversity, but the "same rules" angle doesn't really hit on what it seems you want it to.

No NPC could drop a healing seeker to heal an ally, have the ally go down, swap the seeker to themselves, throw out a flame turret to keep the enemies under crowd control, run over to revive their ally, then lay down LMG rounds to keep the enemy suppressed while the two fall back to a safer position. While the infinite grenades are rough, they can't also instantly revive their allies, just like the medics can't one-shot you from long distance with a sniper rifle. In a general sense, NPCs are limited by what they can do, Players are limited by what they can't (in the context of the game systems).

For the build diversity topic though, I personally think that there are some niche merits to certain skill centric builds, but I certainly can understand that for all purpose gameplay DPS is typically the best way to go. One question that I feel is seldom answered with enough nuance by the skill-build/build diversity discussions is one of scale:

How much AoE explosive damage or DoT fire damage or area/single-target-healing would it take to make these builds "viable"? Should the explosive damage output of a player (who also has 2 primary weapons which still deal damage) be equal to the bullet damage output of a DPS build?