I think the best point raised so far is that 33% of people play Infiltrator on Gold because so many other classes are just too buggy to risk bringing into a high-difficulty match. People are saying 'I use so and so all the time, there are no classes too risky for Gold,' but these people are talking about playing with friends who have established teamwork.
Random lobbies do not typically bring teamwork to the table. It brings to the table four players so convinced of everyone else's uselessness that they treat the other players like revivable Decoys while they try to solo the waves. Which means you need classes strong at solo play. Adepts, Infiltrators, some Engineers. Of those, most people are more comfortable with Infiltrator because TC gives a potential complete aggro dump onto the other three Decoys who are obviously not going to be doing their jobs because this is random lobby play and you're the only one who ever does things right.
That's the mentality you end up with on random lobby play. It's prevalent in any shooter with random lobbies. TF2, ME3, MW.
Infiltrator being the most widely used class by a huge margin isn't indicative of a problem with balance of Infiltrator, it's indicative of a problem with balance of the rest of the classes - but mostly it is indicative of a problem with the playerbase.
Several things have been done lately to try to indirectly nerf the Infiltrator class. Headshot bonuses on boss mobs, nerfing Hunter Mode. But in both cases, these changes were far more punishing to the rest of the classes.
Heavy weapons classes already suffered from having so many of them 'meant for' using full-auto or burst-fire weapons in a game where such weapons are already considered underperformers because of their weakness against armor and because sustained DPS on Gold is rather difficult when a burst-fire enemy can drop your shields and health within a second (Looking at you Marauders,) long before you can return the favor.
Removing headshot bonuses versus bosses punished these classes far more than it did Infiltrators because they suddenly have no way for their weapons to deal aggravated damage, which turns fighting two or three Primes at once into a situation where you feel like you're trying to stop an avalanche with water hoses - it's theoretically possible but only if you have several water hoses and more water pressure than the average person can provide.
And it's already well-known that the Hunter Mode nerf did far more for further weakening of GEs than it did to the GIs, who just took the nerf in stride and continued to Cloak cycle things to death.
Caster classes of both tech and biotic varieties are suffering from a dearth of bugs and glitches that make many of them perceived under-performers. The exceptions - like Asari Adepts - are considered golden children on Gold because Gold punishes you so heavily for sticking your head out that it indirectly rewards burst-damage characters like (Functioning) casters and Infiltrators who can do inside a one-second cast animation or a single relatively secure Cloak cycle what it can take a heavy weapons class several seconds of sustained fire to accomplish. Several seconds of sustained fire that will leave them near death from return fire, if not dead already. And if there's armor involved, both types of 'heavy weapon' - ARs and Shotguns - are so heavily penalized for damage against it that most heavy weapons classes are relegated to trash mob cleanup because that shield-stripped Banshee can soak up Revenant/Claymore fire all day without TC damage boosts.
And when the above is brought up, the answer is usually 'Use consumables.' And I'm sorry but I should not have to use AP Ammo III/AR-Shotgun Rail III and Gear in every match I play to be able to start to defend myself on a class that is all about using big heavy guns to put some hurt on things.
Which is why Infiltrators are so common. They can do with Tactical Cloak and a high-damage rifle or Shotgun what every other weapons-based class needs expensive consumables and teamwork to do. And this is not a statement meant to infer Infiltrators are imba. It's a statement meant to infer that other weapon classes are severely hampered by current game mechanics and AI on Gold, to the point that it has caused a massive disparity in usage statistics.
And thinking that disparity is a sign of an imbalance on the part of Infiltrators is paying enviable, praise-worthy attention to the minutiae, while completely missing the role of the minutiae in the bigger picture.
Modifié par DragoGoldenwing, 22 juin 2012 - 07:49 .
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