As they currently stand, Infiltrators do it all. They have the damage output of a or Soldier or Adept, the support of an Engineer, a survivability that Sentinels envy, and a truly exceptional ability to handle all four types of objectives in the game. Heck they're even the best at getting the party a full extraction. They're incredible both in terms of uppermost potential in the hands of elite players as well as in terms of being easy to pick up and dominate with for new players in pretty much every role in the game. With Infiltrators, you don't need other classes. You don't need a well-rounded and diverse team that covers different areas of expertise with a variety of talents. Four infiltrators are an optimal speedrunning team all on their own. With Proximity Mine's ability to stack with itself, you don't even really need to mix up your Infiltrator types... you can just take four of the *same kind* of infiltrator and do incredibly well.
One argument I've seen against any change to the Infiltrator class is that if you made Infiltrator choose between some aspect of their amazing utility and their damage, that they would suddenly be unable to work as team players. I just can't take that argument seriously. You know what? Everyone in the game without a cloak and the dozens of other wonderful tools Infiltrators have (like debuffs, wallhacks, crowd control, tech burst setups, power cancels, et cetera) are perfectly capable of playing well with their team. I think this argument is like saying if you took away the Krysae Infiltrators couldn't play with the team because they'd lose the ability to stagger lock everything all the time to CC for their team. It's nonsense and doesn't account for all of the other wonderful tools Infiltrators have.
In fact, even if they had no invisibility at all, Infiltrators would still be amazing team players who bring a lot to the table.
- Geth Infiltrator: Sees through walls and provides information to the team. Has a movement speed bonus making them amazing at getting to objectives and carrying pizzas (or wherever they're needed in general). Has Proximity Mine which sets traps, triggers tech burst and fire explosions in a large area, provides excellent crowd control, and debuffs bosses (or entire spawn points) providing a damage boost for everyone.
- Salarian Infiltrator: Sets up tech bursts and strips shields more effectively than their Salarian Engineer cousin with Energy Drain. Has the same Proximity Mine utility as the Geth Infiltrator. It's even potentially a tank with a regenerating shield, good crowd control, and a high functional health/shields of 2592 which scales better than most with gear like Cyclonic Modulators or a Stronghold Package.
- Female Quarian Infiltrator: Boosts tech damage for everyone. Befuddles enemies with sabotaged machines for crowd control. Sets up traps to block off choke points with Sticky Grenades (as well as interrupting banshee grabs and such).
- Male Quarian Infiltrator: Primes an entire spawn area for tech bursts. Tactical Scan keeps allies updated on enemy positions and provides a substantial damage boost for everyone firing at the target.
- Human Infiltrator: Cryo Blast is another serious support debuff power which slows or freezes enemies and gives allies a significant boost against them. Also has the utility of sticky grenades just like the Female Quarian Infiltrator.
- All Infiltrators: Provides serious DPS and burst damage for the team and can easily get to where they're needed to block off a firing lane or clear out an obstructing boss (like the slow moving wall of threat that is the Atlas). They're also all great at applying ammo powers.
And yet I keep hearing people actually saying that without the full measure of Tactical Cloak, they'd have nothing going for them.
But that's not even the only issue. Infiltrators get an entire weapon category, sniper rifles, all to themselves. The balance compensating for the 1.4x damage multiplier to sniper rifles available from Tactical Cloak rank 6 is that every sniper rifle save the Krysae is just not very effective on non-Infiltrators, and of course on Infiltrators the Krysae has been shown to be capable of getting <10 minute gold runs, which in part demonstrates the problem with making a sniper rifle that's genuinely good on any non-Infiltrator class.
One argument I've seen is that Infiltrators are popular because people like sniper rifles. Well, there is no "Assault Rifle" class. There is no "Heavy Pistol" class. There is no "SMG" class. There is no "Shotgun" class. Each of these weapon groups have a number of options that members of every class can find useful. Heck, even Infiltrators make great use of all of these weapon categories. But then there is a sniper rifle class. This isn't a boon for sniper rifle lovers... it's the exact opposite. It drastically narrows the range of competitively viable options for players who enjoy sniper rifles to one out of six classes. Some sniper fans have tried to make sniper rifles work for other classes but they just don't do well and the community laughs at the notion of Asari snipers. If it wasn't for Tactical Cloak's enormous Sniper Rifle multiplier, sniper rifles could be brought up to speed and made into more competitive options for every class, really opening up the options for that category of weapons.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't want the class to be gutted. I love Infiltrators and play them frequently, and frankly I'm sure the devs do too. But let's be honest here, Infiltrators aren't so helpless that they can't stand to take a hit and still dominate the battlefield, and nerfing one class that accomplishes everything in one superb package is a much more practical solution than rewriting the entire rest of the game to accomodate them.
Modifié par GodlessPaladin, 22 juin 2012 - 03:01 .
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