The assault role is to advance objectives and to slay. You can kill with any suit but that's up to the player. The assault class is more of a mindset than anything else.

Just breakdown the suits and classes in the game. Heavy suits and assault suits are supposed to slay. The difference is that heavy suits tank ehp so they're supposed to be the grind in cqc situations and defending objectives. You would put your heavies in front and have them clear the way. The heavy suit and assault suit (class) essentially, provides the same role.

Logi or support is just that. Supporting your team by supplying ammo, keeping them alive with reps and needles, etc.

Scout role is supposed to be recon. Clearing away enemy equipment, getting behind enemy lines, hacking objectives, scan, etc.

In dust....people use whatever suit they feel will be best that compliments their playstyle and will allow them to perform their roles optimally. Scouts aren't supposed to be slayers but mechanics allow for that. Logis weren't supposed to but the mechanics allow for that. You can play a logi role with a scout suit or an assault suit if you wish.

assault role is to slay...period. in this game, the assault suit is the only suit (besides the heavy) that is one-dimensional. That's why people don't use it as much...

a lot of you seem to be ignoring the fact that every class who approaches and shoots at the enemy is assaulting them. you can call it any number of fancy names like frontline assault but it is all still the same thing and not a role

assault "To make a short, violent, but well-ordered attack against a local objective, such as a gun emplacement, a fort, or a machine gun nest." this includes people. you go through the act of assaulting

now a role in that assault would be a LAW man in the squad to take on vehicle threats, a medic incase someone was injured, a HMG gunner to lay down suppressing fire, a commander giving orders,a radio man liaising with command and support assets, a pioneer with breach charges etc

they all assault the position. they all for the most part use the same weapons and carry the same gear. they all have the same training then finally they all have their own particular role to fulfill when required.

dust has this big problem where everything is balanced on the roles people play and not the fact they are soldiers/killers first. this makes some classes either OP or extremely customisable to the point they outshine others.

ask yourself why other classes can for the most part outshine the assault and answer would likely be customisation. every class has the role to use or ignore but the assault is just the assault. it has nothing extra to play with. for a lot of you the answer is to decrease that customisation on other classes and buff ehp and dps on the assaults but that now leaves those who do fit their roles worse off as they have less of everything to play with while their counter gets a buff and the slayers see little change. i think its wrong to break other classes to make 1 class work. the problem isn't dps and ehp its customisation through roles and the lack of role with the assault not giving them that option

if the assault had a role and slots to go with it they could choose to fit full killer and compete with other suits that do that while leaving those that fit their role still able to compete and not get nerfed all the time

On behalf of the OP, I think it's fair to say you missed one of his points: that simply killing enemies in of itself is not a suitable role within the context of Dust, and I would say I agree with that. But even ignoring that, if slaying is meant to be the designated role of Assault suits, what about them actually makes them any better at it than say a Logi?

Uh, do you um, like know how game design works? The goal is to encourage players to take certain actions with the mechanics of your game. So again, in terms of design, what about an Assault suit currently makes it any better at slaying than a Logi suit?

What you mean is, assaults has less of an attractive role compared to others. What exactly qre you expecting from a footsoldier/infantryman?

. Assaults have a role. It's just not as attractive as the other ones.

People want incentives to do things in Dust, which is absurd as well.

What other roles can assault play besides that? Anything else and it becomes another class.

This stuff is beyond basic. The OP is trying to make something complicated out of something simple. People just don't want to slay in Dust. They want WPs. They want to cloak and sneak up on somebody to blast. They want REs. They want to destroy with HMGs. Assaults only offer slaying with a small supply factor from the nanohives.

Assaults have a role. It's just not attractive to you guys. Or better yet, you guys want incentives to do what many are already doing with the class...slaying.