At the moment, I'd say Assaults are pretty good at staying in the enemy's face. I mostly use Gallente Assaults, and I'm usually the guy holding a lot of enemy's attention on the frontline. While I'm poking at them and hopefully not dying, it creates an opportunity for Scouts to move in from behind, Sentinels to move in from the front, and Commandos to fire from a safe distance or whatever else they want to do, and logis supporting the advance.

Basically, Assaults are the workforce, the guys getting the boulder rolling so the specialist classes have an easy opportunity to perform their role. More simply put, we're the punching bag until people move in. We start the assault, hence the name.

Sound good? Good. Let's stop arguing.

Because people utilize the classes wrong that doesn't mean that is the ground upon which the suit is defined for.

Scouts shouldn't be frontline but people brick tank, shotty and cloak, going frontline in their attacks. Scouts are to create confusion and to infiltrate enemy lines, demoralizing the enemy.

The thing is, you present that Assault don't have a role but have no idea what other role it can play. You offer no other roles for it.

Assaults role is, lol, arguably even noticeable in the name itself. Assault. Scouts are to scout. Logistics is all about the logistics. A sentinel is to be sentinel.

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.

No class is better than the other. It is how the player utilizes the role is what makes it good. Why are you comparing it to Logi? Assaults don't have to piggyback a Sentinel and isn't frowned upon if the assault player is killing. Because that's what you expect from a assault. Hence why we had so many discussions and changes to Logi (the infamous slaylogi) because the community felt that wasn't the role of a Logi.

Why do you need encouragement to be a slayer? What is with the gamer population and incentives? Why do you need one to perform a necessary task?

Okay instead of arguing the point of whether assaults have a role or not, what kind of role would you offer the Assault player?

We already have a recon guy. A support guy. A point defender. What is left? What role can the assault play? Answer me that instead of arguing a useless point that assaults don't have any role on the battlefield. I'm up for a discussion and production. Not tireless back and forth stuck in one point. Let's brain storm. What other role can the assault player fill that the other classes are not specialized in?

Not that I totally disagree with the post but this topic comes up so often that I get the impression most people think it should be the best class in the game when actually its what it should be, bland and point and shoot.

To me it's the suit that DEPENDS on a good squad , a good LOGI , a scout to flush out enemy's and distracts and injures for you to take kills, yet it isn't as self supporting as a LOGI or scout because of the ability to carry mass equipment or hide or have major damage of a heavy, it is simply a point and shoot class, those that become extremely good players gravitate an graduate to more self sufficient classes that allow them to create a more team played battlefield than just point and shoot.