Let commando suits be SHOCK troops. Hit fast, hit hard, high casualty expectation. You throw commandos when taking the objective is more important than survival and ISK efficiency.

There is no getting around the simple fact that the amarr heat bonus is the single most usefyl bonus in the game. And the ammando loses more damage potential to overheat than anything else.

The 10% damage bonus does not at any point translate to even approaching that level of useful.

No other suit can use amarr weaponry effectively. Just the amarr assault.

Keep it coming mercs, the more feedback the better. o7

Cross

We could provide better feedback if there was a clear statement of intent on what CCP intends the commando to be. If they intended it to be a suppressor they will need to bonus it for +range or significantly overhaul the ranges and expand the map sizes back out.

If they want a shocktrooper we can do that.

We need a statement of intent or we're just plinking away at "this sounds cool" and "oops, another bandaid fix."

For the sake of argument, let's assume CCP wants to hear suggestions for roles we would like to see the Commando fill. Just for argument's sake.

Honestly I'd make the commando into a shocktrooper.

Screw suppression, give it bonusing for biotics for fast, sustained attack for the amarr and gallente while making the caldari aspected for better detection as a countersniper and long range hunter. Take the minmatar and give it a bit of HP module bonus because it's already faster.

I always felt that the damage buff was better suited to Assaults. Assaults need to be the bread and butter of Dust, they need much more popularity. Damage buff on a medium frame would be the perfect go-to for any new player not sure what they want to specialize in yet, allowing them to experience the perfect middle ground with a lean on offensive power.

I realize this thread is about Commandos and not Assaults, but I believe the two are tied together.

Assaults should have the damage buffs and reload speeds for their racial weapons, Commandos should have the extra ammo, extra regen/repair, extra range and bigger effective HP. Assaults burn twice as bright, half as long, while Commandos would be in it for the long haul. The perfect halfway point between a sentinel and an assault. This idea already lends itself perfectly to the fact that the Commando is a heavy frame. To sum it up in a single word, I would say the Commando should be about survival, with many small benefits that lead to higher survivability rate. The keyword for Assault should definitely be offense in the purest form. They move fast they kill hard and they are ready to go down if it means taking half the other team with them.

With the "time to kill" what it is in Dust at the moment, I do not believe in suppression.

Gallente commando, how about a commando that is the hard counter to ewar? This commando, when maxed and fitted correctly can see most scouts cloaked or not to share on his tacnet with his squad.

Suppression without range is worthless. As I said before, at the ranges all weapons operate suppressive fire is meaningless. Advance and kill will always be the more meaningful choice. The only suppression weapon in the game that deserves the name is the laser rifle.

And your solution does not address the comparative worthlessness of the amarr commando compared to the amarr assault. The overheat will always mean thatt ammandos will always be less efficient combatants than amarr assault.

Making commandos into suppressors without giving them a range advantage will always be another bloody bandaid fix.

this is not true. amarr commando is the most efficient because it takes less rounds to kill with its scrambler rifle.

i agree with you though that the suppression role without a range bonus is flawed

Let's go with the shocktrooper with a side of sustained "workhorse" support.

If we change the layout to 3/2 for min and cal, and put 2/3 for amarr and gallente we can make them a bit more balanced and keep them from locking in sentinel level HP.

Change the universal role bonus to 3% damage to racial weapon type per level.

Galmando: built for sustained combat and "shock"
+5% per level to base and sprint speed (offensive bonus)
+5% per level to armor repair modules. (Defensive bonus)

Ammando: optimized for shock and fire support.
-10% per level from speed penalty from reactive and standard plates.(defensive Bonus)
-3% per level reduction to heat buildup on laser weapons (offensive bonus), to keep amarr assaults as the bsst laser platform.

Minmando: built for shock, and skirmish combat.

+10% per level to efficacy of biotics. (Defensive bonus)
+3% increase to ammo capacity and magazine capacity. (Offensive bonus)

Calmando: built for long range suppression and counter sniper.

+5% per level to shield rechargers and energizer efficacy. (Defensive bonus)
-5% to recoil per level (offensive bonus)

Build them to be able to either hammer the crap out of things by mobility and give them the recovery to sustain the combat.

Do NOT give them more EHP.

I feel like break in has the perfect idea for commandos. The only thing I would change is to give caldari commandos a +5% to regulators and rrechargers as a bonus, as energizers count as rechargers for the purposes of calculating bonuses to those modules. Other than that, keep it exactly the same.

why not shield modules in general?

Then we would easily reach shield levels rivaling or surpassing sentinels and we want to avoid that.

They should all have an AV bonus.

Give Caldari a swarm bonus (like min) and Amarr a plasma cannon bonus (like Gal).

There we go, a defined AV role. Keep the current bonuses aswell so that AV isn't thier only role. I like the idea of an ammo bonus to promote a suppression role aswell.