The fundamental problem with DUST is that most roles and a good percentage of the equipment are solutions to challenges that don't exist in the game.

The role of Scout is the solution to the challenge of sneaking through enemy lines to obtain intel, disrupt enemy communications, blow up key assets, etc.

The role of pilot is the solution to the challenge of troop transport over difficult terrain, lightning fast attacks on remote assets, feints to draw off enemy forces from key objectives, etc.

The only challenge that the current game modes supply is to kill the enemy team. You clone out the enemy team to win Ambush. You kill to clone out in Skirmish and you kill to take objectives. You take districts by cloning out the defender. The only solution needed is "Shoot the other guy in the face before he shoots you in the face". The answer to every problem is "more firepower".

The result is that only viable class is the Slayer and every other class gets measured by the yardstick made for that class, KDR. Every other class gets perverted into the slayer class. Every asset is turned into a weapon. Scouts are used on the front line to sprint and shoot the enemy in the face with a shotgun and LAVs are used to turn the enemy into road kill. Logistics suits are turned into Assault suits and dropships are used to crush mercs.

People protest that dropships and LAV's were designed for transport, but when the only challenge is killing they literally become vehicles for homicide. People recognize the symptom, but not the cause. CCP gives us one simple challenge, so players use every tool to try to solve that one problem.

The issue has been masked a great deal so far because winning doesn't matter in Instant Battles. Individual players can be ineffective because winning doesn't matter. That changes in PC where every clone counts. If you don't bring high-DPS you aren't invited. That comes down to calculating how much outgoing DPS a Logi saves vs. the amount he removes from the team.

One of the core values of New Eden is using existing assets to creatively solve challenges, yet CCP seems bent on limiting the challenges to one and restricting the ways we can solve that one. For example Dropships were coated in explosive paint to prevent pilots from using them to crush mercs and a hard flight ceiling was imposed to prevent snipers from camping roof tops.

Instead of limiting play CCP needs to add additional challenges that make the other roles viable. They can add WP rewards for flying all they want, but without a real in game challenge that requires a dropship it won't be used in a match where it matters.

When people imagine the Scout role and how cloaking might work they create scenarios in their heads about sneaking into the enemy camp and performing some form of espionage or destruction. Yet in the current game mode there will be no enemy camp to infiltrate. Everyone will be at the front in one big blob shooting each other in the face.

When I first heard about DUST I was intrigued by the RTS aspects of large complex battles. A commander in the MCC would direct the larger groups to take certain objectives or make feints, and squad leaders would determine the best way to accomplish that given the assets and skills at hand. That is the sort of play that requires the many roles that currently exist. What we currently have does not.

CCP needs to add game modes that increase the number of challenges beyond efficiency in killing if any role other than Slayer is to be viable.