My opinion is that scouts are great- like I said before, they're the only true "lone wolf" dropsuit.

In the hands of a good player, this suit is amazing. No matter if you're sniping or doing CQC, you see (and kill) everyone before they see you, and solo capture an objective while the enemy team is focused elsewhere.

All around my favorite type of suit; once I get the stats for a specialist swarm launcher, I'm going to try running scout AV

light suits are decent for sniping but you're extremely vulnerable to counter sniping because of your lack of HP. If you're going to snipe as a light suit you need to move move move. If you want to hang out in a nice spot for a while you should not use a light suit.

I've found the militia light gallente suit to be both dirt-cheap and very competitive for skirmish matches using a shotgun (even militia variant with minimal skills). My build was something like this:

basic shield extender,
militia shotgun,
basic smg,
basic grenade,
basic drop uplink,
basic armor repairer

You need to go for warpoints with hacks and team spawns, and this requires a bit of map awareness. Tactically, you need to be very aware of your surroundings. If you are, the suits speed and high burst damage will reward you. I'm talking specifically about a shotty-scout, but some of this would apply to scouts with any weapon.

The key to staying alive with a scout is this: If you don't know the situation and don't have a plan, run the hell away and get behind cover. If someone gets the drop on you (starts plinking you with in ar for example), you may die quickly. If you have time to react, spend that time running away and seeking cover rather than trying to identify your attacker. In open space its often possible to simply get outside the effective range of weapons before dying. In my build the shield extender and armor repairer are both critical. Scouts have fast shield recharge on a small shield buffer. Adding a bit more buffer in the highslot makes a difference, especially when you've gotten into cover at half armor (or survived a messy CQC engagement). 22 extra shields means 22 less armor damage taken. The extra shields will be back in a few seconds regardless, and your armor will be back to full as well at least 11s sooner because you fit it. The armor repairer should be self-explanatory. Running a suit that has 2/3's of its HP in armor without a local repairer is just planning for failure.

Most of the time however, you, as a scout, will be able to use your superior speed and sensors to choose the time and place of the engagement. As a shotty scout, you can use your wide scan radius to wait for an enemy as he rounds a corner, or tail him and sprint up behind for an easy kill (yes, even proto heavies will fall victim to a militia shotgun this way).

Scouts are fast, but they must also be patient. In my personal experience, if you don't see a clear moment of opportunity to go in for a kill, then you should always be repositioning or keeping yourself alive. Also, having a clear opportunity doesn't guarantee a kill, you can always manage to miss your close range shots and become mincemeat, but at least then you know you're playing the right way. The SMG also adds a lot of versatility, both to finish off your enemies when you only have a 6shot clip in your militia shotgun, or as a way to get assists or hit targets at mid-range without first having to close the distance or leave cover.

A shotty scout with an uplink can also be a real terror at a null cannon, on offense or defense. Discounting teammates for a moment, on offense the scout can place the uplink far enough away from the null cannon that it will survive, and still be able to close the distance after spawning reasonably quickly. The result is a single death trying to hero hack doesn't result in the opportunity being lost; you can just try again. On defense, an uplink means that dying after the hack is in isn't a total loss; you can respawn and keep fighting. Furthermore, by either hiding or respawning, you can catch them in the hack (being fast helps) and the shotgun is devastating against a stationary target. Lastly, the uplink is amazing in general. The basic one lets you have one active with another as a backup. A well placed uplink is a game-changer in skirmish (even in ambush it lets your team spawn where they won't immediately be surrounded), and can easily net you a very quick 100 war points.

light suits are decent for sniping but you're extremely vulnerable to counter sniping because of your lack of HP. If you're going to snipe as a light suit you need to move move move. If you want to hang out in a nice spot for a while you should not use a light suit.

I've found the militia light gallente suit to be both dirt-cheap and very competitive for skirmish matches using a shotgun (even militia variant with minimal skills). My build was something like this:

basic shield extender,
militia shotgun,
basic smg,
basic grenade,
basic drop uplink,
basic armor repairer

You need to go for warpoints with hacks and team spawns, and this requires a bit of map awareness. Tactically, you need to be very aware of your surroundings. If you are, the suits speed and high burst damage will reward you. I'm talking specifically about a shotty-scout, but some of this would apply to scouts with any weapon.

The key to staying alive with a scout is this: If you don't know the situation and don't have a plan, run the hell away and get behind cover. If someone gets the drop on you (starts plinking you with in ar for example), you may die quickly. If you have time to react, spend that time running away and seeking cover rather than trying to identify your attacker. In open space its often possible to simply get outside the effective range of weapons before dying. In my build the shield extender and armor repairer are both critical. Scouts have fast shield recharge on a small shield buffer. Adding a bit more buffer in the highslot makes a difference, especially when you've gotten into cover at half armor (or survived a messy CQC engagement). 22 extra shields means 22 less armor damage taken. The extra shields will be back in a few seconds regardless, and your armor will be back to full as well at least 11s sooner because you fit it. The armor repairer should be self-explanatory. Running a suit that has 2/3's of its HP in armor without a local repairer is just planning for failure.

Most of the time however, you, as a scout, will be able to use your superior speed and sensors to choose the time and place of the engagement. As a shotty scout, you can use your wide scan radius to wait for an enemy as he rounds a corner, or tail him and sprint up behind for an easy kill (yes, even proto heavies will fall victim to a militia shotgun this way).

Scouts are fast, but they must also be patient. In my personal experience, if you don't see a clear moment of opportunity to go in for a kill, then you should always be repositioning or keeping yourself alive. Also, having a clear opportunity doesn't guarantee a kill, you can always manage to miss your close range shots and become mincemeat, but at least then you know you're playing the right way. The SMG also adds a lot of versatility, both to finish off your enemies when you only have a 6shot clip in your militia shotgun, or as a way to get assists or hit targets at mid-range without first having to close the distance or leave cover.

A shotty scout with an uplink can also be a real terror at a null cannon, on offense or defense. Discounting teammates for a moment, on offense the scout can place the uplink far enough away from the null cannon that it will survive, and still be able to close the distance after spawning reasonably quickly. The result is a single death trying to hero hack doesn't result in the opportunity being lost; you can just try again. On defense, an uplink means that dying after the hack is in isn't a total loss; you can respawn and keep fighting. Furthermore, by either hiding or respawning, you can catch them in the hack (being fast helps) and the shotgun is devastating against a stationary target. Lastly, the uplink is amazing in general. The basic one lets you have one active with another as a backup. A well placed uplink is a game-changer in skirmish (even in ambush it lets your team spawn where they won't immediately be surrounded), and can easily net you a very quick 100 war points.