It’s
nearly
everyone's first class. It has the highest population of created
characters and presence in missions and PvP. It can hit for the highest
single hit damage in the game and boost it on demand, and it can have a
built-in Mortal Strike-like healing received debuff.   This
class is overpowered in many ways.

Yet, no one wants them in
Agency vs. Agency warfare.

I'm talking about the Recon, my friends. Our stealth buddy that we all
know and love. We've seen them swing from ledges, we've seen them snipe
from our spawn points. Every time we die, we see one that is running in
circles doing nothing productive. We've all encountered the ones that
are worthless.  The fact of the matter is, serious games don't
involve them.  Rather than further the hatred for them, let us
delve into the reasons why this bias exists.

 

Is there a special hatred in our hearts for them? Is there a special
stigma that prevents us from utilizing their unique skills to overwhelm
our opponents a different way? Quite possibly, in any class-based
shooter, the most popular class often gets labeled the noob class and
the skill range varies greatly. Let us take a look at what a Recon
brings to the battlefield with their unique weapons and the
effectiveness of each in AvA conflict. 

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I got your effectiveness right here,
buddy.

- style="font-style: italic;">Longest Range.
This
is only a real advantage when shooting static defenses and deployables.
Due to the shot travel time, having all of the range increasing skills
and a weapon with a massive 300m range really isn't that advantageous
after all. 

- Stealth,
with added run speed or jump power. Getting around fast is
what the jetpack is for. Ambushes are almost impossible due to every
team typically using a Sensor which detects stealth in areas where it
matters, such as behind the firing arc of allied turrets. 

- The
only real stun in the game,
and other bombs. These have a bright
red timer that says 'get away from me' and are much more noticeable and
easy to escape. This would not be so bad if they had a larger radius or
shorter cooldown than grenades for Assaults, but that is not the case.
(Even fully specialized in the infiltration tree to blow stuff up,
Recons will be hard pressed to hit anyone worth their salt with a bomb
unless it's a stationary piece of metal. Throwing two or three spaced
out is a way to clear out a point however.) 

 

This leads to two primary roles for the Recon. 

 

- Beacon
Assassin. Your goal is simply
to run around as fast as
possible, find that beacon, and snipe the hell out of it. The problem
is that beacons can be picked up and redeployed outside of your firing
arc for sniping if a nearby player is attentive, and effectively acting
as a full heal for the beacon at the same time. 

 

- Point
Clearer. You can toss 2 bombs
spaced apart from each other and
effectively send the other team off the point. The downside here is the
amount of medics in AvA can overpower this damage in a second with 2
healing waves. It will also cleanse the debuffs as well, one of the big
pluses of the Recon bombs. Still, if the other team hasn't hit critical
mass on the point, or you think you can bomb a robotics camp into
smithereens, it's worth a try. Unfortunately, it's a try on a 60 second
cooldown. 

 

The Recon does massive damage but unless the shots are back to back the
health and protection of your skilled opponents will render it
ineffective with medic healing. This may change as epic pieces of
equipment begin to flow more freely and Recons begin sniping regularly
for 1300+.  

Unfortunately,
in the mobile warfare of AvA with very little open areas to snipe
effectively, the sniper has much less presence on the battlefield. The
sword is laughable against anyone with a reaction time of less than 2
seconds, even specialized and stimmed up for it. Hopefully implants can
give the Recon new life on the battlefield, but every class will have
access to the same potency modifiers from the looks of things. So while
the recon may gain a few hundred damage on a rifle shot, a medic might
gain 30 ranged protection to tank any shots that come their
way.  

 

This writer has all the faith in the world that Hi-Rez Studios is
listening and seeing how AvA is playing out at the moment, and changes
it for the better. I can only hope it happens sooner rather than later.
Until then, time to level up those assaults and medics boys and
girls!