Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Despite appearances, the Assault class is much more than a minigun meatshield.

Ten Ton Hammer:  Do Assault class players have any kind of ability to shield themselves? What other kinds of clickable abilities do Assault class players have?

Todd: They can shield themselves, it's device-based, which is how we do our weapons and abilities, basically, we boil all that down into equippable devices that are unlocked and equipped per mission. Being large and in the middle of the action, they do make big targets. All classes have an out-of-combat self-heal, but that's really typically used more in PvE since, in PvP, if you're caught using it in the wrong place, you're toast.

But Assaults definitely have the most personal shielding technology available. Again, I could choose to equip a shield to protect against ranged damage or another to protect against AoE. We even have another shield called "Perfect Target" that makes me immune to damage for a little while - it's a bubble mechanic where I can't use other devices, but I'm drawing aggro and I can move immune for a little while. So they definitely have a majority of the shielding tech.

Ten Ton Hammer: Do all or most of these shields move with you, or are they deployed in a static location?

Todd: It's essentially moving with you. Robotics has a forcefield that they use to protect an area while they're setting up a turret or medical crate, for instance. But Assault has a personal shield that moves with the character.

Ten Ton Hammer: Speaking of movement, do Assaults move slower than other classes? Does using your jetpack take a greater chunk out of your power pool than it might for other classes?

Todd: They do move slower than other classes by default and, by the way, Recon is a little quicker. They don't use a lot more power when they jet around, but many of their weapons draw more power. One of the things we balance for is the amount of damage per power unit used, and the Assault weapons do a lot of damage. So, again, Assault players really have to manage their power pools carefully.

Ten Ton Hammer: That being the case, this is a class that initially looks pretty easy and straightforward to play, but when you get into power management, you really need to be smart and pace yourself as you jump into the fray.

Todd: Definitely, it makes the first impression of being somewhat of a lumbering brute, but there's definitely a lot of player skill involved, and we see major differences between veteran Assault players and new ones. The  first key is just having the player motivation to be in the middle of the action, whether that's being the first to charge at the control point in PvP or facing off against a giant robot in PvE. But beyond that basic tactic, being able to protect your medic or drawing and maintaining aggro in PvE, pacing your power consumption and making sure you take time to recover - there's a number of tactics that an experienced Assault player will employ.

Ten Ton Hammer: What are the more creative and effective tactics you've seen with the Assault class?

Several playstyles are viable for smart Assault players.

Todd: One of our artists, Rick, plays with the rocket launcher. He stays quite far from the point, but he manages to have a decent win percentage, so he's doing something right.  If you can withstand all of your teammates yelling at you to get on the point, it might be an interesting way to play. (laughter) Also, they can be very effective at taking out turrets through a combination of their shields, but it's pretty tricky since you often have turrets covering other turrets covering players. But through their combination of heavy weaponry, shielding technology, and carefully managing their power pool, they can often approach turrets from a very deliberate direction. That's the opposite of just rushing on point and standing there and turning 360 clearing out opponents, which is also a valid playstyle. You've got to be really deliberate in your path towards the turret, time your shield use, watch your power use, and then you can take out turrets and make way for a different class to get on point. So that's a little bit outside convention but it's proved effective.

Ten Ton Hammer: We've talked about natural pairings between the Global Agenda classes, and obviously the medic augments Assault's capabilities. Apart from just pumping health into the Assault, are there other kinds of interactions going on there?

Todd: There are other options there. The Medic can choose to focus all their healing on the Assault and rely on the Assault to cover him or her. Or the Medic can take a bio-feedback gun, which has a right click option to heal the medic but isn't as powerful at healing in general. So if the Medic isn't feeling all that reliant on their partner, that's an option. There are other options where the Medic can actually buff the Assault's damage instead of healing, too. So those are a few variations on the pairing?

Ten Ton Hammer: Cool, thanks for giving us some insight into the Assault class. It's actually a much deeper class than I thought it would be.

Todd: Yea, it's a lot of fun to play. It's the one I recommend for beginners, but there's people that have started with it and have stuck with it because you can do a lot of different things. Especially in PvE - just dealing out the AoE damage and watching the android enemy fodder go flying just never gets old.

Ten Ton Hammer thanks Todd Harris and the Global Agenda team for this look at the Assault class. Come back next week for a look at the Medic class!