JiF's Gaming Community

I've got all the unlocks I want in Assault (everything but smoke grenades and Voss) and Engineer (everything but motion mines and SAAW). And I have grenades, the two sprinting abilities, and spawn beacons. So I'm ready to start a new class, but I can't decide whether to go into recon or support. Initially I was thinking recon. I'd get explosives, camo, and the carbine. But for me the class wouldn't be usable until I got the carbine, cause I am a horrible sniper. I really want the explosives though, so I can be more useful in a Titan attack and so I can blow up vehicles Mentat-style. I know I've been blown up in tanks quite a few times by recon guys who snuck up to me while in camo, then planted the explosives, then turned the camo back on and snuck away.

So since I'd need at least 3 unlocks and a field upgrade before I'd feel comfortable playing recon, I'm thinking of going for support instead. The class would be immediately usable for me. I'm not interested in the shield at all (to me, it's just a big sign saying "here I am"). But the other unlocks are useful. As much as I hate sentry guns, I admit they have their uses especially on a Titan. Or in general to defend your flank and alert you when someone is approaching from a direction other than the direction you're looking. EMP grenades seem like they could have some interesting uses. Besides keeping enemy vehicles shut down until a teammate comes along who can take them out, I'm also intrigued by using them on Titans. I'd chuck them down the hallway instead of (or in addition to) frag grenades, to shut down enemy sentry guns and shields, and to generally disorient the enemy. And the pulse detector sounds like one of the best upgrades in the entire game to me. Nothing is more valuable than knowing where the enemy is. I've read a lot of bad things about the HMG upgrade, but that's ok cause I can always just stick with the basic LMG's.

So which one should I do? Right now I like the idea of support more than recon because it would be more useful sooner. But other than Titan defense, I'm not sure when I would use it over assault. Support's role seems largely the same as assault - take down enemy infantry. Neither class can damage vehicles. One can heal, the other can resupply. Since I love the assault kit so much (especially those rockets :-D), I'm just not sure what scenario would prompt me to choose support over assault.

Support actually can do very well on Titan assault too. Supressive fire for forward and rear flanks. Decent defenders of SLSBs. Support is third best unit for taking out out Titan counsoles. Recon and Engi being my first two chocies.

Recon is probably more fun, but its great to have Support on the Titan for covering fire, the noisey turret distracting defenders and SUPPLIES.
You can take out the consoles as support just not as fast as Recon or Engy.

I decided to go with support first. I played with it for a while last night and had some fun. I got my bronze badge for 12 kills. The key seems to be going prone and staying that way. The accuracy when standing up is awful. And the accuracy for the first few seconds after going prone is also awful. So it's not good to just flop down as soon as you see a bad guy. You have to already be prone. Thus the tactics are different from assault. Instead of running around, staying constantly in motion, moving from cover to cover, you're better off picking a protected spot at a short to medium range from your target area (the flag you're defending or attacking), and waiting for the enemy to come to you. The problem of course is that this makes you sniper bait. But no kit is perfect.

I got one promotion last night and took EMP grenades, but I haven't played with them yet. Grimp and others who have unlocked the heavy machine gun upgrade (the Ganz), what do you think of it? I've read a lot of bad things about it on various message boards. Supposedly it does more damage per shot, but at the price of even worse accuracy and a shorter time to overheating. I'm thinking that I might just do a couple more unlocks on support - the helmet and the sentry gun - and then switch over to recon.

The Ganz seems to do a better job at actually killing someone. You need to burst your shots to keep it cool. I use it all the time so I have a tendency to think its more accurate prone and crouched, but that could just be from using it more. I have gotten a few close range panic spray kills with it.
I have faced off with other support players a few times at a fairly long range and I'll bet we both went over a clip before one of us died
Then again I have faced off with a sniper up on a high roof and managed to take him down first. Most of the time if I see a sniper and they have not gotten off more than a shot or 2 I can at least make them back up and hide. I can't seem to find a sweet spot for aiming it though, so I usually have to keep the sight moving in a tiny circle. Trying to hold it dead on based on the hit indicator does not seem to work.

I got the Recon Gold badge last night attacking the Titan. Albie was in my squad and I think we kicked some arse. I checked my stats this morning but my profile doesn’t show the recon gold badge but does reflect the 1000 points and this happened before also. I like recon because of the demopaks on speeders and APMs baby! I can take out a tank with a car bomb and be racking up APM kills while driving around. Support is nice with the resupply but the sentry guns only kill the niave now that people have got wise to them. There’s some hack where I was flying around in a transport and I kept getting ammo giving points for no reason. I got out of that server contrary to smucker’s belief I like to stat-pad.

[JiF]AlbieDamned wrote: So since I'd need at least 3 unlocks and a field upgrade before I'd feel comfortable playing recon, I'm thinking of going for support instead. The class would be immediately usable for me. I'm not interested in the shield at all (to me, it's just a big sign saying "here I am").

Ahhh now your getting it Albie Ive used my "here I am" as a nice decoy before. Remember Shuia Whateveria where you and Smuckers were kicking my arse one night?? Ahh Yes SILO FOUR, (still a little sore about that one).......Anyway, Set the little red sign up by the barricades near the building, Now set up your sentry in the building pointing tword it.....you sit away like near the AA behind the LP tanks. Watch the Fools blow up your sign and then run up to see if your still behind the barricade. Your sentry gets them on one side and you get them on the other.

Also, If your already taking fire and your pinned down near a corner, set up your sign and take less damage as you slither away to a new position. Lots of sign uses....Silo 2 Suez Defending......sign up on a tower visable from the silo have a Recon drop a couple APM mines theres always a Dog Tag Collecting Fool that will try to sneak up and find the sign guy.

Besides can you say SHOTGUN (better than assualt version......my opinion)
MY 2 CENTS

BigJ - I got my engineer silver badge last night but it hasn't shown up yet either. I have the points but not the badge. So it sounds like a larger issue at EA.

Sandy - Glad you're back, man. And you're right about the shield. While its intended use is pretty weak, you can use it in unconventional ways to serve as a decoy. I hadn't thought about that.

I just checked on the official EA forums and tons of people are reporting the problem with badges, pins etc. not showing up. Seems it's been going on for a couple days. Career points are being recorded, so you're getting credit for the awards. They just aren't showing up on your awards page. Not surprisingly, despite two and a half pages full of posts on this issue, EA hasn't responded. Here's the thread: http://forums.easports.com/mboards/thre ... 5&tstart=0 I linked to page 16 which is where the complaints on this issue start.

Yes, I agree the red sign makes a great decoy. It attracts invisible Recons like a bug zapper.

[JiF]Sandretzky wrote:SHOTGUN (better than assualt version......my opinion)
MY 2 CENTS

You're absolutely correct on that one!!
Welcome back man!

Thanks, nice to be back

My awards just started showing up. And I just magically gained over 500 career points. So I'm guessing that we're getting the career point credit a second time when the award shows up.

My favorite reward is the problem solver pin. Of all the non flying stuff I figured it would be long in coming if ever. The same round I also got the power core thingy. Now that I have looked at the awards a little closer, I relize I may have to do it again to get the gold badge once I get 40 consoles destroyed. And yes I do have fun picking on Big J and his choice of servers