(This is not an aimless complaint post! This is an overview of Assault vs Vanguard to help identify areas for improvement.)

The Assault class has a lack of design cohesion and no room for error as a player.

Playing the Assault class to 25 and dabbling in Ruthless (unsuccessfully) versus just starting to level the Vanguard, it is painfully clear why the Assault is so frustrating. There is a startling lack of defensive, or good offensive, class perks. The Vanguard is so exceptionally well designed to play as a high risk, high reward combat style. The Assault is a highly complicated, melee, glass cannon that requires perfection to compete. Almost all of the posts I stumble across stating Assault is fine are those posting videos taking virtually zero hits or getting hit 1-3 times over an entire operation. This makes sense as those that can master never being touched can excel at making the Assault a deadly force because they are avoiding the majority of the shortcomings.

Assault perks, in their current (20250305) state, feel like they were put in as placeholder values or copied-then-changed-slightly from Vanguard or Bulwark. It looks like there was an attempt to allow building around Melee's Charged Attacks (:coughThunderHammercough:), but none of the supporting defensive perks are there. Additionally, it feels like the Assault was intended to focus on Armour Segments as the 'survival resource', while the Vanguard is almost exclusively using Health (based on the huge amount of Health Damage reduction and healing).

Before I start going point by point, there is one glaring issue affecting all classes (but Assault extremely hard): ​THERE IS A SYNC BUG BETWEEN THE CONTROLLER STATE AND GAME STATE! On all classes, I've noticed that when I try to activate two things (Attack + Jump Pack) at once or get staggered immediately as I activate but before it "triggers" (Jump Pack), the controller state seems to treat the button like it's held down and DOES NOT FUNCTION but the game state is clearly not matching (controller says I activated Jump Pack and refuses to accept more input, the game shows me running away while I spam 'Q' to no effect).

Combat Style

Assault looks like it might have been planned with two distinct playstyles in mind, one being aggressively offensive melee focused (proactive) and the other being defensively focused on Parry/Dodge into Gun Strike chains (reactive). Neither setup utilizes the Block mechanic!

Vanguard feels like it focuses on a more aggressive, front lines playstyle but has the supporting perks to make it happen.

Assault: The Melee focused setup feels built almost exclusively for the Thunder Hammer, which would be fine if the supporting perks were there. The frustrating part is the protection from loss of control or knockbacks only come while charging a melee attack or for 10 seconds after a Ground Pound (base cooldown 60 seconds). While actually executing the Charged Attack, the protection from Perseverance is removed and we get smacked around. 

Vanguard: Melee damage bonuses are more sparse, but the supporting defensive and Healing-on-Kill perks make it much more viable. It also has the ability to go toe-to-claw with greater ease given the massive bonuses to damage reduction and avoidance.

Assault: The Gun Strike focused setup feels a bit more durable until one needs to handle crowds, which is where it becomes tedious and mostly hurry-up-and-wait. The Jump Pack would be an acceptable solution to this problem, were it more than a cooldown to buff damage briefly.

Vanguard: They can increase Dodge and Parry windows by 50%, immunity to loss of control/knockback after Perfect Parry, Dodge, or Block(!) for 10 seconds, 20% less Health Damage after Perfect Parry, Dodge, or Block(!) for 5 seconds, and doubled Perfect Dodge window when below 50% health. This makes Gun Strikes significantly easier to setup.

For comparison on dodge windows: Substantial+ has 0.13s, Assault has ​0.195s, Vanguard has ​0.195s or ​0.39s if below 50% Health (assuming defensive perks).

Signature Ability

This is where the post gets a bit less gentle as the Jump Pack is frustrating at the best of times and outright useless at the worst. It feels weird to have a lot of the Assault damage built around the Jump Pack being used defensively (and perfectly), but much less useful things outside of that.

Assault is one of the least (if not the least) reliable options due to dropping right back down in place, being MELEE'D to death while in the air, the pitiful travel distance, and the failure to function as expected (dodging instead of ascending). The Gear perks focus on either using the Jump Pack offensively for Ground Pound attacks or only to stack temporary damage bonuses via Perfect Dodge. The latter of which are completely disregarded if a Perfect Dodge isn't executed using a Jump Pack charge. It is possible to focus on using the Jump Pack for mitigation and disruption, but the loss of damage feels too extreme to make it an option.

1. Ground Pound: Stacking Precision Strike + Zealous Blow + Pride in Duty can help in bursting down a Majoris or Extremis
2. Perfect Dodge: Stacking Precision Strike + Wings of Flame + Aerial Grace + Commitment can lead to huge, but brief damage bonuses if a Perfect Dodge is executed with the Jump Pack.
3. Mitigation: Stacking Hammer of Wrath + Maneuverability + Diligence for minor ranged damage reduction (15s reduction, 48s cooldown) and extra fully prepared Ground Pound damage.

Vanguard has the ability to select a target at close to mid range and stagger (or execute) while being entirely immune through the process. It can be used in a variety of combinations to great effect.

1. AOE Damage: Stacking Collateral Damage + Zone of Impact + Combat Readiness allows one to damage everything on the path to the target and damaging everything near the hooked target.
2. Increasing Damage Output/Dealt: Stacking Collateral Damage + Tip of the Spear + Grim Determination allows one to take hit all foes on the path to the target, make those same foes take 15% more Ranged Damage for 10 seconds, and increase Weapon Damage by 15% when fully on cooldown.
3. Increase Survivability: Stacking Restless Fortitude + Zone of Impact + Thrill of the Fight reduces Ranged Damage taken by 40% for 10s, damaging all enemies near an Diving Kick executed target, and reducing Health Damage taken by 20% for 5 seconds after a Perfect Parry, Dodge, or Block(!)

Team Support

This is another area where Assault feels just generic and passive, while the Vanguard has massive bonuses through active play.

Assault feels like it only has one useful Team perk, until Absolute and its 3 Extremis spawns, and that is Proven Efficiency. Squad Cohesion is bland, Strategic Strikes is situationally useful in that Terminus enemies are much less melee friendly (feels like this is only for Ground Pound attacks), and Proven Efficiency helps everyone.

1. Squad Cohesion - All Squad Members' Abilities recharge 10% faster
2. Strategic Strikes - All Squad Members deal 20% more Melee Damage against Extremis- and Terminus-level enemies
3. Proven Efficiency - All Squad Members deal 30% more Gun Strike Damage

Vanguard gets a global melee damage bonus against all enemies, free stim when executing an Extremis/Terminus enemy, or Ability Charge cooldown reduction on Majoris+ finishers (with Majoris accounting for 70% or greater of the enemies fought).

1. Melee Champion - All Squad Members deal 15% more Melee Damage
2. Unmatched Zeal - Melee Finishers of Extremis- or Terminus-level enemies additionally restore Health by 30% for any Squad Member
3. Inner Fire - All Squad Members can restore Ability Charge by 15% by performing Finishers on Majoris-level or higher enemies

How to address this?

​Define the Assault class as something other than a miscellaneous collection of unfocused perks. 

My suggestion to the above is to make the Assault lean fully into Armour Segments, focus the melee into less gimmicky Charge->Dodge->Charge, buff team crowd-handling, and let the Jump Pack be used both offensively and defensively with perks specializing (not penalizing) in either direction.

Minimum Requirements

1. Bake 'Non-Finisher Gun Strikes restore 1 Armour Segment' into the Class Perk.
2. Fix the takeoff and flying height. 
   1. If the Tzaangor Enlightened can easily zip around multiple layers while doing melee & ranged attacks, the Jump Pack can too!
3. Add invulnerability frames during takeoff and during Ground Pound (during descent and until the player is controllable again), but leave the "at full height" open to being shot (NOT MELEE'D).
4. Add some form of loss of control/knockback immunity to delivering charged attacks too! 
   1. Being immune until starting to deliver before being immediately knocked down wastes the risk taken to charge or fully charge a melee attack.

The suggested alterations have suggested values as I do not claim to have all knowing knowledge, nor do I have access to that hot, delicious data that Saber does. They are opinionated and possibly hilariously out of touch in places, but hopefully this will spawn some kind of conversation about the Assault class!

Lastly, the prefixing [Thing,#] indicates the grouping and the column number (counting left to right).

Suggested Alterations

1. [Core, 1] Alter 'Armour Reinforcement' to something akin to "Restore an additional Armour Segment on executions or Perfect Block detonations", swap with 'Overcharge' (making this accessible sooner).
2. [Core, 2] Alter 'Auxiliary Arsenal' to double this bonus against flying enemies (or perhaps Extremis+).
   1. Dealing with Zoanthropes, Neurothropes, and Tzaangor Enlightened is a massive pain point if in a melee heavy group or low/no ammo evenly split team.
3. [Core, 2] Replace 'Retribution' with something akin to "You take 20% less Melee Damage".
   1. This provides some much needed breathing room to make melee combat feel less "1 hit, 1 respawn".
4. [Core, 3] Alter 'Perseverance' to grant immunity to loss of control/knockbacks for 10s after an execution, replacing current effect.
   1. This provides a benefit across the board, instead of only those with spammable Charge Attacks.
5. [Core, 3] Alter 'Knowledge of the Enemy' to increase melee damage by 15% against Majoris+ enemies.
6. [Core, 3] Alter 'Act of Attrition' to last for 5 seconds, but stack up to 40% so long as the enemy is struck at least once every five seconds.
7. 1. This addresses the need to waste Jump Pack on Dodging for similar bonuses. It also encourages aggressive melee play to deal DPS race down targets (high risk, high reward).
8. [Team] Rework 'Squad Cohesion' with "Increase Equipment Charges by 1" and/or "Equipment Damage and radius increased by 25%".
   1. This helps the Assault bring swarm support without directly rolling around in the swarm.
9. [Team] Alter 'Strategic Strikes' to also include 10-20% less Melee Damage taken from those same enemies types.
10. [Gear, 1] Alter 'Smiting Angel' to also include Ground Pound radius increase of 25-50%.
11. [Gear, 1] Alter 'Hammer of Wrath' to reduce Ranged Damage taken by 20-30% for 10 seconds, removing the immunity to loss of control/knockback.
    1. Maybe swap the names of 'Smiting Angel' and 'Hammer of Wrath'?
12. [Gear, 2] Swap 'Maneuverability' and 'Wings of Flame' positions, making the cooldown reduction accessible much earlier to learning characters.
13. [Gear, 2] Rework 'Zealous Blow' to restore 10% of a charge on Majoris+ execution, disregarding the requirement for a Ground Pound.
14. [Gear, 3] Rework 'Diligence' to be the inverse of 'Pride in Duty', similar to "After a Ground Pound, deal 15-25% more Melee Damage for 10 seconds".
15. [Signature] Replace 'Ascension' with almost anything else.
    1. Maybe damage increase based on height of take off, with max height being 200%?
16. [Signature] Rework 'Commitment' to reduce the number of Jump Pack Ability Charges to 1, but all Perfect Dodges become Jump Pack Perfect Dodges.
    1. This removes the frustrating tradeoff of risking a one minute cooldown for a paltry 10 seconds of extra damage. Successfully making the dodge would restore the charge, but failing felt significantly too punishing.

Hopefully this helps spawn some conversation, even constructively critical commentary of the post as a whole. 

For the Emperor!

Here are the perks as the exist today (20250305). 

​

I posted in the Ideas forum about having a perk option to significantly cut JP cooldown time (to like 3-4 sec). Just being able to move around the maps & avoid damage would make it much more viable, especially in higher difficulties.

Its crazy to me they're so afraid of making the class OP meanwhile Vanguard is just better in every respect. I have to be perfect when I'm playing Assault meanwhile I can just switch off as Vanguard knowing the melta + perks can make up for any shortcomings in gameplay. I think this is another one of those cases where they only look at statistics and don't play higher difficulties with the class.

I don't think jump pack dodge should use a charge just to start with.

 The Vanguard is so exceptionally well designed to play as a high risk, high reward combat style
What is this High Risk High Reward combat style you are talking about? 

​

Thorne wrote:

Thanks for this great writeup!
Your wording here - the Assault's identity is the fundamental source of the issues is interesting. For context I've put 20 or so hours into Assault, I can hang with most people on lethal provided I'm fighting 'Nids (Chaos is another can of worms).

It seems to me that the Assault has a tremendous amount of potential for fun play as the "mobility" class, but aside from the ground slam mechanic, the class really hasn't been fleshed out, not enough to have a strong identity in any case. There are a number of Youtubers who have been showcasing the Wings of Flame build in private games where the timings are more consistent; the build looks really spectacular but it's not well tuned enough for people to adopt it on the public servers en masse.

In order to flesh out the classes identity it's important to provide a number of builds that are equally viable AND fun. For example, Sniper class has the traditional long range sniper build, and the cloak and dagger stealth and stab build (with SMG for good measure), both of which are a ton of fun. To that end, tactical can also be successfully be played in a number of different ways.

So how to round out Assault?

1. Jetpack Slam build (already exists, and mostly works)
2. Build that emphasis horizontal mobility (aka the Jetpack dash) as the main playstyle

In order to enable number 2 the class mechanics need to be tweaked - right now even if you're full specced for Wings of Flame build its consistent enough to be fun in high difficulties on public servers, and not quite powerful enough to compete with block hammer/fist jetpack slam build either. Some suggestions to enable jetpack dash styles are:

1. Make jetpack dash perks that have an one effect for regular jetpack dash and proc an improved effect for perfect dodge jetpack dash - that way if you botch the timing because the servers are wonky it's still worth the use of a precious fuel point.
2. Make two or three different perks for dash builds that change how jetpack dash plays while being useful enough to make a build around them (maybe on confers 40% reduced ranged damage for 10 sec on regular dash, and makes you un-targetable to ranged attacks for 10 sec on perfect jet pack dodge).
3. A more 'status quo' quick fix would be to make jetpack dash cost half a fuel point, this allows for four dashes, and if you're needing to perfect jetpack dodge to proc the ability those extra opportunities are important given how inconsistent timing can be.

Verticality & traversal are supposed to be the assault class' calling card. The game misses the mark in ops, & I'm just crossing my fingers it'll be rectified in horde.

I feel strongly to the contrary. Assault is a high risk high reward class with the thunder-hammer. It can be very difficult to play when learning windup times and when invulnerability frames are. The melee damage output possible with an assault is much higher than any other class. I do feel that the new (welcome) power-sword addition is a little underwhelming when used with assault vs. bulwark but I don't feel that there is an identity issue.

Actually, you know what. Assault is perfect. Some jump pack I frames would be nice and the powers-sword is strait up worse compared to the other options with assault but other than that it is perfect.