​Hello!
Here's some feedback after 40 hours of PTS and 500 hours of base game.
We played Absolute with different class and weapon combinations.

PRESTIGE PERK & CLASS PERK FEEDBACK:

Overall they are a great addition and love the idea of them. They aren't overpowered like we feared but still nice rewards for playing your favorite class. In some cases they can even cover for a classes weakness such as on the Heavy or offer some nice quality of life features like with Tactical.

HEAVY​

There was a point when people complained that Heavy needed a melee weapon, this was never needed but the devs still delivered with the prestige perks. The melee perks allows Heavy to clear surrounding minoris enemies with 1-3 hits. The other options are also great giving the class a way to recover ammo for the secondary and negating debuffs with the Iron Halo. Overall Heavy got great prestige perks that give him a great clear option without having to waste ammo.
It should also be mentioned that the Heavy already has an insane ranged dps so if the damage were to be buffed we'd have another grenade launcher situation in our hands where one player clears everything in seconds while the rest just watch.

SNIPER​

While the Sniper's prestige perks aren't anything crazy we still feel that they are solid enough to buff the classes secondary which realistically was the one thing they could buff without tuning the already high ranged dmg into the stratosphere. The class is already one of the best carry classes in the game so buffing the secondary and giving some more defensive tools feels good. No real change needed here.
One change i would suggest for the sake of choice in "build variety" is for the "Emperor's Grace" prestige perk to switch places with "Ambush" or "Persistence". Currently there is no real competition in the 3rd gear perk row because "Lingering Concealment" seems to be the one people usually pick.


BULWARK

Again not much bad to say here, boosting ammo recovery and ranged damage are the few things that Bulwark desperately needed. "Masterful Defence" on paper seems crazy strong but its hard to say without being able to test it, but from experience Snipers and Vanguard ability cooldown reduction perks are some of the best perks in the game. 
"Resilient" seems like a rather odd choice for a class who 90% run the "Invigorating Icon" perk making the 25% buff to stimms rather useless. If the healing banner was ever to be removed or changed this would be a great pick but for now it feels like it could be changed to something like 20% more damage with a Chainsword/Powersword.

VANGUARD​

The greatest carry class in the game and the better Assault. All his perks are great with one exception. "Exigency Charge" seems feels rather weak for 15% cooldown reduction seems rather weak for someone living on 25% hp, not to mention most Vanguards run "Adrenaline Rush" and the best perk in the game "Unmatched Zeal" which both heal you for a staggering 35% on extremis executions. Even in the rare case that someone wasn't running the two healing perks, "Exigency Charge" still seems rather weak compared to all the other amazing prestige perks that Vanguard got.

ASSAULT (The true hard mode)

Poor Vespasius is still the saddest Assault Marine to exist in the 40k setting. You need to put three times the effort to do as well as the other five classes. Out of his seven prestige perks only two are good, two are decent and rest don't really even fill a niche for the class. Starting with the good and decent ones. Indomitable Spirit, Practiced Aim are the two good ones while Commendation is decent but very situational and Scrambled Targeting has the potential to give the class some "survivability" but it still falls kinda flat.
"Boosted Charge" just feels pointless on a class with already three armor slots.
"Duellist" is okay if you cannot parry but most people who have beaten the campaign should already be good enough at it. Not to mention "fencing" type weapons exist.
"Fortitude", 15% hp increase is nothing when a Venom Cannon Tyranid Warrior shoots you down the moment you press ground pound.

What Assault needs is ways to recover contested health (Plasma Pistol does help a bit), ability cooldown reduction and even downright invulnerability on ability usage.
Off-topic but i do feel that Vanguards "Unmatched Zeal" perk would make more sense on Assault as Vanguard already has "Adrenaline Rush" for recovery.

TACTICAL​

Not much to say here. Tactical may have gotten the best line of prestige perks. Headshot damage, more ammo, cooldown reduction and quality of life in "Second Look". Perks like "Steel Within" could use a small bump to increase the 15% health damage reduction to 25% and "Exigency Charge" should probably activate at 50% health instead of 25%.

WEAPON PERKS & RECOUPMENT

For the most part there aren't many that stick out but they are way better than before. Not that the weapon perks should be huge game changers to begin with. There is however a certain perk on some bolt weapons that might be the greatest thing to happen this whole patch for ranged classes and that is "Recoupment". This single weapon perk makes ranged combat even more fun than it was before and should probably be something incorporated into every class/weapon.
People say that every class needs health regen. I disagree, i think more ways to recover armor should be the future for the game and "Recoupment" proves this. Currently in the base game the only way recover armor is by parries, finishers or waiting 30 seconds. None of which are great choices when fighting ranged enemies who will tear you to shreds if you are out in the open. Being rewarded for good gameplay is a great feeling in any game and what better reward to give than armor, not as valuable as health but helps with survivability immensly.

INFERNO PISTOL & NEW WEAPON CHOICES​

Inferno Pistol fills a great role for classes who got, a pocket sized melta. Does its job and decent enough damage for a secondary. Only annoying thing is its gun strike range which is quite short. Other than that no complaints. 
Heavy Bolt Rifle on Heavy is a cool idea but it just feels like a poorman's Heavy Bolter. Looks nice but feels useless. Maybe like others have said, Heavy should get his own variant of the gun.
Giving Plasma Pistol and Heavy Bolt Pistol to other classes is very nice! Would wish that the secondaries were universal. Wouldn't be gamebreaking and would add that small personal touch to people's marines.
As a final wish Tactical could get the Power Sword. No real reason besides would look cool.

Think that's all.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
For the High Lords of Terra....i mean the Emperor!

​The appearance of the heavy bolt pistol on all classes, made the regular bolt pistol a choice that will never be made, in general in the game now 2 weapons that are absolutely useless are the bolt pistol and the auto bolt rifle. Well, the power sword suffers a little in its fast form

nikof135 wrote:

​The appearance of the heavy bolt pistol on all classes, made the regular bolt pistol a choice that will never be made, in general in the game now 2 weapons that are absolutely useless are the bolt pistol and the auto bolt rifle. Well, the power sword suffers a little in its fast form

Gotta disagree with HBP making the regular bolt pistol useless as it still has higher ammo capacity, magazine size and rate of fire, making it the better choice for dealing with termagants and cultists. While HBP feels better at killing majoris/extremis enemies.
Auto Bolt Rifle tho. Yeah gotta agree with it being an actual useless weapon that doesn't even fill a niche.

​

Aamukahvi wrote:

HEAVY​

There was a point when people complained that Heavy needed a melee weapon, this was never needed but the devs still delivered with the prestige perks. The melee perks allows Heavy to clear surrounding minoris enemies with 1-3 hits. The other options are also great giving the class a way to recover ammo for the secondary and negating debuffs with the Iron Halo. Overall Heavy got great prestige perks that give him a great clear option without having to waste ammo.
It should also be mentioned that the Heavy already has an insane ranged dps so if the damage were to be buffed we'd have another grenade launcher situation in our hands where one player clears everything in seconds while the rest just watch.

I could not disagree with this take more. I am going to assume that you play all of the classes a little given your feedback on so many classes. Please consider that there are players who enjoy the Heavy class specifically because it lacks the capacity for melee combat and can therefore be balanced around performing in ranged combat. These players, like myself, specifically enjoy the fact that the Heavy class uniquely eschews melee combat in favor of dealing out punishing heavy weapons fire.

There are 5 other classes to play for players that wish to weave wading into melee into their shooting cadence. If you like that playstyle, please stick to one of those instead of advocating that the Heavy should join them.

With respect to your other comments regarding the Heavy being too powerful if his ranged damage were buffed and that he can save ammo instead of 'wasting' it on minoris enemies, making these melee perks a good thing for the class. Why not instead give the Heavy perks centering around ammo conservation and retention for his primary weapon, allowing him all of the dakkaing goodness he wants, regardless of the enemy, all while preserving the modus of play enjoyed by many (if not most) Heavy class mains. This option also would not cause the Heavy to produce more ranged damage, it would just allow him to lean into what damage he can already do more reliably.

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i´m 100% with you in terms of damage increases on heavy. just having a tactical with the 15% ranged damage teamperk on the team opens up so many breakpoints on heavy plasma, you are right about more damage on heavy throwing the balance out of whack. however, the melee perks are god awful. at most they should give him one melee perk, not having it be so many that you absolutely have to take at least one. the debuff removal on iron halo activation is also pretty horrible. he should get some more defensive buffs (he has 4 plates in pvp, something that goes in that direction), some cooldown reduction stuff or some small amount of ammo recovery would go a long way.