A better Assault

You have some interesting ideas. I like playing assault but the survivability is harder for me on higher difficulties. I like the idea about having another pistol as the "primary" for assault. What about the following ideas for prestige perks for assault?

1. Prestige Perk that generates contested health (maybe 5%) on a fully prepared ground pound. Fully preparing a ground pound is a high risk, high reward play style and because it is contested health then some enemies must be around which means it is inherently more risky. If that would not be practical then maybe this "ground pound contested health" could only be recovered if a majoris is killed...or 2 majoris enemies are killed...or something like that. 
2. Prestige Perk that, for a fully prepared ground pound with the Thunder Hammer, could result in a shock grenade at the point of impact that lasts for 5 seconds (similar to the shock grenade that Bulwark has on the parry with the defensive advantage core perk). I would prefer no cooldown and a shorter duration or less damage but the cooldown, damage dealt to enemies, and cool down could be modified for balancing. 
3. Prestige Perk that restores ammo if 10 enemies are killed in "rapid succession" with maybe a 30 second cooldown like Tactical's "Emperor's Vengeance". The assault struggles with ammo economy and this could reward an aggressive playstyle with more ammo.
4. Prestige Perk so that the jump pack dash only uses half of the total charge. This would mean it's not so punishing if you miss the timing on the "perfect dodge" and you have the various perks selected (i.e., commitment, aerial grace, wings of flame) for the "jump pack dash" build. I could live with losing half of my charge but losing an entire charge when I only have 2 is too punishing for me so I never select those perks.
5. Prestige Perk that allows you to get, if your armor is already full (i.e., you already have 3 armor bars), 2 armor bar and up to a total of 4 (if you already have 3 then you would get a 4th armor bar) if you kill 10 enemies in "rapid succession" with ground pound. This could also maybe have a 30 second cool down. Maybe this could be on other classes as well. Maybe Vanguard and Sniper because they only have 2 armor bars by default.

I understand that the developers don't want the prestige perks to be "must have" for the higher difficulties, but I think some of the potential perks mentioned above would be "must have"...not because they are so powerful...but because they would be so fun to use that even players that don't currently like assault would level up assault to play with these perks. So maybe the developers can think about perks that would be so fun to use that they are "must have"...but not because they are so powerful that you need them for the highest difficulties.

Hello battle brother. Thank you for the feedback. Let me address each point one by one.

1. I agree that having a way to restore health would be a must on Assault, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing in my opinion. There are 7 prestige perks so choosing this one prestige perk still allow 3 others to be chosen. Also, just because Vanguard also has a way to heal also doesn't make it a bad thing. Also...Bulwark has invigorating icon and the Sniper has purification which restores all contested health. I still play as all of these classes...primarily because they have those mechanisms described. I like your idea of killing 5 enemies to get 10% contested health with a cool down and it is similar to other mechanics already in the game but I would have more fun using the fully prepared ground pound to generate contested health and recovering it if you get a certain amount of kills.

2. I agree that ground pound is already good and I'm fine with it the way it is. This suggestion I made is to offer players more variability in how existing mechanics can be used. Having the ability to enable a shock grenade would be a prestige perk so you don't have to choose it...but I think it would be fun to use. Prestige perks, in my opinion, are not simply about "fixing something that's broken" but are also about offering additional tools and mechanics that are fun to use. If not ground pound then maybe on the aftershock or the other charged heave attack with the Thunder Hammer.

3. I think what many people forget is how many people play this game alone. The bots are there but they are not very helpful many times and therefore the mechanics need to be built with both the team aspect and solo players in mind. There are some enemies such as the Zoanthropes that are very difficult on higher difficulties for some classes (i.e., Bulwark and Assault) because of the ammo issue. Don't forget that the replayability comes from being able to use different play styles. Virtually no one is going to try to make Assault be primarily a ranged damage dealer like Heavy or Sniper but having the ability to also do ranged damage without running out of ammo all the time would add more variety and more replayability in my opinion.

4. Agreed. Jump pack dash should only use half of the charge. I can live with missing a jump pack dodge if I only lose half my charge.

5. The additional armor plate (i.e., 4) is just to add to the variety of how the class can be played. I think the perks need to be substantive enough so that everyone is not picking the same thing. The only way to do that is not to nerf the existing perks but to make others that people actually want to use.