Squad Leader Archive
Thread: Squad Leader CU Regresses the profession
Moonkat wrote:
You can't be a brawler for more of a self-defense aspect, you can't be a rifleman to help attack from a distance, you can't be a carbineer to control a crowd rushing your command position, you can't be a commando to oversee heavy weapons attack - you have to be a pistoleer.
The best leading you can do in a group is to be aware of the situation of all group members and not actually be in the thick of fighting yourself. A command perspective gives you the big picture that makes you a more effective leader. This change to squad leader has set the profession further back than it was to begin with, and it needs to be changed.
It is bad for the prof the current state of the proffession. And it is important as Lil points out, to look past the respec time. Imagine starting on a new server from scratch. Getting MSL would necessitate either smuggler, bh, or pistoleer to get you to MSL because group won't want you taking up a slot and providing little benefit to teh group. (byproduct of teh 8 person limit)
And with limited functional specials in SL we as a profession have little value added. Volleyfire is useful, rally, but most of our stuff seems out of place.
I was one of the first Master Squad Leaders on Ahazi a few months after release day. I kept the prof for over a year and I saw some of my best moments as an MSL.
It broke my heart when the exp was changed and made a joke. It broke my heart to see the Holo Grinders do the prof in a single buff session whereas it had takenweeks - months - to master.
And now.. They've removed SL exp. Period. Great. I did respec back to MSL, though. I needed to. I needed to go back to something that was really familiar to me.. but the prof is even more alienated from me now. Sigh.
Unfortunately, its not just us. They removed slicing, spices, and a lot of other unique exp forms for one reason or another. It makes no sense to me.
Sadly, not even our Squad Leader correspondent agreed, he seemed to favor the new system although the old one was more fun, interesting, and group/social encouraging and did not require pistoleer. A simple nerf in SL xp output would have been sufficient.
I don't know if it had make a difference but still I don't get it that our own correspondent did not try to keep up the old system (at least I never read that he said so).
Also, SL got even more useless now as some people already wrote (such as /formup when people can use dizzy recover) and even worse, there are so many stickies in this board and most are totally outdated (one still says you need SL xp and people already start asking why they dont get any at all right now). So where is Irott? We need him more than ever now, as well as we urgently need our SL revamp!!!
The only command that i see as not being that great is boost morale, but only because i havent seen anyone really get any wounds so far, certainly nothing that would need to be spread out to the whole group. And rally and volleyfire are nice as always.
That added with the multi group functionality and the group bonuses make SL worth having i think. The pistols thing is a bit of a drag though, perhaps since theres a carbine and rifle for SL's as well, they should make it use any of the three
JediVulcan wrote:
They had to pick a weapon, but IMO, i think they will add another weapon to that mix, ranged. Squad Leaders have to be leading a squad not tanking. Pistol XP is the best weapon IMO to do this. It has the right type of moves. Imagine if you could advance SL with carbine and rifle xp. A master rifleman and SL would be to powerful. Same with carbine. I think they did well in choosing pistol for now. It's better than being forced to group in large groups and succeeding. SL was not popular because it required groups and the grouping system was borked.
On a side note, SL now only requires 2 different basic trees and so it is much easier to obtain Novice. It also allows you to do other things, like combat medic or other variance that is helpful to an entire group.
Why is pistol better than Carbine or Rifle? I still can master both I just do it out of order. Get MSL first then regrind with my powerful SL weapons.
This comes out of my beliefe that teh Devs really don't know what they want SL to be like. It is a great concept, but has never really been fleshed out. A SL should be any other ranged profession. I have a MSL/Cabineer of live, as well as a MSL/BH on live (2 servers). And I wouldn't say eitehr is "too powerful" BH/Commando, now THAT is power.
I've been a Ranger and Handler for quite a while, and I've just earned both Master licenses. I'm also a Marksman 0404. I'd like to turn in my Pistols certificates and begin learning Squad Leader 0300. I have enough combat and pistol experience to get to 0100. However, after that, I'll have no way to save up enough pistol experience to progress because of the pistol experience cap.
I don't want toforge documents (respec). I'd rather just earn it, and I don't care if it takes a long time. Is there any way to do that without first becoming a pistoleer?
Also, am I correct in assuming that Ranged Support is still a requirement for Squad Leader, despite what the training manual says?