I like this suggestion, though if there's a movement speed increase it probably should be low, because stacking it with mercurial could result in some serious walking speed (though it would be funny).

i agree with him
in lock down i usually ( honestly speaking always)go out in recon and after a sneak cured mark the cloak breaks quickly and i am like a duck in a hunting field when the hunters are all infront of me. we move slower than others that true we need a movement speed increase.

I've played around with the movement speed buff as well, and while it doesn't make much of a difference walking normally, it allows you to move at 100% normal movement speed while charging a bomb and being cloaked as recon. Imagine what it would be like with mercurial set, gunners might be able to charge up with no movement speed penalty.

I would not complain if this were to happen though, as recon is my most used class. It's just that with this guardians might fall short, just like how recon is now. The way things are now, guardians have a hard time fighting me because once they get close enough to do anything, I simply cloak and it's back to square one for them. Their shield is taken down with ease as well. If Recon were to receive this buff, it would be good if guardian got one as well.

If a recon were cloak with a medium movement speed bonus, they would move at the same speed as a walking Guardian/Striker, so they would not be able to catch up. If they uncloaked, maybe, but the difference as we know is not all that big when it comes to normal walking. This of course is taking into account that the recon is not wearing mercurial. Most of the time when someone gets a kill from chasing it's either because the killer is using striker, has a toothpick to lunge themselves forward, or the fleeing one has some sort of status effect on them.

I guess you have somewhat of a point on Guardian vs Recon, but I have seen guardians who are able to contend with my striker teamates, yet when I engage them it becomes marginally harder for them. Usually when a guardian brings out a gun, I rejoice knowing that my guns are superior to theirs due to my boosts from recon and my equipment. Even if they break my recon shield, I still have the advantage of mobility and distance. If they shield to block my shot, my distance between them only get bigger. If they don't, they take all my shots and suffer because of it.

Why not add a movement speed penalty to guardians?:

* They are heavy units.
* They may have tons of health AND the shield.
* Guardians don't have major penalties right now.

They may have not have big penalties, but they don't have good boosts either. Also, Recons have almost as much health as they do (Recon's base health is 12, Guardian's base health is 14).

Only thing is that even with the movement speed buff, strikers would still be able to get in, get the job done, and get out faster. They may not be able to go invisible or negate defenses, but they sure will fair better when they encounter someone trying to stop their capturing and they can travel between points much faster.

The way I see it is if you want to make recons better at back-capping stuff, give them a better way to defend themselves. That way when they are capping something and someone tries to stop them, they can actually defend themselves and continue to cap. Either that or nerf the strike booster in some way.

I think the movement speed boost/Shield cancel would have a lot more people choose it over Strikers, even if it were minute.

Oh well.. Back to a year ago, when Lockdown Test server is release.

If you play the Test Server, Recon was the most overpowered in Lockdown.

But everything change, now, Striker is most overpowered in Lockdown.

Think?

I fully support the idea of adding a movement speed buff for the recon class. I happen to be a gunner so I choose recon because it is the ONLY class that has ANY gunner buff. Bombers have a buff in guardian and recon, while swords technically are buffed in ALL classes, but I digress...

As it has been stated before, a recons role is to go behind enemy lines to get captures and launch sneak attacks. The problem with the current recon build is that it limits a recons ability to remain stealthy, because they are just to slow to avoid enemy contact effectively. When a recon wishes to escape a group of hostiles, once the shield is broken, they are done for. Movement speed would at least give a recon a chance to defend against an aggressive striker who can easily corner and out maneuver it. An alternative would be to have the speed increase activate only while cloaked. It would act as a stealth dash that wont be comparable to the striker dash in terms of speed, but it would still allow one to quickly back-cap or try to escape death.

I'd like to also suggest that the recon cloak guard 1 hit and break on the next, thus requiring 2 hits to break it. If enemies have a warning that the recon is there (which greatly hampers/balances the stealth aspect of recon) ,then it should be fair that the recon can absorb 1 hit before deciding to flee the the fight or pursue the sneak attack.

Going off topic, I'd like to see the striker class get a gun damage med buff. I don't see why the striker class is the only class that favors 1 attack style. guardians have a sword/bomb buff while recon has bomb/gun buff. So it would only be balanced if strikers had a gun/sword buff.

I fully agree. A low MSI is always nice, and I've died way too much, expecting a shield cancel.

Finally. Someone makes a thread in support of recons that doesn't get shot down by OP clones.

My suggestions:

Change the buffs on recon. CTR buff? Oh thanks but no thanks already have CTR max from uv's, leveling up my weapons, and gear. Suggestion: make recon THE gunner class. Give them straight gun damage and ASI buffs, much like striker is THE swordie class. Because of this, guardian could become THE bomber class with bomb damage bonuses.

Make the cloak recharge faster. Recons are sitting ducks without a cloak. Exposed, and no way to run or openly fight back effectively. The MSI, 2-hit cloak, and shield canceling bit would also help.

Take away striker's sword damage bonus, or simply give recon a gun damage bonus. Seriously. Strikers are the only specialized class, and they have the ONLY damage bonus for the type of weapon that already has the highest dps... Problem?

That's all for now, but if I think of more unsaid ideas ill post them.

Forum-Brady has appeared! Yay!

Random note: I love your LD bomber thread. I'm going to include it in a LD compilation thread along with this thread :D.

Anyways.

I suggested the the specialized classes because strikers are ALREADY specialized; that's part of the reason the striker class dominates LD. If you look at my third suggestion, I recommended that strikers lose their damage bonus and switch it for something else, thus balancing LD at least a little bit.

You are right that most people can't afford CTR uv's on their weapons. However, we all know that when a weapon is fully heated there is a CTR: med bonus that is applied anyhow. Mix this up with CTR-reducing bomber gear and CTR trinkets, and you have a nice CTR: max on your bombs/swords/guns. This is why a CTR bonus is less useful than, say, an MSI, ASI, or damage bonus.

I think bombing as a recon is effective. Being able to blink in and out of situations with any weapon is fun. However, recons lose their effectiveness when they are charging bombs because they are left 1) exposed, and 2) unable to attack, which is the perfect opportunity for someone to either dash in and slap you with a sword or whip out a gun with nice a dandy shock status and start pelting away, waiting for the moment when your body spasms with shock so they can dash in safely and (wait for it) slap you with a sword.

About clones: at this point, the term clone refers to strikers wearing full skolver with an FF or BTB, heart trinkets, polaris, a GF or DA, and maybe a rocket hammer. There's a reason so many people choose this: IT WORKS. The classes either need to be balanced so "clones" aren't as effective anymore, or give the other classes a better chance by making them clone-worthy. Personally, I'd prefer the whole "no clone" scenario, as would most everybody else, although it would be more difficult to create a "no clone" LD.

Hopefully the devs see these threads and start working on solutions! And thanks for the input Forum-Brady! I didn't really think about the clone thing until you mentioned it.

EDIT: Also, CTR is only especially valuable on bombs; ASI and damage are far more valuable on guns and swords, thus making the recon class specialized for bombs on that note alone. And, as we all know, bombs are next to useless in LD. This furthers either my suggestion to make recon more useful by being gunner or taking some of the ideas in your bomber thread. Furthermore, strikers are actually specialized in two types: guns and swords. With gunner-esque trinkets and gear, they can get the same bonuses as the recon, especially since there are no deficits to a striker gunner. Boost, shoot, boost, shoot, repeat endlessly...

Does this +1ing actually make a difference to how likely it is that it will be implemented is it just a glorified bump. Anyway, good thread.

I notice this thread has popped up again, so here are some more ideas/formulations of old ones:

-Striker's boost needs to recharge incrementally (and recharge timer resets if you use it) just like the other two classes
-Change the Striker's sword DMG medium to a gun ASI medium, and replace the bomb CTR penalty with a global Charge Time Increased: Medium. Neither of the other classes have damage bonuses, so why should Strikers? Also, why limit Strikers to swords?
-Recon cloak also acts like a very weak shield (it will take a ping or two from a gun, but unless you are near full-charge, a sword hit will probably break it). Since you will be draining shield just by having it active (unlike the Guardian), this shouldn't be unbalancing- if you get hit, your cloak will either break or run out shortly, forcing you to flee or make a last stand, but it at least gives you a chance to flee, unlike the current situation.
-Recon gains Medium or Very High MSI.
-Playing Recon allows you to see positions of non-Recon enemy players on Minimap.
-Placing a warning mark on an enemy player causes them to show up on all your teammate's minimaps for a short duration of time.

Obviously, not ALL of these suggestions should be implemented; adding one or two might bring sufficient balance. I am especially intrigued by the last two, which let a Recon act like a ... recon. Guardians could use a little love too, but it's hard to add any new abilities without making them overpowered. A small shield health buff and preventing hits from double-counting (while shielding teammates) would probably be sufficient. If their current natural resistance to Low status (requires only High/High to gain immunity) and resistance to knockback is a bug, it is a good bug that adds balance and should be retained as a feature.

sounds like a good idea. this would make recon popular and more players wanting to use it for cap and kills giving lockdown more variaty. love it.

To add more usage of recons, give them the ability to revive dead players, by pressing the attack button over their corpses, which will take half of the recon's health and give it to the dead player. Dead bodies, instead of reappearing in the locker room will remain until the respawn timer goes to 0; will remain on the battlefield leaving a recon to play medic and revive the player. This will lead to more people appreciating the use of recons which was previously there with guardians.

+1

"I still want a msi boost on guardians. They can't ever catch up to anybody running away :("

Soon enough they'll be able to dash. They can get close enough for a hit/catch up with a runner fairly easily with it.

We could give recons a low speed increase and have the cloak shield take 1-2 hits then shatter like a weak regular shield and give a bit of knockback to close enemies, giving us recons a bit more of a chance.

Also, if you bump into nothing and sorta go around it, it probably is a recon, or dreadful lag.

Love this idea! I'm a recon-user so I MUST support!!!

Look what I found in the wiki:

Special Ability: Cloaking, Disruption Field
## Activating this ability causes you to turn invisible for a period of time. The cloak may be broken by overuse, one hit will not break it, but sustaining multiple hits will. Once broken, the cloak will slowly begin to regenerate after a delay of ~3 seconds.
## While invisible, you project a "pulse" every few seconds that will give a "Recon Mark" status effect to any enemy it hits
## Any enemy player hit by one "Recon Mark" gets a warning, but no other negative effects are applied
## Any enemy player with a "Recon Mark" who is hit by another pulse receives a "Death Mark" and has their defense removed for five seconds!

Bonuses:
## Health Bonus +7 (Base Health: 12)
## Charge Time Reduction: Medium
## Gun Attack Speed Increase: Medium
## Bomb Charge Time Reduction: Medium

Penalty:
## Sword Attack Speed Decrease: Low

Note: Charge Time Reduction applies to all weapons. The sum Bomb Charge Time Reduction for Recon is therefore Very High.

The recon have been buff but still, there are barely anyone playing Recon. Buff it any further will led it to be underrated but overpowered.