Thanks for the replies everyone!
I never expected to get so deep into analyzing the game; I greatly appreciate all the advice for it.
As a response, my feelings about using carronades: They're somewhat of a dice roll. Well, sometimes. It feels that carronades are way stronger when you hit the enemy from the side, and I don't quite know if it's true.
For me, when I play against players with higher gear score, I try to match my healing against their damage by maintaining consistency between my shots. In other words, I try to make sure I'm doing something once every 3 or so seconds (matching it perfectly to 2.5 is a little too hard). Having a carronade means one less item to use when you're firing from afar, which reduces the options I have.
I haven't had that many problems with assassin classes either. One out of ten or fifteen games I get singled out and killed. That's mostly my fault for not sticking with the team. But, in the games where I struggle, my team mostly is able to repel assassins and protect me. The one problem:
I just don't do enough healing for one ship.
One time, I've had enemies that consistently did 1200 damage with Explosive Cannon shots (Not even crits!). That was (no longer is, since my gear is stronger now) the full healing of my pulse + plasma combined.
My heal bolt isn't much either, although it certainly can save a ship that got caught out of cover. But when the team is in the middle of firing back, it just doesn't heal for enough.
As for times I felt good, in casual games where gear score seems a lot more balanced, the healing I can put out has a much greater effect on the game. My bolt healing can match a single shot from my opponent, or 2 off-center mortar hits. I can quickly refill the health of my speeder teammates who just infiltrated their backline and send them off on another mission, all the while healing my team who is firing back and forth with my bolt and plasma.
I know that the best way to put out more healing is to improve the items. But I also want to focus a lot on teamwork and taking stronger enemies down by working together. In my opinion, ranked should reward those who cooperate well with the team, and the impact of gear score should be reduced. I prefer playing strategically over smashing the enemy team to pieces with T5 purples (Which I also don't even come close to having). Of course, this is just my thoughts as of now, and I know a lot more goes into it, so maybe enlighten me on that?
Focusing on individual items, the repair plasma is tricky to use, since placing it out in the open means napalms (I hate those!) and consistent enemy fire. Putting it too far back means not being able to shoot at the enemies. For the most part, I try to keep half of my pulse behind walls, and half of it in the open, so my team can peek out to shoot then back off.
(I still don't know how to deal with napalms. It's a perfect counter to plasma.)
The good part about it is that it applies full healing onto myself, so I can use it like duct tape when I'm recovering from afar.
Also, a suggestion on pings (probably given somewhere else, but I guess add a vote to it from me
):
How about a "retreat" ping? Sometimes I have teammates who are blatantly running into the entire enemy team. It would be nice to have a way of signaling them that they're too far up and I can't save them if they keep going.
Thanks again everyone!
Click to expand...