Soldier Recommendations / Feedback

[RyMarq]

I first of all would like to say that I like the Soldier quite a bit. The feats give a strong ability to personalize how you attack and what your options are, but none of them feel required either.

The DPS of the soldier is very competitive, with an elegant emphasis on AoE. The Suppressed condition gives the class substantial utility, letting it debuff enemies while dealing damage.

That said, there are some weak options, and there are some easy fixes for that weakness. I view this as very promising.

1: Area Attacks and Reflex Saves
Relying on a single save is, simply, a problem. The core format is fine, and the higher DC of its saves helps the class be stable in a larger variety of situations, but it needs options to target something else.

The easiest version of this is simply a weapon-upgrade.
Warp Accelerator: Requires a Analog Weapon, adds the Tech Trait
Action: Your next Area Attack or Auto-Fire with this weapon targets Fortitude instead of Reflex.

Psychic Resonator: Requires a Tech Weapon
Action: Your next Area Attack or Auto-Fire with this weapon targets Will instead of Reflex and gains the mental trait.

By giving an action-tax, you will be able to keep the strong baseline expectation of a reflex save, but give enough options that the class can still function against foes with very high reflex saves.

2: Fighting Styles
Not all fighting styles are created equal at the moment. Action Hero and Bombard are a clear step-ahead of the rest, with Armor Storm being situational but strong, and Erudite Warrior and Close Quarters just falling short of the rest.

Recommended Adjustments:
Close Quarters: Targets are suppressed even when you fail, but do not critically fail a melee attack. Melee weapons you wield gain the Area 5' burst trait (allowing them to work with all feats). Whirling Swipe is replaced by Punitive Strike.

Erudite Warrior: Oppressive Presence becomes a free action (still once per round). Add a feat at 4 to increase the targets you may choose for Oppressive Presence.

I believe this is all that would be needed to push soldier into a genuinely good place. The bones of the class a strong, and the abilities are very exciting. Being able to dash up and slash a group of enemies at once, or chain dramatic attacks - this is the sort of thing lacking from a melee soldier being exciting.

[Teridax]

I've had a very different experience with the Soldier from the above, I'll say. Putting that aside, I don't think the request to be able to target Fort or Will saves would be necessary if the class's DPR is already competitive, and the big risk with letting the Soldier target an additional defense, let alone all three saves, is that with the right knowledge of a monster's defenses, they'd be more accurate than any caster with their saving throw DC, which I don't think would be appropriate.

I do agree though that some subclasses are better than others, with Bombard in particular offering benefits that should honestly just be baseline to the class. I'm not a super-big fan of making the no-save suppression effect also a free action, but I do think making melee weapons fit into the Soldier's AoE-based playstyle from the get-go would go a long way towards making melee builds work as they should.

[RyMarq]

Teridax wrote:

I've had a very different experience with the Soldier from the above

[..]
I'm not a super-big fan of making the no-save suppression effect also a free action, but I do think making melee weapons fit into the Soldier's AoE-based playstyle from the get-go would go a long way towards making melee builds work as they should.

I presume your experience has mostly been based around how you dont like the rigidity of the 2-action attack baseline.

For me, its very suffocating as a default, but Soldier helps alleviate it quite a bit. Things like Shot on the Run, Quick Swap, and the meta-magic style feats give the class a lot of options. They are all slow, lumbering options, but to me that feels consistent with the class theming.

Do you have something else you would prefer for Erudite? Bombard is causing suppressed *very often* and has additional upsides. Given you are already causing suppressed so often, the feature to do it as an action seems extremely disappointing to me, especially given the already-established lumbering action economy.

[Teridax]

My experience with the Soldier's feats is that although they compress actions, ultimately the class is still dealing with every problem in the same way, i.e. Area Fire or some variant, even when they're only attacking a single target. It doesn't help that Primary Target overshoots the mark and, combined with a rotolaser, lets the Soldier become the best single-target damage-dealer in the game right now at early levels, exactly the opposite of what they're meant to be. Having to opt into a feat for each thing I want to do with my turn still makes for a class that is fundamentally really inflexible, and repetitive at its core. The class is certainly very strong right now, in that they have more single-target damage than a Fighter and end up having better survivability than the Champion, but I'd personally prefer a class that was less overstatted and had a few more choices to make as a baseline.

With the subclasses, I think the problem isn't necessarily to do with Erudite Warrior, which I think is fine, but with Bombard specifically making you so much better at what you're supposed to do that it's generally a no-brainer compared to anything else. I'd even go as far as to say that I don't consider the subclasses terribly interesting or contributive to build diversity, and would rather the Soldier opt into different playstyles, including melee, via their feats.

[Exocist]

The best single target damage dealer in the game is not correct. With no stat to damage, and the rather short range on the roto
laser, they’re not competing with a melee character’s 2 strikes at 1-3 or even 4-7. What breaks them is picking up Run Hot or Fanning the Hammer much later, which is best done with a Stellar Cannon, not a rotolaser.

I don’t even think they compete with Mobile Aim, Strike, Strike from the operative

E.g. if we assume moderate AC (Operative and Fighter hit 75%, Soldier hits 60%) and moderate reflex (well even be generous and say level 2, so +8 vs DC19) then:

Operative’s damage (Seeker Rifle, Aim) = 1d10+1d4 = 8. EV = 0.75(8)+0.25(8)+0.5(8)+0.05(8) = 1.55(8) = 12.4

Fighter’s damage = 1d12+4 = 10.5. Same accuracy as the Operative so you can just do 1.55(10.5) = 16.275

Soldier’s damage = 1d8 = 4.5. Attack damage = 0.6(4.5)+0.1(4.5)+0.35(4.5)+0.05(4.5) = 1.1(4.5) = 4.95. AF damage = 0.05(9)+0.45(4.5)+0.5(2.25) = 1.6(2.25)=3.6

Totalling 8.55, much lower than either of the other classes. Even if you assume the Seeker is not correct and swap the operative to a laser or acid dart, their damage is still 1.55(7)=10.85, substantially higher than the Soldier.

The soldier’s issue, to me, is that Area Fire is a one size fits all solution to every problem. Single target or 5 targets, you Area Fire. Due to it being done at range, and the area part of it ignoring cover with a Stellar Cannon (measuring cover from burst’s origin), plus the mobility afforded by Shot on the Run, you usually don’t care what the map looks like either. You can’t meaningfully make the enemies group up, there’s no reason for you personally to take defensive measures because Suppress doesn’t make them attack you as the penalty applies to everything. You usually can’t do any maneuvers or skill actions outside of demoralize and one specific subclass, so it’s essentially solved at character creation as to what you’ll be doing in combat.