Ever since the major skill tree rework I’ve felt the Veteran has lost its identity. Part of that is that the identity used to be the specialist killer and now everyone else is better at doing that, which is a good change, but still, without that, the Veteran is now kind of The Generalist. The Jack of All Trades. Basically good at everything but not really the best at anything. The Tanky Ogryn, the Disruptive Psyker, the Really Fast Zealot, and the Veteran, Who Is Also Here I Guess.
Not to say the Veteran is bad or underpowered, just that they don’t feel as much like they own the Shooting People gimmick the way they used to. In the before times, their flat 40% extra ammo made a huge difference, but then they buffed the max ammo of a bunch of weapons so everyone else can have plenty, and they made Fully Loaded only 25% instead of 40%, and they tucked it away in the left hand Sharpshooter sub-class side with all the headshot stuff, which I maintain is the worst place for an extra ammo talent, because aiming for headshots is already about using less ammo. Fully Loaded ought to go in the middle with the suppression stuff so the Sergeant sub-class can spray all over the place and not have to worry about hogging the ammo pickups. Same goes for Shock Trooper.
So all that being said, I think One Motion has a place, because Being The Best At Guns should definitely be the thing the Veteran’s got that nobody else has. Faster swap speed is part of that, but it needs to be significantly stronger than 25%. That way players can feel the difference when using a ranged weapon on someone else vs being the Veteran. I’d recommend other simple gun mechanics buffs as well, like maybe greater zoom distance, bigger magazine size, faster snap to sights, better accuracy or recoil reduction, maybe lower movement penalty while aiming. Or, here’s an idea, maybe a talent that makes it so using your ability instantly reloads your ranged weapon. It could be called “Sustained Fire” or something. ahem. Stuff that makes the player feel like Yes, this guy is about gun combat. If I feel like shootings enemies with my gun a lot, I should pick the Veteran.
I don’t terribly mind Vanguard not being around anymore even though it was basically fine, because sprinting all over the place should be the Zealot’s thing (which is also why I disapprove of them lowering the +10% sprint speed to 5%, would have preferred they got rid of the dodge thing if anything).
I think the trouble FS ran into is that melee fighting is just a huge part of this game, but instead of coming up with better ways for the Veteran to get away from melee enemies and keep out of range, they just made Veterans also basically great at melee, even if you only dip slightly into the right hand side (which I prefer to call the Jungle Fighter rather than Specialist, cuz we’ve already got a thing in this game called specialists). Stuff like Camo Expert, or making smoke grenades work like Ranger Bardin’s.
The way I would balance them, in rough and simple terms: The Zealot is the best at Melee, and the Veteran is the best at Guns. Zealots are Not That Good at Guns, and Veterans are Not That Good at Melee. They each have a few skills that mitigate this a bit, but a Ranged Build Zealot is still more about Melee than about Guns and still not as good at Guns as a Veteran. Likewise, a Melee Build Veteran is Okay at Melee but still better with Guns, and is still not as good at Melee as a Zealot.
These days I see a lot of Veterans who do just as much melee fighting as the Zealots, and it makes me kinda sad. Especially when they don’t shoot the dang specialists coming at us because they’re too busy hacking at trash mobs and I’m left trying to counter snipe with a heavy stubber. It happens so often I stopped bringing anything I can’t reliably quick swap to and take a bomber down with because so many Veteran players are too unreliable at using their guns.
