Voice of Command is such a broken ability if you think about it, one button press, and every enemy is knocked onto the ground + it gives teammates toughness. If you pick the left node (Duty and Honor) it gives way more toughness, that can turn an instakill 300+ damage attack into a 0 damage baby attack. The right node that revives people with the shout is kinda garbage, but it’s still useful and at least it’s an option for people.
There’s been many games where I’m using Infiltrate or Executioner’s Stance instead of Voice of Command, and it always feels like throwing. There is no other class where I feel like I’m throwing by picking a different combat ability than I’m used to. There’re many reasons for this and I will of course get into them because it’s fun to complain about stuff.
#1 By taking Infiltrate, instead of Voice of Command, you will have to invest way more points to actually get what you want out of the ability. Voice of command really only needs 2 nodes to function at 100%, (the ability itself, and Duty and Honor). Infiltrate would feel horrible limited to the ability + 1 node, but if you take more it leaves less points for the rest of your build. Executioner’s Stance is just bad, so you’re basically wasting all of your points on it if you use it, but it’s also bad because it’s harder to access the other keystones, unless you really want to use marksman’s focus, where you have to stand still to get extra headshot damage.
#2 Executioner’s Stance and Infiltrate are both objectively worse compared to Voice of Command. Infiltrate is like Zealot’s Shroudfield except it’s underwhelming as hell. Executioner’s Stance is honestly so bad that I really don’t even need to explain myself, but I will talk about it later.
With Zealot’s Shroudfield, you can run behind a tough enemy, instakill it, or do 50% health damage to a monstrosity instantly. You also have the option to complete an objective or save your teammate.
With Infiltrate, you either pick the node that gives you -90% threat on leaving stealth and watch as all of the enemies run away to kill your teammates, while you helplessly chase after them, hoping to accomplish anything. Or you take the node that gives +50% toughness resistance on leaving stealth. You can’t really take both, since if you have no threat there’s no reason to have +50% toughness resistance in my opinion.
But yeah, even with the +30% damage for 5 seconds on leaving stealth node, Infiltrate feels so underwhelming compared to Shroudfield, that I just ask myself, “Why am I not playing Zealot right now?” With +30% damage for 5 seconds you can mag dump a few guys, maybe kill 1 or 2 more than you would’ve normally if you hit all of your shots perfectly within 5 seconds, but the damage bonus really doesn’t last very long considering the long cooldown of 45 seconds, 1 minute cooldown if you have 2 Infiltrate charges.
Yes, infiltrate lasts longer, so it’s technically better for doing objectives, but unless you’re doing the Hab Dreyko finale, you don’t really need the 4 extra seconds, even for an objective. Plus, 80% of the mission is not scanning objectives - so what is the point of Infiltrate?
Executioner’s Stance is simply a terrible combat ability. Wow I pressed F and it took my gun out for me, I probably could’ve done that myself - but wait it also gives 25% ranged damage and 25% ranged weakspot damage for 5 seconds! No way, and you’re telling me that if I take the other nodes for Executioner’s Stance it will outline an enemy for me? This is absolutely insane! Yeah, I understand killing outlined enemies refreshes the ability so I can do slightly more damage to people, but I really don’t see the appeal.
At least Infiltrate gives utility to you and your team, what does Executioner’s Stance do that you couldn’t do normally without the combat ability? With most guns, it shaves 1 bullet off of the amount of shots you will have to pump into an enemy to kill them. Plus, Executioner’s Stance doesn’t even reload your gun anymore. You have to manually reload it just to make sure you will even be able to use your ability. Nothing feels worse than activating Executioner’s Stance only to have 1/3rd of your magazine remaining because you forgot to reload.
#3 Voice of Command is a completely braindead ability, you press F and you get instant value no matter what, even if your teammates aren’t near you, you still knock enemies back and receive a toughness boost. Even if you press F for absolutely no reason with no enemies around, you still have 150 toughness for 15 seconds, then you just need to survive for 15 more seconds to use it again. This isn’t even accounting for Tactical Awareness (A veteran talent that reduces ability cooldown by 6s on a specialist kill) or combat ability cooldown curios. In what situation would 150 toughness not be helpful? Basically, every problem in this game is solved by pressing a single button when you have Voice of Command.
Infiltrate and Executioner’s Stance are both situational, and there are times where you won’t get much value out of either of them, or the other times where you do get value, it doesn’t feel necessary. Plus, most of the time you revive someone with Infiltrate, it can be accomplished with Voice of Command by pressing F and reviving them normally. I also feel bad dumping aggro on my team sometimes when they can’t handle it, but I have to or else I literally get no value out of Infiltrate.
This is how I feel playing Veteran. With Voice of Command, missions are noticeably easier, while using the other abilities are like putting a handicap on myself and my team. I really don’t want it to be nerfed honestly, I really like the ability. However, I can’t deny that it is extremely braindead and removes a ton of the challenge from the game. When I get overtoughness from a veteran, I feel like I can do whatever I want, and usually I can.
Executioner’s Stance really needs to be buffed, whenever someone on my team uses that ability, I have to stop myself from killing enemies or else they will only be able to use their ability for like 5 seconds. It’s really sad, honestly. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a situation where I lost and thought Executioner’s Stance could’ve helped anything, unironically in fact, I have been in the situation where I wished I hadn’t taken Executioner’s Stance.
Infiltrate is okay, I really like using it, but it’s not Voice of Command lol. Maybe one of the nodes should be merged into the main ability, perhaps the +30% damage node. The 4 nodes feel like a lot of investment for what you actually get out of Infiltrate.
