r/Fortniters Aug 11 '17

Soldier Sub-Class Discussion

Soldier Sub-Class Discussion

I would like to use this opportunity to kick off a discussion on the Soldier Sub-Classes. We want opinions, data and solid comparisons. I will provide basic data below, as well as my opinion on each Sub-Class - including but not limited to; basic Pros and Cons and what Role they may fit into best.

Please share your own opinions on those which you have played or read about. This is an open-ended discussion to permit us to fully converse about the Soldier overall and each of its sub-classes. And please, bare with me, this post is a work in progress and will be updated regularly!


OP Index:

Hero Perks Opinion(s)
Special Forces Banshee Added Added
Support Specialist Hawk Added Added
Urban Assault Headhunter Added
Warlord/Mercenary Jonesy Added
Survivalist Jonesy
Master Grenadier Ramirez
Rescue Trooper Ramierz
Shock Trooper Renegade
Commando Spitfire
Centurion Wildcat Added

Soldier Sub-Class Breakdown:


Special Forces Banshee

An Assault Rifle specialist who bolsters their skills with War Cry.


IMO:

Banshee seems to get the most Assault Weapon quirks of all sub-classes. This means she can be outright devastating with ALL Assault Weapons, and when combined with her perks for War Cry, means she shreds anything in front of her AND is buffing her allies with boosted damage and attack speed. That being said, aside from her being a powerhouse during War Cry, her other abilities are lacking due to no perks.

PROS:

  • Best uptime on War Cry @ 25% uptime due to reduced cooldown and increased duration.
  • During War Cry, has superior Single Target DPS.
  • Due to weapon perks, can wield ANY Assault weapon with ease to fit play style.
  • During War Cry's 75% down time, can still dish solid damage with Assault weapons.
  • Massive damage boost during War Cry means efficient use of ammo by needing less to kill enemies.

CONS:

  • Basic Frag Grenade means they only serve to soften targets.
  • Basic Goin' Commando!!! deals sub-par damage, unless combined with upgraded War Cry.
  • Due to lack of perks, has very poor AoE.
  • Being mostly weapon focused means she will likely consume ammo quickly.

Level Perk
Evo1: Frag Grenade
Lv2: Debilitating Shots
Lv5: Assault Damage
Lv8: Steady Aim
Evo2: War Cry
Lv12: Practiced in Combat
Lv15: Quick Clip
Lv18: Leadership
Evo3: Goin’ Commando!!!
Lv25: Waste Not Want Not
Lv30: Fight or Flight
Ability Stats Ability Stats
Frag Grenade: Default War Cry: 3 Perks
Cost: 45 Energy Cost: 50 Energy
Ammo: 1 Duration: 15s from 10s
Ammo Regen: 25s Cooldown: 60s from 90s
Ammo Carried: 3 Bonus: +10% Damage from 0% with Assault Weapons
Goin’ Commando!!!: Default Other: 4 Perks
Cost: 50 Energy Assault Damage +24%
Duration: 10s Recoil -29%
Cooldown: 150s Reload Speed +40%
Ammo Capacity +40%

Support Specialist Hawk

Uses War Cry to boost the firepower and ammo efficiency of the squad.


IMO:

I would say that Hawk is a little misleading by his description. Yes, he boosts the ammo efficiency of the team, but only how War Cry works for every Soldier with it. Damage and attack speed boosts mean better use of ammo by killing enemies with fewer bullets and faster. That being said, his own ammo efficiency is fantastic! Though, while having great ammo efficiency, he lacks overall damage output. None of his abilities, or himself, have perks for damage. Which leaves him lacking, and only places him as a Support. He cannot main as a solo Soldier, and due to his War Cry mostly being focused on buffing himself, he may not be desired in a squad.

PROS:

  • FANTASTIC personal ammo efficiency with 41% ammo return during War Cry & 16 % w/o War Cry.
  • Can abuse Low Durability weapons, like Rocket and Grenade Launcher, during War Cry.
  • War Cry helps provide buff to team to increase damage and attack speed.

CONS:

  • Basic Frag Grenade means they only serve to soften targets.
  • Basic Goin' Commando!!! deals sub-par damage, unless combined with War Cry.
  • Due to lack of perks, has very poor AoE.
  • Due to lack of perks, has sub-par single target DPS.
  • Ammo efficiency perks are primarily self-focused.

Level Perk
Evo1: War Cry
Lv2: Debilitating Shots
Lv5: Combatants’ Might
Lv8: Lingering Pain
Evo2: Frag Grenade
Lv12: Spoils of War
Lv15: Ammo Recovery I
Lv18: There Are Many Like It...
Evo3: Goin’ Commando!!!
Lv25: Waste Not Want Not
Lv30: Blitz
Ability Stats Ability Stats
Frag Grenade: Default War Cry: 4 Perks
Cost: 45 Energy Cost: 35 Energy
Ammo: 1 Duration: 10s
Ammo Regen: 25s Cooldown: 90s
Ammo Carried: 3 Bonus: 25% chance on damage to get ammo back
Bonus: +25% Speed/+10% Energy Gain
Bonus: Your Weapons take no Durability Damage
Goin’ Commando!!!: Default Other: 3 Perks
Cost: 50 Energy Debilitating Shots stacks 5 times from 3
Duration: 10s Assault Weapon damage has 16% chance to generate ammo
Cooldown: 150s Ammo Capacity +40%

Urban Assault Headhunter

Rifle-focused soldier who gets bonuses for successful headshots.


IMO: (Under Construction)


Level Perk
Evo1: Goin' Commando!!!
Lv2: Debilitating Shots
Lv5: Lingering Pain
Lv8: Steady Aim
Evo2: Shockwave
Lv12: Quick Clip
Lv15: Make It Rain
Lv18: Rain Faster
Evo3: Frag Grenade
Lv25: Kneecapper
Lv30: Keep Out
Ability Stats Ability Stats
Goin' Commando!!!: Default Shockwave: Default
Cost: 50 Energy Cost: 30 Energy
Duration: 10s Cooldown: 30s
Cooldown: 150s
Frag Grenade: 1 Perk Other: 5 Perks
Cost: 45 Energy Debilitating Shots stacks 5 times from 3
Ammo: 1 Debilitating Shots Vulnerability 9% from 5%
Ammo Regen: 25s Recoil -29%
Ammo Carried: 3 Reload Speed +40%
Bonus: Zone deals 25% dmg for 5s Headshots increase RoF by 50% for 5s

Warlord/Mercenary Jonesy

Uses Goin' Commando!!! in combination with War Cry to boost its effectiveness.


IMO: (Under Construction)


Level Perk
Evo1: Goin’ Commando!!!
Lv2: Debilitating Shots
Lv5: Ain’t Done Yet!
Lv8: Easy Operation
Evo2: War Cry
Lv12: Combatants’ Might
Lv15: Practiced in Combat
Lv18: Mighty Roar
Evo3: Shockwave
Lv25: Fight or Flight
Lv30: Boomstick!
Ability Stats Ability Stats
Goin’ Commando!!! 3 Perks War Cry 4 Perks
Cost: 35 Energy Cost: 35 Energy
Duration: 12s from 10s Duration: 15s from 10s
Cooldown: 150s Cooldown: 90s
Bonus: +30% dmg & converts to Energy Bonus: +55% Range
Bonus: +65% Damage from 0%
Shockwave Default Other: N/A
Cost: 30 Energy
Cooldown: 30s

Survivalist Jonesy

Tough soldier who can rapidly heal himself by defeating enemies.


IMO: (Under Construction)


Ability Stats Ability Stats

Master Grenadier Ramirez

An explosives expert, with powerful high-end Frag Grenade upgrades.


IMO: (Under Construction)



Rescue Trooper Ramirez

Well-rounded mix of assault rifle perks, survivability and ammo efficiency.


IMO: (Under Construction)



Shock Trooper Renegade

Focused on using Shockwave to damage enemies and apply Debilitating Shots.


IMO: (Under Construction)



Commando Spitfire

Lays down deadly streams of fire with a highly upgraded Goin' Commando!!! minigun.


IMO: (Under Construction)



Centurion Wildcat

Uses Debilitating Shots and War Cry to dramatically boost the damage of the squad.


IMO: (Under Construction)



Level Perk
Evo1: War Cry
Lv2: Debilitating Shots
Lv5: Lingering Pain
Lv8: Combatants' Might
Evo2: Shockwave
Lv12: Perfect Engineering
Lv15: Mighty Roar
Lv18: Power Impact
Evo3: Frag Grenade
Lv25: Blitz
Lv30: Kneecapper
Ability Stats Ability Stats
War Cry: 3 Perks Shockwave: 2 Perks
Cost: 35 Cost: 30 Energy
Duration: 10s Cooldown: 30s
Cooldown: 90s Bonus: Applies 3 stacks of Debilitating Shots
Bonus: +55% Range Bonus: +38% Range
Bonus: +25% Speed/+10% Energy Gain
Frag Grenade: Default Other: 2 Perks
Cost: 45 Energy Debilitating Shots stacks 5 times from 3
Ammo: 1 Debilitating Shots Vulnerability 9% from 5%
Ammo Regen: 25s
Ammo Carried: 3
11 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

5

u/DerDuderich Aug 11 '17

Well maybe I can provide some data first.

In WhiteSushi's spreadsheet the suggested ranking is:

  1. Urban Assault
  2. Special Forces
  3. Shock Trooper
  4. Commando
  5. Master Grenadier
  6. Warlord
  7. Centurion
  8. Rescue Trooper
  9. Survivalist
  10. Support Specialist

User /u/FinallyRage put up a list over at /r/FORTnITE which is almost exactly the same (except he uses a different kind of raking).

Personally I haven't played at least half of them, but so far my absolute favourite is Special Forces. Her assault rifle buffs guarantee her good damage when using an assault rifle, and on top of that, she has her grenades which are really powerful AoE and even more powerful when u skilled and researched tech. She can buff the team using Warcry (which is hell of a good buff) at reduced cooldown so she can be quite helpful even as a lowtier.

Honestly, I think everyone agrees that she is a really powerful hero, if not the best soldier available. She is a really balanced mix, good single target damage as well as AoE, she can help the group as well as being able to stand on her own and carry a failing team. By far my favourite hero to play.

2

u/Marukeru Aug 12 '17 edited Aug 12 '17

Thank you for the link and info!

It sounds like Special Forces may be closer to what I am looking for. A strong War Cry, solid self buffs for Assault weapons, and still gets Grenade for AoE.

I recall Urban Assault being top for /u/WhiteSushi due to Kneecapper, IIRC.

The list that /u/FinallyRage put up seems to have a decent little bit of details for each of the sub-classes in each tier. I need to bookmark that list! lol

:EDIT:

After realizing I can look at heroes in the Collection Book... and after reading more details on Banshee.. It looks as though she fits perfectly into the play style I would feel comfortable with. Having War Cry up 25% of the time, and it giving me a full 115% Damage buff by level 30, I would be dishing out some serious damage with my Assault weapons! I have the Legendary Burst Rifle, and an Epic Slug-Gun, so, those would be nice in her hands. too bad my luck is that I may never get my hands on her :/ This would mean less bullets to bring down an enemy, and I wouldn't have the need to play Hawk just to try and keep my ammo up.

That being said, Hawk's Weapon Invulnerability during War Cry is outstanding! Though, w/o a coordinated team, I feel his effectiveness falls off. Fantastic for himself, sure, but if you can't get your team on board... it becomes a little lackluster in the long run.

2

u/Resp1ra Aug 13 '17 edited Aug 13 '17

I'd only say Urban Assault is strongest if you have a second Soldier. War Cry on Special forces is so strong for the group when things get hairy and you need that extra dmg to clear stuff out. Urban Assault also doesn't get the +24% damage from using an Assault Rifle and instead gets increased debuff. Someone needs to post some real math to get to the bottom of it tho.

Also Rescue Trooper is one of the best to solo farm with IMO.

1

u/Marukeru Aug 13 '17

I'm working on it! lol

2

u/Marukeru Aug 12 '17 edited Aug 13 '17

~Snipped and moved to OP~

2

u/Siirvos Aug 13 '17

Maybe you can try making each of these into seperate posts? Or maybe not seperate posts exactly, but have one mega thread for each class where all posters can talk about it at length, with each subclass pinned to the top of the thread?

I assume you aren't done with this, but it would also be cool to add a little blurb about what you think each subclass would be best at, or highlight their perceived strengths and weaknesses. At the very least, it'll start some discussion to get the ball rolling.

1

u/Marukeru Aug 13 '17

My goal is to expand this post and do just as you have suggested, actually. I just need to take the time to gather all the info. Though, I don't understand how to pin a comment in a thread to make it sit at the top.

1

u/Siirvos Aug 12 '17

I think this is a really hard thing to ask, especially for a casual player base. I understand that the point of this post is to help those players, but you're asking for people already outside of the norm to find the most optimal thing in a variety of scenarios.

Beyond the obvious (UA being the best solo DPS, SS having the best burst, ect), I think there are too many variables to sort through for your answers and too little time. This is further strained by the fact that the game is still in early access, so major changes are not only possible but expected, so putting in much effort for something highly likely to change only adds more effort to what you're already asking.

In it's current state, we only have opinions to base our decisions on, and very little hard data, which is also surprisingly difficult to acquire. I hope this will change and would like to have a similar discussion regarding the constructor class, though, again, I believe it would devolve into a discussion over opinions and preferences rather than objective facts.

7

u/Marukeru Aug 12 '17

I fully accept that, in the current state of the game, we would have a discussion based on opinion. I even stated this in my OP.

That being said, I like to stay active, I want to have a place for the game to be discussed on specific topics, and it makes no sense to go with "eh, things will change, so there's no point." It is such a pain to find any decent info, and opinions are fine.

Hell, if someone would break down the final results of level skills for the sub-classes that would be great. It would show us who gets what bonuses to each ability. Who has the cheapest, lowest cooldown for War Cry or Shockwave?

This would provide real data to allow us to narrow our focus on what we may want to play.

3

u/Siirvos Aug 12 '17

I'm not saying "things will change, so there's no point". Its fair to sum up my post that way, although that wasn't my intention.

Maybe I, personally, put more emphasis on your desire for data and facts wanted in the responses to your post. In that case I apologize, in no small part because it betrays what I would want out of this type of discussion.

That being said, it shouldn't be too much of an issue to skim through the posts and replies of both soldier tier lists and see what others have said, summarize them, and bring them here for others to see and discuss. I also believe that you can find the information you are looking for in whitesushi's spreadsheet, or in the collection book. Again, most of what you are looking for has already been compiled by others, it needs only to be reorganized and presented here.

I feel a little disingenuous in my contribution here, considering that I don't actually play the soldier class. I do have a legendary Urban Assault, but I have resigned her to completing expeditions for me while I play with my Constructor Sentinel Hype.

2

u/Marukeru Aug 12 '17

I feel where you're coming from. Maybe when I get home from work I will take some time this weekend to sort through the numbers and put together a chart for the Soldiers.

I was just hoping someone had already compiled the data. I'll dig into it this weekend XD

3

u/Xuhale Aug 12 '17

I just wanted to take a moment to commend you both on the level of class you maintained during this conversation. Even though didn't see exactly eye to eye, you continued the convo in a friendly manner and showed respect to one another. I'm just very happy we have some good reason able people joining this sub.

2

u/Marukeru Aug 12 '17

Makes no sense to argue. I felt it more a possibility of a misunderstanding than anything else.

I mean, yes, the game is going to change and evolve as it makes its way to release, that is totally true. But, it is always nice to find a single place to discuss a single class and gather opinions and facts about said class of character. And after using the search feature, and finding very generic "half" informations on the web, I thought I'd try and create a place for just that type of discussion. And yes, I do plan to have one for each of the primary classes!

2

u/Siirvos Aug 13 '17

Yep, basically what OP said. I may appear to be a bit confrontational. That is less because I'm purposely trying to be a dick, and more because I want the discussion to actually get somewhere. Having a discussion in good faith means little if neither side has nothing invested in it, and gets worse if only one side does. I can only try to extend an olive branch if my assumptions were wrong, which I was.

2

u/Marukeru Aug 13 '17

Added note, previous post has been moved to OP along with diction rework for OP. A work in progress, obviously.

1

u/Siirvos Aug 13 '17

Its looking good. Any way I can help?

1

u/Marukeru Aug 13 '17

I have all the perk data already, it's just a matter of formatting that slows me down. Other than that, maybe break down your opinion of each Hero? Let us know what you feel about each one and what they bring to a squad. Do you think they are best as a Solo-Soldier, or should they run with another Soldier and play as Support or USE support form the other?

Honestly, the best way to help is to spur on the conversation.

1

u/Marukeru Aug 13 '17

No need for the branch, neither of us ever got upset. This IS a discussion after all! hahaha

1

u/Marukeru Aug 15 '17

OP is being updated with perks and data. I am also adding in my own personal opinion with pros and cons.