In my opinion, just dealing pure damage is something a lot of marines can do very well anyways, even on their own. I get the other specs have their own utilities outside pure damage, but to me, a good scout player can be incredibly useful in their own way that no other spec can really compare to.
Good scouts can sneak a medic into the xeno backlines and revive dozens of marines trapped behind the enemy lines if they’re careful.
Good scouts can finish off xenos that retreated so far behind xeno lines that the marines cannot possibly fathom to reach them before they heal up.
Good scouts can even kill the Queen (if she’s incredibly inattentive) and seriously disrupt the Hive for long enough for marines to inflict grievous losses.
Good scouts aren’t always playing, but when they do, they can seriously turn the tide of battle, just by doing all the jobs no one wants to do.
Chose GL, throw away the grenade launcher give your HEDP to a random marine or req, grab a shotgun and bait xeno’s into pouncing you, then PLAB PLAB PLAB PLAB!
Enhance
enhance
1 year ago during hijack I was actually c4’d by the scout, I wasn’t even on ovi, that’s the embarrassing part, I was just healing.
I’ve never seen this done, but I think it’d be better if a synth & scout did it.
I was actually raging whenever I died as a runner to scouts protag gun & protag incendiary rounds, now I just target hands and make sure they can’t wield their shitty protag gun ever again.
Other specs seem like “This but… more special” because they are called specialists but I don’t get why Pyro exists. I see why Scout, SADAR, and maybe even sniper exist, but I don’t think I get why pyro exists, just grab a flamer yourself and do the pyros job. You even get some pros like actually dying to fire before being capped by xenos.
There is a reason why pyro is getting gibbed so often, that is because he is annoying and can easily kill anything that is alone.
Green fire spam is very strong.
Still, AMR is the strongest spec right now and there is no reason to pick normal sniper.
I exist purely to block that one SADAR’s shots… sunset disease not letting me remember his name
Pyro.
The ability to flame off the entire frontline and kill flanks is extremely painful for xenos. A competent Pyro who quickly extinguishes flames at the front to not block a push is quite a strong asset.
Also, xenos who get blue flamed die far more often than you think unless there’s an a acid pillar or 10 xenos waiting to pat them out.
pyro
firstly: its the only one that can reliably solo push even if marines are in a losing position
secondly: 3 tile wide greenflame is what enables pyro to actually solo push, it has insane area denial and greenflame affects every xeno ((king rav and queen included))
thirdly: pyro is the only person ((that i know of)) that can use blueflame roundstart , theres a reason why people like angel hunter go backline pyro because it takes 4 full resists to take bluefire off if youre solo, and bluefire does around 40 dps
fourth and last: its instant extuinguish is the 2nd best if not the best thing in his loadout, it enables the pyro to extuinguish its flame instantly whether a flame tile on the floor or on a person ((also affects xenos))
I like grenadier. Always have fun slinging nades at xenos.
as Oh_God_Help_Me pointed out pure damage is some thing that any marine worth there salt can do. its specs that can that have good utility that are the best, they have gone over most of what i can say about scouts already.
But really one of the specs rolls that get dumped on a lot that’s really good is pyro. a good pyro as long as they are not dealing with a rav hive are a bane of xenos.
pyros are great at area denial, many times a pyro will get yelled at for flaming the queen but really in the end they saved the day. a rushing queen is a screeching queen and yes flames don’t work on the queen but they sure as hell do on the rest of the rushing hive.
Sadar.
the only thing being able to stun and chonk 1/3 health of the queen on hit is very strong, a good sadar will carry the team just because there is literally no t3s or queens.
Sadar when played well is the single most game changing spec there is. They can stun queen and even king plus all the other t3’s. OT rockets are also very strong depending on who made them and can insta gib t1’s.
Scout I think can be very good as a backliner support. You can harass the lurkers with pfc bait and destroy weeds to make backlining xenos unfeasible. You can retrieve bodies that would otherwise be hard to get. You are also an FTL on steroids with an insta lase device and with lowlight vision can call in better mortar/cas/OB.
I was debating whether amr or base sniper is better, I’ve been leaning more into the amr spec more recently. You have a universal ammo type that makes it simpler to resupply. You can reliabily kill crit xenos that a base sniper could not due to xenos body blocking the crit body. You do miss the slow ammunition that can get a good rav kill or incendiary to harass xenos.
Pyro is good for the near infinite extinguisher on your flamer and I mainly use it to extinguish other marines fire. The biggest preventable perma risk for marines is fire damage and you have the ability to insta extinguish no matter how strong the flames are. Blue fire is even more potent against boilers due to the new change that they could no longer extinguish themselves (was even crazy that this existed).
GL is great for hedp stunlocking t1’s, t2’s and vanguard/dancer prae strains. Also for destroying walls quickly. Really good for hydro hive pushes or pylon pushes. I believe they have better armor protection with both hands and feet and makes them good for front lining with m41a/shotgun after they use up all their grenades.
Does the SADAR/RPG even do that much damage? Outside of OT memes I thought the utility of the Anti-Tank rocket was more its guaranteed 5+ second stun on any T3 including the Queen?
Another reason to remove OT so we can actually buff the RPG rockets instead of this weird situation where RPG is balanced around OT rockets maybe providing OP rockets.
Yeah SADAR AP does pretty pathetic damage relative to what you’d expect, the massive stun is the reason why xenos die. If SADARs actually did appreciable damage, they could probably solo things more reliably with that sweet sweet M39 CQC AP, but as it stands they need a ton of follow up on T3s and Queens. Damage definitely should be buffed, with OT rockets nerfed. The disparity is just stupid, we need to shorten the gap.
I have to say it’s strange that now SADARs can gib marines again, but are still nerfed compared to what they were before vs xenos.
Ultimately, SADAR requires the most brainpower to use right now imo, since you have to pay close attention to where you are relative to your target, AND especially pay close attention to the marines around you (to not gib them) and their sight/firing lines to ensure that they can immediately follow up and secure on a kill without disintegrating you.
I think AMR & it’s buddy equivalent still remain the “strongest spec”, because it’s really hard to fuck up as a sniper. It’s the easiest specialist there is- You don’t die, you have mega range and IFF, and can selectively round remove any xeno that’s low.
If you can middle mouse aimed shot, you pass sniper school by default.
SADARs, Pyros, GLs, scunts, they all require someone who actually knows what they’re doing to contribute positively to the marines. Most of the time you get someone who’s clearly inexperienced and ends up dying instantly, or cucking marines in some way. Snipers may not have as much of a maximum round impact, but their average round impact is certainly the highest out of all of them, in my opinion- Hence I rank sniper as S++++++++ tier
how to get good as gl
1: set your firing type to fire over friendlies and cades
2: click behind xeno
ez frags
Instructions unclear, buying only AGMs and shooting AGM-Is and doing 0 damage while they bounce back and set everyone on fire
Shooting a single HEDP and refusing to follow up with more to chain stun
Setting to direct fire HIDP 
Pyro’s flames clear the weeds faster and more efficiently without sacrificing range and performing risky plays.
Blue flame is perfect for backliners and chasing vulnerable xenos.
SADAR is, in terms of kill potential king.
But a competent Pyro will completely create pushes on his own.
I think scout is either top 3 or the best spec when played correctly.
Watch Arnie Perkins play scout, one round, I instantly killed a prae roundstart with incend rounds, it’s amazing
I have not read a single post in here but I must say that Melee spec is good and probably the best one out there, too bad it doesnt exist in normal gameplay.
Scout is second best, that dude can frag, can save AND can sabotage xenos. He’s literally the protag…
I will always favor the GL Spec. The damage potential and meme potential is amazing. SADAR is a close second for the same reason.