[lightoflife3]

I think there are two issues with character viability right now

1) Most characters aren't viable throughout the whole of the missions
2) Some mission objectives follow themes that only a few characters are viable at. And when that happens, it makes character variety feel less impactful.


Explanation for problem #1: When I'm on a mission objective where the goal or part of the goal is to attack a giant bullet sponge in an open spaced area, like fighting Dr. Kuzman in the desert, General Marmalade, Aneska in her mech or Schneider in his mech, I always choose a high DPS character like Schneider and Constantine; When I'm on the mission where the spacelords have to save Loaht, I choose Rak Mayura, because his ability to increase the movement speed of teammates is useful when their holding the canister; when I need effective AOE damage I pick Dr. Kuzman.

The reason why I choose theses characters, is because their effective at those objectives. But when it comes to other types of objectives, they are less viable which makes their viability throughout the whole of the mission inconsistent. And the only character I can think of with consistent viability throughout a certain mission is Ginebra on the hades aleph mining mission. In this whole mission, mobility and flanking is quite crucial and Ginebra fits this mission well.

In conclusion, I think the solution for character viability is a mix of more characters that can be effective at specific objective types, so theirs more variety, more missions that can compliment the abilities, weapons and talents of the least played characters to make them more viable and more mission pattern variety so that some characters have general viability on certain mission (Which brings us back to character variety).

[Derrin Errow]

Not everyone needs to be a "boss killer" or an "object carrier" Some Characters when they aren't that effective at doing said objective can  become what I call enforcers. Whenever they aren't really effective at doing the objective they can instead be useful clearing out any threats (soldiers, elites, antagonists, etc.) to your teammates who are actually good at doing the current objective, allowing your buddies to focus more on the objective instead of having to stop what they are doing to deal with somebody who's shooting or punching them.
For example: in "Short Fused" Harec is very squishy and the map is very long and open, he's the worst choice at carrying the cannister in the first part, and shouldnt be getting close to a hoard of wardogs to get Aleph in the second part. But I like to use him for this mission.He is still a viable choice if you use him to cover your teammates.
 In part one he can stay near Loaht's hideout, take some cover and pick off the gunners on the tanks, taking out the cannon fire of of your friends for a while, and then pick off any more wardogs attacking the guy holding the cannister, so they don't have to drop it for as long...or not at all. Plus if the carrier puts the cannister in a spot that Harec can see, he can quickly speed up the detonation.
In part two he can stay on the side with the extractor, and can destroy it when the team needs some extra time while they gather aleph. He can snipe the mad dogs (the armored ones with rocket launchers) as well as the elites before they snatch the aleph gems (If they do get Aleph he can soften them up with body shots so your friends can easily beat them down) and then he can provide cover fire for his teammates when they run back to deposit the Aleph in the extractor.
Some people may call out that all you are doing is killing the enemy and not helping the objective, But you are helping them preform better by keeping the baddies off their backs.