Assault Specialist - Why is it mostly ignored?

[Ranevan]

I know everyone says Assault is worse for pve, but I'm not totally sold. I like assault spec. The damage from incendiary round is good and has more chances to crit per cast than a grav round, maybe there's some goof with how they apply damage, but my charged bolt says it does more damage than a grav round, and with the 9% damage from a target being on fire, that probably is roughly the same as grav round with the 20% lowered armor. I'm not sure how the 35% armor piercing stacks up to the 1300 ish damage plasma cell does (assuming the 30% increase from the talent isn't included as it also says it only has a 10% chance to work). And assault plastique in pve is useful as a cc and usually a kill for dealing with adds.

 

Also on fights where you only have short bursts to cast and move, having your basic shot not totally suck (just mostly suck) is nice. On the last fight of Esseles for one, It was nice to be able to shoot and move and on the rare occasion I mistimed stopping to shoot, I didn't feel like I wasted much time not getting off all of full auto, or a charged burst. If I'd missed a grav round, I think I'd have felt it more.

 

But make no mistake, to beat enrage timers, you do have to stand and shoot most times, but charged bolt isn't that horrible compared to GR, and it has a higher base damage so against low armor targets it may hit harder like it says it does.

 

I do wish they'd make the flames on incendiary round look more single target, but I do love the fire effects.

 

Take what I'm saying with a grain (or full shaker) of salt. I haven't played a gunnery commando in hard mode Esseles so I don't know how the having to be stationary more would hinder me, and I'm going by buggy tooltips for my napkin math. But frankly I like the feel of assault spec, and I don't feel that I would be much improved playing gunnery style.

[Niconogood]

As a combat medic assault mandos/mercs makes me giggle. They are just so pitiful and the only spec in the game besides other healers I consider no threat whatsoever. Insignificant and unsustainable damage, easily cleansable dot, makes them run out of ammo in seconds trying to keep it up. And of course, no rupts, which basically makes it impossible to take on any healer. Tbh they shouldnt even try.