Are all six classes required?

I'm curious to hear how competitive teams are looking to select their lineup. There are six classes, and six slots, but rarely do you see one of every class in any pub server. Is the competitive "norm" to pick one of every class or is there just as much flexibility in team management as there is in endorsement customization for specific classes?

I would guess teams would run something along the lines of:

Assault x2
Support
Sniper/Gunner
Assassin
Assassin/Gunner/Sniper/Assault

Just because tanks don't seem to do well against people that can shoot.

Still too early to say what the optimal composition is.

It depends on the players. A team of all Assaults can actually do very well because they aren't missing any key components. It would be better to throw a Support and Assassin in the mix to heal/hack and kill bots but if they are all qualified Assaults they can get the same results. Usually a good team requires a Support, Assassin, and Gunner because they are all extremely efficient classes. The last three can be anything IMO.

It all just depends on the playstyles of the players themselves. The only class that a team actually benefit not having is Tank because he doesn't have nearly enough tools to deal with some classes and good players can make short work of them. I may get some hate for that last part but it's what i honestly believe.

Definitely need an assassin, but not more than one.
Some consider support optional, I don't.
Gotta have a sniper.
Your remaining three can be any combo of assault/gunner/tank so long as you have at least one assault. I recommend 2x assault + tank. Also like the idea of 2x sniper + assault + tank.

I agree with everything, except that Snipers are a necessity. I feel like an assault can take its place if you have an Assassin to clear lanes.

they would likely restrict classes to a certain amount so you don't have like 3 snipers etc etc and likely the assault would as well since he can shoot and then run away better then anyone else but im guessing that assassin,assault,sniper and support would always be in a team and the rest can be pretty much anything as the bigger classes are easy targets for snipers, gunner could be used to take out turrets but tank is another bot pusher.

it all depends but you don't need all 6 in one team.

Snipers don't do anything.

sniper can take out bots and annoy pro's very easily, that's why i can see them being added into a competitive game, but on pc a tank with good aim can just railgun that sniper, same with xbox

Should competitive MNC ever occur (doubtful), at least to the extent of say TF2, sniper would probably be limited to 1 if not banned.

Giving very good players access to a rapid fire sniper rifle would prove disastrous to game balance. Go to PLDX.com and watch a few TF2 sniper videos if you doubt this.

Sure they are cherry picked clips, but the additional shots and the no-charge instant death headshots would prove too powerful in my opinion.

For now, I doubt that there is much concern in the near term. Get 25,000 CS/TF2 players going at it and some extraordinarily good players will be around to wreck your day I'd expect.

In TF2 sniper has a lot of limitations that don't really exist in MNC. TF2 Sniper is a capable class despite these weaknesses, but start to take away those limitations and you may run into some serious issues.

Every class is far superior to their counterpart in TF2. Each class has tools to deal with most situations.

This!!!!

Don't over exaggerate things.

this game is NOT tf2 and its NOTHING like it

Tikki, actually read the thread before responding.

Two assaults sound like they'd be needed to establish a map control presence while only one assassin is needed to fill a very specific role of lane pushing and juice rushing. Kind of like a goalie as you only need one goalie and why would you need more then one goalie?

An additional tank (or two) would probably compliment the assaults' presence and supports are of course needed to support, especially hack.

That's around 5 depending on how many tanks you think you need as the tank can function as additional backbone to assaults and help on lane pushing/bot escorting.

Sniper (for PC discussion) is debatable given the discussion of his rebalancing since he came over from the console but let's give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

lol, I can't think of a reason to include a gunner.

ah i did? and if you notice i posted before you but you must be right.

I used to play pubs with teams that would go "all something".

We found out the hard way back then, that some people know something about general class balance.

All gunners, competent sniper fodder and you never get to leave base, with maybe a mortar kill if your lucky. You'd lose if they decided to go sniper.

All supports, that would lose to the gunners and assassins. Gunners to mortar and shoot, assassins to juice-wreck since supports can't maintain bot lanes from being destroyed if the assassin knows to wreck bots and flee immediately.

All assassins, a tank on each bot lane, a sniper with explosive rounds shooting all allied bots, and a support in base, would kill all the assassin's abilities.

All snipers. assaults would move them off the bot lanes, move the bot lanes to their base, move the turrets out the way, and juice to take care of anything they couldn't before.

all assaults, that's tougher to say but I say gunners and supports keeping an overhealed push on bots would beat them. Without an assassin, assaults can't outdamage turrets, bots, or pros over a support's healgun.

Each class has a hole in the armor. A lot of the time you can get by with a few classes instead of all of them, but stacking 3 of anything asks for trouble. I see any more than 3 classes of the same kind, I purposely jump off the side of the ring and change before I get skills. If you are on a team and choose a class 2 other people choose, and see my name next to the skyscraper icon right when the game starts, then you might as well change your class.

A friend and I managed to get a team to go all tank right from the beginning, we won in two minutes flat. Another time, when I was hosting a small server, my team started out as 6 sins, and we won as well.
So no, not all classes are required. Pulling unusual tactics and an odd initial strategy can leave the defending team unsure on what to do against this new menace.

If the game picks up in popularity enough to have a competitive scene, I suspect that there would be caps on classes to prevent things like all assault.

More than likely you'd be limited to 1 sniper and 1 support with everything else be allowed 2.

Ideal compositions would vary, but I can bet you'd see something along the lines of:

2 Assault
1 Tank
1 Support
1 Sniper
1 Assassin

or

1 Assault
1 Gunner
2 Assassin
1 Support
1 Sniper

or

2 Assault
2 Assassin
1 Support
1 Sniper

Assault and Assassin would give the team the high mobility needed for a game like this where overtime is often won by "who gets to the juice/ahhhhhhnaialator first." and because you need the mobility to defend against pushes.

Honestly though, I doubt you'll see much true competition going on in MNC. Its not popular enough, and too many games end in over time which is as I said often decided by a single action. Plus critical hits would need to be removed.

this is in a pub game anything can work in a pub game, in competitive its a different story

i don't play competitive but from videos you can tell the people are better and smarter players, have communication etc etc

Every class has a role. Depending on the map, you probably won't need them all though.

Assault - Adaptable Slayer. One or two are essential, especially if they know how to throw their Bombs long distances. They can advance and retreat quickly and easily. Think Scouts in TF2, but with heavier firepower. An all-Assault team could probably win, but it would be a rather hollow victory, in my esteemed opinion.

Gunner - Slayer/Turret Wrecker. They need a Support near them at all times, but a Support/Gunner/Firebase combo can lock down the Juice machines and Annihilator easily. The only class that can take down Turrets quickly at a distance.

Tank - Long-range Bot Pusher/Finishing enemies off. The Tank can stop your Bots leaving their spawners with his Railgun and Product Grenades. If he shoots one of your players with his hitscan, no damage drop-off Railgun the entire enemy team will see said player's position via his health bar.

Assassin - Bot Pusher/Turret Wrecker. Essential for Annihilator and Ejector control. A good Assassin will result in Grenade III being a humiliating experience punctuated with Juice runs that tear your base to pieces.

Support - Uh, Supporting. A Hacked LVL2 Shave-Ice is one of the most hilarious tools in the game for controlling Juicers. Of course, playing in your base is only going to result in you losing. Luckily, the Support has the Firebase to provide extra healing and lock down areas. Needs a bodyguard, but retreating and healing is always better than dying.

Sniper - Bot Protection/Area Denial/Slaying. Flak and Ice-Traps will push an enemy back. Explosive rounds will get Assassins off your Bots. Headshots will make your enemies dead.