Assault's Charge Ability: Level 2 or Level 3?

Main questions are bolded.

So here's something I've been wondering. I mainly play as an Assault since he's a wonderful offensive class, but I was thinking about how much actually differs from the Level 2 Charge and Level 3 Charge.

Just for a refresher, Level 2 increases Charge's damage, while Level 3 only adds the grapple attack to the Charge.

I was thinking about how the Level 2 Charge could be just as efficient as the Level 3 Charge. With Level 2, you would have the ability to charge and pass through a player to do damage, while with Level 3 you grapple the player and send them (possibly) flying. Does a Level 3 Charge grapple do the same amount of damage as a Level 2 Charge?

I guess it boils down to the style of play, but which do you guys normally upgrade to? Stick with Level 2 for mobility and damage, or Level 3 for a full-on punch in the face and a possible ring-out while being open to other enemies?

The charge itself deals 300 damage, both on level 2 and 3. the grapple on level 3 deals an additional 450 damage.

The answer to the second questions boils down to the enemy team, if they like to gang up and stuff don't upgrade, if they don't feel free to.

Wrong, cos otherwise I'd kill an assassin when I connect before I grapple her.

The charge itself does VERY little. This is proven by the fact you barely scratch them if you charge while using jets, or die before you get the second hit to connect.

Only reason I don't upgrade to Lvl 3 is because of this. If they changed it so it worked the same as Lvl 2 while in mid-air or using jets, and inflicted damage first before the grapple then I'd always upgrade.

I know that's what the .ini file says, but level 3 charge does almost no damage unless you connect the grapple. Level 2 seems to do full damage when the assault and/or target is in the air, but Lv3 is very weak.


Whether I upgrade to 3 or not is pretty situational. If the enemy team has a lot of people without armor endorsements (especially assassins), I'll probably keep it at 2 for quick and easy kills. Level 3 is much better for dealing with tanks and for assault vs assault fights. Level 3 is also better for moving around the map because it recharges quicker and (I think) sends you farther.

I honestly dont care for charge lv 3, sure its awesome to help with ringouts. but ive saved myself more by charging someone and being able to continue evading people attacks than charging someone, getting that 1 kill but at the same time letting thier teamates kill you.

when your dead you cant be helping your team, and living to come back at them from another angle 10 seconds later tends to catch more people off guard than not.

Thanks for the input, amigos. I was wondering how exactly each level worked as far as damage and use, and reading the posts here helped.

When I was using a heavier AR build, I never upgraded to Level 3.

However ever since I started using Gold Skill, I started upgrading to Level 3 because it reduces the cooldown dramatically. I use Charge extremely frequently for mobility, rather than to deal damage. I do not run Armor at all, so being able to use my Charge to get out out of danger, even if I've used it to get INTO combat recently, is really useful. It comes back up like every ~4 seconds.

It's also of course nice for juicers, or in situations where you KNOW that you can safely ring someone out. Can't argue with $75. Also nice against bouncer spam.

That's because it does in fact not deal the original amount of damage while jetpacking, it instagibs assassins with gold armor when you use it from the ground, consistently.

It comes down to the question whether you think grapple kill and a better chance of a ring out is worth the animation time required to do it. I think it is personally.

TBH, I never instagibbed a gold armoured assassin with charge 3. And I use it regularly. What am I missing?

Uber can we have an official response if this will be fixed?

The lvl3 skill should be versatile so that an assault can either jump/fly before doing a charge so that he can just knock down a group of enemies (like lvl2), and if he wants to target a single enemy with a grapple charge just stay on the ground when doing the charge.

I second that. Charge 3 is arguably the only skill in the game that's really not a straight upgrade from Charge 2. Well, maybe you could say Product Nade 3 has more self damage potential, but Charge 3 obviously has a much larger downside. I think that's kinda strange for something you have to roll out $400 for.

Anyone else encountered the charge being interrupted by an Assassin grapple by the way?

Yes

Yes

sometimes after the assassin takes the charge damage, and sometimes before

You're not missing anything. grimbar is mistaken. My assassin build runs silver armor and assaults with level 3 charge do not kill me in one hit. Generally, if they don't ring me out, they've tossed me so far away that I can simply cloak and run away to heal up.

Am not mistaken, check the files if you don't believe me.

Lv3 assault grapple does not one-shot a gold-armored assassin. I've played plenty of both assault and assassin to know this.

That might happen in laggy enviroments where the charge doesn't connect correctly.

We also played enough of both to know that we can one-shot people like that, good argument by the way.

Not sure who this "we" is, but your claim seems to be in the minority here. I'll see if I can come up with some video proof anyway