This is quite a chunky piece of pie, so try and stay with me.

What abilities would you guys pick to make a character who is effective at all 4 classes?

You see, I've been bouncing around recently. All my builds (I use the same character and respec) have been dual spec, and up until the new top ranks, I have always been an Operative primarily and then another class as secondary, mostly soldier, sometimes engineer, and for a short achievement grabbing time - medic too. I think we can all agree, that so long as you're playing with decent people a dual spec is the best build pattern because you get the most out of two classes with the new level cap and also a hefty amount left over for Universal abilities too.

However, now that the game is maturing, I find myself switching classes much more often. There's not enough medics, we need more mines, I'm always out of ammo with no one around, we need someone to Hack who has their head on, etc. etc. Now I know that sounds like a moan, and it is primarily, we've all been there getting frustrated when you need to switch to a class you have no specs for because you're lacking in that area and you just have to pull your trousers up and sort it out yourself. So rather than moan, I want to try out an all-star character build.

At the moment, I have a very strong emphasis on explosives. My dual spec soldier/engineer has all the grenade related abilities, no turrets but all mines, all grenade types but no AP rounds, and all the supply related abilities. This is because at the moment I'm really enjoying playing with the Lobster and a Pistol (setting myself up for success there eh?). Without changing weapons too often we can set up an all star class together, because I need some input from you guys.

My current thoughts are:


(Actually, I need to leave now, will edit in the rest of the list later, but share your thoughts guys and I'll finish off the fancy list bit when I get back)

Universal

• Grenade Shooting
  
• Combat Intuition
  
• Sense of Perspective
  
• Downed Fire
  
• Battle Hardened
  
• Sprinting Grenade
  
• Resupply Rate Increase
  
• Tactical Scanner
  
• Supply Max Increase
  
• Sprinting Reload
  
• Silent Running

Soldier

• Flashbang
  
• Kevlar
  
• Grenade Damage +
  
• Grenade Mastery
  
• Extra Magazine
  
• Napalm
  
• AP Rounds
  
• Scavenge
  
• Grenade Radius +
  
• Satchel Charges

Medic

• Metabolism
  
• Speed Boost
  
• Lazarus Grenade
  
• Adrenaline Boost
  
• Transfer Supplies
  
• Improved Life
  
• Field Regen
  
• Increase Supplies
  
• Increase Supplies +
  
• Self Ressurection

Engineer

• Gear Head
  
• Command Post Upgrade
  
• Extra Landmine
  
• Nerves of Steel
  
• Light Turret
  
• Medium Turret
  
• Gatling Turret
  
• Pyro Mines
  
• Extra Kevlar
  
• Weapon Buff +

Operative

• Comms Hack
  
• Hack Turret
  
• Control Turret
  
• EMP Grenades
  
• Firewall Command Post
  
• Sticky Bomb
  
• Control Turret
  
• UAV
  
• Homing Beacon
  
• Caltrop Grenades
  
• Cortex Bomb

well since there are 24 level credits you can spend on, and four classes and one universal category I would personally spend four credits on universal, and five credits on the remainder four classes. Here is my personal list along with an explanation.

Universal
Battle Hardened: (cant go wrong with more health)
Supply Max Increase: (gives you an extra pip, very helpful if your a team player, which you should be.)
Downed Fire: (the enemy team doesnt usually pay attention to you if your downed by their primary objective, hehehe.)
Resupply Rate Increase: (increases the refill rate of your pips which is always nice)

Soldier
Armor Piercing Rounds: (for those pesky engineers passing out kevlar to everyone and their dogs.)
Flash Bang Grenades: (very useful if the enemy team is bunched up together, they wont be able to shoot back if they cant see crap.)
Scavenge: (got to go with scavenge think about it, you have your Molotov's, grenades, flash bangs, refilling your ammo, and refilling your other 7 teammates ammo, all of these consists of pips buddy.)
Kevlar Vest: (bullet resistance is awesome, especially that the soldier is the only one with ammo piercing rounds, and that he's probably the least used class in Brink, well at least from my gaming experience)
Extra Magazine: (doubles your ammo supply, you got to be a team player buddy)

Medic
Increase Supply: (so much stuff the medic uses)
Improved Increase Supply: (so you can use your life buffs on you and your other teammates, your Lazarus grenades, and field Regen units.)
Improved Life Buff: (more health for your teammates means they will last longer allowing them to complete their objectives)
Lazarus Grenade: (so you dont have to throw each downed teammate a syringe when there incapacitated near each other, saves you pips)
Field Regen Unit: (place this near your teammates while there holding off the enemy so they can heal themselves without you wasting multiple pips trying to give them health buffs, make sure though that the health unit is behind cover)

Engineer
Extra Kevlar: (cant go wrong with damage resistance)
Command Post Upgrade: (more health or more pips, awesome)
Improved Weapon Buff: (do I really need to explain myself.)
Extra Landmine: (two is better then one)
Pyro Mine: (three is better then 2)

Operative
Comms Hack: (so your teammates know where the enemy is located)
Caltrop Grenade: (so you can hack and put distance between you and the enemy, or place this where the enemy team is bunched up together.)
Hack Turret: (a combo i like to use with the EMP, disable it if you necessarily have to, then hack it.)
EMP Grenade: (so the hacking, or the planted charge sequence is slowed down for the enemy team)
UAV: (very cheap and awesome at the same time, USE IT!!!!)

My list is almost identical to Mr. International's, save for the fact that I personally would change the following:

Universal
Combat Intuition for Resupply Rate Increase (You should be able to get by with a normal resupply rate, but knowing what direction the enemy is aiming at you from helps you mount a better defensive, or beat a hasty retreat if you're not in the position to fight back.)


Soldier
Grenade Damage for Extra Magazine (If you have Scavenge, you practically have unlimited ammo already, no need for an extra clip. But extra pop on your Grenades is ALWAYS a plus.)

Engineer
Light Turret for Command Post Upgrade (Unless you have an Op on your team who firewalls the post, this is IMO a useless ability, because the enemy is only going to take it back anyway. The time it takes you to take the post back, then upgrade it again is time you're not in the fight. Whereas a Turret of ANY kind (Light, medium or gatling) in a well placed spot will grab immediate attention, and make the enemy focus on getting rid of it. When they're trying to get rid of it, that's less time they're paying attention to you and your team. It's far more tactically useful IMO.)

Operative
No changes, I completely agree with your choices for Op, because those abilities are the ones I personally use most for the class.

I'm actually tempted to start a new character with this build just to see how effective it'll be now.

I totally respect your opinion but the soldier already has the Molotov as a standard special grenade you cant purchase it because you already have it from the beginning so, yeah. and to obtain the Gatling turret you need to purchase the light and medium turret first costing you 2 credits, you cant just buy the Gatling turret it would awesome if you can but sadly that isnt the case. However if you already knew that and wanted to replace the other 2 perks for the light, and medium turret then never mind. :biggrin:

I too was a little weary of using 3 credits on the three turret levels...

Also, I'm going to focus on Soldier/Engineer still (weapon reasons) so I'm thinking of putting less credits into Soldier and Operative, however, appreciate all your input so far, thanks. Editing my thought list in now.

Slipped my mind those two minor details...lol. I'll have to switch those up in my post.

If I was gonna run 4 classes, I'd go with this.
Grenade Shooting should be the first ability you pick up, LOL
I still suggest running 2 classes though, it's really un-necessary to have a 4 class character...

Grenade Shooting, really?

I would take it if I was a fan of automatic weapons, but I'm mostly using the Grenade Launcher and the Revolver atm (and doing pretty well) so Grenade shooting I saw as a bit of a waste, but I did/do consider it one of the better Universal abilities for sure.

Been doing alright so far. Have to wait a while for self-resurrection, because of the -1 level, but today I did well as a Medic escorting hostages, well as an Engineer defending and building, Hacked and EMP'd a few objectives here and there, and generally killed some people as Soldier. In fact I did less as a Soldier than anything else and that's my preferred class! I guess because now I have the confidence to switch to anything and know I can take on most situations. While a 2spec character is still probably the best way to play, when you're no longer worried about XP I'm finding the game more fun like this because I can do any job pretty well now. It's not so much of a nuisance to just do things myself, which is exactly what I wanted from it.

I did switch up a few things from my underlines above though.

Instead of Extra Mine I took Gearhead, because as Engineer I do a lot of building and placing, at the time I just saw being able to build things fast more valuable than 3 mines instead of 2. I regret it a little bit in hindsight but it's not worth respeccing again over.